Hi m iHffiHi illiilH VBH HUH JffiB'M liiill H fl RHBIHlHgaMa Willi W BIS ■■■HI mm mm ■gi m hJHH 6s A HISTORY OF ENGLAND FOR THE USE OF SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES BY J. N. LARNED Formerly Superintendent of the Buffalo Public Library Editor and Compiler of " History for Ready Reference and Topical Reading " WITH TOPICAL ANALYSES, RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES By HOMER P. LEWIS Principal of the English High School Worcester, Afass. BOSTON, NEW YORK, AND CHICAGO HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY <€bt Riticreibc press, Cambti&ge L ' 38561 LiOr»i y of Conaresw iwo Cortes fitceiwEo AUG 25 1900 fcpyrigtit entry SECONO COPY. Delivered t* OROtR DIVISION, SFP 1 1900 COPYRIGHT, 1900, BY HOUGHTON, MITFLIN & CO. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED PREFACE. I should like to be able to describe this book on its title-page more correctly than by calling it a " History of England ; " for it is much less than that, and it is also much more. It is necessarily a sketch, rather than a his- tory, in the right sense of that term ; and the people whose national life and growth are its subject ceased long ago to be those, alone, of that part of the island of Great Britain which bears the name of England on the map. A better description of the book would be given by say- ing that it is an outline of the principal circumstances and events in the history of the English people and the British nation, especially of those most connected with the growth of the English constitution of government, with its extension to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and with its expansion in sovereignty over a vast empire of British colonies and dependencies in every quarter of the globe. That is more explanation, however, than can be put into a title, and there seems to be no escape from the common usage which gives a larger meaning to " England " and less to " History " than they ought to have. In so small a book as this must be for school use, even the outlining of events which run through nearly two thousand years has to be meagrely done, with a stiff restraint kept always on the writer's hand. He can iv PREFACE. hardly more than name the chief actors of the history, — hardly more than mention some few things that they did. He can make no attempt to bring them before the minds of his readers like living persons, moving in real scenes. His brief and crowded narrative will only be interesting so far as one who reads it is made to feel that the things most essential are being told, with simple clearness, in such an order and so connectedly as to show streams of influence and cause flowing through them, and that it is leading him easily along the main lines of devel- opment that run through English history from its begin- ning to its end. Those are the qualities that I have tried to give to this book, aiming to make it show as much of the outcoming of each succeeding state of things from that which went before it, and as much of the larger meanings of English history, as can appear in so brief an account. Those meanings are quite as interesting and important to us, of the New World, as they are to the people of the British Isles. Down, at least, to the time when our nation branched from the old English trunk, their his- tory is equally ours. It is true that we have become a remarkably composite people, and that the forefathers of the generation now living in the United States came from many different lands ; but more came from the British islands than from all other countries, and they brought us more than we have taken from all other sources combined. Along with the language that we speak, and the great old literature that delights us most, our English forefathers brought to us the main principles PREFACE. V of our government and our law, and the better part of the ideas, the modes of feeling, and the habits of mind by which our national character has been formed. They brought to us our system of elected representatives, for the making of laws and the direction of public affairs ; our system of township and county local government ; the whole system of our courts, of our juries, of the writs which protect us from arbitrary imprisonment ; and they brought the precious " common law " of England, under which half of our personal rights are enjoyed. Above all, they brought to America, at the beginning, an understanding of political freedom and a preparation for self-government that enabled them to work wisely in founding the institutions of the Republic. It is literally a fact that our nation is the offspring of England ; and, while it has fed its own immense growth in an independ- ent way, yet its form, its distinguishing features, and its very spirit, are derived from the parent that gave it birth. Naturally it follows that, excepting their own, there is no part of human history so important and interesting to Americans as the history of the English people. Indeed, their understanding of the meaning of their own history depends on their acquaintance with what went before it in the land which trained the founders of their national life. To trace from seed and root in England the many traits and habits, modes and forms, principles and sentiments, that have had a transplanted growth in the New World, is the necessary beginning of a profitable study of the history of the United States. v i PREFACE. Some features of the book, accessory to its narrative, seem to call for a few explanatory words : — (i.) The Surveys of General History, of which one will be found for each century after the Twelfth, be- sides a preceding one which covers the first seven cen- turies after the fall of Rome. I have introduced these because the story of England cannot be told without allusions, on almost every page, to affairs in other coun- tries, which need some kind of explanation for those who have no broad knowledge of general history already in their minds. Instead of thrusting such explanations, disconnectedly, here and there, into the English narra- tive, I have thought it better to supply them at inter- vals, by these glancing surveys of events and conditions in the world at large, which faintly give to English his- tory the background that it needs. They are entirely de- tached from the text of the English narrative, being printed in a different type, and arranged in a different form. It is the intention that teachers shall make such use of them as they find best. Some may wish to have them studied by the pupil ; others may have them merely read ; still others may refer to them, only, as occasion sug- gests. Their relation to the narrative text is such that they can be used much or little, as the teacher desires. (2.) The Topics, References, and Research Questions which accompany each chapter. These have been pre- pared for the book by Mr. Homer P. Lewis, Principal of the English High School at Worcester, Massachu- setts, whose experience and success in teaching English history give high value to his topical analyses of the PREFACE. vn text and his suggestions for thought and reading beyond it. The "Topics" are an accurate synopsis of the text and serve a double purpose, enabling the pupil to ex- amine himself, and presenting to him, at the same time, a grouped view of each subject. The " References " are to the books which Mr. Lewis finds best for school use, and they are specific, — closely connected with the text. For nearly every section in the book there is at least one reference, and important sections have a dozen or more. The arrangement of the references is planned to give great assistance to teachers in assigning work to their pupils. The " Research Questions " have a double aim. In some cases they enlarge the text ; in others they deal with matter suggested by the text. They often bring forward a lesson from the text to kindred problems, situ- ations or institutions of the present day. (3.) The Index, in which teachers will find more than indexes commonly contain. It is made to be a working part of the book, (a.) It is analytical of the topics of the book, tracing through it the greater subjects of Eng- lish history (such as Parliament, the Monarchy, Minis- terial Government, the Church, etc.), and outlining the development of them, (b.) It is a geographical guide, locating places mentioned in the text by the page of the map on which they are found, and by an approximate indication of latitude and longitude for each, (c.) It is a pronouncing vocabulary. (4.) The Maps. These have been specially prepared for the book, with carefulness to have them show all places mentioned in the narrative of English history, but V1 " PREFACE. to be simplified as much as possible otherwise, contain- ing no unnecessary details. (5.) The Illustrations, which offer no imagined scenes, but are wholly representative of historical realities — portraits of important personages, and pictures, mostly photographic, of things and places which are related in some interesting way to what is recounted in the text. They have been chosen with care, and many of them will be found to have a teaching value of their own, in what they show of the conditions of life, the state of knowledge, or the art and workmanship, of past times. Buffalo, June, 1900. CONTENTS. BRITAIN AND EARLY ENGLAND, TO 1066. CHAPTER PAGE I. Britain until the English Conquest .... 1 II. The English Conquest and Settlement ... 15 III. The Intrusion of the Danes. 787-1066 . . . 37 Survey of General History — Sixth to Twelfth Centuries 52 THE NORMAN-ENGLISH NATION, 1066-1199. IV. The Norman Conquest and Its First Effects. William I. 1066-1087 59 V. The Fusing of the New Nation. Norman Kings : William II., Henry I., Stephen. 1087-1154 ... 82 VI. The Upbuilding of English Law. Angevin, or Early Plantagenet, Kings: Henry II., Richard I. 1 1 54-1 199 109 THE DECLINE OF FEUDALISM, 1 199-1450. Survey of General History — The Thirteenth Century 131 VII. The Rise of the English Commons. Angevin and Later Plantagenet Kings: John, Henry III., Edward I. 1 199-1307 135 Survey of General History — The Four- teenth Century 161 VIII. Vainglory in Foreign War. The Last Planta- genet Kings : Edward II., Edward III., Richard II. 1307-1399 ......... 165 CONTENTS. IX. Medleval Life in England 190 Survey of General History — The Fifteenth Century 202 X. Parliamentary Kings. Lancastrian Kings : Henry IV., Henry V., Henry VI. 1399-1450 207 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION, 1450-1603. XI. Factious King-Making — Civil War — Politi- cal Decline. Lancastrian and Yorkist Kings: Henry VI., Edward IV., Richard III. 1450-1485 228 Survey of General Historv — The Sixteenth Century 248 XII. Arbitrary Monarchy — The Founding of the National Church. Tudor Kings: Henry VII., Henry VIII. 1485-1547 256 XIII. Protestant Reformation and Catholic Reac- tion. Tudor Sovereigns: Edward VI., Mary. 1547-1558 287 XIV. The Elizabethan Age. The Last of the Tudors : Queen Elizabeth. 1 558-1603 305 THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION, 1603-1688. Survey of General History — The Seven- teenth Century 342 XV. Waning Reverence for Royalty. The First Stuart King: James I. of England and VI. of Scotland. 1603-1625 * 349 XVI. The Quarrel between King and People. The Second Stuart King: Charles I. 1625-1642 . . 372 XVII. The Overthrow of the Monarchy. Charles I. 1642-1649 403 XVIII. Commonwealth and Protectorate. The Rump Parliament and Oliver Cromwell. 1649-1660 . . 424 XIX. Restoration and Revolution. Stuart Kings : Charles II., James II. 1660-168S 448 CONTENTS. xi THE PERIOD OF ARISTOCRATIC GOVERNMENT, i 688- i 820. Survey of General History — The Eigh- teenth Century 477 XX. The Settlement of a Constitutional Mon- archy. William and Mary, Anne. 1 688-1 714 . 484 XXI. The Establishing of Ministerial Govern- ment. Hanoverian Kings: George I., George II. 1 714-1742 5°9 XXII. Expansion of Empire. George II. 1743-1760 . 520 XXIII. Backward Steps and Loss of Empire. George III. 1760-1788 53i XXIV. Conflict with the French Revolution. George III. 1789-1800 553 Survey of General History — The Nine- teenth Century 561 XXV. Conflict with Napoleon. George III. 1800- 1820 57i THE DEMOCRATIC ERA, 1820-1899. XXVI. The Ending of the Rule of the Landlords. George IV., William IV., Victoria. 1 820-1 846 . 587 XXVII. Growth of Democracy. Queen Victoria. 1846- 1899 6 °7 APPENDIX. The British Empire in 1899 634 A Working Library 636 An Additional List of Books 637 Illustrative Fiction in Poetry and Prose .... 642 Index • ■ 6 49 ILLUSTRATIONS, MAPS, AND GENEALOGIES. ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Westminster Abbey. From a photograph. Frontispiece. Ancient Block of Tin found at Trereife, Cornwall, and preserved in the museum at penzance. from the Archa>ological Journal, xxiii. 285 4 Stonehenge. From a photograph 7 Remains of a Roman Bath, at Bath. From Windle's Life of Early Britain, p. 149 9 Remnant of Roman Military Road called Watling Street. From a photograph made in Delamere Forest, ten miles from Chester. The ruts seen are worn in the stone foundation 10 Ancient Jutish Boat found buried in a Peat Bog in Nydam, South Jutland. From Engelhardt's Denmark in the Early Iron Age, pi. i 17 Early English Spears and Knives found in Kentish Barrows. From Jewitt's Half-Hours among Some Eng- lish Antiquities, p. 108 20 A Thane's House. From Harl. MS. 603, as shown in Cutts's Parish Priests 25 Saxon Cross at Ruthwell, about 680 a. d. From Cutts's Parish Priests, p. 25 27 Remains of an Ancient Celtic Church on the Island of Eilean-na-Naoimh, near Iona. From Dowden's Celtic Church in Scotland, p. 113 29 Iron Swords of the Vikings, found in Schleswig. From the Archceological Journal, xxiii. 182 39 Alfred the Great. From an engraving by Vertue in An- nates rerum gestarum Alfredi Jlfagni, by Asserius Mene- vensis (Wise's ed., Oxford, 1722) 41 Church of St. Lawrence, at Bradford-on-AvoN, Wilt- shire. From Cutts's Parish Priests 44 xiv ILLUSTRATIONS, MAPS, AND GENEALOGIES. The Westminster Abbey of Edward the Confessor, as represented on the Bayeux Tapestry. From Jules Comte's La Tapisserie de Bayeux 47 William the Conqueror and Attendants : Bayeux Tapestry. From Jules Comte's La Tapisserie de Bayeux, pi. xxvi. and xxvii 60 Norman Vessel of the Eleventh Century : restored from the Bayeux Tapestry. From Lacroix's Military and Religious Life in the Middle Ages, p. 76 61 The Battle of Senlac, as partly represented on the Bayeux Tapestry. From Jules Comte's Tapisserie de Bayeux, pi. lxvi 63 The Tower of London in 1597. (The earliest drawing.) From John Bayley's Tower of London, p. 1 65 Plan of the Manor of Burton Agnes, as it appeared in 1809. From Canon Isaac Taylor's "Domesday Survi- vals " in Domesday Stu dies, i. 55 71 Facsimiles of Entries in Domesday Book. From Gar- diner's Student's History of England, p. 1 12. The Domes- day Book in two volumes of vellum manuscript, one a large folio, the other a quarto, is preserved in the Public Record Office, London 73 A King's Deathbed : Bishops and Abbots attending. From a twelfth century MS. as represented in J. R. Planche's Encyclopaedia of Costume, i. 1 53 83 Keep of Rochester Castle. Called by Professor Freeman "the noblest example of the Norman military architecture of the next generation after William I." From a photograph 85 Interior of Westminster Hall. From a photograph . 87 Henry I. From Hollis's Monumental Effigies 88 Exchequer Table, as depicted in the " Red Book of the Exchequer Court of Ireland," Fifteenth Cen- tury. From William Longman's Edward the Third . . 91 Nave of St. Alban's Abbey Church. This was built be- tween 1077 and 1093, and is a good example of the Norman style of architecture. From a photograph 94 A Cistercian Monk. From Planche's Encyclopaedia of Costume, ii. 64 95 Durham Cathedral. (Built mostly in the reign of Henry I.) From a photograph 96 Stephen of Blois. After an engraving by G. Vertue . . 98 ILLUSTRATIONS, MAPS, AND GENEALOGIES. XV "The Standard" of the Battle of 1138. From MS. Arundel 150 (British Museum), an early thirteenth century copy of part of the Chronicle of Roger of Hoveden ... 99 Thomas Becket and his Secretary. From an old MS. at Trinity College, Cambridge 112 Transept of Canterbury Cathedral, the Scene of Becket's Murder. From a photograph 113 Effigies of Henry II. and his Queen, Eleanor, in the Abbey Church of Fontevrault. From Blanche's En- cyclopedia of Costume, i. 273 116 A Mediaeval Author at Work. From an old MS., as shown in Cutts's Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages, p. 83 121 Hood of Chain Mail, and Cylindrical Helmet with close Vizor, of the Twelfth Century. From the Archaeological Journal, xxii. 8 122 Effigy of Richard I. in the Abbey Church of Fonte- vrault. From Stothard's Monumental Effigies . . . .123 Effigy of King John in Worcester Cathedral. From Stothard's Monumental Effigies 136 Runnymede. From a photograph 139 Facsimile Extract from One of the Original Copies of the Magna Carta in the British Museum. The passages are a portion of the Preamble, the Forty-Sixth Clause, and the Attestation. From Craik and MacFarlane's Pictorial History of England, i. 557 140 London early in the Thirteenth Century. After a drawing by Matthew Paris, showing the Tower, the old St. Paul's, Westminster Palace, and Lambeth. From Hubert Hall's Court Life under the Plantagenets, p. 27 142 Henry III. as represented on his Tomb in West- minster Abbey. From Craik and MacFarlane's Pictorial History of England, i. 672 143 Louis IX. of France (Saint Louis). As painted on glass in the Cathedral of Chartres. From Boutell's Arms and Armour, p. 112 145 Edward I. After the engraving by George Vertue of the statue at Carnarvon Castle. From Clifford's Life and Reign of Ediuard the First 147 The Great Seal of Edward I. From Gardiner's Stu- dent's History of England, p. 209 149 XVI ILLUSTRATIONS, MAPS, AND GENEALOGIES. William Wallace. After an engraving by S. Alphonse of the statue by W. G. Stevenson. From the Art Journal, xxxvii. 335 153 The Steelyard, London. After an engraving by Hollar in 1641. From Herbert's Twelve Great Livery Companies of London, i. 11 154 Merton College, Oxford, founded in 1264 by Bishop Mer- ton, of Rochester. From Lang's Oxford, p. 185 . . . .155 Edward III. After a wall-painting, formerly in St. Stephen's Chapel, Westminster. From Longman's Edward III., vol. i. 168 Crossbowman with his Shield. From Longman's Ed- ward III, i. 257 169 Archer with his Sheaf of Arrows. From Longman's Edward III, i. 264 170 John of Gaunt. Painted by L. Cornelisz. From South Kensington National Portraits, vol. i 176 John Wiclif. From South Kensington National Portraits, vol. vi. Painter unknown 177 Tomb and Part of the Armor of the Black Prince in Canterbury Cathedral. From Stanley's Historical Memorials of Canterbury, p. 120 179 John Ball, the Priest, preaching from Horseback, after a MS. of Froissart's " Chronicle." From Cutts's Par- ish Priests, p. 171 180 Richard II. From South Kensington National Portraits, vol. i. Painter unknown 182 Geoffrey Chaucer. From the National Portrait Gallery. Painter unknown 184 Manor-House at Mellichope, Shropshire, built in the latter half of the twelfth century. From Thomas Wright's Homes of Other Days, p. 149 192 Henry IV. From the National Portrait Gallery. Painter unknown 208 Henry V. From the National Portrait Gallery. Painter unknown 212 John, Duke of Bedford. From Reresby's Travels and Memoirs, p. 2 217 Statue of Joan of Arc, by Fremiet, Place des Pyramides, Paris. From Louis Gonse's La Sculpture Francaise depuis le XI V&"* siecle 219 Margaret of Anjou. After an old MS. at Jesus College. Oxford. Archaeological Journal, viii. 98 220 ILLUSTRATIONS, MAPS, AND GENEALOGIES, xvii Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester. From Walpole's Royal and Noble Authors, vol. i 222 Henry VI. From the National Portrait Gallery. Painter unknown • 231 Edward IV. From the National Portrait Gallery. Painter unknown 235 Warwick, the King-maker. After the Rous Roll. From C. W. Oman's Warwick 236 Armor of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. From Boutell's Arms and Armour, p. 149 237 The murdered Prince, called Edward V. After an engraving by W. Ridley. From a painting in Lambeth Pal- ace 240 Richard III. From the National Portrait Gallery. Painter unknown 241 Oldest known Representation of a Printing Press. From Blade's William Carton, pi. vii. p. 126 243 Facsimile Specimen of Caxton's Printing. From Blade's William Caxton, pi. xiii. p. 336 244 Henry VII. From the National Portrait Gallery. Painted, 1505, by an unknown Flemish artist 256 Katharine of Aragon. From the National Portrait Gal- lery. Painter unknown 259 Henry VIII. After an engraving by Houbraken (from an original painting by Holbein), in the Gardiner Greene Hub- bard Collection, Library of Congress 263 Thomas Wolsey. From the National Portrait Gallery. Painter unknown 264 English Warship which conveyed Henry VIII. to France. From Lacroix's Military and Religious Life in the Middle Ages, p. 80 266 Anne Boleyn. From the National Portrait Gallery. Painter unknown 268 Sir Thomas More. After the painting by Holbein. From Lodge's Portraits, vol. i 272 Thomas Cromwell. Painted by Holbein. From South Ken- sington National Portraits, vol. i 276 Edward VI. and Council. After a woodcut on the title- page of the Statutes of 1551. From Law's History of Hamp- ton Court Palace 287 Thomas Cranmer, at the Age of Fifty-Seven. From a painting by G. Fliccius, in the National Portrait Gallery . 289 xviii ILLUSTRATIONS, MAPS, AND GENEALOGIES. Lady Jane Grey. After a drawing by Vertue. From Wal- pole's Royal and Noble Authors, vol. i 293 Queen Mary Tudor, or Mary L, at the Age of Twenty- Eight. From a painting by Joannes Corvus in the National Portrait Gallery 295 Philip II. From the painting by Titian in the Prado, Ma- drid 298 Queen Elizabeth. After an engraving by Holl from an ori- ginal portrait in Queen Victoria's collection, St. James's Pal- ace. Autograph from Winsor's America 307 Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots. From The Duke of Port- land's Collection, p. 537 310 Sir William Cecil. After an engraving by Freeman, of the original painting, probably by Marc Gheeraedts, in the Na- tional Portrait Gallery 319 Queen Elizabeth carried in State to Hunsdon House, September 18, 1571. From the original painting by Marc Gheeraedts, exhibited (1866) at South Kensington Mu- seum 323 Spanish Armada attacked by the English Fleet. As represented on the ancient tapestry in the House of Lords, From Craik and MacFarlane's Pictorial Histo?y of Eng- land, ii. 675 . . 327 Edmund Spenser. From South Kensington National Por- traits, vol. i. Painter unknown 330 Richard Hooker. From Walton's Livti 330 William Shakespeare. From " the Chandos Portrait " in the National Portrait Gallery 331 Francis Bacon. From Birch's Heads of Illustrious Persons . 33 1 James I. of England, VI. of Scotland, at the age of Fifty-Five. From the original painting by Paul Van Somer in the National Portrait Gallery 350 Anne of Denmark, Wife of James I. (showing the "wheel farthingale " then worn). From PlancWs Encyclopcedia of Costume, i. 187 351 Vault beneath the Old House of Lords. From Craik and MacFarlane's Pictorial History of England, iii. 24 . . 354 George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. From the ori- ginal painting by Gerard Honthorst in the National Portrait Gallery 361 Sir Walter Raleigh. From Stalker's engraving published in London in 181 2 362 ILLUSTRATIONS, MAPS, AND GENEALOGIES, xix The Manor-House at Scrooby, William Brewster's Residence. After a drawing by A. M. Raine 366 Charles I. After the painting by Van Dyck 372 John Pym. After an engraving by Houbraken. From Birch's Heads of Illustrious Persons of Great Britain 375 William Laud. From the National Portrait Gallery. Cop- ied by Henry Stone from the original painting by Van Dyck at Lambeth Palace 380 Sir John Eliot. After Holl's engraving of the original paint- ing at Port Eliot, Cornwall. From Forster's Sir John Eliot, vol. i., frontispiece 382 Interior of St. Giles's Church, Edinburgh. From a photograph 387 Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford. From The Duke of Portland 's Collection 390 John Hampden. After an engraving by Houbraken in the Gardiner Greene Hubbard Collection, Library of Congress 393 A Cavalier. From Craik and MacFarlane's Pictorial His- tory of England, Hi. 609 403 Oliver Cromwell. From a miniature by Samuel Cooper . 405 Prince Rupert. From an original painting by Sir Peter Lely in the National Portrait Gallery 408 James Graham, Marquis of Montrose. From Birch's Heads of Illustrious Persons of Great Britain 412 Trial of Charles I., as represented by a contempo- rary print. From Craik and MacFarlane's Pictorial His- tory of England, iii. 337 419 The Commonwealth Flag. After an original at Chatham Dockyard. From Clowes' Royal Navy in History, ii. 115 . 426 Robert Blake. Painted by A. Hanneman. From South Kensington National Portraits, vol. ii 430 The Great Seal of the Commonwealth ; the Rump Parliament is represented on the reverse. From Craik and MacFarlane's Pictorial History of England, iii. 399 432 Sir Henry Vane, the Younger. From the original paint- ing by William Dobson in the National Portrait Gallery . 433 George Monk. From the original painting by Sir Peter Lely in the National Portrait Gallery 439 The Puritan Dress as shown in George H. Bough- ton's painting, The Return of the Mayflower . . . .441 John Milton. From the crayon drawing at Bayfordbury . 442 xx ILLUSTRATIONS, MAPS, AND GENEALOGIES. Charles II. From the original painting by Mrs. Mary Beale in the National Portrait Gallery 449 Titus Oates in the Pillory. From Arthur Griffith's Chronicles of Newgate, i. 193 457 James II. From the original painting by John Riley in the National Portrait Gallery 462 John Bunyan. After a drawing from Life by R. White in the British Museum. From Works of John Bunyan, vol. iii. 468 Sir Isaac Newton. From the original painting by John Van- derbank in the National Portrait Gallery 468 John Locke. From the original painting by T. Brownover in the National Portrait Gallery 469 William III. From the original painting by Jan Wyck in the National Portrait Gallery 486 John Churchill, Earl of Marlborough. From the original painting by Sir Godfrey Kneller in the National Portrait Gallery 493 Queen Anne. From the original painting by John Closter- man in the National Portrait Gallery 497 London Coffee-House in the Reign of Anne. From Ashton's Social Life in the Reign of Anne, i. 215 .... 499 English Flag and Scottish Flag before 1603, and the Union Flag ordered by James I. in 1606. From Clowes' Royal Navy in History, ii. 25 501 Hackney Coach in the Reign of Anne. From Ash- ton's Social Life in the Reign of Anne, ii. 170 502 George I. From the original painting by Sir Godfrey Knel- ler in the National Portrait Gallery 509 Costume of Gentlemen in 1721. From Planche's Ency- clopedia of Costume, ii. 305 512 Sir Robert Walpole. After an original painting by Zincke. From Coxe's Memoirs of Walpole, London, 1798 . . .513 John Wesley. Painted by George Romney. From South Kensington National Portraits, vcA.v 516 William Pitt, the Elder. After an original painting by Richard Brompton 525 James Wolfe. After a print in Entick's History of the Late War, iv. 90. London, 1764 526 Robert Clive. From the original painting by Nathaniel Dance in the National Portrait Gallery 527 ILLUSTRATIONS, MAPS, AND GENEALOGIES, xxi George III. After the original painting by Thomas Frye . 531 A Stamp. From Memorial History of Boston, vol. iii. . . 535 Lord North. From Murray's Impartial History of the Pre- sent War, London, 1780 539 William Pitt, the Younger. After an original drawing by Copley. From Lord Stanhope's Life of William Pitt. vol. i., frontispiece 544 Watt's Steam Engine in 1780. From Thurston's A His- tory of the Growth of the Steam Engine 546 Edmund Burke. After an original painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds. From Lodge's Gallery of Portraits . . . .553 The " Union Jack " (the national flag of the United King- dom of Great Britain and Ireland, since the Union), and The Irish Flag before 1801. From Boutell's English Heraldry, page 262 558 Lord Nelson. From the painting, Nelson in the Cabin of the Victoi y, by Charles Lucy 573 Charles James Fox. After an original painting by John Opie. From Lodge's Gallery of Portraits 574 A Stage Coach in 1804. From Ashton's Dawn of the Nineteenth Century in England, i. 238 577 Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington. From an original painting by John Lucas in the National Gallery, Dublin 579 William Wordsworth. From an engraving by F. T. Stu- art 582 Robert Burns. From the" original painting by Alexander Nasmyth in the National Portrait Gallery 582 Sir Walter Scott. From the original painting by C. R. Leslie (1824) in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. . . . 583 George Canning. After an engraving by William Holl, from a painting by T. Stewardson 588 Stephenson's Locomotive, " Rocket," adopted for use on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, in 1829. From B. Cooke's British Locomotives, page 29 591 Sir Robert Peel. After a painting by Sir Thomas Law- rence 595 Daniel O'Connell. From the original miniature in the National Portrait Gallery, painted on ivory (1836) by Ber- nard Mulrenin Coo xxii ILLUSTRATIONS, MAPS, AND GENEALOGIES. The Victoria Cross, instituted in 1856 as a decoration awarded for notable deeds of valor. From Boutell's Eng- lish Heraldry 609 The Houses of Parliament, opened in 1852. From a pho- tograph 613 Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield. From a pho- tograph 617 William Ewart Gladstone. From a photograph (1884) by John Moffat 618 Queen Victoria. From a photograph, 1887 623 Charles Dickens. After a crayon drawing (1868) by Sol Eytinge, Jr 626 Lord Tennyson. From a photograph 626 Lord Macaulay. From a photograph (1857) by Claudet . 627 MAPS. County Map of Great Britain and Ireland (double page, colored Front lining pages. Physical Map of Britain 2 Roman Britain 8 The Older Home of the English Race. From John- ston's School Atlas 16 Britain, a. d. 597. From Gardiner's School Atlas of English History 19 The Course of the Viking Expeditions. From Gardiner's School Atlas of English History 38 Alfred's Britain, with Historical Detail, a. d. 449- A. D. 1 1 54 (full-page, colored) Facing 42 The Angevin Empire of Henry II. (double page, col- ored) Facing no France at the Time of the Treaty of Bretigny . . .174 French Territory held by the English when Joan of Arc appeared, a. d. 1429 218 England during the Wars of the Roses 233 Historical Map of Scotland 313 The Netherlands : showing Dutch and Spanish Pos- sessions 318 Ireland, a. d. 1600-A. d. 1900 (full-page, colored) . Facing 358 ILLUSTRATIONS, MAPS, AND GENEALOGIES, xxill England at the Beginning of the Civil War, with Historical Detail from a. d. 1600 to a. d. 1900 (full- page, colored) Facing 404 India, a. d. 1785 to a. d. 1900 (full-page, colored) . Facing 526 Europe in a. d. 1825, with Historical Detail from a. D. 1500 TO A. d. 1900 (double page, colored) . Facing 574 British-Boer War, South Africa, a. d. 1899-A. d. 1900 625 The British Empire in a. d. 1900 (double page, colored). After Bartholomew's At la s End lining pages. GENEALOGIES. West Saxon Kings from Egbert 51 Norman Kings from the Conqueror to Stephen . .108 Angevin or Early Plantagenet Kings 130 Later Plantagenet Kings 201 Royal Houses of Lancaster, York, and Tudor . . 227 Henry VII. from John of Gaunt, third son of Ed- ward III 247 Tudor Family from Henry VII 304 Stuart Sovereigns of Scotland from Robert Bruce to Mary Queen of Scots 341 Stuart Sovereigns of Scotland and England from Mary Queen of Scots 476 Hanoverian Sovereigns from James I. of England . 606 \ HISTORY OF ENGLAND. BRITAIN AND EARLY ENGLAND. To 1066. CHAPTER I. BRITAIN UNTIL THE ENGLISH CONQUEST. 1. The Island of Great Britain. The character and career of the English people have been affected so remarkably by the geographical position of their coun- try that some facts concerning it are really the most important in their history. Because the island of Great Britain lies far in the north, and yet is warmed by the embracing waters of the Gulf Stream, it has a climate finely tempered, a soil fruitfully watered, and is singularly suited for the breeding of a hearty race. It is favored, too, by other natural gifts, of mines, of fisheries, of good harbors, sheltered inlets, and navigable streams, for the schooling of its people in industries at home and in commerce with the outer world. But the people owe much less to these advantages of their island than they do to its separation from the continent of Europe by a narrow channel of the sea. The little strait that divides Great Britain from France is just wide enough and stormy enough to make under- takings of war from one shore against the other very 2 BRITAIN AND EARLY ENGLAND. difficult, while peaceful intercourse is scarcely hindered in the least. This fortunate geographical position has enabled the English to go their own way for eight cen- Effects of turies ; to live their own life, develop their own insularity, institutions, work out their own career, with less interference and more independence than any other PHYSICAL MAP OF BRITAIN. European people. They have wasted less in neighbor- hood wars, have been distracted less by neighborhood rivalries, and, therefore, have turned more of the energies of their ambition into distant fields, of colonization and UNTIL THE ENGLISH CONQUEST. 3 commerce, building up a great colonial empire, which stretches to all regions of the globe. At the same time, and for the same reason, their atten- tion as a people has been centred more on their own polit- ical affairs, — on the doings of their government, on the conduct of their courts of law, on the management of public business in their parishes and towns. They have consequently kept possession, throughout their history, of more political rights and powers as citizens, and have been better trained in the practical use of them, Politlcal than other peoples of the old world. All of trainin e- this goes far towards accounting for the peculiar insti- tutions of free government that have grown up in Eng- land, and have come as an inheritance to us in America. The history which follows should be studied with this geographical fact kept clearly in mind. 2. The Prehistoric Inhabitants of Britain. At a time so long ago that no date for it can be fixed, there were races of men in the island of Britain, and in other parts of Europe, about whom very little can be learned, beyond the fact that they lived in a savage state, hunting animals of many species that are found no longer in that part of the world. Some marks of their fires, in caves and on sheltering rocks ; some remains of their rude im- plements and weapons of stone and bone ; some surpris- ingly well-drawn figures of animals, etched with a sharp point on bits of ivory and horn ; a few skulls and frag- ments of human skeletons, brought occasionally to light from long burial in the earth, — these are the scanty relics that hint at the story of the prehistoric folk. Such hints, and the guesses founded on them, are inter- esting, but they bear with no importance on the history that leads from our own early ancestors down to our- selves. In a work so brief as this we must pass them by. 4 BRITAIN AND EARLY ENGLAND. [ 4 th Cent. B.C. 3. Celtic Britain. At some unknown time, the pre- historic inhabitants of western Europe were displaced to a great extent by new-comers of two races, — one, known as the Teutonic or Germanic, taking possession of regions north of the Rhine ; the other, called Celtic (sometimes spelled and pronounced Keltic), filling Britain, Ireland, Belgium, France, Switzerland, northern Italy, and northern Spain with the ruling peoples that were found in those ANCIENT BLOCK OF TIN FOUND AT TREREIFE, CORNWALL. countries when their recorded history begins. Where the Romans knew them first, in northern Italy, Switzerland, and the region of modern France, these Celtic people were given the name of Galli, and their country was called Gallia, or Gaul. The Celtic tribes which passed over to the British islands are supposed to have belonged to two branches of that race, which migrated at different times. One of these, distinguished as the Goidel or Gael, has The Gael , r . , . . . , .. and the left its descendants and its language in the ry ons. g^^h Highlands and islands, in Ireland, and in the Isle of Man ; the other, called Brythons, gave the name Britain to the larger island, and the descendants of that branch are the Welsh, or Kymry (also spelled Cymry), as they are named in their own tongue. Of Britain after the Celts were settled in it the Greeks 55 B.C.] UNTIL THE ENGLISH CONQUEST. 5 got some knowledge as early as the fourth century before Christ. At least one Greek explorer, Pytheas by name, made a voyage to its coasts in the time of Alexander the Great. Formerly it was thought that the Phoenicians and Carthaginians had traded with the islands before that time, obtaining tin from the mines in Cornwall, but there is no good evidence of the fact. Doubtless tin was obtained from Britain very early by the trading nations of the Mediterranean, but it reached them through Early tin the hands of the Gauls more probably than by trade - their own ships. That metal was nearly the most impor- tant article of trade in ancient times, because of its use in hardening copper, to produce the bronze or brass which then took the place of iron and steel. Whatever earlier knowledge of Britain the Romans may have had, their real acquaintance with it began in the year 55 b. c, when Julius Caesar, then en- Caesar's gaged as a Roman commander in the conquest mvasi0n - of Gaul, crossed the Channel with two legions of his sol- diers (8,000 or 10,000 men), and entered the island. He may have intended no more than to warn the Britons against aiding their kindred in Gaul, for he hardly moved from his landing-place, and he left the island in three weeks. But the next year he repeated the invasion with five legions instead of two, and then advanced beyond the Thames, defeating the Britons in several battles, tak- ing an important stronghold, and receiving the submis- sion of a number of tribes. He left no troops in the country when he withdrew, and established no real author- ity ; but Roman influence was felt from that time among the Britons nearest to Gaul, and Roman arts and manners were gradually introduced. Accounts given by Caesar and other writers show the Britons in the interior of the island to have risen in that 6 BRITAIN AND EARLY ENGLAND. [55B.C, age little above the savage state. They lived chiefly on flesh and milk, and clothed themselves with skins. On the eastern and southern coast the tribes were more advanced, but were considerably behind the better part of the Gauls. They were rich in cattle, and they cul- tivated barley and wheat. They had no towns, living Barbaric ordinarily in villages of huts, built in the bee- Me. h} ve f orm) probably much like the wigwams of American Indian tribes. We may judge that their state of civilization was scarcely higher than that of the Iro- quois of America when white men first knew the latter people. Like the American aborigines, they painted themselves, using the blue stain of a plant called woad. 4. The Druids. Caesar described a remarkable priest- hood, the Druids, who possessed great influence ancf power among the Gauls. Most writers on the subject, until lately, have assumed that the religion represented by the Druids was one common to all the Celtic inhabitants of Britain and Gaul. But recent studies have tended to the conclusion that Druidism had its origin among the people who preceded the Celts ; that probably the Gaelic Celts adopted it, and adapted it to their own mythology, but that there is no evidence of its existence among the Brythonic tribes. According to these newer opinions, the original Druids were like the "medicine-men," the soothsayers and magi- cians, of other savage or barbarous races, both ancient and modern. They practised, no doubt, on the supersti- tious fears of their Celtic conquerors, and finally got a standing among them in a priestly character, as ministers of the gods. At last, in Gaul, they obtained some smat- tering of Greek ideas and learning, and rose to the rank of teachers and philosophers, becoming a haughty and tyrannical sacred order or caste, more powerful than the A..D.43] UNTIL THE ENGLISH CONQUEST. 7 chiefs. The Romans dreaded their influence, and de- stroyed them so relentlessly that nothing of . , • i i -n Extinction their order or system survived the Roman con- of the quest of Britain and Gaul. That certain strange ruins found in England — most notably the famous Stone- henge on Salisbury Plain — are remains of rude temples STONEHENGE. that were built for Druidic rites, is a common belief, not improbable, but resting on no certain ground. 5. Roman Britain. It was not until nearly a century after Caesar that the Roman conquest of Britain was be- gun (a. d. 43). It was a conquest never finished, for the savage tribes in the northern part of the island, beyond the Forth and the Clyde, had retreats in their mountains which the Romans could not reach. 1 Attempts to over- come them were given up at last, and great walls were 1 The Romans called these northern tribes Picts, meaning painted people, because they painted their faces when they went to war, as the subjugated Britons had formerly done, and as wild tribes of American Indians are doing to this day. 8 BRITAIN AND EARLY ENGLAND. [A. D. 43 Roman walls. Roman relics. built, from the Sol way to the Tyne and from the Forth to the Clyde, to shut them out. Ireland was never reached by the Roman arms. Britain south of the walls was occupied and ruled by the Romans for about three centuries and a half. In that long period there is strangely little known of its history, except in what relates to the fighting by which it was subdued and then defended against the northern tribes. Vestiges of Roman roads and Roman camps, fragments of Roman city walls, buried foundations of the city homes and country villas of wealthy Roman citizens, broken remains of Roman handicraft and art, are found in all parts of the country, to show that it was once covered with the works and surfaced, at least, with the civilization of the all-conquer- ing race of Rome. But how numer- ously the Romans were settled in Britain, not as sol- diers or officials, but in the occu- pations of private life, and in what relations the con- querors and the conquered dwelt together, with what results to the latter, — these are things, for the most part, that can only be guessed ROMAN BRITAIN. 3 d Cent.] UNTIL THE ENGLISH CONQUEST. 9 from scanty signs. It is probable that large numbers of the native Britons were drafted into the Roman armies, for service in other parts of the great empire, and that most of those remaining sank into the condition of slaves. The Romans were everywhere great builders of cities, and there is evidence that they built many in Britain which were populous and quite splendidly adorned. Their REMAINS OF A ROMAN BATH, AT BATH. Londinium, the London of our day, though not the polit- ical capital of the province, was the chief centre of its trade. The seat of their military administration was Ebo- racum, now York. Lindum (modern Lincoln), Camulo- dunum (Colchester), Durovernum (Canterbury), Roman Durobrivae (Rochester), Venta (Winchester), cities - Caleva (Silchester), Isca (Exeter), Glevum (Gloucester), Aquae Sulis (Bath), Deva (Chester), were all important towns. Chester takes its English name from the Latin castrum (camp) of the Roman legion once stationed there; IO BRITAIN AND EARLY ENGLAND. [43-407 and the many town-names in England which end in "Chester," or "cester," or "caster," or " caer," are sup- posed to be derived from similar camps. Yet, of all the Roman cities built in Britain, the remains now existing, in fragments of walls and buried foundations, are very slight. Even the sites of some that are known to have been important cannot be found. The most lasting work of the Romans in Britain was REMNANT OF ROMAN MILITARY ROAD CALLED WATLING STREET. The ruts seen are worn in the stone foundation. Roman roads. the construction of roads. They left many in the island which served the later inhabitants for centuries, and which furnished foundations for some of the best now in use. A long highway, from the Chan- nel, through London, to Chester, which the English, in after-times, named Watling Street ; another, called Ick- nield Street, which ran from Norfolk to Cornwall ; a 4 o7] UNTIL THE ENGLISH CONQUEST. II third, Eormine Street, connecting London with Lincoln and York ; and a fourth, known as the Fosse Way, which traversed the island from Devonshire to Lincoln, — were the most important of the Roman roads. Through the Romans, Christianity was brought into Britain at some early day ; but little is known christian- of the churches established in their time, nor lty- how far the native Britons accepted the faith. 6. The Fall of the Roman Empire. On the con- tinent, in western Europe, the northern and eastern boundary of Roman conquest was the river Rhine. At- tempts to subdue the German tribes beyond it were early given up, and the Romans had reason very soon to be satisfied if they could defend a fortified frontier, which ran by the Rhine, the Danube, and the Dniester, from the North Sea to the Black Sea. They held it until nearly the middle of the third century of the Christian era, and then serious breakings of the barrier began. These ended, soon after the opening of the German fifth century, in an avalanche of invasion, by invasion - great confederacies of barbarous and semi-barbarous German tribes, the most formidable of which were known as Franks and Goths. The whole empire of Rome in western Europe was overwhelmed ; but a considerable empire in the east, with its capital at Constantinople, still kept the Roman name. Roman authority in Britain must have practically come to an end in the year 407, when the last legions of Roman soldiery in the island, already left to themselves, chose an emperor from their own ranks and followed him to Gaul. After that, for forty years, the Britons and the Roman residents left in Britain fought a losing fight with invading Picts from the north, with Scots from Ireland (who, by settlement in Scotland, gave their name 12 BRITAIN AND EARLY ENGLAND. [446 to that country in the end), and with piratical Saxons from the German coast. In 446 they were at the end Roman 0I their strength, and, according to a later me a nt d o°f n ' chronicle, they cried despairingly to one of the Britain. i as t; f fo e Roman generals for help. " The savages," they said, "drive us to the sea, and the sea casts us back upon the savages." It was a vain cry, and the last. The Britain of the Celt and the Roman was about to disappear, transformed by a destructive conquest into the England of the modern world. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS. 1. The Island of Great Britain. Topics. 1. Influences affecting England's history. a. Climate. b. Harbors and rivers. c. Resources. d. Separation from continent. 2. Effect of these influences upon her political development. Reference. — Cunningham and McArthur, ch. ii. Research Questions. — (1.) What portion of eastern North America has the same latitude as England? (2.) Compare the climate of the two and give the reasons for the difference. (3.) Compare the rainfall of England with that of the United States. (4.) What is the cause of the difference ? (5.) What sort of coast-line assists the interchange of ideas and products between nations, and hence promotes civilization ? (6.) Compare Europe in this respect with Asia; with Africa; England with Russia. (7.) How do navigable rivers add to the wealth of a nation ? (8.) Name some of the good harbors and navigable rivers with which England abounds. (9.) What are the chief mineral resources of the British Isles ? (10.) What bodies of water separate England from the continent of Europe? (11.) What is the shortest distance across? (12.) What reputation at the present clay has the passage from England to the Continent? (13.) What must have been true about it before the use of steam- TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 13 boats or large sailing craft? (14.) Show how this would be a protection against invasion, but would offer little hindrance to peaceful intercourse. (15.) What traits does an insular posi- tion tend to develop in a people? (16.) Might it tend also to strengthen despotic notions in government? (17.) What safe- guard from this in Britain's proximity to the continent? 2. The Prehistoric Inhabitants of Britain. Topics. 1. Traces of early inhabitants. References. — Gardiner, i. 1-6; Guest, ch. i. ; Traill, i. 1; Rip- ley's Races of Europe, ch. xi. ; Freeman, O. E. H., ch. i. 6-8. 3. Celtic Britain. Topics. 1. Early Celtic inhabitants. a. Gaels — their home and descendants. b. Brythons — their home and descendants. 2. Early explorers. 3. Early tin trade. 4. Caesar's invasion. 5. Barbaric life found by Caesar. References. — Gardiner, i. 6-1 1. Celts in Britain: Colby, 1-6; Traill, i. 1-7, 70, 86, 98-114. Caesar's Gallic War, book iv. chs. 20-27, book v. chs. 1-22 ; Guest, ch. iii. ; Pearson, i. chs. i. and v. ; Rhys, Celtic Britain. Research Questions. — (1.) How is it shown that tribes are sprung from the same race ? (2.) Name the province of France which has inhabitants like the ancient people of Britain. (3.) Show from the map how this was likely to be so. (4.) Quote from his Gallic War Caesar's opinion of these people. (5.) What difficulty did he find in invading Britain? (6.)' State what you think to be the advantages of an insular position in respect to ease of invasion. (7.) Compare Britain in this respect with France, with Germany, with Spain. (8.) Point out what portion of Britain would be seized first by every invader, and tell why you think so. (9.) What parts would serve as a refuge from invaders ? (10.) How do navigable rivers assist invaders ? (1 1.) What three dialects of the Celtic tongue are still spoken in the British Isles ? (12.) Can a Londoner understand them ? 14 UNTIL THE ENGLISH CONQUEST. 4. The Druids. Topics. i. The Celtic religion. 2. Its priesthood. 3. Extinction of the Druids. References. — Guest, 21,22; Gardiner, i. 10; Traill, i. 33-36 ; Pearson, i. 12, 17-21 ; Encyclopaedia Britannica. 5. Roman Britain. Topics. 1. Extent of the Roman conquest. 2. Roman walls. 3. Evidences of Roman civilization. 4. Probable fate of the Britons. 5. Roman cities. 6. Roman roads. 7. Christianity. References. — Gardiner, i. 12-23. Romans Ln Britain: Gar- diner, i. 19-23, 24-25 ; Traill, i. 14-23 ; Pearson, i. chs. ii. and iii. ; Rhys, ch. iii. Research Questions. — (1.) Who was the most famous of the Roman emperors ? (2.) How long before the Roman occupa- tion of Britain did he live? (3.) Give a description of Rome under Augustus in respect to its buildings, streets, and public works in general. (4.) Show from this the benefits which would accrue to the ancient Britons from the Roman conquest. (5.) Did the Romans bring in vices as well ? (6.) What is the effect of superimposing a higher civilization upon a lower ? Illustrate this from the case of the English and Spanish settlers in Amer- ica and the Indians. (7.) Did Britain ever achieve enough luxury to reconcile a Roman emperor to living there ? (Guest, 35.) (8.) Locate on the map the Roman walls. (9.) By means of their great settlements, trace the extent of the Roman occupation. 6. The Fall of the Roman Empire. Topics. 1. Northern boundary of the Roman Empire. 2. German invasion. 3. Roman abandonment of Britain. References. — Gardiner, i. 23-26; Church's Beginnings of the Middle Ages, Introd. and ch. i. ; Pearson, i. ch. iv. CHAPTER II. THE ENGLISH CONQUEST AND SETTLEMENT. 7. The Conquest. If tradition be trustworthy, the German freebooters got their first footing in the island as allies of the despairing Britons, who turned to them as the least dreaded of their enemies and hired them to fight against the Picts. But the meagre story that is gleaned from a precious old Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and from an ancient British history, 1 both written long after the event, is neither certain nor clear. " Men from three tribes in Germany " are mentioned in the Chronicle as having shared the conquest of Britain between them. Those three tribes were the Engles, the Saxons, and the Jutes, all coming from the region between the Baltic and the North Sea, now comprised in the kingdom of Denmark and the northwestern states of the German Empire. The probability Saxons', seems to be that other tribes, from all the coast between the Elbe and the Rhine, and especially the Frisians of modern Holland, took part in the attack ; but they are not named. Jutland, in northern Denmark, and the small district of Angeln, at the south of it, in Schleswig, still bear the names of the Jutes and the Engles, ginaiEng- to mark the old homes from which they went forth to the conquest of new ones. Immediately south 1 De Excidio Britannia", written by Gildas, a Welsh monk of the sixth century, whose later life was in Brittany, where he founded a monastery. i6 BRITAIN AND EARLY ENGLAND. [ 5 th Cent. of them, in modern Hanover, on the Elbe, was the dis- trict from which the Saxons went. Between Jutes, Engles, Saxons, and Frisians, who spoke the same lan- guage in dialects slightly different, the kinship was close. They were the northern sea-kings of that age, fore- runners of the Northmen of a later period, about whom THE OLDER HOME OF THE ENGLISH RACE. we shall have something to learn. At Flensborg, Schles- wig-Holstein, in the Museum of Northern Antiquities, a boat is shown that undoubtedly represents the " long ships " in which their bold voyages to Britain were made. It was found some years ago, buried in a peat- "lcmg bog at Nydam, South Jutland, so perfectly pre- served that the parts could be put together and the form and entire construction restored. It is seventy-seven feet long and nearly eleven feet broad. Its planks of oak were fastened together with iron nails, but bound to the oaken ribs with ropes ; the seams were calked with a woolen stuff and smeared with pitch. It 449-477] ENGLISH CONQUEST. 17 is a well-shaped ship, having rowlocks for twenty-eight oars, but no masts. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the first of the sea-kings who seized and occupied a district in Britain were two brothers, Hengist and Horsa, leaders of a band of Jutes, who landed at Ebbsfleet in Thanet, in 449. Between that year and 473, Hengist (Horsa having fallen in battle) mastered the greater part of Kent and became a king. In 477 a war-party of Saxons, under a chieftain named Elle, and his three Leaders of sons, began the conquest of a " South Saxon " tonicinva- kingdom which touched that of Kent on the S10n - south. It seems to have been a rich and populous dis- trict, and they were fourteen years in making the con- quest. Soon afterwards another Saxon host, commanded ANCIENT JUTISH BOAT. by Cerdic and his son Cynric, started upon a career of destructive conquest that went on for many years, until it resulted in a "West Saxon" kingdom, which stretched from the domain of the South Saxons to the Severn River and spread north of the Thames. Mean- time, two other Saxon parties, " East Saxon " and " Mid l8 BRITAIN AND EARLY ENGLAND. [6th Cent. die Saxon," had established themselves on the northern bank of the lower Thames. 1 The conquests of the Engles in Britain were more extensive than those of the Saxons and Jutes combined ; but there is no account to tell us when or where their landings were made. They are said to have wholly deserted their Schleswig home, transplanting themselves as a nation, in such numbers that the greater part of Britain took their name. 2 First and last, the Engles took possession of the whole eastern part of the island, from the Stour to the Forth, penetrating far mentsof inland through the valleys of the Humber, the tonic Trent, the Tees, the Tyne, and the Tweed. i 11 v £i d 6 i*s Norfolk and Suffolk represent in their names the North Folk and South Folk into which the kingdom of East Anglia was divided. Between the Humber and the Forth, on the eastern coast, the Engles founded two kingdoms, Deira and Bernicia, which were at war until Deira was conquered, and a greater kingdom of North- umbria then took the place of both. On the upper waters of the Trent still another kingdom was formed, which bore the name of Mercia, because it occupied the "march "or border of the country into which the unconquered Brit- ons had been driven. 1 The South Saxon kingdom is represented by the modern Eng- lish county of Sussex, that of the East Saxons by the county of Essex, and that of the Middle Saxons by Middlesex. The modern names, it will be seen, are merely clipped pronunciations of the original " South Saxon," " East Saxon," and " Middle Saxon." In like manner, the West Saxon kingdom came to be called Wessex, and its region, which covers several counties, is often referred to by that name ; as by Thomas Hardy in his novels. 2 After a few generations the Saxons and Jutes accepted the name of Englishmen, and all that part of Britain which the German invaders occupied was known as Engla-land. 6th Cent.] ENGLISH CONQUEST. I 9 Before the end of the sixth cen- tury, the Engles were in posses- sion of southeast- ern Scotland (as we name it now) and eastern and middle England ; the Jutes were in Kent and the Isle of Wight ; the Saxons held the remainder of southern England as far westward as to Devonshire and Wales. The surviving and un- conquered Brit- ons were still holding Cornwall, Devonshire, part of Somerset, and Wales, besides a strip of western coast from the Dee to the Clyde, called Cumbria sometimes, and some- times Stratbclyde ; and the Picts and Scots were in the highlands of the farther north. 8. The Extinction of Christianity and of Roman Civilization. The Engles, Jutes, and Saxons were not savages when they subjugated Britain, but they were barbarians and pagans ; they were farther from civiliza- BRITAIN, A. D. 597. 20 BRITAIN AND EARLY ENGLAND. [6th Cent. Teutonic gods. tion than most of the Teutonic tribes which overran other parts of the Roman Empire in that same dread- ful age, because they had lived in a corner of Europe remote from the influence of Rome. Christianity had not reached them, and they still worshipped the old The Roman civilization and the Chris- tianity that they found in Britain had no meaning to them, no interest, no charm, and they seem to have destroyed both with a ruthless violence that was not shown in the conquest of Italy or Gaul. There are different opin- ions among historians on this point ; but those of weightiest authority (re- presented by such writers as Freeman and Green) find reason to believe that the English conquerors of Britain spared little. So far as they had mastered the island when the sixth century closed, cities and country mansions had prob- ably gone down in fiery ruin ; churches and priests had disappeared, and the old inhabitants (if this view is cor- rect) had been driven out or enslaved or slain. Those driven out either fled across the Channel to their kin- dred of Brittany in Gaul, or retreated into the moun- tains and behind the moorland wastes of western Britain, where the invaders called them Wealh or Welsh, a term of contempt, which the Germans applied to foreigners EARLY ENGLISH SPEARS AND KNIVES. 6th Cent.] ENGLISH SETTLEMENT. 21 in general, and which has given its lasting name to Wales. 1 9. The Primitive Form of English Society. It is not to be supposed that the German tribes which entered England were too barbarous for a settled life. They were sea-rovers and warriors, but they had likewise be- come cultivators of the soil, and had learned many of the simpler arts of peaceful life. Their wives and children, flocks and herds, probably came with them or followed them, in most instances, to their new homes. They are supposed to have come in many bands, large and small, at different times, and usually to have made settlements of kindred families together. They had always been a free people in the political sense of the term ; that is to say, all recognized mem- bers of the community — its " freemen " — had a voice in public affairs. But they held slaves (theozvs), who had no rights. For the most part, probably, these were cap- tives taken in war. In time there came to be other classes of servants and dependents, who were not slaves, but who were "unfree" in various ceoris, and degrees, and who did not enjoy the freemen's rights ; but the great body of the original English set- tlers were probably landowners and freemen, each hav- ing a voice in the affairs of the whole. At the beginning there were two classes among them, the ceoris, or com- 1 From incidents connected with some period in the long strug- gle of the British against the English there grew the British legends that came to be gathered about the name of King Arthur. That an Arthur existed in reality, or that any single hero of British tra- dition is represented by any character among his Knights of the Round Table, is doubtful ; and whether the scenery of the great Celtic romance is to be looked for on the borders of Wales, or far north, in and around the old British kingdom of Strathclyde, is likewise a question very much in dispute. 22 BRITAIN AND EARLY ENGLAND. [6th Cent. mon freemen, and the eorls, or nobles ; but the introduc- tion of royalty and its surroundings 'produced different gradations of rank. Royalty was a new institution to these tribes. In their older home they had had no kings. The chiefs (plain elders, or ealdormen, before) who led them to their conquests in Britain were raised to regal dignity ; but the kingship was elective from the beginning. Though "the kings were all chosen from heroic families, supposed to be descended from the gods, and though son was expected to succeed father, it was only so by popular consent ; and that principle has controlled the succession to the English throne down to the present day. The monarchy is hereditary ; but the nation, through its Parliament, has never lost its right of selection among the heirs. 10. The Seed-Planting of Free Institutions. The political organization of the early English seems to have had for its base or starting-point a quite democratic and locally independent townsJiip, taking its name from the "tun" or defensive inclosure of the village settlement. The townships were formed into groups called Hundreds in some parts of England, and Wapentakes in other parts ; 1 and these were finally grouped in larger govern- mental districts called SJiires, to which the hundreds, ' counties of modern England correspond. In all those divisions, from the township to the shire, justice was administered and public affairs were regulated by the "gemot" or "moot" — that is, the meeting — of the freemen or their chosen representa- 1 The name Wapentake is supposed to have signified the taking up of weapons (arms), and to have been applied originally to a military division or district ; while the Hundred probably indicated, in the first instance, a district occupied by a hundred warriors. 6th Cent.] ENGLISH SETTLEMENT. 23 tives. The tun-moot of the township may be looked upon as the parent of the town-meeting of New Eng- land and of other parts of the United States. From the tun-moot, four "best men" were chosen to attend, with its "gerefa" (reeve, or headman), the hun- dred-moot and the great "folk-moot" of the shire.; and this was the beginning of the development in England of the grand political device of representative govern- ment. The English may have brought the idea of pop- ular representation from Germany, but they alone among the German people nurtured it and kept it alive. For many centuries the local moots kept their importance in the English judicial system, and were schools in which the people learned practices of election and representation that made them familiar with the idea, and led them on to its larger uses. For war, the whole body of free landholders was an always armed host, — a national militia, called the " Fyrd," — which was subject to the call of the king. 11. Losses in Freedom. Much of the independence and equality that seem to have prevailed at first among the English freemen was unfortunately lost in time. From one cause and another, it ceased to be the general fact that they owned land. A class of "land-less " men, on one hand, and a class of "land-lords," owning large estates, on the other, came into existence. The landless man became a hireling, or else a tenant of land owned by another, for the use of which he either paid rent or per- formed labor of some kind. In either case he was looked upon as having lost personal responsibility, and was re- quired at length to put himself in dependence on some lord, 1 who undertook to be answerable for him to the 1 The word " lord," in its Anglo-Saxon form, was hlaford, sup- posed to have signified originally loaf-giver. 24 BRITAIN AND EARLY ENGLAND. [6th Cent. courts, and who, of course, exacted service and deference in return. Other causes helped to produce a state of things nut of which (according to the view here given) there came, in time, a class of townships very different from those described above, their population being made up of ten- ants and other dependents, more or less subservient to a superior, or lord. At a later time such de- pendent townships were known as "manors," and questions relating to them have been the subject of much study and discussion in recent years. 1 Even to the present day, something of popular local government has lived on in the old manorial townships, surviving especially in the parish vestry-meet- Localself- . . . . L , , J . L J govern- mgs, which took the place, to a great extent, of the township-moots. This came from a gradual confusion of townships with parishes, since their boun- daries were made, generally, to coincide, when church parishes were formed. 2 12. The Growth of an Aristocracy. As stated be- fore, the creation of monarchies gave rise to different orders of nobility, with gradations of rank. Sons and brothers of the king rose to a rank above other nobles, and the title of "atheling," or " etheling," which had been common to all the noble class of eorls, came to be restricted to princes of the royal blood. The counsellors and personal followers of the king — his "gesiths " and " thanes," as they were called (the thane seeming to be 1 Some account of the old English " manor" will be found below in section 30. 2 In the United States, the term "parish " is often applied to the membership or congregation of a church. In England, it is a church district, geographically defined; and so it is in some Amer- ican states. In most states, the Protestant Episcopal church is organized in parishes which are geographically defined. 6th Cent.] ENGLISH SETTLEMENT. 25 "primarily the warrior-gesith ") — acquired distinctions of rank. They acquired lordships in land, too, as rewards for their service to royalty, and such land-grants often car- ried with them certain rights of magistracy, called " sac and soc," more or less interfering with the hundred-moot. thane's house. The hall in the middle, the church on the right. The nobleman and his wife are dis- tributing alms to the poor. This created an aristocracy against whose power it be- came more and more difficult for the plain freemen to maintain their ancient rights. Even the free- Landhold . holder of land, as well as the landless man, be- ing - gan to find himself driven, for safety or for some other advantage, to place his person and property under the protection and patronage of a lord. That popular rights and a popular spirit in local government were never quite destroyed by these arbitrary tendencies is one of the most striking facts in English history. 26 BRITAIN AND EARLY ENGLAND. [6th Cent. The distinctions between man and man produced by differences of rank were measured with great exactness by the price put on the life of each in his class. By the law of all the Germanic peoples, the taking of a man's life could be atoned for to his kindred by a payment of money, called "wergild," fixed according to his W Grjrild status in society. Not only the value of his life, but his whole weight and 'worth as a citizen, were determined by the wergild. In the courts, for example, the oath of a thane, whose wergild was 1200 shillings, was held to equal the oaths of six common freemen, whose wergild was only 200 shillings each. 13. The Witenagemot. The gemot, or moot, of the whole kingdom was not a folk-moot, or popular body, made up, like those of the hundred and the shire, of elected representatives of the people. It was a Witena- gemot, or assembly of "the Wise," those designated as " the wise " being the greater officers of the government and the royal household, the king's chosen counsellors and friends. After the conversion of the English to Christianity, the bishops and abbots of the church were admitted to seats. Practically it was a body selected by the king, and it had almost nothing of the representative character or the powers of the English Parliament of later times. Yet it seems to have acted with consider- able independence, and to have frequently exercised no little control over the kings. 14. Conversion of the English. While Christianity was extinguished by the English, during the first cen- tury and a half of their conquest, it lived on among the unconquered Britons of Wales. In Ireland, too, at the same time, it was having a wonderful growth, from seed planted in the fifth century by St. Patrick, who returned to the island as a Christian missionary after having 6th Cent.] ENGLISH SETTLEMENT. 27 escaped from captivity in it as a slave. An Irish church, burning with devotion and zeal, had grown up, separated from the Christian church in other parts of western Europe, and differin*^r0it^'it in many respects. Its monasteries wefe becoming the most famous schools of that dark age ; its missionaries were the most ardent in the field. They were in Scottish Britain before the sixth century closed, and the pagan English were soon to receive the gospel from their lips. But missionaries from Rome were the first on English ground. Ejiej^bodyhas read the interesting story, told by the Venerable Bede, of St. Gregory, the good priest, who saw some fair-haired English boys, captives of the cruel war between Deira and Bernicia, being sold in the slave market at Rome. English faces were probably new there, though the slave-selling was a common sight. He was told that they came from the pagan island- ers of Britain, and were called Angles. "Right," NonAngli( said he, "for they sedAngeii. have angel faces, and should be co-heirs with the angels in heaven." When he learned that their country was named Deira, he cried, " Truly are they de ira, withdrawn from wrath and called to the mercy of Christ." When the name of their king, Ella, was told him, he exclaimed again, " Halleluja, the praise of God must be sung in those parts ! " Gregory spoke SAXON CROSS AT RUTHWELL, ABOUT 680 A. D. 28 BRITAIN AND EARLY ENGLAND. [597-627 in the Latin language, and thus he made a happy play upon the names. Some years afterwards, St. Gregory became bishop or pope of Rome, and then, in the year 597, he sent a company of monks, under one Augustine, to win Eng- land to the Christian faith. They entered Kent, whose king, Ethelbert, had married a Christian princess, Ber- tha, from Gaul, and there they were so favor- ably listened to that the king and a great num- ber of the people were soon baptized. Augustine was made Archbishop of Canterbury (the capital of Kent), and his successors in that see, to this day, have had the primacy, or honorary precedence, in the English church. Ethelbert had acquired such power that he seems to have been recognized by the other kings south of the H umber as an overlord, having some kind of rank above them, and bearing the title of Bretwalda, the Augustine . .. , . , . TT . and precise meaning 01 which is not known. His influence brought about an acceptance of Chris- tianity by the East Anglians and the East Saxons, and the marriage of his sister to Edwin, king of Northum- bria, led to its introduction into that kingdom. When King Edwin proposed to the thanes of his Witenagemot that they should listen to the Christian missionaries, Bede tells us that one of them said : " Truly the life of a man in this world, compared with that life whereof we wot not, is on this wise. It is as when thou, O king, art sitting at supper with thine ealdor- thane's men and thy thanes in the time of winter, when the hearth is lighted in the midst and the hall is warm, but without the rains and the snow are falling and the winds are howling ; then cometh a sparrow and flyeth through the house ; she cometh in by one door 627-6S6] ENGLISH SETTLEMENT. 29 and goeth out by another. ... So it is with the life of man ; it is but for a moment ; what goeth before it and what cometh after it, wot we not at all. Wherefore if these strangers can tell us aught, that we may know whence man cometh and whither he goeth, let us hearken to them and follow their law." 1 In this little speech there is a charming touch of simple poetry, which often showed itself in the nature of the rude Englishmen of that olden time. But a great reaction against the Christians had already occurred in the south, and soon followed in the north. Edwin lost his life in battle with the Mercians and the Welsh (633), and Christianity seemed to be perishing again in all the kingdoms except Kent. Then it was that Irish missionaries came to the rescue of the faith. A prince named Oswald, who had spent his youth in ex- ile, and who had received Christian teaching at a famous Irish monastery on the island of Hy or Iona, Irish mis . was raised to the Northumbrian throne, and S10naries - missionaries from Iona came at his call, led by one Aidan, of saintly fame. Their zeal triumphed every- where ; monas- teries were thickly planted, and the re- ligion Of the CrOSS REMAINS OF ANCIENT CELTIC CHURCH. 2 was established throughout the English north. Presently, the arms of Oswald and his son Oswy opened Mercia and Wessex to mission labors, which obtained success ; East Anglia accepted the faith anew, and all England had nominally, 1 Bede, Ecclesiastical History, book ii. ch. xiii. 2 On the island of Eilean-na-Naoimh, near Iona. 30 BRITAIN AND EARLY ENGLAND. [7th-Sth Cent. but not actually, abandoned its heathen gods before the seventh century closed. 15. Christian Culture. — Early Literature. The civilizing influence of the Christian church, in its early working, was shown nowhere more quickly or more strikingly than among the English of the north. It made no sudden change in the character of the people at large, but it drew out of the common mass many fine and pure natures, to give them a cultivation in intellect and spirit, and to make them mouthpieces and examples of that which was nobler than feasting and war. Thus great and peculiar forces were brought to bear on the development in English genius of what is highest and best. The surpassing product of English genius has been in literature, and the Engles appear to have been the part of the original English race in which the germ of it was fruitful first. They had brought with them from their primitive home a store of unwritten song, more of which has been saved for us, by the loving labor of Eng- lish monks, than we get in any other European country Early Eng- from so early a time. " Widsith," The Song of nsh poems. ^ Traveller, which tells of a minstrel's wan- derings in the age of the wars of the Goths ; " Beowulf," the most ancient of epics from any Germanic source ; "The Fight at Finnesburg," which celebrates afresh one of the incidents of " Beowulf ; " and the fragment of "Waldhere," which embalms a memory of Attila's time, — may represent very little of the store out of which the oldest English gleemen drew the songs that they sang in the halls of the thanes, but they are enough to give us glimpses of the quality of mind in those early ancestors of ours. In northern England, these robust song-makers came 7th-8th Cent.] ENGLISH SETTLEMENT. 31 into contact with Celtic peoples, more inventive and finer in poetic sensibility than themselves, but less vigorous in imagination and less bold in thought, who brought them the gospel of Christ, drew them into quiet monasteries, taught them letters, and showed them the beauty of a peaceful and pious life. All that was spiritual, poetical, and thoughtful in the Ehgles of the north re- The Celtic sponded quickly to the teaching of the first influence - Irish missionaries, and the monasticism then planted proved most favorable to the refining of the rude genius of that race. Poets, scholars, apostles, found their call- ing and their preparation in the religious communities that rose quickly in the Northumbrian field. Cuthbert, the most lovable of English saints ; Caedmon, who be- came the first of known English poets; Bede, — "the Venerable Bede," as he has always been reverently named ; Alcuin, friend, counsellor, and teacher of Charle- magne, — these are among the shining names they had placed on the roll of great Englishmen before the eighth century was closed. Caedmon was a herdsman of the seventh century, who served humbly at the monastery of the abbess Hilda, on the seashore at Whitby. Bede relates that he began to compose pious poems in obedience to a vision or dream. Excepting some verses quoted by Bede, nothing . - CsBdmon. was known of Caedmon s poetry until the sev- enteenth century, when an ancient Anglo-Saxon manu- script was found, part of which is believed by many scholars to be the herdsman-poet's work. It is a metri- cal paraphrase of parts of the Old Testament, and an- swers in a measure to the description given by Bede. The next and greatest of the known poets among the northern English was Cynewulf, who is thought to have lived in the eighth century, but who may belong to a 32 BRITAIN AND EARLY ENGLAND. [ 7 th-8th Cent. later time. Four poems have been found which have n his name signed to them in runic letters, — Cynewulf. ° — that is, letters of the old Scandinavian alpha- bet, — and others are ascribed to him, all of them full of a poetical feeling that is remarkably spiritual and fine for so rude an age. 1 Of plain prose-writing in the early English language there is nothing extant that belongs to any time before King Alfred the Great, unless it may be some entries in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the date of the writing of which, by successive monks, in different monasteries, is The vener- not known. Bede, — the Venerable Bede, — abieBede. f at h er of the learned literature of England, whose birth was in 673 and his death in 735, had just finished an English translation of the Gospel of St. John when he died, and had probably done other writing in his native tongue, but it is lost. Only a few of many books which he wrote in Latin have been spared ; but one of those, the " Ecclesiastical History of England," is priceless in its worth. The Saxons of the south of England appear to have contributed little to the earliest English literature, but Literature they evidently valued what came to them from south of Northumbria ; for nearly all of it that we England. now p 0Ssess was saved in their dialect when the northern monasteries were destroyed by the Danes, as will presently be told. One scholar and poet of the south, Aldhelm or Ealdhelm, Bishop of Sherborne, ob- 1 Excepting Beoiuulf and Caedmon's verse, almost all that has been preserved of the earliest English poetry is in two ancient manuscript collections, — one known as The Exeter Book, found in the library of Exeter Cathedral, to which it was presented by a bishop Leofric in the eleventh century ; and the other found far away from England, in a monastery at Vercelli, Italy, and known as The Vercelli Book. I 8 29 ] ENGLISH SETTLEMENT. 33 tained fame in the seventh century, but nothing of his English verse has been preserved. 16. Union of the English Kingdoms. Throughout the seventh and eighth centuries, the kings of Mercia, Wessex, and Northumberland struggled with each other for supremacy. The contest was practically ended about 829, by a West Saxon king named Egbert, who joined Sussex, Essex, and Kent to his own kingdom, and was acknowledged as overlord by the under-kings Egber1; . s of Mercia, East Anglia, and Northumbria, and kin & dom - by the British princes of Wales. The political union of the English, thus begun, was greatly helped by an or- ganization of the Christian church into one body, under the orderly rule of Rome, which Theodore of Tarsus, a Greek monk, made Archbishop of Canterbury in 669, succeeded in bringing about. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS. 7. The Conquest. Topics. 1. Teutons as allies of the Britons. 2. Home of the Engles, Saxons, and Jutes. 3. A Jutish long ship. 4. Conquests by each of the three tribes. 5. Division of England among the invaders. References. — -Gardiner, i. 26-29. Origin of the English: Gar- diner, i. 24; Green, i. 1-5; Bright, i. 1; Taswell-Langmead, 1-8. Research Questions. — (1.) Discuss the right of the Anglo-Sax- ons to the lands they took, and illustrate from our own history. (2.) Compare the Anglo-Saxon with the Roman occupation of Britain. (3.) By the termination " ton," " ham," " stead," " wick," and "borough," point out Anglo-Saxon places. (4.) Where are Thanet and Ebbsfleet ? 8. The Extinction of Christianity and of Roman Civilization. Topics. I. Social state of the new-comers. 34 THE ENGLISH CONQUEST AND SETTLEMENT. 2. Destruction they wrought in England. 3. Derivation of " Wales." References. — Guest, ch. v. ; Freeman, Norman Conq., i. ch. ii. ; Pearson, i. ch. i. Research Questions. — (1.) What are the characteristics of a people in the savage stage ? (2.) In the barbarous stage? (3.) What is meant by their being pagan ? (4.) What was the reli- gion of the Teutons ? (5.) What names in every-day use have we from the names of their gods ? (Guest, 42, 43.) (6.) What religion did they find in England ? (7.) Brought there by whom ? 9. The Primitive Form of English Society. Topics. 1. Character of German tribes. 2. Theows, ceorls, and eorls. 3. Beginning of royalty. References. — Gardiner, i. 29-31. Trade, industry, social life and manners : Gardiner, i. 75-77 ; Bright, i. 28-39; Green, M. E., 164-173 ; Pearson, i. ch. vii. ; Traill, i. 125-129, 201-228. Eng- lish in their old home: Gardiner, i. 29-34; Green, 1-5 ; Green, H. E. P., i. 8-16; Green, M. E., 166-174; Ransome, 2-4 ; Stubbs, C. H., i. ch. iii. ; H. Taylor, i. ch. ii. ; Tacitus' Agricola, book v., Germania. Research Questions. — (1.) What sort of life did the Teutons follow ? (2.) How well was England suited to their needs? (3.) What natural sources of wealth did they find ? (4.) Where did they get tin ? (5.) What other metal did they need to make bronze weapons ? 10. The Seed-Planting of Free Institutions. Topics. 1. Townships, hundreds, and shires. 2. Tun-moot, hundred-moot, folk-moot. 3. The Fyrd. References. — Gardiner, i. 31-33. English township: Green. 3, 4; Gardiner, i. 31 ; Green, M. E., 166-174; Stubbs, C. H., i. 82- 90; H. Taylor, i. 12; Taswell-Langmead, 16. Moots: Gardiner, i- 31-33, 45) 72-74, 113 ; Bright, i. 31-35 ; Stubbs, C. H., i. 102- 108, 1 19-140; Taswell-Langmead, 30-42; H. Taylor, i. 12, 143- 148; Ransome, 6-8: Traill, i. 136-138; Green, 60-61, 175-176. Research Questions. — (1.) What was the head man of a shire called ? (2.) What is the modern title derived from this ? TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 35 (3.) Are the duties of this office the same to-day as then ? (4.) What is a moot-court of the present day ? (5.) What is a mooted question? (6.) Look up the " Chiltern Hundreds" and show of what Anglo-Saxon division they are a survival. (7.) Of what service are they to-day ? 11. Losses in Freedom. Topics. 1. Loss of land among freemen. 2. Manors. 3. Parish vestry-meetings of present day. Reference. — Montague, 19, 20. Research Questions. — (1.) In what particulars does land fur- nish the means of keeping a man independent ? (2.) To what two pursuits was land in those days devoted ? (3.) How impor- tant are those pursuits in any stage of society? (4.) If a man lost his land, what other means of livelihood had he? (5.) Why did this entail a loss of freedom ? (6.) Are men of the present day who are without land necessarily dependent ? (7.) What made the difference in the lot of landless men at that time ? 12. The Growth of an Aristocracy. Topics. 1. Early distinctions in rank, — atheling, gesiths, thanes. 2. Changes in landholding. 3. Measurement of rank. Reference. — Gardiner, i. 29-32. Research Questions. — (1.) What were the duties of the "ge- siths?" (Gardiner, i. 30.) (2.) What play of Shakespeare shows the character of " thanes " and how they acquired lands and titles or lost them ? (3.) Why was a thane more apt to be enriched than any other of the king's friends? (4.) What is meant by " sac and soc " ? (5.) What portion of the country did an earl rule in early days ? (6.) Is there a higher rank in the English nobility than earl now? (7.) If so, what is it and by whom was it introduced. (8.) Name as many of the titles of the English nobility as you can and describe the rank that pertains to each. 13. The Witenagemot. Topics. 1. Its make-up. 2. Its function. Reference. — Ransome, 6-9. 36 THE ENGLISH CONQUEST AND SETTLEMENT. Research Question. — The Witenagemot is the foreshadowing of what body in the English government of the present time ? 14. Conversion of the English. Topics. i. Continued existence of Christianity. 2. Pope Gregory and the Engles. 3. Establishment and early spread of Christianity. 4. The thane's parable. 5. Reaction against Christianity. 6. Irish missionaries. References. — Montague, 4, 5. Pope Gregory and Augustine: Green, 18, 19; Bede's Ecclesiastical History, book i. ch. xxiii. ; Colby, 14-16; Green, H. E. P., i. 36-42 ; Green, M. E., 212-218; Gardiner, i. 38-41 ; Guest, 53-59; Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 438; Lappenberg, i. 171-180 ; Pearson, i. 298-302 ; Freeman, O. E. H., 42-48. Conversion of King Edwin: Bede, E. H., book ii. chs. xiii. and xiv. Research Questions. — (1.) Describe the rise of Canterbury as a centre of the Christian religion and its growth into an arch- bishopric. (Gardiner, i. 38-40.) (2.) What was the famous Irish monastery whence missionaries came into England ? (Gardiner, i. 47.) (3.) Point out on the map the two directions from which Christianity entered England after the English conquest. 15. Christian Culture. — Early Literature. Topics. 1. Influence of the church in the north. 2. Genius of the Engles for literature. 3„ Poetry of the period. 4. Celtic influence. 5. Caedmon and Cynewulf. 6. Prose writings. 7. Literature in the south of England. References. — Early literature : Green, 25-29. Casdmon : Bede, E. H., book iv. ch. xxiv. ; Green, 27-29; Gardiner, i. 52 ; Green, H. E. P., i. 52; Green, M. E., 357-358; Pearson, i. 298-301; Freeman, O. E. H., 74. 16. Union of the English Kingdoms. Topics. 1. Supremacy of Egbert and the West Saxons. 2. Influence of the church. CHAPTER III. THE INTRUSION OF THE DANES. 787-1066. 17. Appearance of the Vikings. Among the Eng- lish themselves, the supremacy that Egbert had won for the West Saxon kings was seriously disputed no more. But now there broke upon them a storm of foreign in- vasion which undid for a hundred years the work of consolidation that had been going on. A fresh outs warming of barbaric people from the Baltic regions of northern Europe had occurred. Once more the Danish peninsula was sending out fleets of pirat- ical rovers, and other fleets from Norway and Sweden fol- lowed in their wake. They called themselves "vikings," not as a regal title, but with reference to the " vicks," or creeks, from which they put to sea. The expeditions of the vikings were directed on two lines. One, westward, carried them to the Shetland and Orkney islands, to the Hebrides, to the western coast of Scotland and the eastern coast of Ireland ; or to the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland, and finally to America, as is now well known. On the other line, southward, their expedi- tions struck England, and also ravaged the shores of the continent, from the Netherlands to Spain. Between the freebooters who sailed from Denmark and the Baltic islands and those who went from Raids of Norway or Sweden, little distinction was made theI)anes - in the chronicles of the time. To the Franks and 3§ BRITAIN AND EARLY ENGLAND. [7S7-S68 other people on the continent they were generally known as North- men ; to the Eng- lish they were com- monly all Danes. It is supposed that the greater part of the vikings who ravaged and in- vaded England were Danes in fact, and we shall speak of them by that name. They were still "heathen men," as the Eng- lish called them, and the wealth of the Christian monasteries and churches, in Ire- land and England, made those sacred places the objects of their most constant attack. For three quarters of a century after the raids of the Danes began, they were kept from gaining any foothold on English soil. Egbert and his son Ethelwulf fought them off with success. Four sons of Ethelwulf Eclipse of 111.. , , christian succeeded him, in turn, on the throne, ana in the reign of Ethelred, the third of those val- iant brothers, the calamitous period of Danish invasion began. East Anglia and all the southern part of North- umbria were overwhelmed (866-868). Churches, mon- THE COURSE OE THE VIKING EXPEDITIONS. 871-876] THE INTRUSION OF THE DANES. 39 asteries, schools, libraries disappeared ; the glorious light of learning and letters which had shone from the An- glian kingdom in the north went out, and utter darkness fell again upon the unfortunate land. 18. Alfred the Great. In 871, Ethelred died from a wound received in battle with the Danes, and Alfred, the last of Ethel wulf's four sons, known to future times as IRON SWORDS OF THE VIKINGS, Alfred the Great, stepped into his place, and took up what seemed to be the hopeless task of England's de- fence. He was then but twenty-two years of age. He had been carefully educated, and had visited Rome in his youth. In the first year of his reign, Alfred was forced, by repeated defeats, to buy a truce from the Danes, which saved Wessex from their ravages for a considerable time. During that time they subjugated Mercia completely, overran Bernicia, Cumbria, and Strathclyde, and took a piece of territory from the Scots. Then, in S76, they returned to the attack on Wessex. Alfred, who had put a fleet of warships afloat, resisted them at sea and on 40 BRITAIN AND EARLY ENGLAND. [876-878 land ; but the forces against him were too strong. At the end of two years the Danes were nearly masters of the country. " Many of the people," says the Chroni- cle, "they drove beyond sea, and of the remainder the greater part they subdued and forced to obey them, except King Alfred ; and he, with a small band, with difficulty retreated to the woods and to the fastnesses of the moors." It was in Selwood Forest, on the edge of Somerset, that the young king took refuge, with his family and a few faithful men. He was hidden there through the early months of 878, not in idleness, we may be sure, but planning and preparing for new efforts to redeem the stricken land. Many tales of adventures that befel him in the forest were told in after times, among them that one of the king and the cakes in the herds- Aifredin » , • 1 , the herds- man s hut, which has been repeated many man's hut. . ...... ... A times, and which is quite possibly true. Ac- cording to the story, the king took shelter one day in the hut of a herdsman, whose wife knew him not. She, baking cakes at the fire by which he sat, bade him watch them and turn them, while she went to other tasks ; but his thoughts wandered, the cakes were burned, and he received a rough scolding for his neglect. When spring came, Alfred and his followers built a fortified camp on a small island of rising ground in the midst of a great marsh near Taunton. This was after- wards called "the atheling's eig," or island, but Athelney. , , . , , careless tongues corrupted the name to "Athel- ney," and so it remains. In the sheltered camp at Athel- ney, Alfred then began to bring together such forces as he could rally from the neighboring country, and to make forays upon the Danes. By the middle of May he was ready to lead an army against them, and in one S7S-901] THE INTRUSION OF THE DANES. 41 remarkable campaign he rescued his West Saxon king- dom. He routed the invaders at Ethandun, besieged them in their camp, forced them to surrender, extorted from them a solemn treaty, known as the Peace of Wed- more, and imposed Christian baptism on their chief. The tide was turned by this great success. Wessex was rescued immediately ; England was saved in the end. Half of it, by the terms of the treaty, was given up to the Danes, and thereafter known as the Danelaw TheDane . (under the law of the Danes) ; the other half law - was left in peace to grow strong and united, and to be able in time to rule the whole. The Danes withdrew from the entire re- gion south of the Thames and west of the old Watling Street road. This secured to Alfred a kingdom which com- prised the whole of Wessex, with Kent, Sussex, and the west- ern part of Mercia ; ,.| and eight years later he added what is now the county of Mid- dlesex, including the city of London, to his realm. The departing en- emy left ruin, poverty, and disorder behind. It was Alfred's task to clear the wreckage from his country ; to revive hope and confidence ; to restore authority to government and force to law ; to organize an effective ALFRED THE GREAT. 42 BRITAIN AND EARLY ENGLAND. [878-901 system of military and naval defence ; and, above all, to bring new and greater influences of religion and educa- Aifredas ^ion to bear on his people. All these things manlnd ne ca< ^' w * tn a w i s d° m > a faithfulness, and a teacher. power of example that have rarely been equalled in the world. In his own person he was the noblest teacher that any nation ever had. His great labors and cares of state did not keep him from hard studies, pur- sued for the sake of knowledge that he could give to his people. He toiled at translations from the Latin into the English tongue, so that they might read Bede's his- tory of their own land, and other instructive books. He gathered and preserved the materials of the precious old Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, from which we have been quot- ing, and it is thought that he wrote in it the annals of his own time. The noble stream of English prose litera- ture starts from Alfred's pen. That Alfred ranks above all other great Englishmen in public life is beyond dispute. Perhaps his place on the roll of fame is even higher than that. Professor Freeman, one of the foremost of historians, goes so far Alfred's as to sav : " Alfred ... is the most perfect greatness, character in history. ... No other man on re- cord has ever so thoroughly united all the virtues both of the ruler and of the private man. . . . The virtue of /Elfred, like the virtue of Washington, consisted in no marvellous displays of superhuman genius, but in the simple, straightforward discharge of the duty of the mo- ment. But Washington, soldier, statesman, and patriot, like yElfred, has no claim to yElfred' s two other charac- ters of saint and scholar." 1 This is a judgment which all may not accept, but none will find it easy to disprove. King Alfred's son, Edward (called " the Elder "), who 1 Freeman's Norman Conquest, ch. ii. 4 B Longitude West 2 of Greenwich C 901-975] THE INTRUSION OF THE DANES. 43 succeeded him in 901, and three valiant grandsons, who came after, were able, in the fifty-four years of their suc- cessive reigns, to accomplish the complete subjugation of the Danelaw, and to reestablish the sovereignty of their house over the whole English land. Under Edgar, a great-grandson of Alfred, the power of the West E d g ar's Saxon kings reached its height, and the nation reign - rejoiced in a singularly good government and in the blessings of peace. Edgar was ably served by a great minister, the monk Dunstan, who became Archbishop of Canterbury, and who revived Alfred's educational work. 19. Effects of the Danish Struggle. England was little affected by anything which the Danes brought in ; since the two peoples were substantially of one blood, and their institutions, customs, character, and language were closely alike. But the framework of English society was seriously changed, we may be sure, by the long conflict which the Danish intrusion brought about. The constant exercise of military power, in so long a period of internal war, transformed it, inevitably, into political and social power. The warrior order of thanes gained ascendency more rapidly than before. Increasing numbers of free- men were borne down by the afflictions of war, to become debtors, and therefore slaves ; to become landless, and therefore dependent ; to be put in peril, and therefore impelled to seek the protection of a lord. All the influ- ences that had been hostile to the primitive democracy of the English people, from the beginning of their settle- ment in Britain, were undoubtedly heightened by their long conflict with the Danes. 20. Arts, and Conditions of Life. As a general fact, it is quite certain that the conditions of life, among Eng- lish as well as Danes, were still very rude ; but little is 44 BRITAIN AND EARLY ENGLAND, [ioth Cent. known in detail of what they really were. It is a van- ished life. The houses that sheltered it and the fur- nishings of the houses have disappeared, and scarcely anything of even pictorial representation remains. The art of brickmaking, which the Romans gave to Britain, had been lost. Even in church-building the use of stone was evidently rare. In the century which fol- lowed Edgar's reign, much advance in church architec- ture appears to have been made ; but few examples of AN EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH. 1 the work of even that period have survived. Wood was the common material of houses for the rich and well-to-do ; clay, the commoner substance of the huts of the poor. In neither the lord's hall nor the peasant's hut was a chimney to be found until centuries 1 The church of St. Lawrence, at Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire, possibly built by Bishop Aldhelm, a famous scholar, architect, and man of letters of the seventh century; pronounced by Professor Freeman to be " the one perfect surviving Old-English Church in the land." iothCent.] THE INTRUSION OF THE DANES. 45 after these primitive days. The means of lighting were a smoking torch, or, sometimes, a burning wick bedded in a lump of fat, on a pointed stick. King Alfred must have made better candles, however, for he is said to have devised a mode of keeping time by burning them in lanterns marked for the hours. The specimens of Anglo-Saxon pottery that have been found are said to be mostly rude ; in the eighth century, the English were still sending to France for The fine glass; yet, in certain finer arts, such as jewelry arts- work, embroidery, and the illumination of manuscripts, the native artists and workmen appear to have been notable in skill. Spinning and weaving were household industries, even in the palaces of the kings. Alfred's mother is praised for her skill in weaving, and Edward the Elder Household is said to have " sette his sons to scole and his industrie s- daughters he sette to wool werke." But the English stayed far behind their Dutch and Flemish neighbors for many centuries in the arts of weaving and dyeing, though the wool of their sheep was the best in Europe, and so valued, even in the eighth century, that the Emperor Charlemagne exempted traders in it from cap- ture in war. 21. Scotland. It was at the time of King Edgar that a kingdom in the north of the British island, called Scot- land in later times, grew to about its final extent. It had been known once as the Kingdom of Scone, then as the Kingdom of Alban, and finally as the Kingdom of the Scots. Part of the old Bernician kingdom, wholly English in its population (the district called Lothian in modern times), was granted by the English King Edgar to the Scots, giving them Edinburgh for their future capital town. 46 BRITAIN AND EARLY ENGLAND. [975-1042 22. Renewed Attacks and Complete Conquest by the Danes. The brief interval of peace and prosperity in England ended at Edgar's death (975), and a miserable period came after. A new series of Danish invasions began, ending in a complete conquest of the country by Sweyn, King of Denmark, in 1013, when Ethelred, the English king, fled to Normandy, and Sweyn seized his throne. Sweyn died in the next year, and one of his sons named Cnut (called Canute by the English) suc- ceeded him, after some struggle with Ethelred, who re- turned, and with Ethelred's eldest son, Edmund, called " Ironside," because of his daring and strength. Both Ethelred and Edmund soon died, and all England sub- mitted to Canute, who proved to be a great and much- loved king, though his reign was barbarously begun. His whole character appears to have undergone an extraordinary change. He shed his barbarism like a garment ; he became merciful, magnanimous, careful of the welfare of his people, — a Chris- tian statesman and a patriot king, who won the affection of his English subjects more than any, after Alfred, of their own royal race. He placed Englishmen rather than Danes in the offices of state, and gave his confi- dence especially to a West Saxon thane named Godwin, whom he made ealdorman, or earl, as the title now became, of Wessex, and whom he trusted with the government of the kingdom when he himself visited his Danish realm. 23. The Last English Kings. After Canute died, in 1035, tw0 °f ms sons reigned briefly, and then (1042) the crown came back to the family of Ethelred, being given to his younger son Edward, known afterwards as " the Confessor," who had been reared and sheltered in Normandy during the reign of Canute. io66] THE INTRUSION OF THE DANES. 47 The French district called Normandy, on the lower waters of the Seine, had received that name in the previ- ous century, when it was seized by one of the hosts of vikings, or Northmen, described above. It was formally ceded as a duchy in 911 to their chief, Rolf (Rollo in the Latin form of the name and Rou in the French form), and, from being known as the Land of the Northmen, came to be called Normandy and its people Normans. Edward the Confessor was a man of such gentleness Normandy. WESTMINSTER ABBEY AS REPRESENTED ON THE BAYEUX TAPESTRY.l and goodness that after his death he was counted among the saints ; but he was better fitted to be a monk than a king. The ruling hand in his government during most of the reign was that of Canute's minister, the great Earl Godwin ; and Godwin's power, when he died, was transmitted to Harold, his son. At the 1 The Bayeux Tapestry, preserved in the Library at Bayeux, France, is believed to have been wrought by William the Con- queror's wife, Queen Matilda, and her maids, to picture scenes of the Norman Conquest. 48 BRITAIN AND EARLY ENGLAND. [1066 death (January, 1066) of King Edward, who had no chil- dren, the nearest heir to the crown was a child, a grand- son of Edmund Ironside, born in exile, in Hungary, and those circumstances made it easy to turn men's thoughts toward the crowning of the mighty Earl Harold, whose family, for two generations, had held an almost royal rank. That, in fact, is what came to pass. Harold was duly elected king by the national Witenagemot, and crowned in the abbey church of Westminster, which the late king had built and in which his body was laid. But no sooner had the news of Harold's election gone abroad than a formidable disputant appeared, in the person of William of f , , , Normandy the Duke of Normandy, who claimed that King English Edward had promised him the English crown, and that Harold, being once a shipwrecked cap- tive in Normandy, had then solemnly sworn fealty to him, Duke William, as Edward's heir. On those grounds he denied the validity of the election, and made prepara- tions to drive Harold from the throne. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS. 17. Appearance of the Vikings. Topics. r. A fresh invasion. 2-. Origin of the name "viking." 3. Two lines of their expeditions. 4. Raids of the Danes upon England. 5. Eclipse of Christian light. Reference. — Green, 44-4N. Research Questions. — (1.) In what important point did the Danes and English differ ? (2.) What danger to the church from the invasion? (3.) To the cause of education? (4.) Of. what kind were the books of the period ? (5.) What is meant by illuminated books ? (6.) How did Latin come to be used in Britain and also in Gaul and other provinces on the continent ? (7.) Why were books written in it? (S.) By means of the termi- TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 49 nation " by " in the names of their cities, trace the extent of the Danish conquest. (9.) What good traits of the people would an invasion bring out? 18. Alfred the Great. Topics. 1. Alfred's truce. 2. His flight. 3. Alfred in the herdsman's hut. 4. Collection of an army at Athelney. 5. Battle of Ethandun. 6. Division of England between Danes and Saxons. 7. Alfred as a statesman and teacher. 8. Alfred's greatness. 9. The work of Alfred's successors. REFERENCES. — Gardiner, i. 58-61 ; Bright, i. 6-10; Green, 47-53; Ransome, 11, 13, 16; Pearson, i. 163-181 ; Colby, 19-22; Pauli's Life; Hughes' Life; Turner's Anglo-Saxons, vols. i. and ii. ; Anglo-Saxon Chron., 349-366. Research Questions. — (1.) Point out on the map the recon- quest of England as achieved by Alfred. (2.) What did they call the part which was given over to the Danes? (3.) What does the term mean ? (Gardiner, i. 59.) (4.) When did they begin to bribe the Danes? (Gardiner, i. 79.) (5.) Was this a wise measure? Give reasons for your opinion. (6.) Name the great churchman of this period, outline his career, and show some of the things he did for the church. (Gardiner, i. 65, 67, 68.) 19. Effects of the Danish Struggle. Topics. 1. Kinship of English and Danes. 2. Effect of their wars on English society. Research Questions. — (1.) What good was land in such a time as this if its owner could not defend it? (2.) What sort of men would be able to defend their land ? (3.) To whom, then, would the king naturally distribute land ? (4.) How did the wars affect great numbers of less warlike men? (5.) What would they have to do for their own protection ? (6.) This method of land dis- tribution and consequent vassalage is the beginning in England of what system of landholding ? (7.) Did this system obtain at the same time on the continent? 50 THE INTRUSION OF THE DANES. 2*0. Arts, and Conditions of Life. Topics. i. Conditions of life. 2. Building material and house comforts. 3. Arts and manufactures. Reference. — Gardiner, i. 75-77. 21. Scotland. Topics. 1. Beginning of the kingdom. 2. Acquisition of Edinburgh. Research Questions. — (1.) From its name, what tribe had the most to do in uniting Scotland ? (2.) What was their kinship with the Irish ? (Gardiner, i. 63.) (3.) Where is Edinburgh ? (4.) How does it rank among Scottish cities ? (5.) Describe its founding. (Gardiner, i. 43.) (6.) What reason brought about the cession to the Scots of the territory lying between Edinburgh and the Cheviot Hills? (Gardiner, i. 64, 68.) (7.) Was that a wise policy ? (8.) What race of people occupied the ceded district ? (9.) What was to be the character, then, of the future Scottish kingdom ? 22. Renewed Attacks and Complete Conquest by the Danes. Topics. 1. Renewed invasions. 2. Complete conquest. 3. Reign of Canute. Reference. — Gardiner, i. 79-86. 23. The Last English Kings. Topics. 1. Edward the Confessor. 2. Settlement of Normandy. 3. The government of Edward the Confessor. 4. Death of Edward and election of Harold. 5. Claim of William of Normandy. References. — Gardiner, i. 86-93. The church before the Con- quest: Green, 18, 19, 23-27,30-32; Stubbs, Early Plantagenets, 58-61 ; Stubbs, C. H.. i. ch. viii. ; H. Taylor, i. 154-163 ; Taswell- Langmead, 8, 9. The Synod of Whitby : Green, 29, 30 ; Green, TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. .51 H. E. P., i. 53, 54 ; Green, M. E., 313-315. National government before the Conquest : H. Taylor, i. ch. v. Research Questions. — (1.) If the kingship was elective, how could it be hereditary ? (2.) Did the Witenagemot desire ever to elect a child ? (3.) Why not ? (4.) During whose reign in Eng- land was Shakespeare's Duncan murdered by Macbeth ? (Guest, 133) LINEAGE OF THE WEST SAXON KINGS FROM EGBERT. 1st Generation. 2d. Egbert, ( Ethelwulf, 800-836. I 836-858. 3d. 4 th. Ethelbald, 858-860. Ethelbert, 860-866. Ethelred, 866-871. Alfred, ( Edward, ( The Great), \ ( Tlic Elder), ' 871-901. ( 901-925. 5th. 6th. Ethelstan, Edwig, 925-940. 955-958. Edmund, 940-946. Edgar, 958-975. married, 1. .-Ethelfled Edred, 946-955- . 2. Elfthryth 6th. 7th. 8th. Edgar, married 1. Ethelfled; Edward, ( Tlie Martyr), 975-979- Ethelred, (The Unready), Edmund, (Ironside), 2. Elfthryth. 979-1016, married, 1. Elfled; 1016, married I Eldgyth. 2. Emma, daughter of Richard I. ^ of Normandy. f Edward, (The Confessor), 1042-1066, married I Edgyth. 9th. Edward, died 1057. 10th. f Margaret, I married Malcolm, Y King; of Scots. 10th. nth. Margaret, f Edgyth Matilda, married married Malcolm, Henry I., King of Scots. \_ King of England. SURVEY OF GENERAL HISTORY. SIXTH TO TWELFTH CENTURIES. Rise of the Empire of the Franks and of the authority of the Popes in the Western Christian Church. Among the king- doms founded by the tribes which overthrew the Roman Em- pire in western Europe, the first to rise to importance were those of the Franks in Gaul and the Goths in Italy and Spain. The Gothic kingdom in Italy was attacked, in the sixth cen- tury, by the eastern Roman emperor, who reigned at Con- stantinople, and was destroyed ; but only to make room for a fresh Germanic invasion and conquest, by a tribe called the Lombards (Long-beards), who settled in northern Italy and established a kingdom there. In this period, the city of Rome was left much to itself, and its bishops (already called popes, signifying fathers) became its actual rulers, and began to ac- quire high princely rank, as well as great spiritual authority over a large part of the Christian church. Meantime, after much change and division of kingdoms, the Franks had been united under a new race of kings, called the Carolingian or Carlovingian, who subjugated the Lom- bards and became the special allies and champions of the popes. The second of these kings, known as Charles the Great (Charlemagne), extended his dominion from Naples in Italy and from the Ebro in Spain to the Elbe in northern Germany ; and on Christmas Day of the year 800 he received an imperial crown from the pope, who declared him to be a successor to the old Roman emperors in the west. The huge empire of Charlemagne went to pieces after the death of his son, Louis, and various divisions of it were made, resulting (888) in four kingdoms : that of the East Franks, or SIXTH TO TWELFTH CENTURIES. 53 Germany ; that of the West Franks, which became France ; the kingdom of Italy ; and the kingdom of Burgundy ; the last named soon passing through many changes and leaving its name finally to a feudal duchy of the French. Both the German and the West Frank kingdoms were split into great feudal fiefs, the chiefs of which were rivals in power of their feudal lord, the king. The Feudal System. The system called " feudal," which took form at that time in western Europe, was a system that based the whole structure of society on certain peculiar ar- rangements for the holding of land. Each one, below the king, who held land, was a " vassal," owing some kind of ser- vice, military and other, to some one above him, his " suze- rain," or overlord, who owed him protection in return. The same man might be an overlord to some below him, and a vassal to one above, if his holding of land — his "fief," as the feudal lawyers named it — was large enough to subdivide into lesser fiefs. It was a military organization of society, in the first instance ; but the land-lord came to be the political lord of his vassals — their judge and ruler, in most affairs, as well as their military chief ; and thus, out of the feudal system of land tenure, there arose a feudal system of govern- ment, which hindered the growth of national unity, by the division, the conflict, and the weakening of authority that it caused. The Revived Empire. In 962, one of the East Frank or German kings, Otho I., added the kingdom of Italy to his own and again revived the Roman Empire in name, as Charle- magne had done, by obtaining the crown and title of emperor from the pope. For centuries thereafter each German king received the imperial title by coronation at Rome, and claimed a sovereignty over Italy, which he exercised only on occa- sional armed visits, in a fitful and ruinous way. Neither in Italy nor in Germany were these emperor-kings ever able to establish an authority that could nationalize their realms. Disorder in both countries was increased by the bitter and 54 GENERAL HISTORY. long-lasting quarrels that arose between emperors and popes, creating at last, in Italy, the famous factions of Guelfs and Ghibellines, which fought each other for nearly two hundred years. Free Cities. The chaotic state of government in Italy gave many rising cities, in the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries, an opportunity to acquire substantial independence in the management of their affairs. They became small republics, which rivalled in spirit the city republics of ancient Greece. A little later, in Germany, the similar state of things produced a similar result. Feudalism, in that country, was having its worst effects. Even the greater feudal fiefs went to pieces, and the German kingdom was being dissolved into petty principalities, among which numerous cities were growing strong enough to be practically free from any overlordship except that which a nominal emperor might claim. The Rise of the Kingdom of France. In the kingdom of the West Franks many disorders prevailed, among them the attacks of the vikings, described in the last chapter. A new line of kings was founded, in 987, by the coronation of Hugh Capet, Count of Paris and Orleans, who bore the further title of Duke of France. The real power of these kings at first was little more than their duchy and county gave them. Nor- mandy, Burgundy, Aquitaine, Flanders, Champagne, and Toulouse, were great fiefs of the crown that long over- shadowed it in actual power. Conquests of the Mohammedans. In 632, Mahomet, or Mo- hammed, the Arabian founder of a new religion, died, and his followers went forth to conquer and convert the world. Within a generation they had subjugated Palestine, Syria, Persia, and Egypt, and were at the gates of Constantinople, beginning attacks on the Eastern Empire (sometimes called the Byzantine Empire), which went on through the next eight hundred years. Before the seventh century closed, they had pressed through northern Africa to the Atlantic coast ; in a few years more they were masters of the greater part of Spain. SIXTH TO TWELFTH CENTURIES. 55 At about the same time they reached Central Asia and over- came the Turks, who then dwelt beyond the Caspian Sea. The Turks became converts, and, in the course of the next two centuries, they supplanted their Arab conquerors and were the lords of the Mohammedan empire in the east. The Crusades. Late in the eleventh century (1076), Jeru- salem was taken by these Turks, and Christian pilgrims to the sepulchre of Christ received treatment at their hands which roused the wrath of Europe when it was known. Be- fore the century ended, a great movement (the first Crusade, 1 096-1 099), of French and Normans for the most part, drove the Turks from the holy places of Palestine, and founded a Christian kingdom at Jerusalem ; but its foundation was not firmly laid. Thrice, in the twelfth century (1147, 1188, 1196), huge armies were led by emperors and kings from western Europe, in vain attempts to make the Christian possession of Palestine secure. Vast numbers perished in these expe- ditions ; but those who returned brought new knowledge, new thoughts, minds expanded and stirred, and remarkable results of intellectual wakening appeared in the following age. Feu- dalism was weakened by the impoverishment of great lords, who spent extravagant sums on the crusades ; towns won more freedom, by purchase or by force, and the general gain to the people of western Europe was great. K?iighthood and Chivalry. In the latter part of the tenth century, and the first of the eleventh, the institution of orders of knighthood began to produce some refinement of military manners in western Europe, by what is described as the spirit of chivalry. In reality, it arose from the aristocratic class- feeling of the warriors who rode on horseback, making them respectful and increasingly courteous toward one another, while arrogant and disdainful toward the remainder of man- kind. It had, undoubtedly, some civilizing effects, but they were probably less than is commonly represented in modern romance. Industry and Trade. For some centuries Constantinople, 56 GENERAL HISTORY. controlling the trade between Asia and Europe, was the great- est of commercial cities. By the Black Sea and the Danube, as well as by the Mediterranean, commodities were slowly exchanged between the Byzantine capital and western and northern Europe, with much trouble from brigandage on land and piracy at sea. Gradually Venice, Genoa, and other Ital- ian cities, came into the field, helping to handle Byzantine trade in the west. Along routes by river and road through the country of the Franks, from the Mediterranean to the Rhine, and by the coasts and rivers further north, an active exchange of goods went on with steady increase. On the Baltic, and on the rivers that flow into it, important seats of trade appeared at a remarkably early clay. The Frisians, of the northern Netherlands, were famous in Charlemagne's time for their woven goods ; but in the tenth century, Count Baldwin, of Flanders, made his towns the most flourishing seats of the woollen-working industry, by inviting skilled workmen to them, and establishing fairs. Through- out the Netherlands there was great thrift, enterprise, and prosperity from a very early time. By the twelfth century, cloth-making industries had gained a prosperous growth in German towns, among which Cologne had then the lead, and the merchants of Cologne had established a " hanse " or asso- ciation in London, with trading privileges there. Learning. After the barbaric conquest of the Roman pro- vinces in the west, schools, except such as taught theology in the monasteries and cathedrals, disappeared. Charlemagne was the first of the new rulers to interest himself in learning, and he drew to his court a society of scholarly men, with Alcuin, an Englishman, at their head. In England, a little later, King Alfred gave still warmer encouragement to the education of his people ; but neither Charlemagne nor Alfred did a work in that direction that endured. It was not until the opening of the eleventh century that a real wakening of intellectual life can be seen. Then crowds of students began to flock to Paris, Salerno, Bologna, and elsewhere, to listen SIXTH TO TWELFTH CENTURIES. S7 to famous teachers of law, medicine, and philosophy, who gave lectures and held disputes. The state of learning in Christian countries throughout this period appears to have been surpassed by that of the Arabs or Moors in Spain, and in other parts of the Mohammedan world. Literature. Before the Germanic and Celtic peoples of western Europe had learned to put their thoughts and fancies into writing, there seems to have existed among them a great body of poetry and romance that was carried in the memory of minstrels, for singing and recitation at the courts of kings and in the halls of the chiefs. Such songs and tales, being thus preserved until Christian times, were then copied and worked over by writers in the monasteries, with more or less piecing and changing, and some mixing of Christian with old pagan ideas. That seems to be the probable origin of the older literature that has come down from mediaeval times. The ancient minstrelsy first inspired a new singing of its songs in France, at some time in the eleventh century, when an interesting species of literature, known as the Chansons de Gestes, or songs of heroes and deeds, began to be pro- duced. In southern France, a more lyrical form of verse, devoted largely to themes of love, was cultivated at about the same time by poets known as " troubadours," of Provence. But the great age of revival for heroic poetry and romance came a little later, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, when the ancient lays and legends of Germany received the epic forms in which we know them ; when the Nibelungenlied was constructed ; when the song of The Cid was sung in Spain ; when the Welsh legends of King Arthur were caught up, in England, France, and Germany, to be made the groundwork of that wonderful group of romances which kindle poetry and delight the world to this clay. Architecture. By introducing the arch and the vault, which the Greeks had not employed, the Romans were the begin- ners of an entirely new development of the building art. The northern nations that supplanted the Romans took up the 58 GENERAL HISTORY. hint — it was scarcely more — which the latter had given, and slowly worked it out. By carrying the construction of arches and vaulting to higher and higher perfection, using both rounded and pointed forms, varying and modifying both, enriching them with ornament, adding gracefulness to the strength of their supports, and giving harmony and beauty of line to all their accessories, the unknown builders of these ages created the styles of architecture called Romanesque and Gothic, and raised for Christian worship, in western and northern Europe, an amazing number of structures that rank with the sublimest works of the human brain and hand. THE NORMAN-ENGLISH NATION. 1066-1199. CHAPTER IV. THE NORMAN CONQUEST AND ITS FIRST EFFECTS. William I. 1066-1087. 24. The Duke of Normandy. William, Duke of Normandy, was a bold and remarkably able man. He had made himself master of his dukedom under difficul- ties which few could have overcome. There was a stain upon his birth ; his mother, Arlette, or Herleva, was a tanner's daughter; his father, Duke Robert, had died while he was still a child, and the Norman barons had scorned the authority exercised by guardians in his name. Yet their proud necks had been bent, and no duke of Normandy before him had exercised an authority so real as he now possessed. He was far the most powerful of the great feudal lords who rendered homage to the French king, as vassals in name and form, but who were practi- cally independent in their several domains. This formidable claimant of the English crown now made his preparations to take it by force. If all that he asserted, as to Edward's promise and Har- Emptiness old's oath, were fully true, they gave him no wmiam-s right. Succession to the kingship in England claim - was still, as at the beginning, subject to a national elec- tion, in some form. Hitherto the kings had been chosen 6o THE NORMAN-ENGLISH NATION. [1066 from one family ; but William belonged to that family- no more than Harold did, and neither Edward's word nor Harold's word could give him any claim which the English or their Witenagemot were bound to take into WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR, AS PICTURED ON THE BAYEUX TAPESTRY. account. On the continent this fact was not easily understood. It presented a view of kingship which most of the nations there had lost. They had allowed crowns to become the personal property of those who wore them, to be passed from father to son like an estate in land. Therefore continental opinion approved the duke's claims, and the pope decided them to be good. 25. The Fall of Harold. Thus authorized and com- mended, William of Normandy gathered an army of ad- io66] THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 61 venturers from his own dominions and from surrounding countries for the conquest of England. Harold, with equal energy, made ready to defend his crown. In the language of the Chronicle, he assembled " so great a ship-force, and also a land-force, as no king here in the land had before done." But Harold had other enemies than Duke William to contend with, and they caused his ruin. Among them was his own brother, Tostig, who had been driven from the earldom of Northumbria by a revolt which his misrule provoked. Wrathful against Harold, who failed, he thought, to stand by him, he had NORMAN VESSEL OF THE ELEVENTH CENTURY, RESTORED FROM THE BAYEUX TAPESTRY. fled to the continent, and had either stirred up or encour- aged an ambitious king of Norway, named Harold Har- drada, to attack England at just the moment when the Norman attack was being prepared. The Nor- The attack wegian invaders moved sooner than the Nor- from mans, and had landed in Northumbria while orway * the ships of the latter waited for a favorable wind. Defeating the English forces in the north at Fulford, they entered York. 62 THE NORMAN-ENGLISH NATION. [1066 When news of their landing reached the English King Harold, in September of the fateful year 1066, he was watching the southern coast, in daily expectation of the arrival of his more dreaded foe. The army and fleet which he had held together for four months was melting away ; his men could be kept no longer from their homes. A more desperate situation, more courageously faced, is hardly found in history. Taking such forces as he could still command, Harold marched northward with speed, and surprised and routed the Norwegians in a memo- rable battle at Stamford Bridge, leaving Tostig and Har- Therout- °^ Hardrada dead on the field. Then, with Norwe the ntt ^ e P ause > he hurried back to the south, but gians. t 00 } a t e to defend its coast. The winds had shifted in his absence, and, three days after the fight at Stamford Bridge, the Normans had landed at Pevensey, in Sussex, and were laying waste the country around. To stop the havoc, Harold was forced to confront them in haste, with an insufficient army, made up in large part of untrained men. He took his stand on the hill of Senlac, near Hastings (where Battle Abbey was built The battle afterwards by the Conqueror), and there, on SIS ' tne : 4 tn of October, the momentous battle ings. which turned the current of English history into a new channel was fought. Of English valor and English stubbornness there was no lack on Harold's side ; but, excepting the stout " house-carls " of his body- guard, he seems to have had no trained soldiers, nor any who used the bow. He and his men fought with the battle-axe, on foot, against mounted knights and men-at- arms, and against skilful archers, whose trade was war. Yet the English came near to victory. The Normans were repulsed again and again, until William, by a feint of flight, lured some of the English into a disorderly pur- io66] THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 63 suit. Then, turning on them, he drove them wildly back. From dawn until sunset the fighting raged, and when it- ended Harold and most of his faithful thanes were lying with the dead. The battle of Senlac, or Hastings (both names have been given to it), was decisive of the fate of England. There was no leader of prestige or authority left to rally the people at large, and no nationality of feeling to supply THE BATTLE OF SENLAC, FROM THE BAYEUX TAPESTRY. the want. While William marched slowly toward Lon- don, some part of the Witenagemot met hastily there and chose a new king. Its choice was Edgar, the atheling, that youthful grandson of Edmund Ironside whose claims were set aside when Harold was crowning made king. He was still a boy, and his elec- tion could have no effect. William's march was unop- posed. London could do nothing but submit. Edgar surrendered the crown he had not worn ; an assembly which might pass for the Witenagemot of the nation conferred it by vote on the Norman duke, and on Christ- mas Day, 1066, he was crowned King of England in 64 THE NORMAN-ENGLISH NATION. [1067 the Westminster of the Confessor, by Eldred, the Eng- lish Archbishop of York. 26. The Norman King on the English Throne. As far as legal form could make him so, William was now a rightful English king. In the southeast of England his authority was established fully from the first, and there he began at once to show the policy he meant to pursue. He made no seizure of English territory by right of conquest, but by confiscation he took lands far and wide. Harold's occupancy of the throne had been usurpation in the Norman view ; support given to it had been treason ; continued resistance to the rightful king was deeper treason; the king was merciful if he exacted forfeiture of estates without forfeiture of life. This was The con- the theory of William's course. He spared connsca- n ^ e ' but ne confiscated lands ; and according to tions. the cus tom of the age he acted within his rights. The landlords who submitted might redeem their es- tates by some heavy payment ; but the confiscation from those who did not submit promptly was immense. Now, too, what remained of the English folk-land, or common land, was assumed to be crown-land ; and so William, on one claim and another, took a great part of the lands within his reach. He distributed them by grant among his foreign followers, and thus bound them to a common interest with himself in the defence of what they had won. Nevertheless, we must not understand that William was simply rapacious in his treatment of the kingdom he had gained. He respected its institutions and tried to William's conform his government to English laws. He govern- 11 wished to be as masterful in keeping order as ment. m t a ki n g lands. He strove to protect his Eng- lish subjects from any oppression except his own; but io6 7 ] THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 65 that could not be done. He could not establish his throne without making its Norman supporters strong, and the power he gave them in their lordships was sure to be oppressively used. If we say that he ruled England as THE TOWER OF LONDON IN 1597. nearly in the spirit of an English king as one could who ruled by force of foreign arms, we have said the most that we can say in his praise. The- character of the new sovereignty, »as one resting upon conquest, was marked very quickly by the castle- building that began. Almost the first act of the Con- queror in London was the founding of the famous 66 THE NORMAN-ENGLISH NATION. [1067-1071 Tower, which remains the one conspicuous monument of his reign. In other cities, as they submitted, and in all places of military importance, the castles of the king began to rise. The new lords of the land, too, were encouraged to fortify themselves in their possessions by the same building of Norman " keeps." Before William died, it is believed that he held no less than forty-nine castles under his own control, while his barons held fifty more. But the castles then erected appear to Norman castle- have been mostly small and built in haste, since building. <- <• 1 • . . tew 01 the rums now existing can be traced, even in part, to so early a time. The original structures were generally replaced, after one or two centuries, by the massive strongholds whose broken walls excite won- der to-day. 27. The Completion of the Conquest. In the first four years of his reign, William had to deal with a num- ber of revolts, which he put down with a merci- The r wasting of less hand. He crushed Northumberland with Northum- . . beriand, especial barbarity, going personally up and down with his army, wasting fields, destroying houses, barns, and cattle, until he had made such a wil- derness of the land that it did not recover until modern times. The final rising of the English against the Conqueror occurred (1 070-1 071) in the Fen Country, as it is known, of northern Cambridgeshire and thereabouts. Its leader was one Hereward, a valiant man, whose exploits were so magnified in popular legends that no trustworthy account of him has come down. Under Hereward, a famous " Camp of Refuge " was established on Hereward. the Isle of Ely, — then literally an island, sur- rounded by the waters of the wide-stretching Fen, — and a large body of stubborn Englishmen held their 1067-1085] THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 67 ground there for more than a year. William dislodged them in the end, by building a causeway through the Fen ; but Hereward escaped, and various stories of his later career are told. Malcolm, King of Scotland, was a troublesome neigh- bor, who had twice ravaged northern England since William came, and in 1072 the latter led an army against him, which carried fire and sword to the Tay. Malcolm was thoroughly subdued for the time, and did homage to the new king of England, as " his man." The _ ,. , , ,. „ 7 . . Scotland. English athehng, Edgar, was then a refugee at the Scottish court, and Edgar's sister, the Princess Margaret, a gentle and pious woman, whose name is in the calendar of saints, had been persuaded by Malcolm to become his wife. As queen, her refining influence on the rude Scottish court, and through the court on the kingdom, was very great. 28. The Conqueror's Feudal System. King Wil- liam's confiscation of estates in land opened the way to a change in land-tenure, and altered the structure of Eng- lish society with most important political effects. It cleared the ground for building up in England, more deliberately than in any other country, the system of land-possession called "feudal." In England, as in France and Germany, the circumstances of the age had been slowly shaping things to that system, bringing the lesser landholders into dependence on the greater land- lords ; but the movement in England was not so far advanced when the Norman Conquest occurred. The Conqueror took advantage of his power to change its form, and it is plain that he saved England from great future troubles by what he did. If he was hard and self- ish in character, he was no less a statesman of remark- able powers. He worked according to the ideas of his 68 THE NORMAN-ENGLISH NATION. [1067-10S5 time, which took for granted that society must be organ- The ized on a feudal plan. Therefore he brought variation of a feudal system to completion in his new king- feudaiism. ^oni . fo^ ft was a S y S tem of his own, and not that of the French. (See page 53.) In re-granting the confiscated lands to his followers, he seems to have taken care, in the first place, to give away few judicial rights or powers that would interfere with the exercise of royal authority in all parts of the king- dom, through royal officers and courts. He seems, also, to have wisely given more protection to the local "moots " and other institutions of local popular Royal pre- . . rogative government, in township, hundred, and shire, iar govern- than they had received under the English kings ; and the preservation of those was the saving of seed, from which a national representation of the people in government grew up in later times. In the second place, he took care that every freeman should understand himself to be, before all things else, the king's "man," and should swear allegiance to the king "before all others," — which was a very different allegiance from that known in France. In the third place, he took care to create no formidably large fiefs ; and, finally, he kept alive the old national militia system of the Fyrd (see sec- tion 10), which went flatly against the feudal military scheme. By these sagacious methods William founded a feudal system from which the more mischievous work- ings were taken away. Nevertheless, after William s death, the royal author- ity was enforced with great difficulty against a class of powerful barons, and only with the help of the common people, who saw more to fear from the turbulence of the nobles than from the power of the king. Later, when a national throne had been settled more firmly, there came 1067-10S5] THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 69 about, as we shall see, a union of lords and commons against the crown, which made the English constitution what it is ; and which could hardly have occurred if the feudal system had grown in England as in France. 29. The Social Effects of the Norman Conquest. The effects of the Norman Conquest on the condition of the general mass of the English people (except in the districts which the Conqueror wasted cruelly) was prob- ably not very great. We have seen that the free and democratic state of society with which the English began their settlement had been undergoing, from the first, a grievous change. One small class had been rising ; an- . other large class had been slowly sinking to a dependent state ; and various influences tended to increase the num- bers in the latter class. Some such influences have been mentioned, but there is a later one to add, which possibly wrought more mis- chief to the humbler order of freemen than any before it. That was the burden of the " Danegeld," a heavy land- tax, first imposed by Ethelred, about 991, as a The means of paying tribute to the Danes, but con- Dane & eld - tinned thereafter as an established "geld" or tax, still keeping the name by which its origin was shown. It was a burden on the smaller landowners which many of them could not bear, and they sank under it, losing their lands and dropping into the dependent and unfree class. The state pushed still more of them down, by refusing presently to collect the tax in petty sums. It held their " lords " accountable for the geld which small landowners should pay. This practically resulted in giving to the lords a recognized title to the lands on which they made good the tax. It probably had much to do with the changing of free townships or villages into those depend- ent villages which the Normans after the Conquest called JO THE NORMAN-ENGLISH NATION. [1067-1085 "manors" (see section 11). In the opinion of some later students of that obscure subject, every The manor . . ' •* and the house against which geld was charged, whether the house of "a great man or a small, an earl or a peasant," was a "manor," in the sense in which the Normans used the word. The fact that the term came finally to signify a petty lordship shows the extent to which the rural population of England had been reduced to various degrees of unfreedom and a dependent state. By all the degrading processes that have been de- scribed, a numerous peasantry had been sunk nearly or quite to the condition of serfs before the Normans en- tered England. The harsher temper of the latter as masters added something, no doubt, to the weight of depressing influences, but not much to the influences themselves. It is probable that the smaller free- freeholders were affected very little by Wil- liam's confiscations of land. Above their heads there were many changes of " lords," and the new for- eign lords used their powers, we can believe, more op- pressively than the English lords had done ; yet the difference between Norman and English may not have been greatly felt. 30. The Manor. Apparently the manorial system had spread by this time over the whole of rural Eng- land. The entire country, outside of the boroughs, was divided into the township districts which the Normans called manors, over the lands and inhabitants of each of which a "lord" exercised certain superior rights and powers. The whole of the land of the manor was culti- vated, for the most part, by the same laborers, on the same system, for the same crops ; but part of it, called the "demesne," was cultivated for the benefit of the lord, while the produce of the other part belonged to the laborers themselves. THE ANCIENT DIVISIONS OF AN OLD ENGLISH MANOR. The portions cross-lined were acres of glebe land cultivated for the priest. Those stipple-marked represent the dower. 72 THE NORMAN-ENGLISH NATION. [1085 In one sense they were tenants, who paid rent for the land they used by labor performed on the lord's land ; but they were not free to throw their tenancy up. The lord had a right to their labor on his land, which the law gave him power to enforce. The greater part of the tenants who occupied land on these terms of half-servi- tude, known as villani or villeins, had generally the use of about thirty acres each. Below them was Villeins, -,11 ,, cotters, and a more servile class, known as "cotters or "borders," who enjoyed much smaller hold ings ; and still lower was a small number of unfortu nates in complete serfdom or slavery, who had no land tc cultivate for themselves. The manor house of the lord stood apart from the humble dwellings of his tenant laborers, which latter were clustered on a village street. The surrounding arable or ploughed lands were divided among the culti- vators, not in separate single fields to each, but in long strips, marked off from each other by narrow " balks " of Division unploughed turf, each strip, called a furlong, of the land. con taining an acre or half an acre of ground. The holding of a villein or cotter was made up of a num- ber of such strips, scattered in different fields, and all in each field were to be cultivated alike, with the same changes or rotations of crops. Of meadow lands, pas- ture lands, and woodlands they had different arrange- ments, which sometimes divided them and sometimes kept them in common use. 31. The Great Domesday Survey. In the winter of 1085, William "wore his crown at Gloucester," as the Chronicle tells us, and had " deep speech with his Witan about his land." The outcome of that " deep speech " in council was a great survey, or inquest, by which the land property of the kingdom was minutely ascertained, io8 5 ] THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 73 •JCO •nutr Jc^e. Tcfe Affo.ft fa. m^punifck. •ffa.ff.ni car In'bmo.e uni^v.i«.ilfc^ Wii.t»oi#ca.«i. S/alu tc • m t/ W*j TO o&o.' / 6. Gnu*- . tciuw&eW lo^r* . jAtete, ■fp.cw.caf. J, car- \bi-u-(truij rru>\*n^e.^.(A£. J tm .~& fla-- -fia.c-«i.car.Jt>i futir.tt.uttti •/c/u.^pct'cu.u.car'. (arS^.Tg^ ^ g frV^t &Ttfaxomgr Jh BLljjClUE fe . tut. cap rninw.CuTU.7m. uiti*7.tm.ca&'m.i.c3ttt jkrcJlyvot .matin 'Se^t.lofN Vt.'ier?.ypd../c fa* Valujr.Vt- l£ 7 mice, cjutf fa&Vu- 1*. FACSIMILE OF ENTRIES IN DOMESDAY BOOK. described and valued, the tenure denned, the holders named, and their dependents numbered and classed. The results are preserved in an extraordinary record, " to which our fathers gave the name of Domesday, the book of judgment that spared no man." This precious his- torical document is the chief source of the knowledge we possess of the state of England in the Conqueror's reign. According to its showing, the population of the kingdom when William made his inquest was probably less — considerably less — than two millions of souls. Of that small population some 25,000 are recorded as serfs, or slaves, who had no legal rights, and about 200,000 appear in three divisions, designated as villeins, bordarii, 74 THE NORMAN-ENGLISH NATION. [1085 and cotarii, or cotters. Within the next century or two those distinctions disappeared, and partly bv Villeinage. . . l l , , . , . rising from the lower ranks, partly by sinking from the upper, all came to be legally embraced in one villein class. Reckoning families, it appears that half or more of the English people had lost some degree of freedom, though keeping a measure of civil and of local political rights. As yet, the population in towns or boroughs was quite small. The towns were about eighty in number, mostly mere villages in size ; the important towns were very few. According to estimates made by different students of Domesday Book, the numbers to be counted in it Towns or would indicate from 8,000 to 1 7,000 burgesses boroughs. (f reemen f t he boroughs) in all. But neither London nor Winchester is included, so that possibly there were 20,000 or 30,000 free citizens of towns in the kingdom, representing with their families about 100,000 or 150,000 perspns. Generally speaking, the seats of the shire-moots, where the shire-reeve — the sheriff of our day — held his court, as "the king's steward and judicial president of the shire," had become the most favorable centres of town growth. After the Conquest the shire was called county, its moot a county court, and the importance of both in the organization of local government was in- creased. The old earldoms, which had been great gov- Growtnof ernorships, or vice-royalties, were suppressed, towns. anc j t he title of earl was given to the holders of certain feudal fiefs. But the growth of towns around shire-moots, king's dwellings, and bishop's sees, as well as within the walls of the old "burns," or fortified places of earlier times, was slow until the next century, when more active trade began. 1066-10S7] THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 75 32. General View of the Conqueror's Reign. In many ways William the Conqueror did good to England. That he did any part of it unselfishly can hardly be believed ; but he proved his high ability as a sovereign by pursuing ends for his own sake which fell into agree- ment with the interests of the country at large. Many of his measures tended to bring about in time the state of things out of which a representative parliament arose. The very f eudalistic change that the Witenagemot under- went at his hands made it finally a more national assem- bly, less a king-chosen council, and prepared it to receive the representative " Commons " as a graft on its baronial stem ; for now it became a Gemot of the feudatories (fief-holders) of the realm, — of all, that is, who held land directly from the king (tenants-in-chief), — along with bishops and abbots, as before. In line with William's general policy was his dealing with the church in England. To make it one of the supports of his throne, he caused the English bishops and abbots to be displaced, as fast as pretexts could be found, and Norman prelates put into the high seats, and he exercised a firm control over ecclesiastical affairs. He did this, too, in the face of the most pow- The erful of popes — the imperious Hildebrand, who church bore the name of Gregory VII. on the papal throne. Yet Gregory and William had no quarrel. At the same time, Lanfranc, the king's wise counsellor, whom he had persuaded to come from Normandy to be Archbishop of Canterbury, was permitted by William to make the clergy independent of the common law of the realm, to an ex- tent that proved mischievous in later times. Thrice a year, at Easter, at Pentecost, and at Christ- mas, William, as the old phrase had it, "wore his crown " — sat in crowned state, that is — at Winchester, West- 76 THE NORMAN-ENGLISH NATION. [1066-1087 minster, and Gloucester, in turn, to hear appeals and to confer with the Witan. Hut in August of 1086 The Gemot _ ° of Siiis- he held a greater Gemot, which every Landowner of weight in England was summoned to attend. It was not assembled in any town, but on broad Salisbury Plain ; and there it was made a law that every freeman in the land should swear fealty to the king. Then the whole great assembly "bowed to him and were his men," and swore to " be. faithful to him against all other men." It was thus he perfected his scheme of feudalism for England, — made it a centralizing and nationalizing sys- tem, and saved his kingdom from the long anarchy which feudal institutions were bringing upon Germany and France. Of all the deeds of William's hard and heavy hand, there was none, not even the devastation of Northum- berland, that roused so bitter a sense of wrong in Eng- land as his expulsion of inhabitants from a large, fertile, and populous district near Winchester, to make a " New Forest " for his hunting. Laying waste a rebellious The New district might be looked on in those days as a Forest. proper act of war ; but the sweeping of homes and families, farms, villages, and churches, from half a thickly settled English county, to make a wilderness for the king's wild game, was so wanton a deed of tyranny that it burned itself deeply into the memory of the peo- ple. The judgment of God was believed to have been pronounced upon it when two of William's sons (Richard and William Rufus), and a grandson, were accidentally slain in the New Forest in after years. The Conqueror is said to have required all houses to The be shut, and lights and fires to be put out, at the curfew. ringing of a bell each night, and this is often referred to as one of his laws that peculiarly oppressed 1083-1087] THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 77 the English people. But the " curfew," as it was called (from couvre-feu, to cover fire), was a common police rule in many countries at that time. 33. The Conqueror's Last Years. As the king grew old and gross and infirm in body his temper hardened, especially after the death of his faithful queen, Matilda, which occurred in 1083. He had already been much troubled by his eldest son, Robert, who rebelled because the duchy of Normandy and the county of Maine, in France, were not given up to him. In the fighting that ensued, William was wounded by his son's own hand. After a time they were reconciled, but only to quarrel anew. William's last war was undertaken in a savage mood against Philip I. of France. Philip had enraged him by an insulting remark about his illness and his unwieldy bulk of body. He avenged the insult by invading the French district of Vexin, on the border of Nor- Wi u iam . 8 mancly, and burning the city of Mantes. While lastwar - personally directing the destructive work, his horse stum- bled and gave him an injury from which he died at the end of three weeks (1087). On his deathbed William is said to have suffered keen remorse for the death and suffering he had cruelly caused. He expressed a wish that William Rufus, the second of his living sons, should be chosen to succeed him in England. If Robert, the eldest, must have Normandy and Maine, he should have no more. To his WiUiam > s youngest son, Henry, born in England, he gave ^sue- nothing but a sum of money, with the injunc- cesi »on. tion : " Be patient, my son, and trust in the Lord, and let thine elders go before thee." Henry was patient, and in due time all the heritage of his elders — all the dominions of his father — came to him. 7« THE NORMAN CONQUEST. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS. 24. The Duke of Normandy. Topics. i. His character. 2. Obstacles in his path to power. 3. His success. 4. His claim to the English throne. 5. Continental and English ideas of kingship. References. — William the Conqueror : Freeman, William the Conqueror (Twelve English Statesmen); Freeman, S. H. N. C, chs. iv., vii., x.-xiii. ; Gardiner, i. 88-114; Green, 74-81 ; Colby, 36-41 ; A. S. Chron., 440-463; Ransome, 18-29 ; Montague, 22- 24, 28, 36, 37 ; Stubbs, C H., i. ch. ix.; Taswell-Langmead, 47-75 ; H. Taylor, i. 228-270. Research Question. — Why could not Edward the Confessor appoint his successor ? 25. The Pall of Harold. Topics. 1. Difficulties in the way of Harold's defence of his country. 2. The attack from Norway. 3. The condition of Harold's forces. 4. Campaign against his brother. 5. Battle of Senlac or Hastings. 6. Lack of leadership among the English and the futile election by the Witenagemot. 7. Submission to William. References. — Battle of Stamford Bridge: Colby, 29; Gardiner, i. 93-96; Freeman, S. H. N. C, 61-63. Harold: Freeman, William the Conqueror, 63-91; Freeman, O. E. H., 297-338; Freeman, S. H. N. C, 44-85 ; Gardiner, i. 89-98 ; Bright, i. 22-27 ; Green, 69-80; Colby, 29-33; A. S. Chron., 421-443; Pearson, i. 332-347 ; Bulwer, Harold ; Tennyson, Harold. Research Question. — In what building was William crowned, and who founded it? TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 79 26. The Norman King on the English Throne. Topics. i. The establishment of William on the throne. 2. His policy of confiscation. 3. His seizure of the English folk-land. 4. Redistribution of the land seized. 5. His attitude towards English institutions and laws. 6. Castle-building of William and his lords. References. — Norman castle-building : Clark, Mediaeval Mili- tary Architecture, i. chs. iv., v. ; Traill, i. 300-303, 328-330. Research Questions. — (1.) What difference between the policy of conquest and that of confiscation? (2.) Why did William pre- fer to confiscate ? (3.) What were English folk-lands and what is meant by their becoming crown lands ? (4.) Does our govern- ment hold any lands ? (5.) If so, what are they ? (6.) Look up a description of mediaeval castles. (7.) What notable building of London did William found ? (8.) Its first, later, and present uses ? (9.) What notable building did he found at Hastings ? 27. The Completion of the Conquest. Topics. 1. The revolt in Northumbria. 2. The revolt in the fen country. 3. War against Scotland. 4. Edgar and Margaret at the Scottish court. Research Questions. — (1.) Point out on the map the "fen" country. (2.) Tell what you can of Hereward. (Bright, i. 50-51.) (3.) Where does Shakespeare mention this King Malcolm of Scotland ? 28. The Conqueror's Feudal System. Topics. 1. The change made by William in feudalism. 2. Terms of regranting land. a. His reservation of judicial rights and protection of the courts. b. Every freeman the king's man. c. No large fiefs. 3. Assistance given the king by the people against the barons. References. — Feudal system: Gardiner, i. 81, 104, 113, 116; Bright, i. 28-31, 36, 37; Green, 83, 84; Green, H. E. P., i. 35, 8o THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 77, 7?> 83-112, 122-125; Stubbs, C. H., i. 251-270; Taswell- Langmead, 7, 49 sqq., 76, 103 ; Montague, ch. iii. ; H. Taylor, i. 222-225, 237-239. 29. The Social Effects of the Norman Conquest. Topics. 1 . Changes in the early democratic state of society. 2. The influences causing these. a. The Danegeld. b. The tax-collecting power of the lords and its results. 3. Influence of William's confiscations on the small freeholders. Reference. — Maitland, Domesday Book and Beyond, Essay 1, sect. 6. Research Questions. — (1.) Why are taxes like the Danegeld once imposed hard to get rid of? (2.) Why is it better for the state to collect its own taxes ? (3.) Find out what you can of farming the taxes in France. 30. The Manor. Topics. 1. Extent of the system. 2. Cultivation of the soil. a. The demesne. b. Terms of tenancy. c. Classes of holders. d. Allotments of land and rotation of crops. References. — The manor: Cunningham and McArthur, ch. iii.; Green, 245, 246; Gibbins, 7-22; Montague, 34; Stubbs, C. H., i- 2 73> 399) 4°°; H. Taylor, i. 237, 252-254, 266, 267 ; Maitland, i. book i. 582 sqq. ; Ashley, i. ch. i. Research Question. — Does the country lord live at present in the village with his tenants? 31. The Great Domesday Survey. Topics. 1. Information conveyed. a. On the land property of the kingdom. b. Concerning its tenure. c. On the classification of its holders and dependents. 2. Classes of the population. 3. Later classification. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 8l 4. Population of towns and boroughs. 5. Centres of town growth. References. — Domesday Book : A. S. Chron., 458, 459 ; Colby, 38; Gardiner, i. ill, 112; Bright, i. 38, 55 ; Green, 85; Ransome, 27, 28; Cunningham and McArthur, 12, 32, 34-36, 50; Green, H. E. P., i. 124 ; Traill, i. 236-240 ; H. Taylor, i. 264-267 ; Rogers, 18: Montague, 28, 29; Maitland, Domesday Book and Beyond. Villeins, cotters, and serfs : Gardiner, i. 31, 69-72, 102, 168 ; Ash- ley, i. ch. i. ; Montague, 38, 89, 90; Gibbins, 13, 17, 41 ; Stubbs, C. H., i. 426-431 ; Cunningham and McArthur, 33-40; Green, H. E. P., i. 214-217 ; Guest, 88 ; Vinogradoff, Villainage in England ; Maitland, Domesday Book and Beyond, 36-66; Traill, i. 356- 360. 32. General View of the Conqueror's Reign. Topics. 1. William's policy and the good resulting. a. Change in the Witenagemot. b. His dealings with the church. c. His gemot on Salisbury Plain. 2. The New Forest. 3. The curfew. Research Questions. — (i.) What dignitary presides over the church at Canterbury ? (2.) How does a cathedral differ from other churches ? 33. The Conqueror's Last Years. Topics. 1. William's later characteristics. 2. Contest with his son. 3. His last war and his death. 4. Provisions of his will. CHAPTER V. THE FUSING OF THE NEW NATION. Norman Kings: William II. — Henry I. — Stephen. 1087-1154. 34. The English Adoption of their Norman Kings. As the Conqueror had willed, his eldest son, Robert, a good-natured and careless man, received Normandy, and the English crown was given to the second son, William II., called Rufus or the Red, because of the ruddiness of his face. The English were pleased with this arrange- ment, which parted England from Normandy and gave them a king who was not at the same time a foreign prince ; but many Norman barons, having fiefs in both countries, preferred to hold them under a single lord, and liked Robert better than William, whose temper was known to be hard. Hence the Normans under- took to put Robert on the English throne, and were de- feated by the English, who rallied to William's defence. By this action of the English people they accepted, in a practical way, the Norman Conquest, and adopted the new race of kings as their own. At the same time, they really took back their own rights over the crown as something to be given or withheld by themselves. It was thus a very fortunate division that had come about between the new monarchy and the new nobility ; for it gave the English an opportunity to make their strength felt, by taking sides in the conflict between the two. 35. The Red King's Wickedness. No sooner was 1089] FUSING OF THE NEW NATION. 83 William Rufus settled firmly on the throne by his Eng- lish subjects, than the baseness of his character began to be shown. He scoffed at the promise of just government he had made, and despised even the forms of religion and law, which his father had treated with great respect. When Lanfranc died, in 1089, an unscrupulous priest, A king's deathbed, bishops and abbots attending, from a twelfth CENTURY MS. Ranulf Flambard (translated Firebrand, or Torch), be- came the king's chief minister, and delighted him by the ingenuity of his contrivances for extorting money from rich and poor. He meddled with the local moots, which the Conqueror had preserved, and nearly destroyed those important courts for a time, by his attempts to make them part of his machinery of oppression and fraud. He robbed the church, and corrupted it by selling its sacred offices, its bishoprics and abbacies, to mercenary buyers, who paid great sums. 84 THE NORMAN-ENGLISH NATION. [1090-1097 Falling sick, and being in fear of death, the king was persuaded to an act of penitence which gave the church a very noble head. Anselm, famed through all Europe as a scholar, philosopher, and saint, — a Lombard, as Lanfranc had been, — was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury in Lanfranc's seat. But when his health returned, William went back to his evil ways, and thwarted the good Anselm in all that he tried to do, until the primate in despair quitted England (1097), and did not return while the oppressor lived, which, fortu- nately, was not long. The great sums of money which the Red King wrung from his subjects were wasted on the vilest of courts, or spent in extravagant pay to soldiers hired from abroad, who gave his tyranny its only support, and whose inso- lence to the people appears to have had no bounds. That English and Norman subjects should lie and Nor- together under the feet of so hateful a wretch for twelve years would seem strange, if we did not remember that combination between them was hardly possible at that day. It had been easy for the English to help a Norman-born king against his Norman barons ; but, until the Normans should cease to be a Norman party in the state, and should become Englishmen with other Englishmen, there could be no common resistance to the king. 36. Reunion with Normandy. The English had up- held William Rufus against Robert in order to separate England from Normandy, and if the separation had lasted they might have felt that they had some compen- sation for the afflictions of his reign. But that solace was denied to them. Half of Normandy was wrested by William from his loose-handed brother in the third year of the former's reign, and five years later, by a logs] FUSING OF THE NEW NATION. 85 KEEP OF ROCHESTER CASTLE. strange transaction, the remainder came into his hands. Peter the Hermit was then exciting the Christians of Europe, by appeals for the rescue of Jerusalem and the sepulchre of Christ from the Mohammedan Turks ; the first crusading expedition was being prepared, and Robert of Normandy was eager to join it with a com- pany of knights. Lacking money, he applied to his English brother for a loan, and obtained it by the mort- gage of his duchy. The Red King took possession of the duchy, while Robert went happily to the Holy Land, doing better as a crusading knight than he had 86 THE NORMAN-ENGLISH NATION. [1091-uoo done as a reigning duke. So England and Normandy were again linked together, but not as before ; for the duchy was now an appendix to the kingdom. 37. The Red King's Wars. William's appetite for dominion was now sharpened, and he began ambitious wars in France, where he partly succeeded in recovering the county of Maine, which Robert had lost. Before these foreign wars occurred, he had been several times in conflict with the Scotch and the Welsh. Malcolm of Scotland Scotland, making barbarous forays again and again into unhappy Northumberland, was finally surprised and slain, and his son Edward died with him. His saintly queen, the English Margaret, soon followed him to the grave. Then a Scotch party, jealous of the English who had surrounded Malcolm, drove them from the court ; but, in 1097, William Rufus sent an expedi- tion into the northern kingdom which placed Margaret's son Edgar on the Scottish throne. In due order, Edgar was succeeded by his brothers, Alexander and David, and by descendants of David for two hundred years. Against the Welsh, William conducted three cam- paigns, with not much success ; but by diligent castle-building in the Welsh border lands he did more than his predecessors towards curbing that in- domitable British race. Not in castle-building alone, but generally as a builder, the second William surpassed his father, and the only worthy monuments of his reign are found in surviving Westmin- examples of his work. Notable among them is sterHau. t ^ e venerable Westminster Hall, which he built for his palace near the London of that day, and which has been the scene of many great assemblies and events. 38. The Red King's Death. The wicked reign of the wicked king was brought to a tragical and mysterious noo] FUSING OF THE NEW NATION. 87 end in its thirteenth year. While hunting in the New- Forest, in the summer of the year noo, he was stricken by an arrow and died where he fell. Whether hatred or accident aimed the shaft is not to be known. There were many different stories afloat, and most of them named Walter Tirrel, a companion of the king, as hav- ing made the fatal shot by mischance ; but the fact is in doubt. Nor need we care to know. As the best histo- rian of the Red King's reign has said, "The arrow, by whomsoever shot, set England free from oppression such WESTMINSTER HALL. as she never felt before or after at the hand of a single man ;" and we can be satisfied to dismiss him with that parting word. 39. The Beginning of the Reign of Henry I. Hap- pily William Rufus had never married, and he left no son who could claim his crown. His elder brother, Robert, was in Italy, journeying homeward from the 88 THE NORMAN-ENGLISH NATION, [noo-1106 Holy Land. By good fortune the younger brother, Henry, was in England, and near at hand. The news reached him quickly, and he made haste to Winchester, where, long before opposition could gather to any head, he had secured an election to the throne, with possession of the royal treasure or "hoard." His presence and his prompti- tude were advantages in his favor, but he found a greater in his birth. He was the only son born to the Conqueror in England. He was reared in England, was taught Eng- lish speech, and his father had sought in every way to give him the character of an English "atheling" in English eyes. The policy was wise, and it had its effect. Again the Norman barons, who had rees- tablished Robert in Normandy, tried to bring him to the English throne, and again they were opposed by the English people, who stood by Henry and defeated the attempt. Anselm, who had returned to England, ioined HENRY I. ° with other good men on both sides in mak- ing peace for the time ; but Henry, a few years later, retaliated Robert's invasion, defeated him at Tinchebrai (September, 1106), took him prisoner and held him in captivity for twenty-eight years. The relations of Normandy to England were then exactly reversed. By an English conquest of Normandy, the sovereignty of the two countries was gathered again English mt0 one hand. Tinchebrai balanced the scale of^ r est against Senlac ; for Tinchebrai was an English mandy. victory. Henry's subjects of English and Nor- man blood fought together in the battle, under the com- mon English name, and nothing, probably, since the uoo-1135] FUSING OF THE NEW NATION. 89 Normans entered England, had done so much to bring them together in feeling. Wars with France, which fol- lowed, kept men of the two races side by side, in the same ranks, and continued the fusing process. Though Duke Robert was helpless, he had an energetic son, whose cause was taken up by the overlord of the duchy, the king of the French ; but Henry's hold on Normandy was not to be shaken off. 40. The Character of Henry and his Reign. In England, Henry's rule was established .so firmly that, after his one contest with the Norman barons, the peace of the country was undisturbed throughout his long reign. He won the good-will of the English, still more than he possessed it at first, by marrying Edith (called Matilda, or Maud, after her marriage), a daughter of the English Queen Margaret of Scotland, and great-grand- daughter of Edmund Ironside, who represented, there- fore, the old English royal line. Henry had pleased them still more by a Charter which he signed on his coronation day, setting forth the rights of the people that he held himself bound to respect as king. It was the first of a series of what are looked upon as the charters of English liberty ; the first of the written instruments which mark stages in the growth and defini- tion of the English constitution. We shall see , , ' , • • 1 /- n TheChar- it expanded after a time into the Great Char- terof ter, extorted in the next century from King John. Concerning the rights most valued and the wrongs most complained of in that feudal age, it furnished a statement of what the people should expect from their king and from the lords whom he controlled, and it gave them a ground for equal or greater claims under future kings. It was, therefore, a document of high importance and very precious to England. 90 THE NORMAN-ENGLISH NATION. [1100-1135 It cannot be said that Henry was always faithful to his charter ; but he never wantonly set it aside. He was far from being an ideal king ; yet hardly another government could have been more useful to England at that time than the reign of peace and order long reign, which he gave it for thirty-five years. He was arbitrary and hard in temper, selfish in his aims, like all of his race, and less statesmanlike in mind than his father ; but he had a shrewd business-man's talent and a firm will. His education was beyond that of most princes in his time, and so remarkable to his contemporaries, who expected none but clerks (that is, the clergy) to read and write, that they called him Henry Beauclerk, or Henry the Scholar. It is a fact that Henry gave up few of the practices of William Rufus, in the matter of wringing money from his subjects ; but he made those practices regular and exact, instead of capricious, and they were easier to bear. He demanded regularity and system in everything, and that went far towards better government, even if isticsof the system was despotic and harsh. He found a minister to his liking in a priest named Roger, afterwards Bishop of Salisbury, and the administration of government was better organized than ever before, especially on the financial side. 41. The Exchequer, the Justiciar, the Chancellor, the King's Court. The numberless fees, dues, and fines from which most of the king's revenue came were placed by Henry under the control of a court or council, to which some wit of the time gave the name of the Ex- The chequer, because the covering of the table at Exchequer, which accounts were received was so chequered by lines as to suggest the idea of a game of chess be- tween the treasurer and the sheriffs who accounted to uoo-1135] FUSING OF THE NEW NATION. 91 EXCHEQUER TABLE, AS DEPICTED IN THE " RED BOOK OF THE EXCHEQUER COURT OF IRELAND," FIFTEENTH CENTURY. him. It is thought that the lines drawn on the table were to aid the rude reckoning of those days. ' The name Exchequer still clings to the English administra- tion of finance. As chief minister, Roger of Salisbury (like Flambard before him) was called Justiciar. He had previously been the king's chancellor, which signified that he was at the head of the 'secretaries, — the clerical The chan . force which dispatched the business of the cellor - king. The title is supposed to have come originally from the cancel t V or screen behind which the secreta- 92 THE NORMAN-ENGLISH NATION, [noo-1135 ries worked. It survives in two of the highest English offices, — that of the Lord Chancellor and that of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, — as well as in connection with other dignified posts. The first appearance of a King's Court (Curia Regis), distinctly formed, is in Henry's reign. All of the later English courts having a national jurisdiction grew out of this tribunal, by the subdivision of its duties from time to time. The King's Court, in origin, was itself a sub- division of the Great Council, — by which name the English Witenagemot was becoming more commonly The King's known. The creation of such courts, represent- Court. j n g a cen tralized authority, tended greatly to consolidate the royal power, and to lessen the impor- tance of the local courts or moots ; but it tended also to a national consolidation, and to the weakening of the power of the barons, from whom the people had more to fear than from the king. In the end, the greatest of all the defences of popular rights, against even the king himself, were often found in the king's courts. The same reign in which the royal courts arose saw the courts of the hundred and the shire, which William Rufus had nearly extinguished, revived by a special ordi- nance of the king. 42. Development of English Towns and their Trade. In Henry's reign, for the first time, English towns are found to be showing germs of the character in which they grew to their later importance, politically and com- mercially, as communities distinctly formed and having a voice and influence of their own. In its older character, the English town has been described as " simply several townships packed tightly together," or as " a hundred, smaller in extent and thicker in population than other hundreds." But now it had begun to be something noo-1135] FUSING OF THE NEW NATION. 93 different from townships and hundreds, as an " institu- tion " in the kingdom. The immigration, after the Conquest, of foreign mer- chants and craftsmen, from Normandy and from other parts of France, and likewise from Flanders, had caused much of the change. They brought in a livelier spirit of enterprise, finer skill in many arts, and various T , Foreigners refinements of manner and lite. In the towns, inEng- the fusion of this foreign population with the na- tive English came sooner than elsewhere, and had begun in- Henry's time to show its deeper effects. His orderly government, moreover, gave encouragements to industry and trade that had not been, equally known before. Even the local trade of the country at this period must have been very scant. The roads were, perhaps, no worse — possibly they were better — than they Markets became in later times through neglect, but ex- and fairs, changes between one part of the country and another were not widely made. Each town, by royal grant or by ancient usage, had its jealously guarded right to a mar- ket, and its fixed market days, for neighborhood traffic. For foreign trade, a few great annual fairs were estab- lished by royal charter, the most important being at Stourbridge, near Cambridge, which was especially the market of trade with Flanders and Germany, and at Winchester, which was convenient for the trade with France. A chronicler of the time, Henry of Huntingdon, mentions (i 1 5 5) the exports to Germany from England as being lead, tin, fish, meat, fat cattle, fine wool, and jet. 43. Language, Literature, Religion, Art. There seems to be no doubt of the fact that England was prepared, in the time of Henry I., for a new career of prosperity ; and the fact lends more pitifulness to the state of things that we shall find in the next reign. But 94 THE NORMAN-ENGLISH NATION. [1100-1135 the forward movement of the time was more in practical than in intellectual ways. The English mind had been making little show of activity in thought or imagination for more than a century, and if it was stirred by the Con- quest, it was silenced at the same time in its own proper NAVE OF ST. ALBAN'S ABBEY CHURCH BUILT BETWEEN I077 AND T093. speech. Of native literature in the English tongue there was no more. The old Anglo-Saxon Chronicle — most precious of records — had been continued by pious pens, first in the monastery at Worcester, and finally at Peter- borough ; but it stands monumentally alone. A very marked wakening of interest in historical work Historical na cl taken place, and several English chron- works. iclers were engaged on writings that are inval- uable ; but every one of them — Orderic Vitalis, William of Malmesbury, Henry of Huntingdon, Florence of Worcester, Edmer, who wrote the life of Anselm, and noo-1135] FUSING OF THE NEW NATION. 95 others — wrote in Latin ; none of them in the language to which he was born. Latin had become the language of the learned, and French remained the language of the Norman aristocracy and the court. English held its ground among the people at large, and forced itself in the end on both the lordly and the learned ; but, for a long period, it had no literature to refine and adorn it. It took up many words from the Norman-French, but was not so much affected in that way during the first generations after the Conquest as it was at a later day. The fashionable literature of the age was that of the Chansons de Gestes — the epical romances and songs of the French trouveurs and Provencal trouba- dours, which were being copiously produced. A Welshman, Geoffrey of Monmouth, presently Chansons contributed a remarkable deGestes - collection of materials for such ro- mances, borrowed from the Welsh or Breton legends of King Arthur, and offered as true history ; but it was in Latin that he wrote. One of the wakenings of the time was in religious feeling, which found its satisfaction in a stricter monastic life. From Citeaux, in Burgundy (now included in France), came a new order of monks, called Cistercians from the place of their origin, or White Monks from their dress, Cister . who adopted rules and practices more severe cians - than those of the older orders. Whereas most of the previous monasteries had been planted in towns, or near them, the Cistercians sought solitary places. Tintern CISTERCIAN MONK. 9 6 THE NORMAN-ENGLISH NATION. [1100-1135 f ^S?».mm\ ... n mi u r*rf ' DURHAM CATHEDRAL. . Built mostly in the reign of Henry I. Abbey and Fountains Ab- bey were among the great religious houses that they founded in England, beginning usually in a humble way, but building, as their numbers grew and their riches were increased by liberal gifts, until vast and magnificent piles were reared, which we can see in their ruin to-day. Monastic The monastic structures in towns were gener- buiidings. a jiy demolished at a later time, to make way for other buildings, or else turned to other uses ; but these secluded Cistercian abbeys, though sadly despoiled and broken, were left at last, in many cases, to grow beautiful in their decay. A majority of the ruined abbeys now found in England were built by the Cistercian order of monks. The great age of church-building in England had opened. Many of the most majestic cathedrals were already rising slowly from their foundations, to be carried mS-1135] FUSING OF THE NEW NATION. 97 on through long periods, by many successive builders, with many changes and modifications of plan, with more or less reconstruction of parts, as time injured or con- demned the older work, until they stood as we see them at the present time. 44. Henry's Mischievous Plans for the Succession to himself. Henry's good queen, Edith or Matilda, died in 1 1 18, leaving to him a daughter, named Matilda, and a young son, William. The daughter was already mar- ried to the Emperor-King Henry V., of Germany. Upon the son, as his destined successor, the ambitious hopes of Henry were fixed, until a sudden and terrible calamity cast them down. In 1 1 20, as the king and the young prince were re- turning to England from a successful campaign in France, the latter embarked at Honfleur in a vessel named the White Ship, while the king set sail in another. The prince, then a lad of seventeen, had a merry company of young people with him, and they sinking shared their wine too freely with the crew of white the ship. The vessel was heedlessly run upon ip ' a reef and sunk, and one man only was saved, of all on board. The king, overwhelmed by the catastrophe, is said never to have smiled again. From that time, Henry's aim was to secure the crown, after his own death, to his daughter Matilda, the empress, who became a widow in 1125. It was a most unwise scheme, dictated by a selfish pride ; and he Geoffrey made it worse by forcing his daughter, against piantage- her will, and against the wish of his subjects, to marry Geoffrey, son of the Count of Anjou, in France. 1 1 Geoffrey was called Plantagenet, from his custom of wearing a sprig of broom {plant a genista) in his cap ; and the name passed to a long line of his descendants on the English throne. 9 8 THE NORMAN-ENGLISH NATION. ["35 Years of frightful disorder and civil war were the con- sequence, and many of the good fruits of Henry's peace- ful reign were devoured. 45. Stephen of Blois on the Throne. Henry I. died in Normandy on the ist of December, 1135. His brother Robert had died in his imprisonment the previ- ous year, and Robert's son William had been dead since 1 1 28. Of lawful descendants of the Conqueror there remained only Matilda, with two infant sons, born since her marriage with Geoffrey Plantagenet, and three sons left by Adela, one of the Conqueror's daughters, who had married the Count of Blois, in France. Ac- cording to the English doctrine of kingship, these heirs of William I. might be looked upon as having, not rival claims to the va- cant throne, but rival claims to be preferred in the election of a successor to the throne. If Matilda had mar- ried differently, or not at all, or if her eldest son had been old enough to have her rights passed on to him, it is quite possible that the wish of her Stephen's claim to father would have been fulfilled. As it was, one of the sons of Adela, Stephen of Klois, who had been reared at the English court, who had STEPHEN. •/ *l ^ irj6] FUSING OF THE NEW NATION. 99 seemed almost to be recognized by Henry as an adopted son, and who had won popularity by genial ways, hastened over to England on his uncle's death and obtained the crown. He was chosen to the kingship at London by a body which seems to have been made up in part of leading men of the city, and partly of notable barons and bishops, representing the kingdom at large. Roger of Salisbury was one of the latter. On the 22d of De- cember Stephen was crowned. 46. Civil "War and Anarchy. It was seen very soon that the qualities which made Stephen popular as a cour- tier and a knight were not the qualities that, in those rude days, could make a good king. There was no firm- ness in his rule, no steadiness in his aims. He was first under one influence and then under another, and barons of the turbulent class were not long in finding that they could have the disorder they loved. They multiplied and strengthened their castles, hired troops of armed retainers, defied royal au- thority, began undertakings of robbery and private warfare, and compelled the better-disposed to arm and fortify in self- defence. The reign of law which Henry had established was rapidly broken up. The process of ruin was helped by the partisans of Matilda. David, King of Scotland, her mother's brother, ap- peared as a champion of her cause soon after the reign began. By giving up Cumberland and Carlisle to him, Stephen bought a peace which did not last ; but David's ravages in unhappy Northum- berland were finally stopped, not by Stephen, but by the Archbishop of York and the chief men of the north. THE STANDARD. LrfC IOO THE NORMAN-ENGLISH NATION. [1138-1144 They assembled their forces on Cowton Moor, near* North Allerton, and there, on the 22d of Au- The Battle _, . ' „ , , of the gust, 1 138, a very famous battle, called the Battle of the Standard, was fought. It took its name from a curious great standard, mounted on wheels, bearing the consecrated banners of several churches, and surmounted by a silver pyx (vase), con- taining the Host (the sacramental bread of the Lord's Supper), which stood in the midst of the English army. The battle resulted in a fearful defeat and slaughter of the Scots. In 1 1 39, Matilda came to England to conduct the war on her own behalf, and the state of anarchy and violence was then increased. One of the last entries made in the precious old English Chronicle, by some pious pen at Peterborough, describes the fearful disorder that pre- vailed, when " every powerful man made his misery of castles," and "filled them with devils and evil England. , , , . . . , . . men, who took people and " put them in prison for their gold and silver, and tortured them with unutter- able torture," and pillaged and burned towns, until people said "that Christ and His Saints slept." Stephen had forfeited, by folly, the support which Roger of Salisbury and most of the heads of the church had given him at first, and when, in 1141, he was de- feated and captured at Lincoln, his cause seemed lost. But Matilda, in her turn, threw away her advantages, by an arrogance that was insulting to the people who offered her their help. Neither claimant of the crown was capa- ble of winning a strong party, and the hopeless chaos was prolonged through nineteen years. Meantime, Geoffrey Plantagenet, Matilda's husband, had mastered Normandy by actual conquest, and, in 1 144, he received the investiture of the duchy in his own 1148-1154] FUSING OF THE NEW NATION. IOI right from Louis VII. of France. He ceded it to his son Henry, in 1148, when the latter reached the age of fifteen. Three years after doing so Geoffrey died, and the young Henry, then eighteen, succeeded him in Anjou and Maine. The next year, by marriage with Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine (then just di- Angevin x dominion. vorced by King Louis VII. of France), Henry acquired control of that great ducal fief, and was lord of a continuous dominion in France, which stretched from the English Channel to the Pyrenees. 47. Peace restored — the Condition of England. Henry, instead of his mother, now became the claimant of Stephen's crown, and as such entered England with a considerable force. The country in its misery looked to him with hope, for he had shown promise of ability and strength of will ; Stephen was weary and discouraged ; and thus it became possible for the leading prelates of the church to bring about a peace. In November, 1 153, a treaty was signed which ended the long strife. Under the terms of that treaty, Stephen wore the crown until his death, which occurred in the following year ; when Henry II., first of the Angevins, or first of the Plantage- nets, as he is variously called, was elected and crowned at Westminster, and began an important reign. The nineteen years of civil war and anarchy that fol- lowed the death of Henry I. had been a time of fearful suffering for England ; but it had not many lasting con- sequences of harm. The nation even made some gains through it all. The needful fusion of English Fusion of and Normans had gone steadily on, as the two andNor- were continually mingled in the conflicts of mans - the time. The feeling of difference between them on grounds of race disappeared so rapidly that no mention of it can be found, it is said, after Stephen's reign. 102 THE NORMAN-ENGLISH NATION. [1154 Good came, likewise, from the weakening that feudal- ism sustained. The anarchy of the period has been described as "feudalism run mad," and the madness was fatal to it. Every sane feeling in the nation was pre- pared to support a strong king who would restore the Reaction needed checks. When the strong king came, feudal* m Henry II., he found it easy to finish the anarchy. Conqueror's plans, by thrusting feudalism out- side of the administrative government, reducing it to a system of land-tenure alone. The lawlessness of the period had bred tyranny in plenty, for the common people to suffer from, but it was the tyranny of petty tyrants, and was readily overthrown. There had been no opportunity for great growths of power, with deep roots. Moreover, the frightful conditions described by the Peterborough chronicle were certainly not universal. The greater towns had generally been able to protect themselves ; peaceful pursuits were not extinguished ; even learning was kept alive. Lectures on law were first opened in Stephen's time at Oxford, where lectures on divinity had been given in Henry's reign ; and thus the great university of the future had its birth in tempestu- ous and disordered times. In literature, too, and some work was done. It was in Stephen's reign that Geoffrey of Monmouth excited the imagination of the time by those Welsh legends of King Arthur which he set forth in a professed History of British Kings, and which a Norman writer, Wace, turned into a versified romance known as "The Brut." In the same distracted reign, the performance of miracle plays and mysteries was begun in English churches. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 103 TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS. 34. The English Adoption of their Norman Kings. Topics. 1. Satisfaction of the English at the accession of Rufus. 2. Dissatisfaction of the Norman barons and their uprising. 3. Significance of the people's defence of their new king. 4. Their gain in this clash between nobles and king. Reference. — Gardiner, i. 114, 115. Research Questions. — (1.) What advantage to England in separating it from Normandy ? (2.) In what way was Rufus's relation to England more satisfactory to the people than that of William the Conqueror ? (3.) Why did Norman barons prefer a weak overlord ? 35. The Red King's Wickedness. Topics. 1. His attitude toward laws and religion. 2. Appointment of Ranulf Flambard. 3. His interference with the courts and ill-treatment of the church. 4. His relations with Anselm. 5. How the king spent his money. 6. Cause of his subjects' submission. Reference. — Gardiner, i. 11 5-1 18. Research Questions. — (1.) Describe Flambard's work on the feudal system. (Gardiner, i. 116, 117.) (2.) How did Rufus get riches by the death of an abbot or bishop ? (3.) What tax on inheritances at that time similar to ours of to-day ? (4.) In what states do we have an inheritance tax ? An income tax ? 36. Reunion with Normandy. Topics. 1. Rufus's measures in acquiring Normandy. 2. Change in the relation of the duchy and the kingdom. Reference. — Bright, i. 59. Research Questions. — (1.) Why had it become necessary to rescue the Holy Sepulchre ? (2.) Who preached the first cru- sade ? (Guest, 153.) (3.) What was the difference between her- mits and monks ? (4.) In what ways were people induced to go on crusades? (Guest, 153.) 104 FUSING OF THE NEW NATION. 37. The Red King's Wars. Topics. i. With Fiance. 2. With Scotland. a. Malcolm's forays and death. b. Expulsion of the English party. c. The succession established by Rufus's aid. 3. With Wales. 4. The king as a builder. Reference. — Bright, i. 58, 59. Research Questions. — (1.) What use is made of Westminster Hall at the present day ? (2.) What is its present name ? 38. The Red King's Death. Topics. 1. The circumstances of his death and England's gain thereby. Reference. — Gardiner, i. 122. 39. The Beginning of the Reign of Henry I. Topics. 1. The circumstances of Henry's accession. 2. The uprising of the Norman barons. 3. The return and influence of Anselm. 4. Battle of Tinchebrai. 5. Fusion of English and Norman in this war and those that followed. Reference. — Gardiner, i. 122-126. Research Question. — Why was it of importance for Henry to get possession of the royal treasure ? 40. The Character of Henry and his Reign. Topics. 1. The establishment of his rule. 2. His marriage. 3. His charter. a. Its significance and importance. b. His adherence to it. 4. His personal characteristics. 5. His improvement upon the financial system of Rufus. References. — Green, 90, 91 . Charter of Henry I. : Bright, i. 64 : Colby, 46-48; Ransome, 32; Guest, 156: Taswell-Langmead, 77-79; Stubbs, S. C , 99-102 ; H. Taylor, i. 273. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 105 Research Questions. — (1.) Why are hard terms evenly and justly enforced more endurable than easier terms unevenly or unjustly enforced ? (2.) Why does a prospect of change in the tariff injure business more than either a high or low one once settled ? 41. The Exchequer. — The Justiciar. — The Chancel- lor. — The King's Court. Topics. 1. The Exchequer and its duty. 2. Bishop of Salisbury as justiciar. 3. The chancellor. 4. The origin and outgrowths of the King's Court. 5. Henry's revival of other courts. References. — Gardiner, i. 126, 127; Montague, 26, 27,31-33; Ransome, 35-39; Bright, i. 75, 76; Green, H. E. P., i. 137, 138 ; Stubbs, C. H., i. 346-355, 375-39 2 - Research Questions. — (1.) What are the duties to-day of the Lord Chancellor and of the Chancellor of the Exchequer ? (Montague, 27, 173.) (2.) Name the offices in our own govern- ment corresponding to them. (3.) In what respect was a king's court better for a man than a shire's court ? 42. Development of English Towns and their Trade. Topics. 1. Change in the character of towns. 2. Effect of foreign immigration. 3. The local trade : a, roads ; b, markets and market-days. 4. The foreign trade : a, fairs ; b, exports. References. — English towns : Colby, 70 ; Green, 92-95 ; Gar- diner, i. 72, 168-171 ; Cunningham and McArthur, ch. iv. ; Mon- tague, 9, 35; Green, H. E. P., i. 196-214; Gibbins, 22-31; Stubbs, C. H., i. 623-632. Markets and fairs : Ashley, i. ch. i. ; Rogers, 145-152; Traill, i. 208, 365, 462-464. Research Questions. — (1.) What kind of land is suitable for sheep-raising? (2.) How does wool rank in importance with other manufacturing fibres. (3.) Of what importance was it among the sources of English wealth ? (4.) To whom do the British owe their first knowledge of woollen manufactures ? (5.) With what country on the continent did the British com- 106 FUSING OF THE NEW NATION. pete in the wool trade ? (6.) How would this clash of trade interests influence international relations ? (7.) In what country did they find their best market ? (8.) What circumstances stimulated woollen manufacture in England ? (9.) Name some cities in the British isles famous for their woollen manufactures. (10.) What office of the English government is associated with the historic wool-sack ? (11.) Describe the climate of England and note its effect upon sheep-raising. (12.) What act of de- vastation of William the Conqueror eventually brought about increase in sheep-raising ? (Article " Wool," Ency. Brit.) 43. Language. — Literature. — Religion. — Art. Topics. 1. Condition of England under Henry. 2. Direction of the forward movement. 3. Intellectual matters. 4. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and other historical works. 5. Names of writers of such works and language used. 6. The use of Latin as a language. Of French. Of English. 7. Poetry and religious awakening. 8. The Cistercians and their abbeys. 9. Destruction of town monasteries. 10. Era of church-building. References. — Traill, i. 254, 344-356; Green, 95. Saxon and Norman: Colby, 33-36; Freeman, S. H. N. C, ch. ii ; Traill, i. 343-354. Anselm : Green, 73, 74,90, 91, 96; Gardiner, i. 117. 1 18, 125, 126 ; Bright, i. 61, 62, 65, 69, 71 ; Ransome, 31, 33, 41 ; Guest, 152, 156. Research Questions. — (1.) What is the racial difference be- tween an Anglo-Saxon and a Norman ? (2.) What elements made up the Norman language ? (3.) If the two races did not amalgamate in England for some time, what was the condition of the language ? (4.) Name the novel of Scott which shows this alienation between Anglo-Saxon and Norman. (5.) Bring into a class a list of objects having both a Saxon and a Norman name. (Guest, 137.) (6.) What modern poet wrote of King Arthur? (7.) Who has a poem on Tintern Abbey ? (8.) Of what rank as regards other church dignitaries was the Archbishop of Canter- bury ? (9.) Whom did he especially represent in England ? (10.) Was he necessarily an Englishman ? (11.) In what way might his TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 107 foreign birth be of advantage to his people? (12.) Do churches hold property to-day ? (13.) Why, after doing homage to Rufus, did Anselm refuse to do homage to Henry ? (Johnson, N. E., 206, 207.) (14.) Show how this was the beginning of the oppo- sition between church and state in England. 44. Henry's Mischievous Plans for the Succession to Himself. Topics. 1. Henry's family. 2. Death of his son. 3. His attempt to secure the succession to his daughter. References. — Gardiner, i. 129-131. The White Ship: Colby, 49-52. Research Questions. — (i.) Bring into class and read Mrs. Hemans's poem commemorating the death of Henry I.'s son. (2.) What was the objection to a woman as ruler ? 45. Stephen of Blois on the Throne. Topics. 1. Death of Henry and of Robert. 2. Lawful descendants of the Conqueror. 3. Matilda's claim from the English point of view. 4. Choice of Stephen. References. — Stubbs, E. P., ch. ii. ; Green, 98-101. Stephen's charters: Stubbs, E. P., 16, 17; Stubbs, C. H., i. 320-322; Taswell-Langmead, 83, 84; Green, H. E. P., i. 144. Research Question. — Show from the genealogical table on page 108 the relationship of Stephen and Matilda, and their re- spective hereditary claims to the throne. 46. Civil War and Anarchy. Topics. 1. Characteristics of Stephen. 2. Encroachment of the barons. 3. Matilda's champion. 4. Battle of the Standard. 5. Matilda's arrival and the defection from Stephen. 6. Failure of Matilda. 7. The gathering of an Angevin dominion under Matilda's son. References. — Stubbs, E. P., ch. ii. ; Bright, i. 80-86. Anarchy io8 FUSING OF THE NEW NATION. in Stephen's reign: Colby, 52, 53; Gardiner, i. 134, 135; Green, 102, 103; Bright, i. 86-88. Research Questions. — (1.) Why was castle-building on the part of the barons contrary to English policy? (2.) Why was Stephen more likely to permit it than his predecessors? (3.) What was the effect on his power ? 47. Peace restored. — The Condition of England. Topics. 1. Henry's appearance in England. 2. State of Stephen's cause. 3. The treaty of peace. 4. Condition of England during this time. 5. Weakening of feudalism. 6. Greater towns and growth of Oxford. 7. Advance in literature. 8. Miracle plays and mysteries. References. — Gardiner, i. 136, 137. The church in Stephen's reign : Green, 103 ; Traill, i. 267-269. Research Questions. — (1.) Who performed these miracle plays and mysteries first ? (2.) What was the object of them ? (3.) Is there such a play performed at present? (4.) Where? (5.) Discuss the influence which the Norman family as a whole had on the development of England. LINEAGE OF THE NORMAN KINGS FROM THE CON- QUEROR TO STEPHEN. Robert, Duke of Normandy, died 1 135. William II., called Unfits, 10S7-1100. William I., ( 'Hie Conqueror), 1066-1087, married Matilda of Flanders. Henry I., (Beauclerk), 1 100-1135, married Matilda Matilda, married J Geoffrey, (Plantagenet), of Scotland. ( Count of A nj on. Adela, married Stephen, Count of Blots. Stephen, "35-1154- 1 First married to the Emperor Henry V. ; without offspring. CHAPTER VI. THE UPBUILDING OF ENGLISH LAW. Angevin, or Early Plantagenet, Kings : Henry II. — Richard I. 1154-1199. 48. England the Chief State in an Angevin Em- pire. Whatever his character and conduct might be, a prince who already ruled nearly half of France could not mount the throne of England without bringing new influences to bear on that country, with important ef- fects. Until the Norman Conquest, the relations of the English people with the continent had been few and slight. They had been almost outside of the move- ment of events in Europe, and of the movements of thought and feeling that went with events. By their connection with Normandy they had been drawn a little way into the current of activities, but hardly more than to be touched. Even the great agitation of the Crusades had been felt so slightly that no English response to it appears to have been made. But now the small Norman tie between England and continental Europe was enlarged to a powerful bond. A King of England who was, at the same time, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Count of Poitou, and Count of Tou- raine, with claims to the overlordship of Brittany and Toulouse, to say nothing of the overlordship of Scotland and Wales, was one of the greatest of European sover- HO THE NORMAN-ENGLISH NATION. ["54 eigns, — near to rivalry in rank with the German Em- peror-King, and exceeding him in actual power. England was raised in rank among the nations by the the King of rank of its king. A livelier national spirit was ng an ' formed ; interest in the doing, thinking, and feeling of other parts of the world was widened ; inter- course with other countries was enlarged. Against these advantages there were almost no disadvantages to be weighed during the reign of Henry II. He neither neglected his island kingdom nor dragged it into conti- nental strifes. 49. Restoration of Order by Henry II. Henry had just reached manhood when he took the sceptre ; but he seemed to be full-grown in all his powers. He pos- sessed a sturdy body, an intensely active mind, and a restless temperament that never knew fatigue. He acted from the first moment with sound judgment, and with an energy hard to resist. Before the end of his first year, says Bishop Stubbs, Henry had disarmed the feudal party, restored the regu- lar administration of the country, banished the mercena- ries, destroyed the castles which had been built without royal license (called "adulterine castles"), and "showed the intention of ruling through the means, if not under the control, of his national council." 1 Before his third year was far spent, he had compelled even the King of Scotland to surrender the earldoms in Cumberland and Northumberland which Stephen had given up. Disorder in England was disappearing and weakness in its govern- ment was at an end. The king was soon able to quit the island for long periods, while he attended to the affairs of his dominions in France, leaving his kingdom under the care of two able and faithful justiciars. 1 Stubbs, Const. Hist, of Eng., ch. xii. sect. 137. ii59-«6 3 ] UPBUILDING OF ENGLISH LAW. Ill From 1 1 59 until the beginning of 1163, England saw nothing of its king ; but its government was quietly car- ried on. Some part of that long period was employed in an attempt to make good the claims of his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, to the county of Toulouse, in the south of France. The war was not success- Warin ful ; but it produced important consequences France - in England. Henry's right to call on his military ten- ants or vassals in England and Normandy for military service in Aquitaine was questionable, at least. He did not attempt to claim that service arbitrarily, but offered an alternative which many were glad to accept. Those who preferred to remain at home were allowed to do so on payment of a certain tax, proportioned to the estate they held. With the money thus collected, Henry hired an army of experienced soldiers, more effective for war than the feudal bands that he would otherwise have led. At the same time, he introduced a practice which became common, of commuting military ser- vice for what was called scutage (shield-money, from the Latin scutum, a shield), and that practice, in the future, acted fatally on the feudal military system, as can easily be understood. 50. The King's Conflict with Thomas Becket. In the last year of his long absence from England the king committed an error which sadly troubled the remainder of his reign. His chancellor, Thomas Becket, a man of brilliant gifts and many accomplishments, had won Henry's heart and become his most intimate companion and friend. Like most educated men of that age, Becket was nominally a priest, but lived the life of a courtier and man of the world, and had even led a large following of knights in the king's wars. Nevertheless, when a vacancy in the archbishopric of Canterbury occurred, 112 THE NORMAN-ENGLISH NATION. [1163-1164 Henry determined to place his friend in that high seat He had plans for undoing the mistaken work of Lan- franc, who made the clergy independent of ordinary courts and of the English common law, and he expected that Becket, as archbishop, would work with him to that end. Becket is said to have taken the sacred office unwill- ingly, and to have warned the king that he should not aqt in it according to the wish which he knew to be in the latter's mind. If that be true, Henry is mostly to Beckers be blamed for the tragical conflict that ensued, conduct. g ut B ec k e t; W as uncompromising from the first, and seemed determined to set himself against the king, as a rival power in the state. The noblest work of Henry's reign was in the reforms that he brought into the ad- ministration of the law, and nothing stood in its way so much as the exemption of the clergy from punishment by civil authority, for even the worst crimes. This drew crowds of bad men into the church, for the shelter it gave them in their wicked deeds, and nothing could be more reasonable than Henry's wish to bring such "criminous clerks," as they were called, within reach of the law. But when that and other mat- ters of reform were embodied in a famous enactment, called the Constitutions of Clarendon, submitted Constitu- tionsof to a Great Council, held at Clarendon, near Clarendon. „ .. . . ^ -n , ... Salisbury, in 1 164, Becket was violent in opposi- tion, yielding at last some kind of assent, which he after- BECKET AND HIS SECRETARY, FROM AN OLD MS. u 7 o] UPBUILDING OF ENGLISH LAW. 1 13 TRANSEPT OF CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL, THE SCENE OF BECKET'S MURDER. wards recalled, claiming to have been tricked. Accounts of what occurred are not clear; but this was the outbreak of a quarrel which roused hot passions on both sides. The archbishop was driven to France, and when, six years afterwards, he was persuaded to return, it was not to be at peace. His first measures, on reentering his see, were so offensive to Henry, then in Normandy, that the latter cried in a rage : " What a parcel of fools and dastards have I nourished in my house, that none of them can be found to avenge me of this one t i i > <-rti i i • The mur- upstart clerk. lhe hasty exclamation was derof Becket caught up by four of his knights, who left the court secretly and hurried into England, to carry out 114 THE NORMAN-ENGLISH NATION. [1170 what they believed to be the wishes of the king. They found the archbishop in his cathedral at Canterbury, on the evening of the 29th of December, and killed him at the foot of the altar. The dreadful crime shocked Eng- land and all Europe, and probably no one was so appalled by it as King Henry. It has never been supposed that he intended the savage deed ; his guilt was in the pas- sion with which he spoke, and the penalties that he paid for it were heavy during all the remainder of his life. Though Becket had been the champion of no religious cause, he was thought to have died a martyr's death. He was canonized by the pope, and pious pilgrims went in throngs to his shrine at Canterbury, as to a sacred place. Henry took steps at once to acquit himself before the pope, and then went hastily into Ireland, to remain until he could be absolved. 51. Beginning of the English Conquest of Ire- land. The king, on going to Ireland, took into his own hands an undertaking of conquest which some of his subjects had already begun. The Celtic island was in a deplorable state. The vikings who assailed it in the eighth and ninth centuries (see sect. 17) had destroyed its schools of Christian learning and scattered the com- munities that gave it Christian light. They had estab- lished settlements on its eastern coast, which were called Danish kingdoms, but which were scarcely more kingdoms than colonies for piracy and trade. Their traf- fic was largely in men, women, and children, kidnapped in England and brought from Bristol, to be sold into slavery to the Irish or to traders from other lands. The Danish colonists were perpetually at war with their Irish neighbors, and the Irish were as per- petually at war among themselves. The clans or tribes of the latter were loosely grouped into four kingdoms, — 1171-1172] UPBUILDING OF ENCxLISH LAW. 115 Ulster, Munster, Leinster, and Connaught, — over which the O'Neils, kings of Ulster, and the O'Briens, kings of Minister, were rival claimants of a supremacy which neither could make good for any long time. Henry had formed plans for the conquest of Ireland as early as n 55, and the pope had authorized his under- taking in the name of the church ; but circumstances had caused delay. At length, certain Norman-Welsh barons obtained permission to help a fugitive king of Leinster recover his throne. In doing so they acquired a strong footing in the island, and their leader, one Richard de Clare, known as Strongbow, took strong- the title of Duke of Leinster and was rising to conquest great power. This independent conquest was ofIrel a u King Richard received death. a woun( j j while besieging a castle in Limoges, which caused his death. The justiciar who governed England from 1194 until 1 198 was Hubert Walter, Archbishop of Canter- bury, — a statesman who did well for the people in many things, while he was faithful at the same time to the king. He developed the jury system which Henry H94-H99] UPBUILDING OF ENGLISH LAW. 125 II. had made important, and, says Bishop Stubbs, "he tried and did much to train the people to Hubert habits of self-government. He taught them ^a 61 ^ how to assess their taxes by jury, to elect the ernment grand jury for the assizes of the judges, to choose repre- sentative knights to transact legal and judicial works ; such representative knights as at a later time made convenient precedents for parliamentary representation. The whole working of elective and representative insti- tutions gained greatly under his management — he edu- cated the people against the better time to come." 1 So England could well afford to pay large sums to King Richard while he stayed away from his kingdom, where he spent but seven months of his ten years' reign. 57. Rise of the Towns. The towns, as we have seen, took advantage of the king's demands for money to buy charters and grants of privilege. They were steadily growing in strength and influence, multiplying their industries, enlarging their trade, and obtaining more independence in the management of their affairs. One by one they were obtaining the right to pay their taxes in a fixed yearly sum, assessed and collected by them- selves, and, one by one, they were getting rid of the various rights of lordship that had been exercised over them, and acquiring courts and officials of their own. What is called "municipal incorporation," making a town or city one distinct political body in its local gov- ernment, had not yet been brought about. The various matters of local government were more or less divided up. Gilds, which resembled the clubs and fra- , . . . . . , Gilds. ternal societies of modern times, played a part in the management of town affairs that is not very clearly understood. The oldest of great importance 1 Stubbs, The Early Platitagenets, ch. vi. 126 THE NORMAN-ENGLISH NATION. [1189-1199 were the frith-gilds, or peace-clubs, organized for the protection of their members and for the pursuit of criminals, thus supplying a kind of volunteer police. Though suppressed by jealous feudalism on the conti- nent, the frith-gilds had been encouraged in England from an early time. Craft-gilds, formed among the workmen of different trades, were also of ancient origin. The most influential of the gilds, that of the merchants, which held and monopolized the privileges of trade, of town markets and fairs, as they were granted from time to time by the king, is not known to have existed before the Norman Conquest in English towns. One of the signs of an increasing business activity in England was seen in the importance to which the Jews had risen as lenders of money. A mistaken notion in the early church had branded the taking of even the smallest interest (usury) for money loaned as a sin, and the law had made it a crime. At the same time, Chris- tian hatred of the Jews drove that unfortunate people from nearly all reputable employments, and forced them to adopt in general the occupations which Christians shunned. This, perhaps, more than any other cause, made the Jews in the Middle Ages the money-lenders — the bankers — of Europe. They were always at the mercy of the kings, who protected them in their unlawful business when it suited them to do so, and who wrung their gains from them with little scruple when they saw fit. The first Jews in England are thought to have come from Normandy with the Conqueror. In the reign of Henry II. their settlements had grown numer- PsrsGCU.- tionofthe ous and large. In 1 190, after Richard s coro- nation, a ferocious outbreak of popular hatred occurred in many cities, and great numbers of Jews were 1190-1199] UPBUILDING OF ENGLISH LAW. 127 massacred with brutality. At York, being besieged in the castle tower, they fired it and destroyed themselves, with their wives and children, rather than fall into the hands of their enemies. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS. 48. England the Chief State in the Angevin Kingdom. Topics. 1. Early relations of England to the Continent. 2. Possessions of Henry II. on the Continent. 3. England's gain through the dignity of its king. Reference. — Green, Henry II., ch. ii. 49. Restoration of Order by Henry II. Topics. 1. Henry's characteristics and his early reforms. 2. The king in France in the interests of his wife. 3. The practice of scutage and its results. References. — Green, Henry II., chs. iii., iv. Scutage: Gardi- ner, i. 141, 142 ; Bright, i. 91, 93, 109, 113; Green, 109; Stubbs, E. P., 56, 57; Montague, 41, 42; Ransome, 53; H. Taylor, i. 283, 284. Research Questions. — (1.) By destroying the castles Henry showed himself in accord with whose policy ? (2.) As duke of French fiefs did he yield to the French kings what he demanded of his barons ? (3.) Why was " scutage " a blow to feudalism ? (4.) What nations of the present day compel all their young men to serve in the army ? (5.) In what war did mercenaries serve in our country ? (6.) Distinguish between militia and the regular army. (7.) What is the disadvantage of fighting with mercena- ries 50. The King's Conflict with Thomas Becket. Topics. 1. Becket's first office and his early character. 2. Change when he was made Archbishop of Canterbury. 3. Exemption of the clergy. 4. The Constitutions of Clarendon and Becket's opposition. 128 THE UPBUILDING OF ENGLISH LAW. 5. His flight, return, and death. 6. Action of the pope. References. — Constitutions of Clarendon : Gardiner, i. 143-145 : Green, 107; Montague, 44, 45 ; 'Ransome, 48, 49; Green, Henry II., ch. v. ; Stubbs, C. H., i. 464-466 : Taswell-Langmead, 91-94; H. Taylor, i. 287, 288 ; Stubbs, E. P., 76, 77. Research Questions. — (1.) Why is the state better fitted to deal with criminals than the church? (2.) Why was it to the -pope's interest to declare Becket a martyr? (3.) What effect does persecution usually have upon a belief? (4.) Why were the people apt to side with the clergy ? 51. Beginning of the English Conquest of Ireland. Topics. 1. Condition of Ireland resulting from Danish invasion. 2. The four Irish kingdoms. 3. Henry's conquest of Ireland and reasons for the same. 4. The " English Pale." References. — Green, Henry II., ch. viii. ; Colby, 53-56. 52. The Troubled Ending of Henry's Reign. Topics. 1. Absolution of the king and his reparation. 2. Troubles with his sons. 3. The fall of Jerusalem and the new crusade. 4. The revolt in Aquitaine and death of Henry. Reference. — Green, Henry II., ch. xi. 53. The Legal Reforms of Henry II. Topics. 1. Administration of justice before the time of Henry II. 2. Changes in the king's court and the result. 3. The trial by jury : a, origin and first important use in Eng- land ; b, use by Henry to displace trial by combat and ordeals ; c, its political importance. 4. Strengthening of the Fyrd. References. — Legal reforms of Henry II.: Gardiner, i. 146- 148; Bright, i. 106-108; Green, 109-111; Green, Henry II., chs. iv., v., and vi. ; Stubbs, E. P., 52-55 ; Montague, 4 2 -5° 5 Ransome, 50-54; Stubbs, C. H., i. 469-495, 608-611 ; Taswell- TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 129 Langmead, 87-90, 158-190; Traill, i. 280-298; Pollock and Maitland, i. book i. ch. v. ; H. Taylor, i. 308-31 1. Research Questions. — (1.) What were "compurgators," "trial by combat,'' and " trial by ordeal "? (Gardiner, i. 32.) (2.) Were any of these methods ever employed in America ? (3.) How were recognitors forerunners of the jury? (Gardiner, i. 147.) (4.) What is the present meaning of the term " inquest " ? 54. Literature. Topics. 1. The study of the law. 2. Walter Map and his work. 3. Condition of literature. References. — Gardiner, i. 167; Traill, i. 351-354. King Arthur : Morley, English Writers, iii. ch. vi.; Bulfinch, Age of Chivalry; Church, Heroes of Chivalry ; Lanier, Boys' King Arthur. 55. Richard Cceur de Lion and his Crusade. Topics. 1. Richard's character in romance and in real life. 2. His measures for raising money. 3. His departure for the Holy Land. 4. His attempted return and imprisonment. References. — Stubbs, E. P., 1 10-124; Colby, 68-70. Research Questions. — (1.) What novel of Scott describes the romantic side of Richard's character? (2.) What one tells of his crusade? (3.) Why is it a bad thing to have the offices of government put up for sale ? 56. The End of Richard's Reign. Topics. 1. John's plots. 2. Richard's return and his departure for France. 3. His demands for money. 4. His death. 5. The work of Richard's justiciar : a, on the jury system ; b, in the assessment of taxes; c, in choosing representatives for legal work. Reference. — Stubbs, E. P., 124-136. Research Questions. — (t.) How is a grand jury chosen and made up ? (2.) What are its duties ? 130 THE UPBUILDING OF ENGLISH LAW. 57. Rise of the Towns. Topics. i. Their gains: a, in charters and grants of privileges; b, in industries and trades ; c, in freedom from rights of lordship. 2. Gilds. 3. Jews and money-lending. 4. The massacre of York. References. — Gardiner, i. 168-170 ; Colby, 70, 71 ; Gibbins, 22- 39- LINEAGE OF THE ANGEVIN, OR EARLY PLANTAGENET, KINGS OF ENGLAND. Henry, died 1 183. Matilda, daughter of Henry I., married Geoffrey, (Plantagenet), Count of A iijou. I Henry II., 1 151 ■{ married Eleanor ( of A<]ititiiine. Richard I., (Coeur dc Lion), 1189-1199. Geoffrey, married Duchess of Brittany. Died 11S5. John, 1199-1216. married Isabella of A7igouleme. Arthur, of Brittany, murdered 1203. Henry III. 1216-1272. SURVEY OF GENERAL HISTORY. THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY. Importance of the Period. The period covered, in English events, by the following chapter, was one of remarkable im- portance in all parts of the world. Europe seems to have been nearer, in some respects, when the thirteenth century- closed, to the great change from its mediaeval to its modern state, than it was after another hundred years had passed. Feudalism was giving way ; nations were being knitted to- gether • a middle class among the people was making itself felt ; inquisitive thought was being stirred ; commercial enter- prise was growing more attractive to the adventurous and the bold. Papal Poiuer. This was the age in which the popes were most powerful, and were most nearly raised to supremacy, as feudal lords, over all Christian kings. They triumphed in their last long conflict with the emperors, and the " Holy Roman Empire," as it had come to be named, was nearly extinguished for a time by the consequences of the strife. But, before the century ended, the decline of the papacy from that great height of power was begun. Italy. In Italy the growth of independent cities, as busy centres of manufacturing and trade, went prosperously on. Some, like Florence, were fully democratic republics ; in others, like Venice, a small oligarchy ruled ; others had fallen under military masters, and what is known as the " age of the despots " in Italy was coming in. Venice and Genoa were fiercely at war, as competitors in the Mediterranean trade. Traffic between the Mediterranean and the western coasts of Europe was still carried on for the most part by land. 132 GENERAL HISTORY. Apparently few voyages by the ocean circuit, through the straits of Gibraltar, had been undertaken when the thirteenth century closed. Germany and the Hanse Towns. For Germany, the tale would be melancholy were it not for the free cities, which had developed a vigorous life of their own. Otherwise the country, where one of the strongest of nations ought then to •have been growing up, could hardly have been in a worse state of political wreck. Towards the end of the century, however, the German and imperial crowns came into the possession of a family (that of the Hapsburgs, the archducal House of Austria) which afterwards raised itself, by fortunate marriages, to great rank and power, and gave a borrowed dignity to the titles it bore. But nothing else in German affairs is so important and interesting as the remarkable plan of commercial confeder- ation which the free cities of that country were carrying out, with amazing and instructive success. Compelled by the dis- orders of the time, and by the absence of any international law, the cities organized leagues amongst themselves, for common defence of their trade, for the adoption of maritime codes, and for securing privileges of trade in different lands. The largest and most powerful, but not the earliest, of these leagues had its rise in the north. It came to be known as the League of the Hanse Towns, or the Hanseatic League, from one of several meanings of the word " hanse," in which it signifies association or gild. At its greatest extent, the league embraced eighty cities or more, distributed from Flan- ders to Russia, and it consolidated a power that was probably greater than that of any single nation of the time. In Lon- don and other important cities, it was represented by great settlements (" Hanses ") strictly governed by laws of its own. It gave a lesson in organization which was probably the most civilizing influence of the age. 77/i? Netherlands. The Netherland country was becoming a busy industrial hive. At the south, among the Flemings, THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY. 133 there was skilful weaving, dyeing, tanning, and working in leather and metal ; at the north, the Dutch were weavers, too, and they were makers of good pottery ; but principally they were herring- fishers, and sailors, and builders of ships. Eng- land furnished the main supply of wool and other raw mate- rials which the skilful Netherlanders worked up. Bruges was at this time the great distributing point for commodities exchanged between the east and south, on one hand, and the Baltic, the Netherlands, and England, on the other. France. France, unlike Germany, was outgrowing the cha- otic feudal state. A crafty and able king, Philip Augustus, began, in the first years of the century, to get possession of great fiefs, by wresting Normandy, Maine, and Anjou from the English king, John, as will presently be described. An- other king, St. Louis (Louis IX.), strengthened the French throne by the justice he administered, by the courts he estab- lished, and the peace he gave the kingdom. Spain. The struggle in Spain, between Christians and Moors, passed its crisis in this century. The Moors were driven into the extreme south, where they founded their last kingdom, of Granada, to hold it for two centuries more. The small Christian kingdoms of Castile, Aragon, Navarre, and Portugal, were kept generally, but not always, at peace with each other by their common warfare with the Moors. In both Castile and Aragon there were popular institutions taking form, which seemed to be nearly as promising as those that the English people were building up. Many towns were re- presented in the Cortes, — the national parliament or court, — but they were never joined there, as in England, with a class of untitled landowners from the country districts, to form a strong " Commons," or " Third Estate." The End of the Crusades. Crusading expeditions for the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre came to an end in this cen- tury. Jerusalem was finally abandoned to the enemies of the cross, after the Emperor Frederick II., St. Louis of France, 134 GENERAL HISTORY. and Edward I. of England, had each vainly tried to loosen the iron grasp of the Turk. The Eastern Empire. A movement of pretended crusad- ing, in the third year of the century, was diverted to the con- quest of Constantinople, by Venetian intrigue. The Eastern Empire (Greek or Byzantine, as we choose to name it) was then broken up, and most of its territory was divided amongst J;he conquerors. In one Asiatic fragment, however, a family of Greek princes set up their throne and patiently bided their time, until they were strong enough, in 1261, to recapture Con- stantinople and resume a feeble sovereignty, which claimed descent from the Roman Empire in the east. Learning, Literature, and Art. Italy was now preparing for a great lead in the wakening of Europe to new desires for knowledge, new inspirations in literature, new conceptions of art. Italian schools and universities were being multiplied, letters eagerly cultivated, painting and sculpture revived, while Dante, the greatest of mediaeval poets, was being edu- cated in the stormy life of democratic Florence for his im- mortal song. Elsewhere the artistic and thoughtful expres- sion of the time was in its wonderful architectural works. It was, for architecture, the Augustan age. " All Europe," says Sir Gilbert Scott, "became filled with productions of the newly generated art ; every city became a repertory of noble and sublime architecture, and every town and village became possessed of productions equally beautiful, if more modest in their pretensions ; while the intervening country was studded over with castles and monastic establishments, in which the same majestic art displayed itself in ever varying forms." THE DECLINE OF FEUDALISM. 1199-1450. CHAPTER VII. the rise of the english commons. Angevin and Later Plantagenet Kings : John. — Henry III. — Edward I. 1 199-1307. 58. King John. — His Loss of Normandy and the Angevin Fiefs. King Richard died childless, and the rule of hereditary descent would have given his crown, not to his surviving brother, John, but to Arthur, a young son left by his older brother, Geoffrey, Duke of Brittany. But Arthur was a boy of twelve years, and the English Great Council preferred and elected John, though regarding him with dislike and distrust. Nor- mandy did the same, while in other parts of the Angevin dominions Arthur was upheld as Richard's heir, Murder of and supported by his overlord, the French king. Prince In the war that followed, Arthur was taken pris- oner by John, and is supposed to have been put to death (1203). According to some reports at the time, the un- fortunate boy was murdered by his uncle's own hands. Philip of France, as overlord, or suzerain, of Brittany, Normandy, and the Angevin fiefs, summoned John to make answer for the murder before the court of the peers of France, and judgment was pronounced against him when he refused to appear. He was declared to 136 THE DECLINE OF FEUDALISM. [1203-1205 have forfeited his fiefs, and before the end of the year 1204 Philip had taken possession of all but Aquitaine, a part of Poitou, and those Norman islands on the French coast called the Channel Islands, which have never Dissolution ceased to be under English rule. The great Angevin Angevin dominion was dissolved, and England dominion. was practically once more a kingdom distinct and apart. Norman families that had held estates in each country were now forced to choose between Eng- land and France. Those who stayed in the island became wholly English ; those who quitted it had no longer any voice in English affairs. The new Norman-English nation had now been fully formed. 59. King John's Quarrel with the Church. Henry II. had raised the royal authority to a supremacy in the kingdom which was dangerous when it came to be vested in so bad a man as John. The power of the barons had been waning, while that of the king increased, and, though the " com- mons" — the general body of English freemen - — had gained weight and strength, they had no ability yet to act for themselves, but were gener- ally led by the clergy in such political action as they took. If John had not quarrelled with the church, he might have played the tyrant with success. But, fortunately, he was so foolish as to engage himself in a contest that arrayed against him the whole enormous influence of the church, from that of the pope to that of the humblest priest. JOHN. From liis monument in Worcester Cathedral. 1205-1213] RISE OF THE ENGLISH COMMONS. 137 The conflict grew out of the election of a successor to Hubert Walter, Archbishop of Canterbury, who died in 1205. Appeals to the pope (Innocent III.) resulted in the primacy being given to a very noble man, Stephen Langton, an English cardinal, of famous learn- ste p hen ing and exalted purity of life. A better choice Lan eton. was rarely made, nor one happier for England ; but John seized the property of the archbishopric, and refused to permit Langton to enter his see. For six years the king defied papal authority and awed his own rebellious sub- jects, with a fierce energy and an obstinate courage that would command respect if they had been shown in a worthy cause. Pope Innocent placed the kingdom under interdict, which stopped every service of religion, even for the burial of the dead, and finally he decreed the deposition of John, commissioning the King of France to expel him from his throne. Against all this John held out ; but his courage had no moral support, and is supposed to have been broken down at last by a vagrant prophet, who predicted that his reign would end on the next Ascension Day. When he did make submission to the pope it was abjectly done. He gave up everything, even his kingdom, receiving it back as a fief of the Roman See, doing: homage Vassalage and paying tribute as a vassal to the pope. He to the promised everything, including a promise to re- P ° pe ' store to the church what he had seized while the quarrel went on ; and proceedings connected with that restitution gave rise to the first great united movement of the English people for asserting and defining their rights, in each class, under the crown. 60. Magna Carta. In August, 12 13, the justiciar of the kingdom, Geoffrey Fitz Peter, Earl of Essex, sum- moned an assembly at St. Albans to settle the claims of 138 THE DECLINE OF FEUDALISM. [1213-1214 the bishoprics against the king. It was called a council, but its purpose gave it the character of a national jury, and that is probably the reason why the representative principle, long used in forming local juries, was intro- duced in making it up. Not only bishops and national barons, but the reeve and four chosen men from ative each township on the royal domain, were sum- (ISSGIllblV moned to attend. For the first time, in fact, so far as can be known, elected representatives of the English common people came into a national assembly, to sit in council with prelates and lords. That such a meeting could be held without discussing the grievances of commons and barons, as well as those of the heads of the church, can hardly have been sup- posed. The justiciar must have expected it to go beyond the single subject it was called to consider ; for he is said to have agreed with the council that the Demand ° for the charter and laws of Henry I. — much tram- lawsof pled on in recent reigns — should be revived and put in force. Henry's charter was accord- ingly laid before John, as a summary of demanded re- forms ; but Fitz Peter died suddenly, and the king did nothing, except to show his contempt for English feeling by appointing an odious Frenchman, Peter des Roches, to be justiciar in Geoffrey's place. At this time John was in league with several princes on the continent against Philip of France, and early in 1214 he went to join them in defending the Count of Flanders, whom Philip had attacked. On the 12th of Result of August, in that year, the allies fought Philip's t^battie army at Bouvines, in Flanders, and suffered a vines. disastrous defeat. The battle had many remark- able consequences, and not the least among them was the discomfiture of King John. He lost at Bouvines the 1214-1215] RISE OF THE ENGLISH COMMONS. 1 39 power to keep his subjects in fear, and when he came back to England he found them banded, not in secret conspiracies, but in an open league, to extort from him the demanded charter of liberty and law. They had found a great leader in Stephen Langton, the archbishop, now beginning to show his character as a true Englishman, a fearless patriot, a wise statesman, partisan of no order or class. Behind the barons were commons and clergy, not armed, but animated with one resolve. The nation was practically in revolt ; the king was nearly alone. He tried every device of low cunning to waste time, and to break the firm array that The pressed against him ; but all was vain. In of^ ph April, 121 5, the northern barons, wearied of his barons - tricks, assembled their forces ; in May they had formally PRESENT VIEW OF RUNNYMEDE. renounced their allegiance and were marching to the south. London opened its gates to them with joy ; most of the very court and household of the king at 140 THE DECLINE OF FEUDALISM. [1215 Oxford deserted him as the army approached. A small company of attendants was with him finally when he came out to make helpless submission, at Runnymede, on the Thames, between Windsor and Staines, on the 15th of June. The Great Charter (Magna Carta) signed on that ^ %J^ry^r^k J^Tj^lL utiMl* riMM iB^Sefrw&nee tp ewv ^mirmtp tarn, ^mu^Jt/k- FACSIMILE EXTRACT FROM MAGNA CARTA. 9 memorable clay is described by Bishop Stubbs as being "a treaty of peace between the king and his people." Twenty-five barons (the Mayor of London being counted as one of them) were nominated to compel the king to fulfil his part. It was not a selfish attempt on the part of the barons and bishops to secure their own privileges ; " it provided that the commons of the realm should have the benefit of every advantage which the two elder es- tates had won for themselves, and it bound the barons to treat their own dependents as it bound the king to treat the barons. Of its sixty-three articles Provisions . , , , 1 r i of Magna some provided securities for personal freedom ; no man was to be taken, imprisoned, or dam- aged in person or estate, but by the judgment of his peers and by the law of the land. Others fixed the rate i2i 5 ] RISE OF THE ENGLISH COMMONS 141 of payments due by the vassal to his lord. Others pre- sented rules for national taxation and for the organiza- tion of a national council, without the consent of which the king could not tax. Others decreed the banishment of the alien servants of John. Although it is not the foundation of English liberty, it is the first, the clearest, the most united, and historically the most important of all the great enunciations of it." : A German historian of the English constitution has remarked that the people of nearly every country in Europe have had at some time a Magna Carta, The dig or similar catalogue of grievances, with promises *i. nc * ion ,? f i. & ° * the English from their rulers of redress. The difference in Magna Carta. the case of the English was that they did not forget their charter, nor suffer it to be forgotten, but kept it in force by repeated confirmations from succes- sive kings. " Before the close of the Middle Ages this confirmation had been thirty-eight times demanded and granted." 2 61. The Final Struggle with King John. The signing of the Great Charter was not the end of the struggle of the English people with King John. He was now to receive his reward for becoming the vassal of the pope. His cause was taken up at Rome ; the Charter was annulled by papal decree, and the king was absolved from the obligations to which he had sworn. Backed by this great authority, John turned on his subjects to crush them with hired soldiers from abroad. At first he had alarming success, and the party of the barons was badly broken and dismayed. Some of them took a foolish and wicked course, inviting Louis, the son of King Philip of France, to come and accept the English crown. 1 Stubbs, The Early Plantagenets. 2 Gneist, History of tlie English Constitution^ i. 311. 142 THE DECLINE OF FEUDALISM. [1216 Death of King John. Louis entered England with a considerable force of men, and all was favorable for a time to his hopes. But suddenly John fell ill, while lead- ing his army from Lincoln toward the south, and died at Newark, in October, 12 16. His death ended most of the feeling that had encouraged an invading French prince, and John's son, a child of ten years, was accepted by the la acre W Tuuof A kt eft cjef fcfltgtetc oxurivj* Vi Trcnaej JeflJaintaL eit^fetene lafuu&a. CfapeMta troie fatmuefc ,tac w J U ^H iKlUC^tSjTHfe. -punt f 1 "* I U-t^hfefeipol X LONDON EARLY IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY. From a drawing by Matthew Paris. nation in general as its rightful king. Some of the barons stood by Louis, who held his ground in England for nearly a year ; but in the end he made terms and received a payment of money for returning to France. 62. The Beginnings of the Reign of Henry III. The child-king, Henry III., was solemnly crowned (Oc- tober, 1 2 16), and during most of his minority the country 1216-1258] RISE OF THE ENGLISH COMMONS. 143 was governed well ; but he came of age in 1227, and the action of his ministers was then no longer free. They were subject to the commands of a king who proved to be wilful, weak, vain, and false ; who was controlled by for- eign favorites, and, like his father, a submissive vassal of the pope. His extravagance knew no bounds, and his exactions of money could not be controlled. Again and again he was forced to make promises which Papal he would not keep. Side by side with the exaction s- king's extortions were others from Rome. It was a saying of the time that the king and the pope were the upper and nether millstones between which the Eng- lish people were ground. In jealous vanity, Henry undertook, at last, to be his own minister, direct- ing everything in the government through ir- responsible clerks. 63. Simon de Mont- fort and the Provisions of Oxford. For thirty years England seems to have waited for a fit lead- er of the people against this exasperating king. Strangely enough, when the leader appeared, he came out of the hated class of French-born lords. Simon de Montfort, however, had the blood of an English grandmother in his veins, and was Earl of Leicester by rights derived from her. He had married the king's sister, made England his home, and was faithful to it through all his life. HENRY III. From his tomb in Westminster Abbey. 144 THE DECLINE OF FEUDALISM. [1258 Affairs in the kingdom came to a crisis in 1258. The reckless extravagance of Henry had overwhelmed him with debts ; there was a grievous famine in the country and a troublesome war with the Welsh ; yet the silly king had agreed with the pope to undertake a conquest of the kingdom of Sicily and Naples for his second son, Edmund, and had pledged a great sum of money to de- fray the cost. He called a Parliament, to lay the Par- nament before it his needs, and to make the usual pro- mises, which he did not mean to keep. It was still the old national council, of barons and prelates, not yet broadened out, but it had borrowed a new name of late, and was beginning to be called a " Parliament," 1 after the manner of the French. It came together in a stern and angry mood, and, led by Simon de Montfort, it took action which created four standing councils, to control the government and to carry out certain reforms. Practically, a new constitution of government was framed, in enactments called the Provisions of Oxford ; but the scheme was not one that could satisfy the Eng- lish people. It had simply put a body of the greater barons into power, and many of them wished to carry reform no farther than their own interests required. A strong party, however, stood out for broad pop- sions of ular rights, and Earl Simon was its chief. Ed- ward, too, the king's elder son, — destined in his future career to take rank with the greatest of Eng- lish kings, — gave that party his support. He was not yet of age, but he saw the folly, if not the iniquity, of his father's course, and could recognize the growth of a power in the state, behind that of kings and lords, with which lords and kings must learn to make terms. 1 Signifying a meeting or assembly for speech, for discussion, being derived from the French word purler, to speak. 1259-1264] RISE OF THE ENGLISH COMMONS. 145 64. The Barons' War. The Provisions of Oxford were followed by another series of ordinances, called the Provisions of Westminster, which seem to have had little result. Everything was darkened by dissensions and intrigues, the causes of which are obscure. The king made the most of the confu- sion, dividing his opponents, and obtaining release by pa- pal authority from his oaths. His faithless scheming was disapproved by Edward ; but when, in 1263, hostilities be- tween the parties broke out, the prince took his father's side. At that time little fight- ing occurred except on the border of Wales. The end of this outbreak was an agreement to refer the whole dispute between King Henry and his sub- jects to Louis IX., — Saint Louis, — the revered King of France ; but when Louis, who was used to absolute gov- ernment and unacquainted with the state of things in England, decided in Henry's favor, Montfort and his party refused to submit. In the war that followed, Ed- ward, not his father, was the head of the royalist cause. The first campaign was brief. It began in March and ended on the 14th of May, 1264, at Lewes, Battleof where the king's army was beaten so decisively Lewes - that the king and his chief supporters fell into Leices- ter's hands. The victors then dictated their own terms, and Edward became a hostage, held in pledge. LOUIS IX. OF FRANCE. Painted on glass in the Cathedral of Chartres. 146 THE DECLINE OF FEUDALISM. [1264^-1265 65. The Birth of a Representative Parliament. A Parliament was called together to devise some new scheme of government, and the writs for it summoned four knights to be chosen from each shire to meet with the prelates and lords. It was the first important occa- sion in English history on which even the gentry of the kingdom had sent elected representatives to a Parliament great council for dealing with national affairs of 1264. ° ° at large. In 1254, when Henry was absent in France, there had been a council called, which included two knights from each shire, but it did no important work ; and there had been the council of inquest men- tioned above (see section 60) ; but those were only steps leading up to the representation of the commons in Par- liament, which really dates from this assembly of 1264. Even yet, it was landownership alone that was repre- sented ; the towns had no voice. By the action of this Parliament of 1 264, the king was placed under the control of nine councillors, three of whom, with Simon de Montfort at their head, had the management of affairs. For a year England was gov- erned by these three. It was in that year that Simon de Montfort took the great step which made him the actual creator of the representative Commons of England. He Simon de caused the king to issue writs for a Parliament, Pa rS- 0rt ' 8 that met on the 2 ° th of J anuarv > I26 5> t0 which ment. tw0 representatives from each city and bor- ough were summoned, as well as two knights from each shire. Thus was rounded out the representative consti- tution of the English Parliament ; and thus, at last, the principle of representation and the practice of election were carried to their final use. For thirty years after the Parliament of 1265 there was no other so complete ; but a model of representation had been shaped. «65] RISE OF THE ENGLISH COMMONS. 147 The famous Parliament of Simon de Montfort, as it is known, sat through more than two months, but did no memorable work. Quarrels in the government were brewing between Earl Simon and others. There was jealousy, no doubt, of his power; and it is not certain that he was guilt- less of working to some extent for personal ends. His sons made ene- mies, and were evi- dently bad men. Thus different causes were rais- ing up a formida- ble party of mal- contents, and Ed- ward, escaping from his custodi- ans, became its head. Both sides soon had armies in the field, and again the issue was set- tied in a brief cam- paign ; but this time it was Earl Simon and his cause that went down in defeat. At Evesham, near Battle of Worcester, on the 4th of August, 1265, the earl Evesham - was forced by Edward to an uneven battle, and fell, fighting hopelessly but desperately to the last. Apparently, when Simon de Montfort fell, all that he and his supporters had done went for naught. But Earl Simon had been a great teacher, and his lessons were left behind him. Into one mind, at least, they had sunk deep, 148 THE DECLINE OF FEUDALISM. [1265-7272 and that was the mind of the coming king. Mainly Death of because of Edward's influence, the remaining Henry in. seven years of his father's reign were years of fairly reasonable government, and generally of peace ; though Edward was long absent, leading a crusade to the Holy Land in 1268, and he was still absent in 1272, when his father died. In his absence he was proclaimed king. 66. Edward I. Edward I. was in the prime of man- hood when his reign began. In most qualities of char- acter he rose to the higher standards of the age. He realized, in fact, much more than had been promised in his early youth ; for dreadful tales of brutal temper and wanton cruelty were then told of the young prince. Those violent impulses remained in his blood, but gener- ally he had subdued them to the control of a clear mind and a determined will. The mind of Edward had much likeness to that of Henry II. As Henry was the pri- mary builder of the administrative machinery of English law, Edward was the first great legislator or formulator of law. 67. The Model Parliament of Edward I. The reign of Edward I. is most distinguished by measures which gave the English Parliament its fixed form, casting it in the mould which Simon de Montfort had roughly shaped. Those measures came late in the reign, but it is proper to notice them now. For more than twenty years after Edward reached the throne the make-up of Parliament was governed by no settled rule. Sometimes knights of the shire were called ; sometimes they were not. Some- times knights, barons, and clergy were summoned to separate assemblies at different times. Only twice do town representatives appear to have been called. This indefinite constitution of Parliament might have con- i2 9 5] RISE OF THE ENGLISH COMMONS. 149 tinued, perhaps, if increasing need of money had not forced the king to give heed to the growing wealth and weight in the nation of the traders and craftsmen of the towns. Edward came to the shrewd conclusion that if these thrifty burghers were taken into counsel, and were made responsible parties in the settlement of ques- . . x Represent- tions of taxation, they would open their purses ation of with more liberal and more willing hands. Be- Pariia- ing then, in 1295, hard pressed for money on account of a war with France, and in trouble with his barons and clergy at the same time, Ed- ward took up Simon de Mont- fort's idea, and called a Parlia- ment in which each city was represented by two citizens, each borough by two burgh- ers, each shire by two knights. As this was summoned with more regularity of form and circumstance than Earl Simon's, and was perfect in its three estates, it came to be looked upon as the "Model Parliament" in later times. 68. The English "Commons" and "Lords." It must not be understood that the English townspeople GREAT SEAL OF EDWARD I. 150 THE DECLINE OF FEUDALISM. [1295 had won an unexampled gain in political rights, when their representatives took seats in Parliament ; for the chief towns of Aragon and Castile had enjoyed the same right long before. The true advance beyond other coun- tries which England had made was in the parliamentary representation, not of the towns, but of the rural dis- tricts, — of the lesser landowners of the shires. In other countries, the townsfolk were the only people who made up the political class called the " Third Estate ; " Town and . A , . r country and their separateness in the possession of ■MDom- political rights proved to be mainly the reason why those rights were generally lost. England was the one nation in which town and country became united in the Third Estate, or "the Commons," as the English named that unclassed mass of citizens who appeared by representatives in Parliament, and who gradually discovered themselves to be the substantial body of the nation. The election of representatives from the shires had another most important effect. It gave an official character to the English nobility, a character widely different from that of the nobility in any other country. After the Norman Conquest, all tenants-in-chief of the Formation king were held to be entitled to seats in the official Great Council, but the greater barons only, who nobmty. were specially summoned by royal letters, per- sonally addressed, were expected and required to attend. To the remaining crowd, the sheriff in each county gave a general notice, by the king's command. Those who received the personal summons came thereby to be marked off by a very distinct line from those who did not. They were marked as forming a body of " hered- itary counsellors of the crown," an official order of no- bles, who acquired no "nobility of blood," and whose 1295-1297] RISE OF THE ENGLISH COMMONS. 1 5 1 descendants did not form a noble caste. For the parlia- mentary office has descended from generation to generation in but one main line of each baro- English nial family, conferring the nobility of the " peer- peerage ' age " as it passed ; while the branching families of younger sons have been thrown off from the ennobled stem, to become mixed with the lesser landlord class, — with the knights and the " gentlemen " of English society, — and to be counted and considered with them as part of the Commons or Third Estate. Instead of forming, as in many other countries, a mean and mischievous swarm of petty nobles, this minor aristocracy, the landlord "gentry," has often supplied a useful leadership to the English commons, and has often acted a directing part in the struggles through which the people have come into the possession of their rights. The representative form given by Edward I. to the Parliament of 1295 established a precedent Tw0 which generally, though not always, prevailed Houses - in after years ; but the division of Parliament into two Houses, of the Lords (including the prelates) and the Commons, sitting separately, came at a later time. 69. Edward's Confirmation of the Great Charter. The difficulties which caused Edward to summon the Model Parliament of 1295 led, in 1297, to another impor- tant result. The clergy, in obedience to a papal bull, were refusing to make him any grant from their reve- nues, and the barons were refusing to follow him, with their retainers, to France, with which country he had engaged in war. One of the concessions by which he ended these disputes was a formal confirmation or reis- sue of the Great Charter, and likewise of a Charter of Forests, which relaxed the oppressive forest laws of the Norman kings. This Confirmatio Cartarum, as it is 152 THE DECLINE OF -FEUDALISM. [1282-1296 known, had great constitutional importance, because it renewed the provision forbidding taxation without par- liamentary consent, which Henry III., in his confirma- tions of Magna Carta, had left out. Thenceforward that stood as a fundamental principle of the English consti- tution, often violated, but never given up. 70. The Subjugation of Wales. Going back, now, to .review the more stirring but less important events of this remarkable reign, we find Edward engaged early in the conquest of Wales. Where all of his predecessors had failed, he achieved a substantial success. After his final campaign (1282-1284) the principality was annexed to the English crown ; but, in 1301, it was conferred on the king's eldest son and heir, who thus became the first in a long line of English Princes of Wales. 71. The Scottish War of Independence. In 1290, the line of direct succession to the Scottish crown came to an end, and several claimants appeared, among them John Balliol and Robert Bruce. By agreement of all parties, King Edward of England was called in to settle the dispute, and when, in 1292, his decision gave the crown to Balliol, he received the homage of the new king. For a time there was peace; but Edward pre- sently put forward pretensions as overlord that were new and offensive to the Scots, and King John Balliol was forced by his subjects to enter into a secret alliance with the French. In his vigorous and merciless way, Edward made short work of the consequent war (1296), taking Berwick by storm and defeating the Scots with terrific slaughter at Dunbar. The kingdom was then at his feet, and he dealt with it as a forfeited fief. Balliol was sent to imprisonment in the Tower of London, and an English council governed Scotland so oppressively that it rose again the next year, in revolt. i2 9 7-i3°7] RISE OF THE ENGLISH COMMONS. 15; It was at this time that the famous Wil- liam Wallace appeared, and became the first hero of the long war of Scottish independ- ence, then begun. Wallace defeated the English at Stirling Bridge, and put an end to their rule. But Edward, then fighting the French in Flan- ders, made terms with the latter and came home, to lead a power- ful army into the north. He routed Wallace at Falkirk (1298), and seemed to be master of the country once more. Wal- lace disappeared and was scarcely heard of for several years. Yet Scotland was not subdued. Even Wil i iam when Wallace, becoming active again, had been Wallace - captured, tried in London for treason, and shamefully executed (1305), English authority was not restored. The Scots found a new heroic leader in Robert Bruce, a grandson and namesake of the Bruce who had disputed Balliol's claim to the Scottish crown. They made him their king, crowning him at Scone, and the nation was rallied with a more enduring resolution than before. 72. Death of Edward I. Edward died in 1307, while attempting, in a feeble state of body, to lead an army in Scotland against Bruce. 73. Commerce and Industries. A league headed WILLIAM WALLACE. 154 THE DECLINE OF FEUDALISM. [i 3 th Cent. by merchants of Cologne had the monopoly of foreign trade in London until the reign of Henry III. Then the northern league (the Hanse Towns) obtained privileges TheHanse there, and founded a "hanse" or gild, which absorbed that of Cologne and became an impos- ing establishment, to which the name of the "Steelyard" was given. 1 It was not until about the Towns and the Steelyard THE STEELYARD IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. middle of the thirteenth century that the growth of a body of English merchants engaged in exporting Eng- lish products to foreign markets can be traced. Their organization was known as " the Staple," though " the 1 The name " Steelyard," given to the premises occupied by the merchants of the Hanse in London, was an English mistranslation of the Dutch name, StacUwf, which signified the hall or office where cloth was marked as being properly dyed. It had no refer- ence to steel as an article of trade, and no apparent connection with the name " steelyard," given to an old-fashioned instrument for weighing. i 3 thCent.] RISE OF THE ENGLISH COMMONS. 155 Customs. Staple, in its primary meaning, was an appointed place to which all English merchants were to take their , , , t • , ,. The Staple. wool and other ' staple commodities tor sale. The Staple was sometimes at Bruges, sometimes at Ant- werp, sometimes at English towns, but it was finally es- tablished at Calais. An indefinite right which the kings had exercised, to take toll from goods exported and imported, was reduced to a system by Edward I. The fair toll, of ancient custom, as distinguished from "maltolt" or "maltote" (wrongful toll), was set- tled by law. This gave the name of cus- toms to such duties or dues. A customs de- partment for their system- atic collection was created by Edward I. Only the coarser kinds of cloth were made as yet in England ; for the finer qualities the English depended on the Netherlands, to which they sent most of their wool. Unsuccessful attempts were made to stop the exportation of wool and the importation of cloth. MERTON COLLEGE, OXFORD- 156 THE DECLINE OF FEUDALISM. [i 3 th Cent. 74. Learning and Literature. Though there were lecturers and teachers at Oxford at an early day, the The Grey history of the great university is considered to Friars. begin in this century, when the number of stu- dents rose to many thousands. They seem to have been a disorderly mob, living rudely, behaving coarsely, fight- ing perpetually ; yet the university drew to it such teach- ers as Friar Roger Bacon, the " Father of Science," in the modern sense of the term, and it was much under the influence of the Franciscan brotherhood (the Grey Friars) to which he belonged, and which was then an admirable body of pious and learned men. The Univer- sity of Cambridge was rising at the same time, but less of its early history is known. The most valuable of the literary work of this period is a contemporary history of part of the reign of Henry III., written by Matthew of Paris, or Matthew Paris, a monk. It marks an important advance beyond the older "chronicles," towards the writing of history in a truer sense. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS. 58. King John. — His Loss of Normandy and the An- gevin Fiefs. Topics. 1. Reasons for the election of John. 2. Death of Arthur and dissolution of the Angevin dominion. Reference. — Stubbs, E. P., 136-144. 59. King John's Quarrel with the Church. Topics. 1. State of the royal power at John's succession. 2. John's contest with the church over Stephen Langton. 3. The pope's interdict and John's submission. References. — Stubbs, E. P., 145-150. Stephen Langton: Gar- diner, i. 177, 180-182; Green, 123, 126, 127, 130, 142, 143 ; Bright, TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 1 57 i. 131, 135-137, I43-H7; Stubbs, E. P., 14S, 153, 156-159 ; Ran- some, 59; Montague, 53, 56; Taswell-Langmead, 105, 106. Research Questions. — (1.) From whom did John seem to in- herit his quarrel with the church ? (2.) Trace the culmination of the pope's authority in England under John. (Guest, 193-199.) (3.) Why did the pope by an interdict punish the people instead of the king ? 60. Magna Carta. .Topics. 1. The council at St. Albans, its make-up and action. 2. John's campaign in Flanders and its effect on England. 3. Opposition by Stephen Langton and the barons. 4. Signing of the Magna Carta and its provisions. 5. Magna Cartas of other peoples. References. — Gardiner, i. 182, 183; Bright, i. 137-139; Green, 128-130; Colby, 74-78; Stubbs, E. P., 157; Ransome, 60-63; Montague, 53-57 ; Taswell-Langmead, ch. iv. Research Questions. — (1.) Discuss this new combination of barons and people against the king. (2.) By what cause was it brought about ? (3.) What is the significance of putting into the charter provisions for its execution ? (4.) What is the British constitution? (5.) Compare it with our constitution. (6.) How may changes be made in each, and which do you consider the more flexible ? (7.) What European country has a constitution resembling ours in form ? 61. The Final Struggle with King John. Topics. 1. The pope's championship of John. 2. John's death and the termination of the trouble. Reference. — Stubbs, E. P., 158-161. Research Questions. — (1.) How does John compare with the preceding kings of his house ? (2.) Describe John's treatment of the Jews. (Guest, 195, 196.) 62. The Beginnings of the Reign of Henry III. Topic 1. Characteristics Henry showed on reaching his majority. Reference. — Stubbs, E. P., 161-188. 158 RISE OF THE ENGLISH COMMONS. 63. Simon de Montfort and the Provisions of Oxford. Topics. 1. New leader of the people. 2. Henry's reason for summoning Parliament. 3. Temper of this Parliament and the Provisions of Oxford. 4. Prince Edward's view. References. — Gardiner, i. 193, 199-204; Bright, i. 152-170; Green, 152-160; Stubbs, E. P., ch. ix. ; Colby, 78-83 ; Ransome, 64-67; Montague, 62, 63; Tout, Edward I., ch. ii. ; Freeman, G. E. C, 69-90 ; Traill, ii. 393-395 ; H. Taylor, i. 400-404 ; Creighton, Simon de Montfort. Research Questions. — (1.) In what two ways may the increase of the power of the church in this reign be traced? (2.) Look up Robert Grosseteste, and show how his calculations measured the exactions of the church. (Traill, i. 404.) (3.) In what three ways could the clergy educate the people? (Guest, 172, 173.) 64. The Barons' War. Topics. 1. Provisions of Westminster, dissensions and intrigues. 2. St. Louis as referee. 3. First campaign of the war. Reference. — Stubbs, E. P., 201-21 1. 65. The Birth of a Representative Parliament. Topics. 1. Representation of the new Parliament. 2. Arrangements for carrying on the government. 3. New basis for representation. 4. Dissensions and the second campaign of the war. 5. Results of Simon de Montfort's teachings. References. — Gardiner, i. 196, 201, 218; Bright, i. 165, 185, 193- 195; Green, [58, 169-181 ; Tout, Edward I., ch. viii. ; Stubbs, E. P., 207-234: Colby, 89; Ransome, 65, 70; Montague, 62, 68-70; Taswell-Langmead, ch. vii. ; Traill, i. 396-403. Research Questions. — (1.) What is the significance of the new tone which Parliament takes in this reign by asking what use is to be made of the money raised? (2.) Why is it a good thing for the people to have the king in want of money ? (3.) Trace the progress of royal revenues into definite forms of taxation. (Stubbs, E. P., 226-234.) TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 1 59. 66. Edward I. Topic. 1. Characteristics and resemblance to Henry II. References. — Green, 167,181-184; Stubbs, E. P., 262; Bright, i. 173 ; Tout, Edward I., ch. iv. ; Green, H. E. P., 290, 297-302. 67. The Model Parliament of Edward I. Topics. 1. Uncertainty in the representation. 2. His reason for giving the towns representation. 3. The make-up of the model Parliament. Reference. — Tout, Edward I., 144-147. Research Question. — Outline parliamentary development up to this time. (Ransome, 64-67.) 68. The English " Commons" and "Lords." Topics. 1. English third estate compared with that in other countries. 2. Further effect of shire representation ; the English peerage. 3. The new Parliament as a precedent. Reference. — Stubbs, C. H., ii. ch. xv. 69. Edward's Confirmation of the Great Charter. Topics. 1. Reason for confirming. 2. Significance of the confirmation. Reference. — Stubbs, S. C, 487-497. 70. The Subjugation of Wales. Topic. 1. Its annexation and bestowal upon the king's oldest son. References. — Tout, Edward I., 107-119; Guest, 232. 71. The Scottish War of Independence. Topics. 1. Disputed succession of Scotland, and Edward as referee. 2. Edward's claims as overlord and revolt of the Scots. 3. William Wallace. 4. Robert Bruce. References. — Gardiner, i. 221-224, 22 6 ; Bright, i. 189-192, 203- 208; Colby, 90-92; Green, 186-193, 211-214; Stubbs, E. P., 258-261, 274, 275. 160 RISE OF THE ENGLISH COMMONS. 72. Death of Edward I. Topic. i. Circumstances of his death. 73. Commerce and Industries. Topics. i. The Steelyard and the Staple. 2. Custom duties and cloth manufacture. References. — Gardiner, i. 211 ; Stubbs, E. P., 230; Cunningham and McArthur, 71, 74-7S, 203, 204; Ashley, i. chs. ii., iii. ; Rogers, chs. i., vi. ; Traill, ii. 100-114. 74. Learning and Literature. Topics. 1. Life at Oxford and Oxford teachers ; Roger Bacon. 2. Matthew Paris and his work. References. — Green, 137-141 ; Colby, 83-87; Traill, ii. 72-74, 81, 85, 360. Origin of universities and the academic degree of A. B. : Traill, i. 337-339. Rise of Oxford : Traill, i. 339, 340. SURVEY OF GENERAL HISTORY. THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. An Age of Adversities. The fourteenth century was a period of many adversities in Europe, by which the advance of civ- ilization appeared on the surface to be checked, though the moral and intellectual forces that carry humanity forward were making great unseen gains. Sca7idals in the Church. The Christian church, as a priestly organization, was sinking to a deplorable state, even while the spirit of Christianity was revealing itself with new clearness to the broadening intelligence of thoughtful men. Just before the century began, Pope Boniface VIII. had opened a con- flict with King Philip IV. of France, which proved disastrous to the head of the church. The papal capital was removed from Rome to Avignon, and for seventy years (known as the period of " the Babylonian Captivity ") French influence con- trolled the popes. This weakened their authority in other countries and lowered the respect in which they had been held. Then the return of the papal court to Rome was fol- lowed by a still worse period, of forty years, called that of "the Great Schism," during which rival popes reigned, one at Rome, the other at Avignon, each claiming divine authority, and each obeyed by a part of the Christian world. The character of the clergy, as a body, was much injured by this scandalous state of things at its head ; but the very scandals of the time were driving many minds to deeper searching for religious truth. The Black Death. Both religious and irreligious effects appear to have been caused by an awful visitation of plague, — the most dreadful of which history gives any account. The " Black Death," as it was called, coming from the east, 162 GENERAL HISTORY. swept Europe in the middle of the century, and is believed to have destroyed not less than 25,000,000 of its inhabitants. The Dreadful State of France. The unhappiest of all lands in this afflicted age was France, which suffered even more from war than from the deadliness of the plague. Some ac- count of that wanton war, forced on the country by an Eng- lish king who claimed the French crown, appears in the next chapter. Its ruinous consequences to France can hardly be described. Authority in government was broken down ; the people were reduced to despair ; lawless bands of unpaid mercenaries were let loose to spread havoc where the arm of the foreign enemy had not reached. A parliament like that of England might have done great things at such a time ; but the " States-General " of France, which resembled the English Parliament in form, did so in nothing else. It was called together in 1355 and 1356, but worked with no success. It had met but once before in French history, and had neither experience nor prestige. The three estates could not act with agreement together. First the nobles and then the clergy withdrew, leaving the representatives of the cities alone. The latter had no coun- try associates. There was the fatal want of a body of land- owning gentry and yeomanry, to form, as in the English " Commons," a part of the " Third Estate," and the town dep- uties had not strength enough alone to carry the nation into great reforms which they planned. Towards the end of the century, the sad condition of France was made worse by the accession of a king (Charles VI.) who was a child when crowned, who was often insane in after years, and whose jealous uncles quarrelled over the exercise of authority in his name. Those quarrels bred two malignant factions, Burgundian and Armagnac, which brought France, in the next century, to still lower depths of ruin and shame. The Netherlands. The thrifty, freedom-loving, high-spirited people of Flanders strove long and hard in this century to cast off their count, who reigned over them as a vassal of the THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 163 King of France ; but they failed in the end, and their yoke was made even worse. Before the century closed their coun- try was swallowed up (as the whole of the Netherlands was soon to be) in a great dominion built up by the marriages of the French' Dukes of Burgundy, and destined to pass with that dominion under the deadly rule of Spanish kings. Holland was already beginning to create schools under professional schoolmasters, which made education more com- mon at an early day in that little country than in any other in the world. Germany. In the divided and distracted state of Germany there was not much change. For several generations the Austrian House of Hapsburg lost its hold upon the crown, which was worn in that interval by kings who reigned likewise in Bohemia and Hungary, and who gave little attention to German affairs. Most of these nominal German kings went duly to Rome and were made nominal emperors by the pope. Despite the want of a national life, there was a growth of German spirit and a stirring of mind. In literature, the period was one of decline, but an interest in learning awoke, and the earliest of the German universities were founded in these years. There was increasing prosperity in the industry and trade of the towns. The Hanse League was at the height of its power. It controlled substantially the commerce of northern Europe, and almost dictated to kings the terms on which trade should be carried on. Italy. In Italy, throughout this century, the political dis- order could hardly have been worse. The mad factions, Guelf and Ghibelline, were tearing at each other in every town. War seemed everywhere incessant, and the peninsula swarmed with bands of hireling soldiers — " free companies," they were called — by whom most of the fighting was done. When others did not employ them, these armies of wild ad- venturers made war on their own account. Most of the city republics had lost their freedom and were submissive to some lord, who obtained a ducal title from the emperor or the 164 GENERAL HISTORY. pope. Florence was still free and democratic, but its demo- cracy was becoming that of a turbulent mob. And yet this age of much tumult and disorder was the age of Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, and of many artists and scholars who gave Italy the lead of all Europe in the finer culture of the human mind. It was the age which opened what is called the period of Italian Renaissance, signifying a new birth. Other Countries. In other parts of the world, the four- teenth century was marked by many important events. The Turks, already masters of Asia Minor, crossed the Hellespont and entered Europe, beginning conquests which covered most of the region south of the lower Danube before the century closed, and which opened a struggle for Hungary that went desperately on during three hundred years. Constantinople, with little territory outside of its walls, still held out against them, valiantly but vainly resisting its fate. In what is now Russia, which had* been overwhelmed by Mongols or Tartars in the preceding century, a duchy was rising at Moscow, that would in time break the Tartar yoke and begin to form the future empire of the Tsar. Poland had become an important kingdom and entered the most brilliant period of its career. The Swiss, in this century, made good their independence against the Hapsburgs of Austria, who claimed sovereignty over them. Inventions and Discoveries. Gunpowder, or some explosive substance of like nature, appears to have been known in China, and perhaps in India, at an earlier time ; but the Arabs or Moors are believed to have been the first to use it in war. Borrowed probably from them, it came into Europe some time during the early part of this fourteenth . century, so far as can be ascertained. Rudely made cannon were in- vented for its use, long before lighter firearms were thought possible, and its early employment was doubtless in sieges alone. It has been said that the English had cannon at the battle of Cre'cy, in 1346, but the statement is open to doubt. CHAPTER VIII. VAINGLORY IN FOREIGN WAR. The Last Plantagenet Kings: Edward II. — Edward III. — Richard II. 1307-1399. 75. Edward II. and his Favorites. Edward II., twenty-three years old when he succeeded his father (1307), had already shown the weakness of his character. He had attached himself to a Gascon knight, Piers Gav- eston, whose influence was seen to be bad, and whom the old king, for that reason, had banished from court. One of the first royal acts of the foolish son was to call Gaveston back to his side, to give him the rich earldom of Cornwall, and to exalt him in favor, while the chief ministers of the late king were dismissed. The young king had already been betrothed to the Princess Isabella of France, and when he hastened, soon after his father's burial, to claim the bride, he made Gaveston regent dur- ing his absence, with unusual powers. Thus fatuously from the beginning he provoked the ill-will of n 1 1 • r r-in-i r^ Gaveston. all the chief men of the kingdom. Gaveston provoked them still more by the insolence with which he bore his unearned honors, and a powerful combination was formed to put him down. At its head was the king's cousin, Earl Thomas of Lancaster, whose father was the younger son of Henry III. It is useless to detail the events of the twenty years of confusion and disorder during which this incapable king wore the crown, but cannot be said to have reigned. 166 THE DECLINE OF FEUDALISM. [1310-1323 In 1 3 10, Gaveston was taken prisoner by the barons and put to death. Lancaster was supreme in affairs Lancaster. tor some years ; but he, too, was an incapable man, and his power waned. Meantime,' the country suf- fered in every way, from dearth, from pestilence, and from disasters in the Scottish war, which still went on. Bruce, in 13 14, had so nearly expelled the English from his kingdom that Stirling was the only important strong- hold they held, and that was being besieged. Bannock- King Edward led such force as he could raise to its relief, and suffered a frightful defeat at Bannockburn, on the 24th of June, which practically re- stored their independence to the Scots. After a time two new favorites, the Despensers, father and son, took possession of the weak-minded king, and, as Lancaster lost authority, they rose in TheDe- power. Then a new combination of barons spensers. drove the Despensers into exile (1321); but there was such a lack of leadership in the league that Edward was able, for the first and only time, to make a fight on his own account. Lancaster took the field against him, but was defeated, taken prisoner, and be- headed ; whereupon he became, in the popular estima- tion, a martyr, and miracles were supposed to be wrought at his tomb. The Despensers were recalled, and both they and the king indulged freely in revenge. 76. Deposition and Death of Edward II. Con- tempt for the king was universal, and he was surrounded by treacheries, even in his own house. In 1323, his queen, Isabella, went to France, to use influence with her brother, in settling disputes that had risen concern- ing homage due to the French crown for fiefs in France still held by the English kings. There she became infatuated with one Roger Mortimer, lord of Wigmore, 1323-133°] VAINGLORY IN FOREIGN WAR. 167 and joined him in intrigues for removing Edward from the throne. Her eldest son, another Edward, who fol- lowed her to France, was drawn into the plot. The be- trayed husband and father became aware of the treason, but he was powerless to defend himself ; for the loyalty of the English to their king was practically dead. The queen, raising a fleet arid a force of men for the invasion of England, landed in Suffolk in September, 1326, and the helpless king fled before her to Wales. He was captured in November, when both the Despensers were also taken and put to death. The boy, Edward, then fourteen years old, was declared guardian of the king- dom, and a Parliament of the three estates was sum- moned in his name. The captive king resigned his crown, and Parliament, meeting in January, 1327, gave it to his son. For eight months the deposed sovereign was allowed to live, in confinement, first at Kenilworth and later in Berkeley Castle ; then he was secretly put to death, in what manner and by whom was never known. For nearly four years the shameless Queen Isabella and Mortimer, her lover, controlled the government, in the name of the boy-king. At the end of that time Edward had become old enough to see in what , , . i tt i ■**■ Execution manner he was being used. He caused Morti- of Morti- mer to be arrested and brought before Parlia- ment under many accusations, including that of the murder of the late king. The much hated man was condemned without a hearing and hanged. 77. Beginning of the Personal Reign of Edward III. With the arrest of Mortimer (October, 1330) the actual reign of Edward III. may be said to have begun. He was then eighteen years of age, but already married to Philippa of Hainault, and already the father of a son. There had been, since he was crowned, a fresh outbreak 1 68 THE DECLINE OF FEUDALISM. [1328-1337 EDWARD III. of war with Scotland (1328), and it had been ended by a treaty of peace, in which all claims of the English crown over Scotland had been re- nounced in his name, while his in- fant sister had been given in mar- riage to the infant Scottish heir. But when Robert Bruce died, in 1329, the son, David II., who suc- ceeded him, was only seven years old, and circumstances encouraged a son of the dethroned king, John Balliol, to claim the crown. As he offered to put the Scottish kingdom into vassalage again, Edward was persuaded to support Balliol's claim, From a wall-painting, for- anc J to lend help by which he Was merly in St. Stephen's 10 • chapel, Westminster. seated on the Scottish throne. Balliol, when in power, enraged his subjects by surrendering to the English the whole of Scotland south of the Forth, besides acknowledging the remainder to be an English fief. A few castles still held out for the young king, David Bruce, who had been sent into France, and the resistance grew. Repeated risings occurred ; the odious vassal-king needed constantly to be helped by his overlord. The Scots renewed their alliance with France, and received French aid in money and men. And so the fatal breach of peace with Scotland led on to a war with France, which lasted a hundred years. 78. The War with France. If Edward had gone to war with France for no cause but its alliance with the Scots, the conflict might not have been long ; but he began the war with a challenge that left no room for War with Scotland. 1328-1337] VAINGLORY IN FOREIGN WAR. 169 peace, by laying claim to the French crown. The late King of France, Charles IV., had died without children, in 1328. His sister, Isabella, the mother of Edward III., was the nearest akin to him of any living person, and the crown would have belonged to her, or to one of several nieces, if women could inherit it, which Edward . s the French denied. Falling back on a law of ^French one branch of the ancient Franks, 1 called the crowu - Salic Law, which declared that " Salic land shall not fall to woman," they gave the crown to a cousin of the de- ceased king, Philip VI., or Philip of Valois. Edward dis- puted Philip's right, contending that, if Isabella could not inherit, he could do so, as her lawful heir. Accord- ing to all authorities his claim was not legally good ; but, in 1337, he made it seri- ous by assuming the title of King of France and by pre- paring to attempt a conquest of the throne. Edward found allies on the borders of France, in the enterprising cities of Flanders, which were in re- volt, under the lead of A CROSSBOWMAN WITH HIS SHIELD. Jacques Van Artevelde, striv- ing to free their country from its vassalage to the French crown. 1 Before their conquest of Gaul, the Franks who dwelt on the lower Rhine were known to the Romans as Salian Franks and those on the middle Rhine as Ripuarian Franks. It was the for- mer who led the invasion and conquest, and the law referred to above was derived from their ancient code. 170 THE DECLINE OF FEUDALISM. [1338-1346 In the first nine years of the war two great battles were fought, and two English victories won, which shone in the eyes of many later generations as the most glori- sea-fight 0lls events in English history. The first was off stays. a fight at seEj off the Flemish port of Sluys (1340), and it resulted in the destruction of the French fleet. After the bat- tle at Sluys, there were five years of planless fighting in Brittany and on the Aquitanian bor- der, — tiresome sieges and curious exploits of knightly valor, — all the story of which is told with great spirit and at much length by Frois- sart, the old chronicler of the court. In the sixth year (1346), Ed- ward and his eldest son (the Black Prince, as he was called, supposedly from the color of his armor) ravaged Normandy and then moved on Calais. At Crecy, thirty miles from Amiens, the English encountered (August 26) an army much greater than their own, led by the French king. On the French side was a formidable number of mounted knights and men- at-arms, clad in mail — the feudal array of cavalry — and with them were 1 5,000 Genoese archers who used the clumsy cross-bow. Edward's main dependence in the battle was on the stout yeomen of a country which had nearly left feudalism behind it, among AN ARCHER WITH HIS SHEAF OF ARROWS. Battle of Crecy. 1346-1347] VAINGLORY IN FOREIGN WAR. 1 71 the things of the past. They fought on foot, with the English long-bow, which no weak arm could bend, and which drove its heavy arrow with deadly force. A charge of the French horse on these English bowmen was repulsed with great confusion, and ended in so dreadful a rout that 30,000 of the French were left dead on the field. The battle of Crecy is most memorable, historically, as a great and impressive blow at aristo- cratic feudalism, by a nation which had begun to arm itself with the strength of its common people. From the Crecy battlefield Edward marched on to Calais and laid siege to the city, building a complete outer town around its walls. Thus quartered, siege of he waited for nearly a year, until Calais was Calais - starved into surrender. Thereafter, for two hundred years, Calais was an English port. While Edward was engaged in the war with France the Scots had nearly recovered their kingdom. Balliol had been driven out and young David Bruce TheScotg had been brought back from France. But there war - came a great reverse to them. Undertaking an invasion of England in 1346, during the siege of Calais, they were met and defeated at Nevill's Cross ; King David was taken prisoner and sent to the Tower. 79. The Black Death and its Effects. In October, 1347, the king returned home, having arranged a truce which circumstances prolonged for eight years. The state of feeling in England was then very happy. The court gave itself up to joyous pastimes, and the people, proud and prosperous, followed the example of the court. It was at this time that King Edward created the splen- did Order of the Garter, in imitation of King Arthur's Round Table and its twelve knights. From that height of joy and gayety the nation was 172 THE DECLINE OF FEUDALISM. [1347-1369 suddenly struck down by the most frightful visitation of plague ever known in the world. The pestilence called the Black Death, which entered Europe from the east near the end of the year 1347, reached England in the following August, arrived at London in November, and was soon spreading death in every part of the island. The disease was virulent for a number of months, and then subsided, but only to reappear in 1361, and again in 1369. It is believed to have swept away from one third to one half of the entire population of the kingdom. The social effect was so great as to change the charac- ter of English classes in all future time. Wages were Social doubled, though Parliament endeavored to fix effects. them by oppressive laws, which landlords strove eagerly to enforce. There is some reason for supposing that many landlords resorted to harsher measures than these, attempting to revive old demands for labor from their tenants which in late years they had given up. For some time past the manorial system had VillsiiicicrG disappear- been undergoing a great change. A money rent had been taking the place of the personal labor by which villein -tenants paid formerly for the use of their bits of land, and the greater part of the villein- class is supposed to have become practically free at the time of the plague. It seems possible that the lords, when labor became scarce, attempted to bring back the old state of villeinage ; but how far that was undertaken is in doubt. 80. Edward III. and the Parliament. In its first period, the king's war in France was doubtless favored by popular feeling. Edward was extravagant in it, as in everything else ; his demands for money were sorely felt ; but he gratified the national love of glory, and was, on the whole, upheld. In his dealings with his subjects, 1338-1355] VAINGLORY IN FOREIGN WAR. 1 73 however, he strained their good-will to the utmost ; and the Commons, if they did not quarrel with him, learned boldness in their attitude, feeling more of responsibility for the defence of English liberty, since the lords on whom they formerly leaned were now drawn to the side of the king by their interest in the great war. It was in this period that the Commons appear to have begun to hold their meetings apart, and that " the definite and final arrangement of Parliament in two houses " was made. 81. Industrial and Commercial Progress. The one great service which Edward III. rendered to England was the bringing in of Flemish weavers and Flemisll dyers, who established the manufacture of finer weavers - cloths than the country had formerly produced. Hitherto the English fabrics had been coarse in make and poor in color, or else undyed, and found no market abroad. With the immigration of Flemish weavers, who escaped in large numbers at this time from the disorders in their own land, a great change began, and England, ere long, was manufacturing its own wool, and its principal export was cloth. There now grew up a new class of English merchants, who organized themselves under the name of Merchant Adventurers, and entered into competition with the Hanse traders and with the Merchants of the Staple, as the traders who handled the old staple exports of the country were known. It was the begin- AdventSr- ning of the great commercial career of the Eng- e lish nation. But of English shipping afloat there was very little yet. 82. Renewed War with France. War with France was reopened in 1355, when the Black Prince landed an expedition at Bordeaux and began a campaign of plunder 174 THE DECLINE OF FEUDALISM. [1355-1360 in southern France. That year the English did nothing but march through peaceful Languedoc, gathering up enormous booty and leaving ruin and misery behind them. In the next year, the prince led an expedition into central France, spreading ruin as before. As he returned to Bordeaux, laden with plunder, he encoun- tered a French army, under King John, near Poitiers. He had but 8,000 men, it is said, while the French num- Battie of bered 50,000 ; but he placed his formidable bow- Poitiers. men t0 sucn advantage, and the French king managed his heavier forces so badly, that a victory as FRANCE AT THE TIME OF THE TREATY OF BRETIGNY. overwhelming as Crecy was won at Poitiers. King John was among the prisoners taken, and he remained in cap- tivity for some years, royal authority in France being represented by his son Charles, then a lad of nineteen. In 1 360, even the hard heart of Edward was touched i357-i37°] VAINGLORY IN FOREIGN WAR. 175 by the terrible misery that he saw in France, and he con- sented to peace on terms set forth in the Treaty Trea tyof of Bretigny, which gave him the whole Aquita- Breti e n y- nian domain of the Angevin kings in its largest extent, together with Ponthieu, not as French fiefs, but in full sovereignty ; while he, on his side, renounced his claim to the crown of France. Already, in 1357, after a disastrous campaign in Scot- land, he had given 1113 his designs against Scot- • , ' f n 1 , ! 7 1 Scottish tish independence, and had concluded a treaty independ- which ransomed and restored King David to his throne. 83. Loss of French Conquests. The Black Prince was sent, in 1363, to govern Aquitaine as its duke, and showed little wisdom in his conduct there. He wasted his army in a foolish and wicked undertaking in Spain, and oppressed his subjects with taxes which caused bit- ter discontent. France, meantime, acquired an able king, by the death of the captive King John and the accession of his son Charles. The latter saw that the English hold of Aquitaine had grown weak, and he found excuses for reopening war. In the campaigns that fol- lowed, the French commander, Bertrand Du Guesclin, avoided battle, but harassed the English and wore out their strength. A single hideous triumph, eternally disgraceful to his memory, was won by the Black Prince. Having retaken the city of Limoges (1370), after revolt, he or- j t> v J/ /' Massacre dered a general massacre of the inhabitants, at and allowed 3000 men, women, and children to be butchered in cold blood. A possible palliation for the fiendish deed is found in the fact that the prince was a sick and dying man, already suffering from some disease which slowly consumed his life. He went home 176 THE DECLINE OF FEUDALISM. [1371-1377 to England the next year, leaving his brother John, Duke of Lancaster, called John of Gaunt, or Ghent (from his Flemish birthplace), in command. Under John of Gaunt, the English lost ground in France so steadily that, in 1375, when a truce was made, they held nothing but the five cities of Bordeaux, Bayonne, Brest, Cherbourg, and Calais. 84. The Church and the Nation. — Wiclif and the First Reformers. At this period a new discontent with things in state and church was spread- ing in the minds of the English people. The Plague had shocked and shaken old habits of feel- ing ; disaster and shame in France were blotting the memory of Crecy and Poitiers ; griev- ous taxes were weighing the coun- try down ; its com- merce was being harassed by priva- teers and pirates at sea ; the king was in his dotage ; the heir to the throne was dying ; his brother, John of Gaunt, was distrusted and disliked ; politically the kingdom was in an evil plight. The state of the church was even Worse. The popes of "the Babylonian Captivity," at Avignon (see page 161) were looked upon as enemies in league with France ; yet they drew an ever-swelling revenue from the English JOHN OF GAUNT. I37J-I377] VAINGLORY IN FOREIGN WAR. 177 church, and their tribunals encroached more and more on the jurisdiction of the English courts. The Eng- lish clergy, holding lands that were reckoned, when the fourteenth century closed, to equal half the area of the JOHN WICLIF. kingdom, were demoralized by the enormous wealth they controlled. The general discontent with the church found many voices ; but two were heard above the rest, and stirred a great movement of revolt and reform. One wiciifand was that of John Wiclif, teacher and preacher Lan ^ land - of Oxford, — early among the leaders of Christian pro- test against grasping worldliness in the church of Christ. Wiclif attacked monks, friars, and worldly priests, and 178 THE DECLINE OF FEUDALISM. [1371-1377 sought to institute in their place an order of " poor priests," pious men who went among the people, as the friars had done at first, preaching and doing good. The other voice was that of William Langland, who wrote a strange and remarkable allegorical poem, " The Vision of Piers Plowman," idealizing and exalting the humble life of honest work and simple ways. 85. The " Good Parliament." A party of barons, headed by John of Gaunt, who wished to get the wealth of the church into their own hands, attempted to give Wiclif's opinions a political turn. For a time they con- trolled the government, and John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, was believed to be planning to make himself king when his father died, setting aside the young son of his dying brother, the Black Prince. The Prince rallied his failing strength to defeat the scheme, and his recourse was not, as it would have been in earlier times, to a rival party in the baronage, but to the Commons in Parliament, with whom he joined hands. Supported by impeach- h" 11 ' tne House of Commons exercised for the ment. fi rs |- t j me (1376) the power to impeach minis- ters and officers of the king and to bring them to trial before the Lords. The " Good Parliament," as it was called, which did this, attempted much more excellent work ; but the Black" Pfim:e died, the Duke of Lancaster regained power, and what Parliament had done was undone, except that the precedent of impeachment re- mained, as a constitutional fact which could not be wiped out. In the next year, the long reign of Edward III. was ended by his death, and Richard II., the Black Prince's son, then ten years of age, was raised without resistance to the throne. 86. Richard II. and the Peasant Revolt. The poor boy who was crowned and lifted to the throne in 1377] VAINGLORY IN FOREIGN WAR. 179 1377 is a pathetic figure in English history. Fortune was unkind to him. He had no good teacher, no consci- entious minister, no protecting friend. His selfish and TOMB OF THE HLACK PRINCE IN CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL. His helmet, shield, and shirt of mjjl are shown above. envious uncles were distrusted and feared. The ruinous wars with France and Scotland, waged in his name, were carried blunderingly on, from bad to worse results. The ferment of general discontent, the resistance of landlords to rising wages, the increasing independence of the peasantry, and the thinking which Wiclif and his i8o THE DECLINE OF FEUDALISM. [1377-1381 disciples stirred up, had given a strangely early birth to extreme democratic ideas. Rhymes and popular sayings that seem to belong to the nineteenth century rather than to the fourteenth became part of the common talk. " When Adam delved and Eve span, Who was then the gentleman ? " is a couplet still familiar which comes from those days. In 1 38 1 a grievous poll-tax gave fresh provocation to the feeling that was abroad, and it flamed suddenly into revolt. Almost at once the peasants were everywhere in arms. From Kent and neighboring counties a host said to be 100,000 in number was assembled and marched in good order to London, led by Wat Tyler, Wat Tyler, ° ' J J ' jack straw, Jack Straw, and John Ball, as the leaders were John Ball. ~ _ _ , , . known, in .London, many obnoxious persons were put to death, including the Archbishop of Canter- bury, then chancellor, who was supposed to be the author of the tax. But the young king, boy of fifteen as he was, went boldly into the midst of the insurgents and mas- tered them by his confi- dent bearing. They were given charters of freedom from villeinage, which were their principal de- mand, and dispersed to their homes ; notwith- standing that Tyler, their leader, was wickedly slain in their presence by some of the angry attendants of the king. In Richard's conduct throughout this affair it is JOHN BALL PREACHING FROM HORSE- BACK, FROM AN OLD MS. 13S1-13S4] VAINGLORY IN FOREIGN WAR. 181 impossible not to see a strength of mind and character that was capable of great things, if it could have been rightly trained. The revolt of the peasants was ended in a week ; then a cruel retaliation began, and no less than 1500 Re suitof are said to have been tried and condemned to the revolt - death. But the main object of their rising had been gained. " The custom of commuting the old labor-rents for money payments became universal ; " 1 villeinage rap- idly disappeared. 87. Wiclif and the Lollards. The peasants' rising, attributed in part to the democratic influence of Wiclif's " poor priests," caused many in the upper classes who had favored his teachings to draw back. Others shrank from an issue that Wiclif had opened with the existing church, on the subject of papal indulgences and abso- lutions, and on the worship of images and saints. His enemies in the church then made head against him, and he was forced to retire from Oxford to a parish, where he died in 1384. A persecution, mild at first, but violent in the following reigns, fell on his disciples, who came to be called " Lollards," a nickname borrowed from the Dutch. Political and social aims continued to be mixed with the religious ideas of Lollardism during most of the fif- teenth century ; but its influence as a religious move- ment was the longest and the most deeply felt, -vviciifs Wiclif, like Luther, gave the Bible to the people Blble - in their own tongue, by translating it, and Wiclif's Bible made his influence lasting, sowing seeds in the English mind which no persecution could destroy. 88. The King and the Ducal Factions. During 1 J. T. Thorold Rogers, Six Centuries of Work and Wages, vol. i. ch. ix. 182 THE DECLINE OF FEUDALISM. [13S6-1396 Richard's minority his reign was filled with factious contests, end- ing (1386) in the tri- umph of a baronial party headed by the youngest of the king's uncles, Thomas, Duke of Gloucester, which took possession of the government in a vio- lent way. Richard, for some reason, was submissive to this usurpation until he had passed his twen- ty-third year. Then, suddenly, one day, in 1389, he asserted his rights, dismissed the commission of regency that had been set over him, and took the reins, without challenge, into his own hands. 89. Richard's Personal Reign and his Deposition. For seven years from that day King Richard reigned wisely and well. He stopped the miserable French war, and when, in 1394, he lost his excellent young wife, Anne of Bohemia, he tried to heal the enmity between England and France by marrying the French king's daughter, a child of eight years. He sought to protect the peasants from oppression by the landlords and the Lollards from persecution by the church. His peace policy was detestable to the barons, his justice to the landlords, his tolerance to the clergy ; and thus he made powerful enemies by every good thing that he did, while RICHARD II. 1398-1399] VAINGLORY IN FOREIGN WAR. 183 the friends that he won were weak. His own kinsmen were the most dangerous of his foes. Possibly there was then a situation in which he saw deadly danger to himself and his crown. At all events, by some malignant influence, which nobody has rightly explained, an evil change was suddenly wrought in the character of his reign. In 1398, he assembled a packed Parliament, which voted him certain taxes for life, and which delegated all its authority to a committee of his friends. This gave him a more absolute power than any English king had possessed before. In the first act of Shakespeare's " King Richard the Second " there is a probably true representation of the autocratic temper with which he ruled England that year. As set forth in the play, he banished his cousin Henry, Duke of Here- ford (son of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster), from England ; and when, in the next year, the old Ba nish- duke died, he seized the Lancastrian lands. Hlnr°of The banished Henry then came boldly back* to Lancaster, confront the king, having assurances of strong support. He landed with a small force in Yorkshire (July 4, 1 399), giving out that he sought only to recover his inheritance ; but, gathering an army as he advanced, he soon appeared as the champion of public rights. Richard was in Ireland at the time, attending to troubles of the " English Pale." He returned to find himself almost without a man at his back, and, recognizing his helplessness, he surrendered both his person and his crown. Taken to Lon- Deposition don and placed in the Tower, he signed a formal of Rlchard abdication, and the vacant throne was bestowed by au- thority of Parliament on Henry of Lancaster, as being " descended by right line of the blood, coming from the good lord King Henry III." Once more the right of Parliament to control the succession was made good. 1 84 THE DECLINE OF FEUDALISM. [•599 Chaucer. 90. The Beginning of a Great Literature in the English Language. The supreme literary fact of this period in English history is the fact that, when England produced a poet of the highest order of poetical genius, he found his native language not only fit for his song, but so far respected in the educated circles of the day that he could bring it into use. At no earlier time could a poet of Chaucer's class, appealing ______ to the cultivated and not the com- mon taste of his age, have been able to write in Eng- lish verse. The de- mand of the audi- ence for which he wrote would have been for Latin or for French. But now, for the first time in three cen- turies, the language of England had again become the language of its lit- erature, for learned and unlearned, for court and cottage alike ; and the fact had great meaning. For the char- acter, for the individuality of the nation, we may say that it dates a coming of age. Chaucer touched England with the new warmth of imagination that had been kindled in the Italian mind. In the "Canterbury Tales," which describe a company GEOFFREY CHAUCER. i 3 99] VAINGLORY IN FOREIGN WAR. 185 of pilgrims on their way to the shrine of St. Thomas a Becket, he painted a scene from English life in the fourteenth century, — a procession of the characters in its society, — the historical value of which is quite equal to its poetical worth. If Chaucer did not stand so high above them all, his fellow poets of the time would interest us more than they do ; for they were no mean heralds of the great literature which England was then making ready to give to the world. Langland's " Vision of Piers contempo- Plowman," John Gower's "Confessio Amantis," and the " Bruce " of the Scottish poet John Barbour, would have given a fair distinction to this age, if it had offered no higher achievement ; while Wiclif, in his translation of the Bible and in his tracts, had opened a great common school for the cultivation of English prose. The enactment of a statute in 1362, requiring all pleadings in court to be in the English tongue, sovereign- shows the completeness with which the Ian- Engusih guage of the people had now recovered its sov- lan e ua £ e - ereignty in the land. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS. 75. Edward II. and his Favorites. Topics. 1. Gaveston and Lancaster. 2. Battle of Bannockburn. 3. The Despensers. 4. Lancaster's death. Reference. — Stubbs, E. P., 263-281. Research Questions. — (1.) What danger to a kingdom in having a weak son succeed a strong father? (2.) How does a country gain under a strong ruler ? (3.) Illustrate these points from kings since the Norman Conquest. 186 VAINGLORY IN FOREIGN WAR. 76. Deposition and Death of Edward II. Topics. i. Treachery of Queen Isabella and Edward's death. 2. Prince Edward as guardian of the kingdom. 3. Mortimer's death. References. — Gardiner, i. 229; Green, 210, 211 ; Stubbs, E. P., 285-288; Ransome, 75; Taswell-Langmead, 204, 205. Lords Ordainers : Gardiner, i. 226; Bright, i. 200, 201; Green, 208; Stubbs, E. P., 270-272 ; Ransome, 74 ; Green, H. E. P., i. 362-367; Taswell-Langmead, 265, 266. Research Questions. — (1.) By the deposition of Edward what great right of the people over the kingship was reasserted? (2.) What great theory of government was enunciated in this reign? (Stubbs, E. P., 281.) 77. Beginning of the Personal Reign of Edward III. Topics. 1. His marriage. 2. War with Scotland. 3. Crowning of John Balliol and renewal of the war. Reference. — Warburton, Edward III., 16-29. 78. The "War with France. Topics. 1. Edward's claim to the French crown. 2. Edward's allies. 3. Battle of Sluys and the first six years of the war. 4. Crecy and the English bowmen ; siege of Calais. 5. Successes and reverses of the Scots. Reference. — Warburton, Edward III., 34-44, 58-75, 80-84. 94- 98, 103-133. Research Questions. — (1.) Why did Parliament uphold Edward in his war with France ? (2.) What right of consultation did Parliament thus assume? (See Wool and Politics, Gibbins, 48, and Ransome, 112.) 79. The Black Death and its Effects. Topics. 1. The king's return and his welcome. 2. The plague and the social effect of its ravages. 3. Attempts to revive old labor claims. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 187 References. — Gardiner, i. 248-250 ; Bright, i. 229, 267 ; Green, 247, 250; Colby, 101-103 ; Guest, 269-271; Gibbins, 70-74; Rogers, ch. viii. ; Cunningham and McArthur, 40-42, 60, 65, 82, 9°, 175, 177- Research Questions. — (1.) For what were labor claims com- muted? (2.) For what had military service been commuted? (3.) Show why these were steps towards freedom. (4.) Why did the ravages of the plague raise wages ? (Gibbins, 71.) (5.) On what are wages dependent to-day ? 80. Edward III. and the Parliament. Topics. 1. King's demand for money and growing boldness of Commons. 2. Separation of Commons and Lords. References. — Ransome, 75-83 ; Stubbs, C. H., ii. ch. xvi. Research Questions. — (1.) Why was it natural for the Lords to favor war while the Commons opposed it ? (2.) Our House of Representatives corresponds to what house of Parliament ? (3.) What power in common do both have ? (4.) In the division of the houses, where did the clergy take their seats ? (5.) Why ? (6.) Who were the representatives of the clergy? 81. Industrial and Commercial Progress. Topics. 1. Introduction of Flemish weavers. 2. Merchant Adventurers. References. — Ashley, book ii. ch. iii. Edward III. and the Flem- ish weavers : Gibbins, 53. Industry and trade : Gardiner, i. 248- 250 ; Bright, i. 255-258 ; Colby, 87-89, 92, 93 ; Gibbins, chs. iv., v.; Rogers, chs. vi., viii.; Traill, ii. 100-114, 142-146, 193, 252- 259. 82. Renewed "War with France. Topics. 1. The Black Prince in Languedoc. 2. Battle of Poitiers and treaty of Bretigny. 3. King David of Scotland restored. Reference. — Gardiner, i. 256, 257. 188 VAINGLORY IN FOREIGN WAR. 83. Loss of French Conquests. Topics. . ' " i. The Black Prince in Aquitaine and the massacre of Limoges. 2. English losses. Reference. — Bright, i. 235-241. 84. The Church and the Nation. — Wiclif and the First Reformers. Topics. 1. Discontent in England, in state and church. 2. John Wiclif and William Langland. References. — Gardiner, i. 257-261 ; Warburton, 246-256. John Wiclif: Gardiner, i. 261-263, 2 66, 269; Bright, i. 266, 267; Green, 235-244; Colby, 103-105; Rogers, 247-273; Traill, ii. 152, 153, 160-172, 288. The "Babylonish Captivity" of the church: Encyclopaedia Britannica. 85." The " Good Parliament." Topics. 1. John of Gaunt. 2. First instance of the power of impeachment. 3. Lancaster again in power and death of Edward III. References. — Gardiner, i. 262; Green, 231-235; Stubbs, C. H., ii. 428-435 ; Taswell-Langmead, 277, 278. Research Questions. — (1.) What is meant by impeachment? (Ransome, 79.) (2.) Who exercises the power of impeachment in the United States? (3.) How often and in what instances has it been exercised ? (4.) What would justify its use ? 86. Richard II. and the Peasant Revolt. Topics. 1. Drawbacks in Richard's circumstances. 2. Discontent and uprising of the peasantry. 3. Richard's courage and suppression of the revolt. References. — Peasants' revolt: Gardiner, i. 268, 269; Bright, i. 244, 245 ; Green, 250-255 ; Colby, 105-109; Cunningham and McArthur, 42, 43; Gibbins, 78; Rogers, 256-266 ; Traill, ii. 138, 152, 153, 170, 247, 248-250. Research Questions. — (1.) Discuss the chances of good gov- ernment during the minority of a king. (2.) How might the king's education suffer and entail bad government later ? Illustrate from Henry III. and Richard II. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 189 87. Wiclif and the Lollards. Topics. 1. Reaction against Lollardism ; its political and social aims. 2. Wicklif ' s service to the people. Reference. — Warburton, Edward III., 250-255. Research Questions. — (1.) What saved Wiclif from the anger of the pope ? (Guest, 293.) (2.) Of what importance was it in the history of the church that England's queen was from Bo- hemia ? (Guest, 306.) (3.) Who were the " poor priests " or Lollards? (Gibbins, 75 ; Guest, 313.) 88. The King and the Ducal Factions. Topic. 1. Usurpation of the Duke of Gloucester. Reference. — Gardiner, i. 278-280. 89. Richard's Personal Reign and his Deposition. Topics. 1. The king's efforts at good government. 2. Change in the character of his reign. 3. Banishment of the Duke of Hereford and his return. 4. Richard's surrender and abdication. Reference. — Gardiner, i. 280-286. Research Questions. — (1.) What deposition of a king preceded this one ? (2.) Significance of these facts? 90. The Beginning of a Great Literature in the English Language. Topics. 1. Condition of the English language. 2. Chaucer and " The Canterbury Tales." 3. Other writers. References. — -Gardiner, i. 258, 270-272; Bright, i. 271-274; Green, 217-222; Bright, i. 271-274; Guest, 278-291; Traill, ii. 207-231. Research Questions. — (1.) Why did the pilgrims go to Canter- bury ? (2.) In what does the historical value of " The Canterbury Tales " consist ? (3.) Of what sort were the chief gains made by the people under the Plantagenet line ? (4.) Name those of the family who may be called great, and tell why. CHAPTER IX. MEDIAEVAL LIFE IN ENGLAND. 91. Norman Influence on English Civilization. In manners and modes of living, if not otherwise, the Nor- mans who came to England in the eleventh century were more advanced than the people whom they subdued ; and the reasons for their being so are plain. They had taken from the Franks, or French, a better degree of culture, which the latter owed to the Roman institutions and social forms that they spared when they overran Gaul. The English, who spared little that they found in Britain, and who had learned nothing from the older civilization until after a Christian church was restored among them, were naturally rising from barbarism by slower steps. They had been hindered in their progress, moreover, by the intrusion upon them of the still more barbarous Danes. As a consequence, their habits, and the general state in which they lived, were much scorned by their Norman conquerors. The houses and the dress of even the Eng- lish nobles were described as being mean, and all classes were particularly accused of gluttony and intemperance. The early chroniclers who speak of these things com- plain, at the same time, that the new-comers were badly intemper- influenced by English example, in the matter of ance. intemperance and in other habits of life ; but there cannot be a doubt that the civilizing of English society was much quickened in many ways by the coming of the Normans into the land. MEDIEVAL LIFE IN ENGLAND. 191 92. Mediaeval Habitations. At their best, however, the conditions of life, during three or four centuries after the Norman Conquest, and the manners and mental habits growing out of such conditions, did not rise above a stage that would seem very rude to modern men. The castle, which the Normans introduced, was a lordly residence more imposing than the homely timber dwelling of the Saxon thane ; but it cannot have offered more comfort, or much more of the means of refinement to domestic life. It was not planned to be a home, but 1 , , The castle. a fort, — a stronghold, — a thick-walled inclos- ure for fighting men. The light, the air, the chamber- room, the privacy, the conveniences, the cheerful and pleasant surroundings that we associate with happy fam- ily life, were certainly not found behind its grim walls. Its one real " living-room," so to speak, was the great hall, where everything centred, and which seems to have been put to every kind of use. There the long table at which all ate together was spread, on trestles which the servants removed at the end of the repast. A The castle huge salt-cellar, placed conspicuously on the hal1 - board, divided the lord of the castle, his family and his guests, who sat above it, from those of lower degree, who sat below. The viands of the feast were served, not on plates, but on thick slices of bread, called trench- ers, 1 one of which appears to have been supplied to two persons for their common use. Forks were unknown ; fingers were used instead. The same hall was the scene of all social gatherings of the castle, its indoor pastimes, its evening entertain- ments, in which wandering minstrels, jugglers, and dan- 1 .The trencher of bread was displaced in time by one of wood, which remained long in use. The name came from the French word trancher, to cut. 192 THE DECLINE OF FEUDALISM. cers took their parts. Then, when sleeping-time came, its floor was strewn with beds of straw, and it became the common dormitory of the men of inferior rank. A few other bedchambers, for the family and for guests of rank, were provided on an upper floor ; but it seems to have been the common practice for a number of persons to occupy the same room, and beds and furniture were primitive in simplicity until quite late in mediaeval times. Another lordly residence was the manor-house, which MANOR-HOUSE AT MELLICHOPE, SHROPSHIRE, LATTER HALF OF TWELFTH CENTURY. had preceded the castle, and which began, in the thir- teenth century, to supersede it, as a place of habitation. The greater lords, possessing many manors, in a scat- tered estate, appear to have occupied different manor-houses in turn, for the purpose of holding their manorial courts, and for using the produce of each manor on the spot, as well as for collecting dues and fines. As described by Professor J. T. Thorold Rogers, a care- ful student of the period, these houses, in the thirteenth Manor- houses MEDIEVAL LIFE IN ENGLAND. 193 and fourteenth centuries, were furnished in an extremely scanty way. " Glass, though by no means excessively dear, appears to have been rarely used. A table put on trestles, and laid aside when out of use, a few forms and stools, or a long bench stuffed with straw or wool, covered with a straw cushion, . . . with one or two chairs of wood or straw, and a chest or two of linen, formed the hall furniture. A brass pot or two for boiling, and two or three brass dishes ; a few wooden platters and trenchers, or more rarely of pewter ; an iron or latten * candlestick ; a kitchen knife or two ; a box or barrel for salt ; and a brass ewer and basin, formed the movables of the ordinary house. The walls were gar- nished with mattocks, scythes, reaping hooks, buckets, corn measures, and empty sacks. The dormitory con- tained a rude bed, and but rarely sheets and blankets, for the gown of the day was generally the coverlet at night." 2 In construction and arrangement, as well as in furni- ture, both castles and manor-houses were slowly im- proved. Fireplaces with chimney flues in the walls appear to have come into use at some time during the thirteenth century, and must have immensely raised the comfort of the better dwellings in winter weather ; but heavy " hangings " or draperies of some .< Hang . description, on the walls, were always needed in ^ s -" by those who could afford so expensive a luxury, to lessen the cold draughts of air. The manor-house was commonly built of stone ; but the tenements surrounding it were structures of the rudest sort. " We may believe," Professor Rogers goes 1 Latten was a mixed metal, differing little from brass, but pre- pared in thin sheets for many uses in the Middle Ages. 2 Rogers, History of Agriculture and Prices, vol. i. pp. 12, 13. 194 THE DECLINE OF FEUDALISM. on to say, that " the peasant's home was built of the Peasants* coarsest material, most frequently of wattles huts. daubed with mud or clay." Its furnishings were as poor and comfortless as the house. " Glass was unknown, fuel comparatively dear, and cleanliness all but impossible. . . . The purchase of a pound of candles would have almost absorbed a workman's daily wages." 1 The town dwellings of prosperous merchants and mas- ter-craftsmen were probably improved in comfort quite Town as ^ ast as tne manor-houses of the lords. Shop dwellings. an( i dwelling were usually, if not always, to- gether, the former on the main floor of the building, with a booth or open shed in its front, for the displaying and sale of wares. The laboring poor of the towns are not likely to have fared better than the villein peasantry of the country places. 93. Food and Drink. Little was known in mediaeval times of the variety in food that we now enjoy. Except- ing meats, which were much the same as in modern times, the articles of diet were few, even for those who could buy without stint. The methods of preserving meats were imperfect ; the sea-salt used was poor in quality and very dear. Consequently, it is conjectured, there was much eating of flesh and fish in a more or less un- wholesome state, and this was probably one cause, at least, of such loathsome diseases as leprosy and scurvy, which prevailed in that age. Another cause is found in the scanty use of vegetable foods. Bread — even wheat bread, sometimes mixed with barley — was common on the tables of the poorest folk ; but little garden produce was raised. Peas, beans, onions, leeks, and possibly cab- bage, are said to be the only green stuffs that appear in 1 Rogers, History of Agriculture and Prices, vol. i. p. 65. MEDIEVAL LIFE IN ENGLAND. 195 the gardening or kitchen records of the time. As for fruits, they would seem to have been limited vegetables to apples and pears, with a few grapes in south- and fruit - ern England, and with the berries that must have grown wild. Some dried fruits — figs, raisins, currants, and dates — came in, at high prices, from southern Europe, among the commodities of foreign trade. Sugar had a place with the spices in the list of rare luxuries imported from the east. Honey was the sub- stitute for it, but even honey was a sweet to be sparingly used. A hive of bees was a precious possession, which men transmitted to their children by will. Ale and cider were the common beverages of those who thirsted for more than water. The ale was mostly home-brewed, without hops, flavored with various herbs, and probably would not be tempting to beer-drinkers of the present day. Mead, a stronger drink, much in use, was made by sweetening water with honey and fermenting it with yeast ; but there were al- most none of such highly spirituous and intoxicating liquors as the whiskey, gin, rum, and brandy of modern times. Some strong distillations of that character, called cordials, were little more than medicinally known. Of wine-drinking there was not much until after the acces- sion of Henry II., whose Angevin dominion embraced the most fruitful vineyard regions of France. England then became a great market for French wines, espe- wine _ daily of those from Bordeaux, and they were drinkin e- sold at prices which brought them into extensive use. Neither tea nor coffee was heard of until a much later day. 94. Travel and Vagrancy. Roads, neglected since Roman times, were increasingly bad ; bridges were few and ill-kept ; fords and ferries were the main dependence 196 THE DECLINE OF FEUDALISM. for crossing streams. Travel, whether on horseback, or in litters swinging between two horses or mules, or in heavy springless vehicles, or on foot, can seldom have been enjoyed. And yet, in all parts of the country, there was evidently much going to and fro. A French scholar, M. Jusserand, has made an interesting study of wayfaring wnat he calls "English Wayfaring Life " in the life. fourteenth century, which shows that an aston- ishing number of people, of all classes, was constantly in motion on the roads. The lords, as we have seen, changed residence often, from manor to manor of their scattered estates. The king and his court, for much the same reasons, made frequent visitations to different royal demesnes. The king's judges, the sheriffs, the bishops, all with considerable retinues, were periodically in mo- tion from place to place. Still more travel was occasioned by the piety or the penance which sent great numbers of people on pilgrimages to holy shrines. Besides such occasional travellers, there seems to have been a swarming vagrant population, which lived an al- ways wandering life. It was made up of itinerant traders — hawkers and pedlers of numerous wares ; of workmen in various industries of a migratory kind ; of ers-and mendicant friars, black, white, and grey ; of re- ligious quacks, called " pardoners," who sold remissions of penance and pretended " indulgences," for the absolution of sins ; and of medical quacks, who sold nostrums and charms for every kind of bodily cure ; and, finally, it embraced in its ranks the many minstrels, jug- glers, buffoons, acrobats, and dancers who journeyed from hall to hall, to entertain the lords and ladies of high degree. Hospitality, among those who could afford it, was a virtue of the age, and travellers of rank and considera- MEDIEVAL LIFE IN ENGLAND. 1 97 tion were welcomed for a night's entertainment at castles, manor-houses, and monasteries, as they passed H ospitai- on their way. The poor wayfarer, also, found ity - shelter and rough fare in the monastery guest-house ; but travellers of the middle-class appear to have supped and slept with great discomfort in wretched roadside inns. Royal journeys were something for the country to dread. A crowd of followers, often disorderly, trailed after the king and court, while a more insolent and alarm- ing swarm of official " purveyors " swept on in advance, " taking the provisions of the husbandman, or demand- ing his services, and paying either at nominal Purvey . prices or not at all. Every old woman trem- ance - bled for her poultry, and the archbishop in his palace trembled for his household and stud, until the king had gone by." 1 This oppressive practice of "purveyance," rooted in ancient custom, was one of the abuses of royalty which the English people had much trouble in bringing to a stop. 95. Monks and Friars. There is a wide difference to be kept in mind between the monks and the friars of mediaeval times. They belonged to very different religious orders, and represented very different religious ideas. The monk, like the nun, shut himself in his con- vent or monastery, to spend his time in religious exer- cises, in study, in making copies of books, and in other labors of a worthy kind, if he was a monk of the better sort, or to lead an idle and dissolute life, if he proved to be such a monk as some were said to have become. The friar, 2 on the contrary, was vowed to a life of pov- erty and of humble missionary labor among the poor and 1 Stubbs, Constitutional History of England, vol. ii. p. 423. 2 The name " friar " is a corruption of the French frkre, brother. 198 THE DECLINE OF FEUDALISM. wretched of the world. He was to shelter himself under no roof of his own ; he was to trust to charity for his daily bread. The oldest order of the mendicant brothers was founded in 12 10, by St. Francis of Assisi, who looked upon wealth as literally the root of all evil, and its renun- ciation as the first duty of one who would do the work of Christ. He called his followers fratres miuorcs, the Francis- lesser brethren, to indicate their humbleness as cans. a f ra ternity, taking the lowest place. From this they were sometimes known as Minorites, but more commonly as Franciscans, from their founder, or as Grey Friars, from their garb. A second mendicant order, that of the Dominicans, or Black Friars, devoted to preaching Domini- rather than to charitable labors, but equally cans. vowed to poverty, was founded by St. Dominic at nearly the same time. The Carmelites, or White Friars, were a third order, which arose in the east. The Dominicans were the first to enter England, which they did in 1220. Two years later, the first Franciscans came. The latter won the hearts of the common people in an extraordinary way, by their self-sacrificing labors among the sick, the sorrowful, the sinful, and the poor. At the same time they commanded the esteem of the highest in church and state and in the schools. Simon de Montfort was in close friendship with one of the Franciscan brothers ; Bishop Grosseteste, the best of the English prelates of that time, gave them hearty sup- port ; Roger Bacon, the most learned man of his age, joined their ranks. For some years they exerted a pow- erful influence in England for good. Then the Christ like spirit that St. Francis had infused into the order was spent. The friars accepted gifts of houses and lands, to be owned in other names, and thus they enjoyed the MEDIEVAL LIFE IN ENGLAND. 199 use of wealth which they pretended not to possess. So they fell into disrepute. In the fourteenth century, they were more scorned and disliked than the monks. 96. Sports and Pastimes. Hunting and hawking were the favorite sports of the noble class, but denied to the common people. The latter, then as now, were much given to athletic pastimes, — wrestling, boxing, leaping, running, and field games of various kinds. All classes were fond, of the dance, which seems to have been practised much less within doors than in the open air. Games of chess, draughts, and dicing were among the early indoor amusements, and playing-cards were introduced at some time during the fourteenth century. There was always delight in music among the Eng- lish people, and various instruments were played ; but, undoubtedly, there was much simplicity in the musical art. Church organs, of not many pipes and stops, were an early invention ; the harp and the rote, IVIusic. which was a smaller kind of harp ; the viol and the gigue, primitive forms of the violin ; the lute, which took in later times the better form of the guitar ; the tabor and the drum ; the bagpipe, the flageolet, and the horn, — were among the sources of music in mediaeval times. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS. 91. Norman Influence on English Civilization. Topics. 1. Social state of Norman invaders. 2. Social state of English. 3. Attitude of the two races toward each other. References. — Bright, i. 36-38; Green, 90-93 ; Guest, 134, 135; Freeman, S. H. N. C, ch. xiv. ; Johnson, N. E., 1151-173. 200 MEDIAEVAL LIFE IN ENGLAND. 92. Mediaeval Habitations. Topics. i. Dwellings of the lords: a, the castle; b, the castle hall; c, manor-houses ; d, house furnishings. 2. Dwellings of the peasantry. 3. Dwellings of the townsmen. References. — Bright, i. 263; Guest, 144; Gibbins, 19; Traill, i. 381, 382. 93. Food and Drink. Topics. 1. Lack of variety. 2. Meats, garden products, fruits, etc. 3. Beverages. References. — Gardiner, i. 75-77; Bright, i. 264; Gibbins, 44, 45 ; Guest, 89. 90, 166, 228, 239, 288, 289; Rogers, 59-63, 77-S6; Traill, i. 225, 226, 475-478, ii. 118, 119, 432-438. 94. Travel and Vagrancy. Topics. 1. Conditions of travel. 2. Movements of lords and others. 3. Wandering population. 4. Hospitality. 5. Royal journeys. References. — Gardiner, i. 272-277; Rogers, 133-138; Traill, i. 489. 95. Monks and Friars. Topics. 1. Difference between monks and friars. 2. The Franciscan friars. 3. The Dominican friars. References. — Gardiner, i. 190-192; Green, 147-152: Guest, 21 1- 213, 280-282; Gibbins, 75, 76; Rogers, 163, 248-251. 96. Sports and Pastimes. Topics. 1. Amusements : a. of the nobles ; I?, of the people. 2. Music and musical instruments. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 201 LINEAGE OF THE LATER PLANTAGENET KINGS OF ENGLAND. Henry III., 1216-1272, married Eleanor of Provence. Edward I., f Edward II., | Edward III. 1272-1307, j 1307-1327, I 1327-1377, married «| married ■{ married Eleanor Isabella Philippa of Castile, y of France. [ of Hainault. Edmund, Earl of Lancaster. Richard II. '377-1399- Edward, {The Black Prince), died 1376, married Joan of Kent. Lionel, f Philippa, Duke married of Clarence, Edmund died 136S, -J Mortimer, married Earl Elizabeth of March. de Burgh. John of Gaunt, { Henry, died 1399, Duke married -J of Lancaster, 1. Blanche j afterwards of Lancaster ; { Henry IV. 2. Constance of Castile ; f John Beaufort, 3. Catherine Swynford. Earl \ of Somerset Cardinal I Beaufort. f Richard, Edmund, Earl of Duke of 1 'ork, died 1402. \ Cambridge, beheaded Thomas, I 1415- Duke of Gloucester, died 1397. ( Henry, ( Henry, ( \ Earl \ Duke \ ( of Lancaster. ( of Lancaster. ( Henry, ( Blanche, Duke < married if Lancaster. ( John of Gaunt. (See above.) SURVEY OF GENERAL HISTORY. THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. The fifteenth century is marked above most others by two occurrences that rank among the few supreme events in human history. They are the invention of printing and the beginning of a true geographical knowledge of the world. The Invention of Printing. The first known impression of printed words from movable type was made at Mayence, in 1454 ; in 1455, the first Bible was printed : in 1467, the print- ing-press was working at Rome; in 1469, at Venice ; in 1470, at Paris; in 1477, at London, before which last-named date it was busy in half the cities of Italy, Germany, the Nether- lands, and France. Thus quickly did the new art spread the learning and thought of the time, to fertilize the whole Euro- pean mind. Geographical Discovery. The geographical discoveries that soon followed were probably more exciting to the interest and imagination of mankind than any others that ever happened, before or since. Through all the later half of the century, Portuguese exploration down the long west-African coast, creeping from point to point, seeking the extremity of the continent, was being watched with vague hopes. Then came (1492) the bold voyage of Columbus into the open Atlantic, with his amazing discovery of lands supposed to belong to the Asiatic side of the world ; and then, again, quickly fol- lowing (1497), the final success of the Portuguese Vasco da Gama in rounding the African continent, whereby the India that Columbus sought was actually reached. For commerce with the east a better route was suddenly opened ; for ambi- tion and adventure there were new, mysterious, enticing, THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 203 boundless fields disclosed. All the conceptions, the reason- ings, the imaginings of men were expanded by the vision of a wider world than they had dreamed of before ; and all the energies of their nature were challenged to finish the quest they had begun. Birth of the Modern Era. Stimulations so prodigious were never, at any other time, brought to bear on all sides of human spirit and faculty at once ; and though their visibly revolution- ary effects were wrought in the next century, it is on the face of the fifteenth that they mark the ending of Mediaeval and the beginning of Modern life, — the Renaissance, or new birth of the European world. Revival of Classic Learning. The printing-press gave power- ful effects to another event, which occurred at the moment of its invention. This was the capture of Constantinople by the Turks (1453), which sent great numbers of Greek scholars in flight to western Europe, to become teachers of the language and literature of ancient Greece, and to bring precious man- uscripts, which the press began instantly to copy for eager students far and wide. This opened a new world of ideas, and gave learning a new range. Italy. Italy was better prepared than other countries for the finer stimulations of the time, and all culture was aston- ishingly ripened there ; but the Italian genius found expres- sion less in Letters than in Art. Painting and sculpture were raised to nearly their most inspired height before the century closed. Art flourished, learning gained, wealth increased, life was in many ways refined, but liberty was gone from the land. Princely patrons had risen, who gave munificent encourage- ment to the scholar and the artist, but they had risen on the ruined republican freedom of former days. Even democratic Florence had sunk under the rule of a great family, the famous Medicis, princeliest in patronage of all ; and the Medicean splendors that fill the city are a poor indemnity for the Flor- entine free spirit that died at their feet. The Revelation of Italian Culture to the North. Towards 204 GENERAL HISTORY. the end of the century, a king of France (Charles VIII.), lured into a ceaseless war that went on in southern Italy, over the Neapolitan kingdom, crossed the Alps with an army which he led like a conqueror to Naples, through Florence and Rome. He gained no footing in the peninsula, and soon retreated with heavy loss ; but his army carried loads of artis- tic plunder back to France, with a knowledge of the Italian refinements of life which is thought to have had a great influ- ence upon civilization beyond the Alps. Michelet, the French historian, calls this expedition a revelation of Italy to the nations of the north. France. France had then become a quite solidified monar- chical state. It had been, in the first half of the century, more than ever broken down by a wicked renewal of English attacks (as told in chapter X.), but had recovered with amaz- ing vital strength. Fortune gave it a crafty king (Louis XL), who undermined, rather than broke, the dangerous power of dukes and counts, and who set the French monarchy on the way to absolutism, which it reached very soon. He did this, moreover, at a time when one of the ducal families of France — the Burgundian — had grown to a strength and influence in Europe that far exceeded his own. The Burgundian Dominion. The ducal house of Burgundy, branching in the last century from the royal family of France, had married so shrewdly, and grasped inheritances with such success, that its original French domain was the least part of the great territory that it ruled. One by one the rich counties of the Netherlands, both Flemish and Dutch, had fallen into its hands, along with many rich provinces besides. The Duke of Burgundy with whom Louis XL contended, known in his- tory as Charles the Bold, was the wealthiest prince of his time, and might easily, with wisdom, have wielded the great- est power. But Louis involved him in a war with the Swiss which cost him his life. Then the crafty king found it easy to take most of her French fiefs from Duchess Mary, the duke's daughter and heir. THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 205 The Netherlands, which remained to the Duchess Mary, were a splendid inheritance in themselves. By her marriage to Maximilian of Austria (son of the then emperor, Frederick III.), and by the subsequent marriage of her son Philip to a Spanish princess, the hapless people of those thriving pro- vinces were cruelly dragged into the clutches of an Aus- trian-Spanish power, which became in the next century the deadliest despotism in the world. Spain. In 1469, by marriage of Ferdinand, King of Aragon, and Isabella, Queen of Castile, the Spanish monarchy was practically formed. Twenty-three years later, the last Moor- ish city and petty kingdom in Spain was surrendered to the wedded sovereigns, and their rule was undisputed from the Pyrenees to the Mediterranean Sea. In that same year (1492), the long quest of Columbus for a patron who would help him to the discovery of new worlds beyond the untrav- ersed ocean was ended, and Queen Isabella, by her faith, won the great Spanish- American realm. Then (1496) came young Archduke Philip, with his Burgundian inheritance of the Netherlands, with his Austrian heirship, with his imperial lineage, and his family lien on the Cerman imperial crown, to wed the daughter of Isabella and Ferdinand, and to bring that whole vast assemblage of Spanish, Austrian, and Burgun- dian dominions, in Europe and America, under the sceptre of his son (Charles V.). Germany. The elective kingship of Germany, and the im- perial title joined to it, returned in 1437 to tne House of Austria, never to be taken from its princes again. But the emperor was almost the poorest of the sovereigns of Europe and the least to be feared. The empire was still a shadow cast on Gerrnany with blighting effects. That country made no political advance ; but the intellectual hunger of the time was manifested nowhere, beyond Italy, more than among the German people. They invented the printed book, and great numbers in every class were learning to read it ; they were founding universities ; they were cultivating the arts ; but literature, in the finer sense, was still at a declining stage. 206 GENERAL HISTORY. Other Countries. The confederacy of the Swiss cantons was enlarged in this century, and fought successfully with the Austrian and Burgundian dukes. Hungary waged a long, desperate war with the Turks. Poland was rising in impor- tance as a kingdom. The Muscovite principality, out of which the Russian empire was to grow, broke the yoke of the Tar- tars and began to extend its power. The Scandinavian king- doms of the north were in an unsettled state. The Church. Early in the century the Great Schism in the church was brought to an end by a general council at Con- stance, which deposed the rival popes and elected one whose title was acknowledged by all. The new pope and several of his successors were men of high character, and the papacy was restored for a time to respect. But in the later half of the century a series of papal elections, controlled by bribery and fraud, raised men of infamous wickedness to the head- ship of the Christian church. Alexander VI., the Borgia of detested memory, was one of these, and only worse by a few degrees than some who went before him and some who came after. Their scandalous government of Christendom was one of the prime causes of the great movement of religious revo- lution in the next century which is known as The Reformation. But lesser revolts had occurred long before. Wiclif's teach- ing in England, conveyed to Bohemia by the queen of the English King Richard II., raised up the Bohemian reformers, Hus and Jerome. Both were condemned for heresy by the Council of Constance and burned at the stake ; but their death only fired the spirit of revolt among their countrymen, and Bohemia, for half a century, was the scene of frightful religious wars. In the last decade of the century, the city of Florence was stirred to its depths by the fervid preaching of the monk Savonarola, who denounced the corruptions in the church, and brought about a very strange revolution, half religious, half political ; but he, too, was burned. For the stifling of such movements, the terrible enginery of the In- quisition was revived in Spain. CHAPTER X. PARLIAMENTARY KINGS. Lancastrian Kings : Henry IV. — Henry V. — Henry VI. 1399-1450. 97. The Disputed Title of Henry IV. Feudal ideas of hereditary right had so far gained force in England that the parliamentary election which made Henry of Lancaster king did not give him an undisputed title to the crown. By the rules of inheritance it would have gone to another. After Richard, he was not the next in descent from Edward III. ; for his father, John of Gaunt, had an elder brother, Lionel, Duke of Clarence, who died early, but who left a daughter, married to Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March, whose grandson, of the same name and title, had been recognized by Richard II. as his heir. So distinct a denial of hereditary right as was given in the coronation of Henry was certain to be con- tested, and circumstances prolonged the contest through almost a hundred years, producing a dismal period of civil war. Reigning by act of Parliament, Henry IV. was neces- sarily a constitutional king. It was the good-will of Parliament, representing at least a passive willingness in the nation, that upheld him on the throne against repeated rebellions and conspiracies among the greater lords. Their first plot, discovered early in 1400, was crushed by popular action and its leaders slain, without need of any measures by the king. Soon afterwards, the 208 THE DECLINE OF FEUDALISM. [1400-1403 deposed King Richard died mysteriously in his prison at Death of Pomfret. A report was given out that he had Richard 11. s t arV ed himself ; but suspicions of murder were rife, though Henry made a solemn declaration that he was innocent of Richard's death. 98. Rebellion and War. More troublesome than these suspicions of murder was a story that Richard was not dead, but had es- caped and was in Scot- land, where some one resembling him was ac- tually kept at court, as a pretender to the Eng- lish throne. The Welsh were more hostile still. Under Owen Glendow- er, a descendant from Llywelyn, the last native Prince of Wales, they rose in 1402 and began attacks on the English borderland. While Henry was en- gaged with the Welsh, the Scots invaded Northumberland, but were met by the Earl of Northumberland and his fiery son, Henry Percy, called Hotspur, who defeated them at Homil- don Hill. The Percies had been the most pow- erful of Henry's partisans ; but something occurred at this time which touched their haughty temper, causing a quarrel and a rebellion, in which the formidable family and its connections were leagued with Glendower and the Scots. Henry faced the crisis with great energy and Glendower. HENRY IV. Hotspur. 1370-1423] PARLIAMENTARY KINGS. 209 received hearty support. The rebels were defeated at Shrewsbury (July, 1403) and Hotspur was slain. The Welsh continued to be troublesome, and Henry was not fortunate in his undertakings against them. They received aid from France, where great disorder prevailed. The truce made by Richard II. had been broken ; the kingdom was being torn tions in by the contests of the two factions, Burgundian and Armagnac, that contended for power ; Henry med- dled in their conflicts, but seems to have had no fixed policy or aim. 99. Origin of the Stuart Family in Scotland. When Scotland was last mentioned in this history its king was David II., son of the national hero, Robert Bruce. David died in 1370, leaving no offspring. His sister, Margaret, had married the High Steward of Scot- land, whose family name was Allan, or Fitz Allan, but who was called in common speech Robert Stewart, or Stuart, in allusion to his office, until that came to be the surname accepted by his house. The son of this Robert Stuart and Margaret Bruce became king when David Bruce died, beginning the line of Stuart kings and queens, who played a long and notable part in Scottish and English history. The second of the Stuart dynasty, Robert III., reigned in Scotland when Henry IV. came to the English throne. In 1405, his young son and heir was being sent for education to France, when the vessel that bore him was captured by an English ship, captivity The father died the next year, and the cap- ofJamesL tive prince was recognized as king (James I.), though held until 1423 as a hostage at the English court. His uncle, the Duke of Albany, governed Scotland as regent meantime, and was not anxious for his release. 100. Persecution of the Lollards. The Lollards had 2IO THE DECLINE OF FEUDALISM. [1401-1406 been in favor at the court of Richard II. His queen, Anne of Bohemia, and some men of high influence in the late reign, were counted among them, and evidently they were suspected of being, as a body, unfriendly to the new king. How far they gave him reason to fear them, by any disloyal movements, is not known ; but it is clear that political feeling made him ready to listen to demands for their persecution from the church. So it happens that Henry IV., who was neither a bigoted nor a cruel man, has the dreadful distinction of ingatthe being the first to kindle fires of martyrdom on English soil. They were lighted, in 1401, by a special order of king and council for the burning of one William Sawtre, a Wiclifite priest. Soon afterwards, the first English statute for the " burning of heretics " was enacted in Parliament ; but there seems to have been little zeal in carrying it out. 101. The Strengthening of Parliament. Henry IV., says Bishop Stubbs, " governed by the help of his Parlia- ment, with the executive aid of a council over which Parliament both claimed and exercised control. Never before and never again for more than two hundred years were the Commons as strong as they were under Henry IV." 1 More successfully than in any previous reign, the Commons asserted their right to originate all acts impos- ing taxes, and to make the granting of supplies to the king dependent on the satisfying of their complaints and claims. They guarded the official enrolment of their acts against such tampering with the language as seems to have been possible before. They established their right to control the election of members of their House, and they made the election so democratic that every freeman who would take the trouble to be present at the 1 Stubbs, Constitutional Hist, of Eng., ch. xviii. 1406-1411] PARLIAMENTARY KINGS. 211 county court when knights of the shire were chosen had a vote. They took the first effective steps towards in- suring to members of Parliament the freedom of speech and freedom from arrest that are the most important of the " privileges " on which parliamentary independence depends. In 1406, they presented to the king a petition of thirty-one articles, embodying the most thorough and well-defined scheme of constitutional government that had yet been set forth. Its ready and complete accept- ance by the king marks the new character of his reign. 102. The Prince of Wales. In his last years, King Henry was afflicted with some dreadful disease, which often disabled him, and which appears to have thrown unusual duties on his eldest son and namesake, Henry, Prince of Wales. The prince was but eighteen or nine- teen years old when he was called to a seat in the Privy Council. A little later, he was practically for two years the head of the government. At that period, it cannot be believed that he was the dissolute and reckless youth which tradition represented, and which Shakespeare has depicted in his "King Henry Fourth." Some The Prince ground he must have given, perhaps at an ^fake- earlier time, for stories of wild behavior ; but s P eare - the historian who has studied the records of the reign of Henry IV. most minutely concludes that " the legends of his cut-pursing " and " other such thievish living on the common road," with companions like Shakespeare's Falstaff, " are late literary embellishments." 1 They are made improbable by his after life, in which no sign of a vicious character appears. In 141 1, two years before the king's death, some cause of estrangement arose between him and the prince, and the latter left the council. The next year they were 1 Wylie, Hist, of Eng. under Henry IV., ch. xciv. 212 THE DECLINE OF FEUDALISM. ['4i3 reconciled, the father being then very ill and near to death. Early in 141 3, the suffering king died, and his son succeeded him, quite evidently to the satisfaction of the kingdom. 103. The Character of Henry V. Immediately on coming to the throne, the young king showed a generous character by setting free the Earl of March, true heir to the crown, as many believed, whom his more jealous father had kept in confinement throughout the late reign. A little later he restored to the heir of the Percies his title and estates. These acts, significant of a high, cour- ageous, self-confident spirit, betokened, too, the kind of mediaeval magnanimity that he possessed, which was purely chivalric, like that of the Black Prince, and which took little account of the sufferings of henry v. common people. He was en- tirely a hero of the type of the Middle Ages, untouched by the modern spirit then beginning to make itself felt. He presents a striking- figure, a brilliant personality, in English history, but not to be ranked, as some would place him, among its greater men. His ambition was as empty of wisdom and true patriotism as that of Richard Cceur de Lion, and more so than that of Edward III., whose foolish pretensions he revived. At the outset of his reign, Henry showed hostility to the Lollards, and ere long they were accused of having formed rebellious plans. He took measures with char- 1413-1415] PARLIAMENTARY KINGS. 213 acteristic vigor, attacking a crowd assembled in the fields at St. Giles's Church, killing some, taking some Renewed prisoners, and bringing a number afterwards to ticm of U " the gallows and the stake. That there was a LoUards - really treasonable movement, needing so much severity, is open to doubt. A fresh statute against the Lollards was procured from Parliament, their writings were sup- pressed, and they soon ceased to be known as an acknow- ledged party or sect. 104. The New Attempt against France. But one ambition showed itself in Henry's mind after he became king, and that was to revive and make good the wicked and foolish claim to the French crown which his great- grandfather, Edward III., had set up. As soon as pos- sible he prepared for this. If the project was barbar- ously wrong, he alone was not responsible for it. Plainly he was encouraged to it by English national feeling, and the momentary, empty, misery-making success he ob- tained gave him the most rapturous affection that the English people have ever bestowed on one of their kings. The deplorable condition of France seemed to make that kingdom an easy prey. In the fury of its The state factions all patriotism was being consumed. ofFrance - Armagnacs and Burgundians were equally ready to ally themselves with their country's foe. The army of 30,000 men with which Henry entered France, in August, 141 5, was remarkably well organ- ized and equipped, even a medical and surgical staff being brought into service for the first time. Yet it came near to being wrecked by disease at the beginning of its campaign. Five weeks were spent in the siege and capture of Harfleur, near the mouth of the n • ii r 1 11 Harfleur. beine, and so large a part of the army was dead or disabled when the town surrendered that nothing fur- 214 THE DECLINE OF FEUDALISM. [1415 ther could be undertaken ; yet the king set out on a useless and hazardous long march to the English strong- hold of Calais. The French had gathered forces behind the river Somme, to prevent his crossing, but he suc- ceeded, after making a long detour, in passing the stream. At the little village of Agincourt, or Azincourt, he found the enemy in his front, and there, on the 25th of October, 141 5, he won another of the victories which, for three hundred years, were the Englishmen's chief Battle of glory and pride. His army was outnumbered Agincourt. ^y not j ess j- nan three or four to one, and prob- ably by more ; but again, as at Crecy, the training of the citizen was put on trial against the training of the vassal, — the nationalized spirit against the feudalized, — and the result was the same. The French had learned nothing since they met the English before ; their array was as clumsy, their bravery as much wasted in planless fighting as ever. The compact, well-disciplined body of the English, mostly archers, with their terrible bows, was placed and handled, no doubt, with admirable skill ; but the astounding slaughter of probably 10,000 on the side of the French, including the flower of their chivalry, and princes and nobles in great number, against the loss of a few hundred of the English, was due in great mea- sure to a muddy clay on the battle-ground, in which the French horsemen could scarcely move. Agincourt ended the opposition to Henry's march ; it made mourning and discouragement in France ; it elated the English beyond measure ; but it accomplished no more. Henry returned from Calais to London, to be received with wild joy, and to be the most popular of kings. 105. Henry's Triumphs and his Death. Nearly two years passed before Henry made further attempts at the 1417-142°] PARLIAMENTARY KINGS. 215 conquest of France. Its factions, meantime, were doing what they could to make his task easy. In August, 14 17, he sailed again from Southampton, with a fine army, more than 25,000 strong, and landed again near the mouth of the Seine. Armagnacs and Burgundians were busy at war with each other and allowed him to advance. He found no resistance except at the forti- fied towns, which he besieged in turn. Caen was de- fended stoutly, but he carried it by storm. Before the end of the year a great part of Normandy was submis- sive to him and had been parcelled out among English lords. The next May he proceeded against the great and strong city of Rouen, and starved it into Sie geof surrender, after a siege which lasted until Jan- Rouen - uary, 14 19. To save their food, the garrison thrust 12,000 old men, women, and children outside of the town ; Henry would not let them pass through his lines, and they slowly perished under the walls. Such was the barbarity of mediaeval war. Attempts, after Rouen fell, to make peace between the French factions resulted in a treacherous assassina- tion of the Duke of Burgundy, causing fiercer hatreds than before. The duke's son and successor then allied himself and his party with the English, and they jointly made war on the French king's son and heir (called the dauphin), who now headed the opposite party. The By the action of the Duke of Burgundy and the dau P hin - death of the Duke of Armagnac, the dauphin became really a national leader, his following no longer a faction, his cause the cause of France. Such patriotic feeling as survived in the ruined country was rallied to his support ; but he was only a boy, and there was nothing inspiring in his character as he grew to be a man. The French queen, Isabel, joined Burgundy in the 2l6 THE DECLINE OF FEUDALISM. [1420-1422 English alliance, against her own son, the dauphin, and Treaty of m Ma Y» : 4 2 o> a treaty was signed at Troyes Troyes. which gave her daughter, the Princess Catherine of France, in marriage to King Henry, made him regent of the kingdom during King Charles's life, and pledged the crown of France to him on the latter's death. The marriage followed immediately, and, after some months, the king returned to London with his bride. In Henry's absence, the English suffered reverses in France, and he was called back early in the summer of 142 1. During the year that followed, he pressed the siege of cities that were held for the dauphin, with constant success, until the north of France was under his control. In May, 1422, Queen Catherine, who had given birth to a son the preceding December, joined him with her child, and they held court at Paris. The king was ill at this time, but after a few weeks of rest he resolutely set out to return to the army and resume command. Death Death of overtook him on the way, and he expired on the Henry v. i ast c ] a y f August, at Vincennes, leaving an infant son, nine months old, to inherit the two crowns which he claimed. Before Henry's body had been laid at rest in Westminster Abbey, Charles VI. of France was dead, and Charles VII. (lately the dauphin) was fighting for his inheritance with little energy and with scanty support. 106. Henry VI. and his Uncles. The infant king, Henry VI. of England and Henry II. of France, as his titles ran, destined to the most sorrowful of lives and the most disastrous of reigns, was in one respect more fortunate than Richard II., for he had an uncle who proved as faithful to him as a father could be. Had both the living brothers of his father been equally true, there might have been a happier half-century in England, if 1422-1429] PARLIAMENTARY KINGS. 217 not in France. John, Duke of Bedford, the elder uncle of the young king, was an able statesman, a capable soldier, and an honest, unselfish man. and Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, the younger uncle, had more showy talents and more popular man- ners, with a selfish nature and a scheming mind. The Duke of Bedford was appointed Protector of the English kingdom by Parliament ; but he re- mained in France, ruling half that realm in his nephew's name, and pushing the war of con- quest for some time with success. His selfish bro- ther, Gloucester, who acted for him in Eng- land, opened mischiev- ous quarrels, with Bishop Beaufort, the English chancellor, on one side of the Channel, and with Bedford's important ally, the Duke of Burgundy, on the other ; yet the protector, acting wisely and well, made head against these difficul- ties for a number of years. 107. The Maid of Orleans. But in 1429 a strange event occurred, which suddenly and wonderfully changed the situation in France. The king, Charles VII., who led an idle and frivolous life, was incapable of wakening any hope for the country by any faith in himself. Seem- ingly nothing but a miracle, or belief in one, could rouse the unhappy nation from the despairing state in which it was sunk. The miracle happened, or a semblance of it JOHN, DUKE OF BEDFORD. 218 THE DECLINE OF FEUDALISM. [1429 produced miraculous effects. A pure-minded and pious young peasant girl of Lorraine, Jeanne d'Arc, called Joan of Arc by the English, and known in history as the Maid of Orleans, brooded over the calamities of the coun- try until she came to believe that God had commanded .her to deliver it. Her simple and earnest faith in her own mission could hardly have inspired belief in others, or led her to a successful course, if the modest Maid had '• M,, J ^diterra^ FRENCH TERRITORY HELD BY THE ENGLISH WHEN JOAN OF ARC APPEARED, 1429. not been gifted with a wise mind as well as with a beau- tiful spirit, and with marvellous courage as well as a per- fect humbleness of trust in God. Overcoming all obsta- cles, she made her way to the king, and he was persuaded to send her with an army to the relief of the city of Orleans, which the English had besieged for months. Gently and sweetly, but as one to whom authority had 1429] PARLIAMENTARY KINGS. 219 been given, she bore down every doubt of her heavenly mission by the confidence with which she took command. The rudest soldiers were awed and mastered by the won- derful girl. She reformed their conduct, disci- j oa nof Arc plined camp and garrison, expelled vicious fol- at0rleans - lowers, and raised enthusiasm to the highest pitch. Clad in armor, she led assaults upon the besieger's lines, and took part in the fighting like a fearless knight. The French revered her as a saint ; the English feared her as a witch. Orleans was saved and the saintly Maid had delivered it. Nothing then seemed impossible. She conducted the passive king to the royal city of Rheims, in the far north of the kingdom, to be crowned and anointed there, according to the custom of the kings of France. Towns opened their gates ; the Eng- lish gave way ; the king's path to his crown was cleared. When she Crowning had seen it of the king. placed solemnly on his head she thought her mission ended, and would have returned to her humble home ; but the king and his court would not let her go. And yet they tired of following her wise advice. She urged the indolent statue of joan of arc. Charles to march 220 THE DECLINE OF FEUDALISM. [1430-1435 quickly and straight on Paris, but he would not. His generals had grown jealous ; the old state of things was coming back. Jeanne did what she could, hampered on all sides ; but the end of it was that she was captured by the forces of the Duke of Burgundy, with no effort to save her on the part of her friends, and was sold by the duke to the English. This happened in May, 1430. Persuaded by the superstition of the age that the Maid had been an agent of evil powers, the English had her tried as a witch. She was accused by the Uni- Martyr- . domofthe versity of Pans, condemned by her judges, and cruelly burned at Rouen. It is the one great blot on the otherwise fair fame of the Duke of Bedford, that he permitted this foul thing to be done ; and it is the shame, far more, of the heartless King of France, that he made no attempt to save the martyred Maid. 108. Expulsion of the English from France. The burning of Jeanne d'Arc brought no re- covery of success to the English arms. Slowly but surely they lost ground from year to year, and feel- ing turned against the war. In 1435, Bedford died, and after that the English situation in France grew rapidly worse. The Duke of Burgundy, whose dominions had been en- larged, and who had become a very powerful prince, now leagued himself with the French king. When Henry VI. came to manhood, gentle in nature, weak in will, MARGARET OF ANJOU, FROM AN OLD MS. 1435-1449] PARLIAMENTARY KINGS. 221 religious in disposition, he longed for peace ; but he was surrounded by counsellors who would let him yield no- thing that the English held, though what they held grew less and less. In 1444, however, his ministers arranged a truce, and a marriage of the young king to a French princess of important rank, Margaret of Anjou, Margaret daughter of Rene, Duke of Anjou, who bore the of An J° u - empty title of King of Sicily and Jerusalem. The mar- riage was unpopular and had no effect in bringing peace. War was renewed, in 1449, so disastrously to the English that within two years they were driven from every foot of French soil, except their stronghold of Calais. Even their old possessions in Aquitaine were lost. So nothing had been gained by the hundred years of war, which a vain ambition began and a vainer ambition renewed. 109. Rising Troubles in England. While losing their conquests in France the English were preparing troubles for themselves at home. As long as Bedford lived, his influence put some check on the rivalries that rose among the chiefs of great families, when the sceptre of nominal sovereignty had passed to the hand of a helpless child, growing up to be a weak and incapable man. Of such families there were several that boasted royal blood and were very near to the throne. The descent of one among them was more royal, in the hereditary view, than that of the reigning Lancastrian house. It united two lines from Edward III., one coming from his second son, the Duke of Clarence (whose last male descendant was that Earl of March whom Henry IV. imprisoned and Henry V. set free — see sections 97 and 103) ; the other from Edward's fourth son, the Duke York, of York. By marriage with the sister of the and Earl of March, the House of York had sue- NeviUe - ceeded to the latter' s claims. The Beauforts were a 222 THE DECLINE OF FEUDALISM. [1435-1449 younger branch of the Lancastrian house, being of de- scent from John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, by his third wife. Still another Lancastrian offshoot was the family of the Nevilles, which had acquired a royal lineage by the marriage of Ralph Neville, Duke of Westmore- land, with a daughter of John of Gaunt. In the female line, the Nevilles had allied themselves by mar- riage with the House j^ N HI of York ; on the other side, in the male line, they had secured by marriage the earldom of Warwick, and were a power in the realm. On the surface of its events, the political history of England for fifty years after Bedford died is large- HUMPHREY, DUKE OF GLOUCESTER. J~ ly filled with strifes in which these families were the moving spirits and the actors most in view. The contentions of Bishop (afterwards Cardinal) Beau- fort with the young king's uncle, Gloucester, have been mentioned already. Beaufort was a statesman and a patriotic man. His death, in 1447, was a fresh misfor- tune to England ; the death of Gloucester, in the same year, was a relief. The cardinal's nephew, who was Duke of Somerset, lacked his uncle's ability and char- acter, but was ambitious to exercise his power. He con- tested the control of the government, first with the Earl i4So] PARLIAMENTARY KINGS. 223 of Suffolk (who was overthrown and foully murdered in 1450), and then with the Duke of York, whose appear- ance on the scene of strife opens the long and bloody conflict between the Houses of Lancaster and York. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS. 97. The Disputed Title of Henry IV. Topics. 1. Claims to the throne of Henry and Edmund Mortimer. 2. Henry a constitutional king. 3. The first plot and the death of Richard II. Reference. — Gardiner, i. 286, 287. Research Questions. — (1.) Show from the genealogical table on page 227 the respective claims of Henry and Edmund Morti- mer. (2.) When did the hereditary idea of kingship begin to overshadow the elective principle ? (Taswell-Langmead, 220, 221.) (3.) What setback had the hereditary idea received so far ? 98. Rebellion and War. Topics. 1. Trouble with Wales. 2. Trouble with Scotland and the Percies. 3. Continued trouble with Wales and the condition of France. Reference. — Bright, i. 277-2S2. Research Questions. — (1.) What quarrel had the Percies with Henry IV. ? (Bright, i. 279.) (2.) Show from this quarrel Henry's own feeling about his right to the succession. (3.) This feeling of Henry's would make him cautious about offending what two powers in the state ? 99. Origin of the Stuart Family in Scotland. Topics. 1. Succession in Scotland after David II. 2. Captivity of James I. of Scotland. 100. Persecution of the Lollards. Topics. 1. Suspected disloyalty of the Lollards. 224 PARLIAMENTARY KINGS. 2. Legislation against them and persecution. References. — Gardiner, i. 291, 292; Green, 265-267; Bright, i. 284-286; Gairdner, H. L. Y., 86-88 ; Taswell-Langmead, 408- 411. Henry IV. and the church: Gardiner, i. 291, 292; Gaird- ner, H. L. Y., 85-90 ; Green, 265 ; Ransome, 86, 87. Research Questions. — (1.) To please whom was the king will- ing to proceed against the Lollards ? (2.) Describe the martyr- dom of William Sawtre. (Guest, 314.) (3.) In what other way did Henry show his friendship for the church ? (Gardiner, i. 294.) (4.) On what points was he willing to proceed against the church? (Stubbs, C. H., iii. 50, 51.) (5.) Henry's attitude toward her shows what about the church's power ? 101. The Strengthening of Parliament. Topics. 1. Increased power of the Commons. 2. Assertion of their rights with regard to : a, taxation; b, official records of their acts; c, control of elections; d, freedom of speech. 3. The thirty-one articles. References. — Bright, i. 282, 283 ; Green, 265 ; Ransome, 86, 87 ; Stubbs, C. H., iii. ch. xviii. ; Taswell-Langmead, ch. ix. ; Green, H. E. P., i.491, 492; Traill, ii. 279-282; H. Taylor, i. book iii. ch. ii. Research Questions. — (1.) What causes for the increased power of Parliament? (Traill, ii. 280.) (2.) What powers of vast importance did the Parliament gain by the king's poverty ? (Traill, ii. 309.) (3.) Define the three most important privileges of Parliament, and show why they are essential to freedom. (Taswell-Langmead, 319-343.) (4.) How did the two houses obtain the privilege of discussing separately ? (Taswell-Lang- mead, 310, 311.) (5.) What is the value of this privilege ? 102. The Prince of Wales. Topics. 1. The prince as regent. 2. Trustworthiness of his portrayal by Shakespeare. 3. Disagreements with his father. 4. The king's death. Reference.— Gardiner, i. 297, 29S. foi TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 225 103. The Character of Henry V. . OPICS. 1. His acts of generosity. 2. His character in history. 3. Hostility to the Lollards. References. — Bright, i. 302 ; Gardiner, i. 297, 298 ; Gairdner, H. L. Y., 90-92 ; Guest, 3i4-3!6, 321, 322. 104. The New Attempt against Prance. Topics. 1. Henry's design of conquest. 2. Encouragement by : a, English feeling ; b, condition of France 3. His army and the first five weeks of the campaign. 4. The battle of Agincourt and Henry's return to England. Reference. — Gairdner, H. L. Y., 96-103. 105. Henry's Triumphs and his Death. Topics. 1. Renewed attempts at conquest, aided by French factions. 2. Siege of Rouen. 3. The dauphin a national leader and the treaty of Troyes. 4. King's marriage and the campaign of the following year. 5. Birth of an heir and the death of the king. Reference. — Gairdner, H. L. Y., 106-116. 106. Henry VI. and his Uncles. Topics. 1. Henry V.'s brothers and their offices. Reference. — Gairdner, H. L. Y., 128-132. Research Questions. — (1.) What right did Parliament assert at the accession of Henry VI. ? (Ransome, 87, 88.) (2.) Con- trast Bedford and Gloucester. (Guest, 333.) 107. The Maid of Orleans. Topics. 1. Character of Charles VII. 2. The peasant girl from Lorraine. 3. The Maid in command at Orleans. 4. Charles crowned at Rheims. 5. Dissensions in the French camp. 6. Martyrdom of the Maid. 226 PARLIAMENTARY KINGS. References. — Gardiner, i. 310-312; Bright, i. 308-311 ; Gaird- ner, H. L. Y., 132-140; Green, 274-279; Colby, 113-117. Research Questions. — (1.) Sketch the biography of Joan of Arc. (Guest, 337-342.) (2.) Why were witches burned ? (3.) What instances of witches in the history of this country ? 108. Expulsion of the English from France. Topics. 1. The death of Bedford. 2. The Duke of Burgundy changes sides. 3. Henry VI. 's disposition. 4. The truce and Henry's marriage. 5. England loses all except Calais. References. — Gardiner, i. 312-320 ; Gairdner, H. L. Y., 140-161 109. Rising Troubles in England. Topics. 1. Weakness of the king. 2. Strife among the Houses of York, Beaufort, and Neville^ 3. Appearance on the scene of the Duke of York. Reference. — Gairdner, H. L. Y., 140-161. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 227 > l"S| c > >. ■]■"" r J= _2 -3 K M Z H - -r g i — ' j. *vT c 5 Q .SiH Lt3 £. 7J s;-s E I '>. ■5 ^ § ^ RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION. 1450-1603. CHAPTER XI. FACTIOUS KING-MAKING CIVIL WAR — POLITICAL DECLINE. Lancastrian and Yorkist Kings : Henry VI. — Edward IV. — Richard III. 1450-1485. 110. The State of England. England had been heav- ily burdened by the cost of the French war ; it was humiliated by the disastrous ending of the war ; it was troubled by the disbanded soldiers who streamed back, bringing habits of lawless violence ; but apparently the country had never before been so prosperous materially as it was at this time. If prosperous, however, in out- ward circumstances, there seems to be no doubt that, in mind, character, and spirit, the people had suffered a marked decline. The worst sign of a disordered social state was seen in the swelling bands of lawless "retainers " that followed at the heel of every great lord. Parliament had at- tempted, again and again, to check the growing evil of "livery and maintenance," as it was described. This foul growth sprang from seed which decaying mainte- feudalism had sown. The vassal of former times, feudally bound to the occasional service of a great earl or baron, had given place to a follower i S thCent.] FACTIOUS KING-MAKING. 229 and partisan less responsible, more dependent — more a servant and a tool. The retainer wore his lord's livery, was marked with his badge, was generally fed at his board, was favored in many ways by his patronage and protec- tion, but most importantly by the " maintenance " which the great man agreed to give him if he had any cause in court ; which meant, of course, the. overawing influence upon judges and juries that a powerful noble could bring to bear. In return, the retainer stood ready to fight in his lord's quarrels at all places and times. It was a kind of service and relationship more dangerous than the vas- salage of feudalism, as was shown by the factiousness and civil war that arose in England with it, and which did not end until the great lords of the new system and their armies of retainers had almost destroyed one another. The state of things in the church had grown steadily worse. The monastic bodies and the clergy of the cathedrals had contrived to take more and more of the estates and tithes intended for the support of parish priests. The latter were impoverished, their The number diminished, their character lowered, cllurcl1 - their influence lessened or changed from good to ill, and the country was infinitely harmed. Lollardism was secretly kept alive, but there is nothing to show that it represented a religious feeling like that of the century before. Literature was silenced. In the emphatic lan- guage of a writer who has carefully studied the age, " there was no zeal, hardly any character, no learning at all." 1 Something of the meanness in the character of the time must be ascribed to the prosperity that was being enjoyed. A sordid taint had been given to the commer- cial spirit of the towns. They were ceasing to be com- 1 Rogers, Hist of Agriculture and Prices, vol. iv. ch. v. 230 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION. [i 5 th Cent. munities of self-governing freemen, and were taking on an aristocratic form. Increasing wealth had destroyed the democracy of the early gilds. They were no longer called gilds, but were "mysteries," "crafts," The towns . „ ,,,■,,,, . and the " companies, and had changed their constitu- tions and their character with the change of name. The old gild-merchant had given place to a num- ber of distinct merchant-companies, — mercers', grocers', drapers', goldsmiths', fishmongers', etc., — and these, being the richest of the companies, had the greatest weight in the towns. In the companies themselves wealth had grasped the controlling power. Journeymen were being separated from masters in the "crafts." " Every- where the more opulent citizens filled the offices and car- ried on the routine of administration." In fact, these associations, outside of whose membership there were generally no rights of burghership, or borough-citizen- ship, and whose representatives composed or controlled many town councils, were coming to be " close corpora- tions," their official acts performed by a few wealthy men. Those who controlled the municipality controlled its representation in Parliament, and the popular spirit was vanishing from that. The representatives of the towns had become even ready to betray their fellow commoners of the shires, and did so in the Parliament of 1430, when they permitted the passage of an act which took the vote for members of the House of Commons away from the great body of the freemen of the counties (see section 101), and limited it to those who had "free land or tene- ment to the value of forty shillings by the year, of the at least." Forty shillings was then equal to ommons. a k out fjf teen times the same sum at the present day, and the property qualification was therefore high. i45°J FACTIOUS KING-MAKING. 231 The House of Commons was thus made to be represent- ative, not of the common people of England, but quite strictly of two classes of the well-to-do or the rich — namely, the landowners and the men of trade. Politi- cally, the nation was now greatly debased, and it was kneeling already to lay its neck under the foot of an absolute king. 111. Richard, Duke of York. Notwithstanding the torpor of political feeling that had crept over England, there was widespread dis- satisfaction with the gov- ernment, combined with much suspicion and dislike of Queen Margaret of Anjou, as a Frenchwo- man, and much contempt for the feeble goodness of the king. As yet, Henry was childless, and Rich- ard, Duke of York, was looked upon as heir-pre- sumptive to the throne. He had given evidence of strong qualities, and seemed to be the natural hope of those who wanted better government ; but court jealousies had excluded him from any useful part in national affairs. He had been given office in Ireland to put him out of the way. In 1450 there began to be a popular demand for his pre- sence among the counsellors of the king, and a rebellious demonstration which seemed to have that for its chief object was set on foot in Kent. Under an Irish soldier, named Jack Cade, some 20,000 or 30,000 men marched to London, where they tried and HENRY VI. Jack Cade. 232 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION. [1450-1450 beheaded Lord Say, one of the most obnoxious of the king's ministers, and held possession of the city during three riotous days. In the end they were persuaded to disperse, with promises of general pardon ; but Cade made fresh disturbances and was killed. Then began a contest for the control of the weak king's council, between the Duke of York, who came back from Ireland, on one side, and the Duke of Somer- set, with Queen Margaret supporting him, on the other. In 1453, the feeble mind of the king gave way, and Som- „ , erset and the queen (who had just given birth The Duke 1 v . of York to a son) could hold their ground against York Protector. . . no longer. Parliament was summoned, and in March, 1454, the Lords, with approval of the Commons, appointed the Duke of York Protector of the Realm ; but the king soon recovered, and York's authority was at an end. Fearing, then, or professing to fear for his life, he rallied his supporters in arms, and civil war was begun. 112. The First Period of the Wars of the Roses. The question of right to the crown (where no right in reality existed, except as given by the will of Parlia- ment), between the houses of Lancaster and York, was now to be fought out, in a series of fierce, factious com- bats, known as the Wars of the Roses, for the reason that a red rose was the emblem of Lancaster and a white rose the emblem of York. In the first battle (1455), at Battle of St. Albans, Somerset fell and his party was st. Albans. Dea ten. The insanity of the king then re- turned, and York was again made protector ; but only to be dismissed once more when Henry recovered, in the following year. For two years there was peace, but both factions were pursuing secret designs, and in 1459 they were again in arms. Some defection that occurred 145.9-1460] FACTIOUS KING-MAKING. 233 in the Yorkist ranks dispersed that party, however, and the leaders fled to Ireland and France, where they planned their undertakings anew. In the following sum- mer they reappeared in England, encountered the royal forces in battle at Northampton (July Northamp- 10, 1460), defeated them and captured the king. Then the Duke of York made a formal presentation to Parliament of his claim to the crown. After much dis- cussion it was agreed, with King Henry's assent, that ENGLAND DURING THE WARS OF THE ROSES. the latter should wear the crown while he lived, but that the succession should go to the duke and his heirs ; and this agreement was embodied in a parliamentary act. Queen Margaret, who had escaped northward, refused to abandon what she believed to be the rights of her in- fant son, and she found many supporters who were ready to fight in her cause. She gathered a powerful 234 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION. [1460-1461 army, which the Duke of York made a fatal mistake in attacking;, at Wakefield, in December, and there Battle of ° Wakefield he was defeated and slain. His second son of st. and his chief supporter, the Earl of Salisbury, head of the Neville family, were taken in the fight and put to death. Moving southward, toward Lon- don, the queen and her army were met at St. Albans (February 17, 1461) by the Earl of Warwick, Salisbury's son, who brought King Henry in his train. Again the stout-hearted queen was victorious and rescued her help- less husband from his captivity. Meantime, the Duke of York's eldest son, Edward, who succeeded to his claims, had been raising forces in the west, and had fought a successful battle at Battle of ' & Mortimer's Mortimer s Cross (February 2, 1461), defeating the king's half-brother, Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke, whose father, Sir Owen Tudor, he took pris- oner and beheaded, in the savage manner of the time. This Tudor family is one that will presently be conspic- uous in our tale. From the field "of his victory Edward moved to a junction with the beaten forces of Warwick, and together they entered London, which favored the Yorkist cause. There Edward, with the acclamation of a crowd of citizens, was proclaimed king, on the ground that Henry had broken the agreement of the previous year. Queen Margaret with her army, and with the husband and son for whom she fought, retreated to Yorkshire, Battles of pursued by Edward and Warwick, and was bridge and beaten in two fierce battles, fought at Ferry- Towton. bridge and at Towton (March 27-29). No less than 28,000 are said to have perished in the fight at Towton alone. The Lancastrian cause was crushed. Henry and Margaret fled to Scotland ; Edward returned 1461-1465] FACTIOUS KING-MAKING. 235 in triumph to London, and was crowned without waiting for Parliament to pronounce upon his claims ; but Parlia- ment was obsequious when it assembled in November, affirming the title by which he had assumed to be king, and branding Henry as a usurper of the throne. 113. Edward IV. While it is evident that the people at large took little active part in this factious contest of great families, there is no doubt that popular feeling ran in Edward's favor at first. Government under Henry had fallen into contempt. Queen Margaret, who sought help wherever she could find it, in Scotland or France, was regarded with distrust and dislike. Her brave en- deavors for her husband and son were prejudicial to both. Edward, on the other hand, had the good repute of his father to recommend him, and won a personal liking by pleasant ways of his own. The Earl of Warwick, who stood behind him, was the most popular and powerful noble of the day. Thus the prospects of the new reign appeared reasonably fair ; though the indomitable Margaret of Anjou kept her cause alive, and was able, with help got in France, to reappear in the north of England in the spring of 1464. Battles of Beaten then in two battles, at Hedgeley Moor SoofaSd and Hexham, — her leading partisans taken and Hexliam - put to death, — there seemed to be an end to her hopes. In the following year, Henry, entering Lancashire in secret, was captured and committed to the Tower. EDWARD IV. 236 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION. [1464-1469 But Edward, by his own acts, broke the main prop of his throne just when it seemed to be made secure. Earl Warwick planned for him a politic marriage with the sister of the Queen of France. Edward disappointed him by secretly marry- ing a young widow, Elizabeth Woodville, daughter of a Lancas- trian lord. He fol- lowed the marriage by an unwise haste in be- stowing great offices, titles, and estates on The wood- tne relatives villes. of his wifCj — the Woodvilles, pre- viously a family of no great note. These soon formed a close circle round the throne, pushing away the Nevilles and other great Yorkist houses, who watched the intrusion with jealous disgust. Still further, the king offended Warwick by forming an alliance with the Duke of Burgundy, and planning another ambitious war with France, when the earl, more wisely, was seeking to bring England into friendship with Louis XL, the shrewd French king. By these various causes Warwick was alienated from Edward, and drew the latter's brother, George, Warwick the King- Duke of Clarence, into confederacy with him. Warwick's feeling was widely shared ; for the young king Edward had disappointed the hopes with which he was crowned. He had proved to be an idler WARWICK, FROM THE ROUS ROLL. 1470-1471! FACTIOUS KING-MAKING. 237 and a spendthrift ; he pursued scandalous pleasures ; he gave England no better government than it had before. A number of insurrections occurred, and there were con- fused hostilities for a time, which need not be detailed. These resulted in the flight of Warwick and Clarence to France, where they leagued themselves with Queen Margaret and came back to England in September, 1470, as chiefs of the Lancastrian cause. Henry was to be restored to the throne, and Clarence was to have a right of succession if Henry's line should fail. 114. Edward's Plight and Return. In the face of this combination Edward lost courage and fled to Hol- land, seeking help from Duke Charles of Burgundy, who had married his sister. The royal pris- oner in the Tower was set free and once more placed on the throne, with Warwick in actual power. The apathetic nation seemed as ready to submit to one party as the other. Either, with a king's name to use, could control the election of a Par- liament obedient to its commands. For some months the restored king seemed likely to end his reign in peace. But Edward had an ally that may not have been taken into account. The foreign merchants of the Hanse towns feared the loss of their privileges in England if French influence prevailed there, and they are said to have joined the Duke of Burgundy in very liberal and effective aid to the exiled king. With that help he, in his turn, came back. Collecting an army on the way, ARMOR OF CHARLES THE BOLD OF BURGUNDY. 238 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION. [1471-1470 he marched to London and was gladly received, the unfortunate Henry falling into his hands. Three days Battle of l ater (April 14, 1 471), he fought Warwick at Deathof Barnet, and " the King-maker," as the great earl Warwick. } iac i come to be called, was defeated and slain. On that same day Queen Margaret had reached England with her son, then eighteen years old. The relics of her ill-fated party rallied around her and made one more vain stand, at Tewkesbury, and there (May 4, 1471) the war, as between York and Lancaster, came to an end. Ed- ward, merciless in his triumph, gave no quarter ; the Deathof young prince fell, with his friends, while Mar- Henry iv.^ g are t became a prisoner. A few days later, the victor reentered London, and that night Henry VI. died suddenly in the Tower. That he was secretly murdered there has never been a doubt. Not satisfied with the death of his rival and his rival's son, nor with the great slaughter of Lancastrians in the field, Edward hunted the party down with an almost insatiate thirst for blood, and stripped its families of their estates. He was energetic in that ; he was ener- getic and skilful, too, in mercenary arts. He engaged personally in operations of trade, with success. He invented an ingenious mode of begging money from his subjects, in large or small sums, according to their "Benevo- means, calling the extorted gift a "benevo- lences." lence," to give it a pretty name. Where no money was to be gained, or revenge to be sought, or personal power to be advanced, Edward IV. had little time or care to waste on the business of the state. His pleasures demanded the chief attention of his mind. The king's two brothers were men less admirable than himself. Clarence, the elder, who played treason with Warwick, had earned pardon, but not forgiveness, by 1479-1483] FACTIOUS KING-MAKING. 239 treachery to the King-maker when the star of the latter declined. The younger brother, Richard, Duke mcbardof of Gloucester, had shared Edward's fortunes Gloucester - throughout ; fought valiantly, as a lad of eighteen, at Bar- net and Tewkesbury, and was accused of having killed the young Prince of Wales with his own hands. Bitter jealousy and rivalry grew up between the two; but the feebly treacherous Clarence was no match for the bold, unscrupulous, cool, and clear-brained Gloucester, who proved to be a man of extraordinary powers. There are no open marks of Gloucester's hand in the measures that swept Clarence from his path, and yet it can hardly be doubted that he moved some of the secret springs, and that he and Edward were equally guilty of their brother's death. Clarence's old treasons were suddenly Deathof brought up against him ; he was impeached, con- Clarence - demned, and executed (February, 1479) so secretly, in the Tower, that the mode of his death has never been known. A story that he chose to be drowned in a butt of Malmsey wine may possibly be true. 115. The Usurpation of Richard III. Edward's manner of life was not calculated to give him length of days, and he died in the spring of 1483, at the age of forty-two, leaving two sons, Edward and Richard, the elder being then in his thirteenth year. The queen, their mother, and her kindred, who were much disliked, made a futile attempt to keep in their hands the guard- ianship of the young Prince Edward (commonly entitled King Edward V., though he never received the crown). Gloucester had little difficulty in securing the person of the prince and causing himself to be declared, by the late king's council, Protector of the Realm. He was helped in this by Lord Hastings, the president of the council ; but when Hastings proved an obstacle to the 240 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION. [1483 further aim that was in Richard's evil mind, he was dar- ingly snatched from the very council chamber, of Lord and beheaded on the instant, without trial, at the Protector's command. Opposition was ter- rorized by the ruthless audacity with which Richard strode forward to the seizure of the crown. In June, a Parliament (not afterwards recognized as such) was brought together, which decided, with pitiful servility, that the marriage of Ed- ward IV. with Eliza- beth Woodville had been brought about by sorcery and was illegal ; that the chil- dren of Edward were illegitimate ; that the Duke of Clarence's son was disabled from claiming the throne by his father's attaint of treason ; that Rich- ard was, therefore, entitled to the crown. On that decision he was proclaimed king, and his coronation took place in July. He had filled the city with armed men, and none dared to resist. Both of the young princes, his nephews, were at this time in Richard's power. The younger had been in sanctuary with his mother at Westminster, but the treacherous usurper had lured him out, and the two doomed brothers were together in the Tower. There, III MURDERED PRINCE CALLED EDWARD V., FROM AN OLD MS. 1483] FACTIOUS KING-MAKING. 241 at some unknown time in that year, in some unknown way, they were put to death. Only the fact of Murder of the murder is certain ; that they were smothered the P rinces - is a probably true account. Before the princes died there were conspiracies against Richard on foot, and they were stimulated by the horrible crime. But no one who could dispute the usurper's title to the throne with a stronger hereditary claim than his own had now survived. The candidate most promising was found to be Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, whose lineage branched away rather widely from the Lancas- trian royal stem. His grandmother was Catherine of France, the widowed queen of Henry V., who had taken for a second husband Owen Tudor, an accomplished and handsome Welsh chief. That, of course, brought no blood of English royalty into Henry's veins. But his father, Edmund Tudor, created Earl of Rich- Henry of mond by Henry VI. (his half-brother), had mar- Richmond, ried Margaret Beaufort, heiress of whatever rights could be drawn from the third marriage of John of Gaunt, to which the origin of the Beaufort family was traced. It was, therefore, to his mother that Henry of Richmond owed a remote and questionable claim to the English crown. It was proposed and agreed that he should strengthen it by marrying the Princess Elizabeth, daugh- ter of Edward IV. On that understanding, the Earl of RICHARD III. 242 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION. [1483-1485 Richmond became the accepted chief of all who would cast Richard from the throne. 116. Defeat and Death of Richard. The first rising, in October, 1483, failed completely, and cost the life of its leader, the Duke of Buckingham, who had done more than any other to help Richard in the first instance, but who deserted his cause. Richmond, attempting an in- vasion from Brittany, was baffled by a storm and turned •back ; but only to make preparations anew. Richard, on his side, strove to strengthen himself by popular measures, and sought, when his young wife died, to marry the Princess Elizabeth, his niece. But nothing availed to win the support of the nation, and its best wishes were with Henry of Richmond when he landed in Wales (June, 1485), and marched thence into the Eng- lish Midlands, gathering forces as he advanced. Richard Battle of encountered him at Bosworth (August 22) with Bosworth. an arm y m uch superior in numbers ; but some had followed him only to betray him, and went over to Henry in the midst of the battle. He fought with the courage of despair, finding death on the field, as he no doubt meant to do. The battered crown that he had worn on his helmet was picked up in a thorn bush and placed on the victor's head. 117. The Condition of England at the End of the Civil Wars. The long civil wars appear to have been less disturbing to the people at large than might have been supposed. The old nobility of the kingdom was well-nigh stricken clown, by slaughter in battle, execu- tions, exile, impoverishment ; and new families, with less prestige and power, rose to the higher ranks. But the mass of the people took small part in what were really factious contests of the aristocracy alone, and they were only touched occasionally by the movements of armies i 4 8 5 ] FACTIOUS KING-MAKING. 243 quickly formed and quickly dispersed. They suffered mainly from the general weakening of authority and law, the failure of "governance," as it was described, that had been going on since the century began. The state of the country was one in which an arbitrary government was sure to grow up. Parliament no longer represented anything, in either house. Re- straint upon the monarchy by a strong nobility political , , ,. , ., , , . r ~ J situation. had disappeared ; restraint by a body of Com- mons, organized and spirited enough to take the respon- sibility for public rights and public interests on them- selves, was yet to come. Considerable parts of the people seem to have pros- pered materially, even during the wars. Some towns fell into decay ; others thrived in manu- industrial factures or trade or both. The woollen manu- Sltua 10n ' facture made strides ; the exportation of English cloth, instead of English wool, was gaining fast. Castle-building, which had declined since the reign of Ed- ward III., when gun- powder and Architec cannon came ture - into use, was ended in this period. Coun- try mansions were be- ing extensively built. Brickmaking, lost as an art since Roman OLDEST KNOWN REPRESENTATION OF A printing press. times, was not revived 244 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION. [1477 in England until near the middle of the fifteenth century. A declining taste in architecture was shown. 118. Introduction of Printing. It seems very strange that the peaceful art of arts — the grandest of inventions in its civilizing effect — should have come to England in the midst of times so disordered as those which this chapter describes. It was in 1477 that William Caxton, who had learned the new art at Cologne, brought type from Bruges and set up the first press on Ipff to 6noQ# t$e ctaf & of fclfcme 30; ticwepfc, Qfcnfc (0 fct fo fepc c&ntjmuttty tfe* We of \fi& (fop/ for d*$m*K6 not cow) fo $ i FACSIMILE SPECIMEN OF CAXTON'S PRINTING. English soil, in the precincts of Westminster Abbey, where he printed the " Dictes or Sayings of Philoso- phers," the earliest of English printed books. Within three years his busy press had given England some thirty books, large and small (including among them Chaucer's " Canterbury Tales "), which indicates the lit- erary thirst of the time. It thirsted for letters, but it did not produce. The last half of the century is a barren time in English literature. Its most worthy work is one in politics, by Sir John Fortescue, an exiled English judge, of the Lancastrian party, who wrote "On the Governance of the Kingdom of England " or " The Dif- ference between Absolute and Limited Monarchy," in the spirit of a constitutionalist of modern times. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 245 TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS. 110. The State of England. Topics. 1 . Consequences of the war with France. 2. The retainers : a, their origin ; b, their service to their lords. 3. Condition of the church, and of literature. 4. Decay of gilds and popular representation in towns. 5. Forty Shillings Act. References. — Stubbs, C. H., ii. 470, 471 ; Green, 288-292. Research Questions. — (1.) What had been the condition of the franchise previous to the Forty Shillings Act ? (2.) Why is this act a notable one ? (3.) How long did it remain in force ? (Green, 272, 273 ; Taswell-Langmead, 340, 341.) 111. Richard, Duke of York. Topics. 1. Dissatisfaction with the government. 2. Demand for Duke of York and Jack Cade's rebellion. 3. The duke as protector. Reference. — Bright, i. 320-322. Research Questions. — (1.) What other reason for Jack Cade's rebellion besides support of the Duke of York ? (Guest, 348.) (2.) Why was the birth of an heir to the king the signal for the breaking out of the War of the Roses ? (Bright, i. 322.) (3.) What was the central issue of the War of the Roses ? (Traill, ii. 278.) 112. The First Period of the War of the Roses. Topics. 1 . Emblems of the war. 2. Battle of St. Albans and its results. 3. Battle of Northampton and settlement of the succession. 4. Battle of Wakefield and second battle of St. Albans. 5. Edward of York and the battle of Mortimer's Cross. 6. Battles of Ferrybridge and Towton, and crowning of Edward. References. — Bright, i. 322-327; Gairdner, H. L. Y., 163-175. Research Questions. — (1.) The failure of the Lancastrians to keep the throne shows the break-down of what principle of king- ship ? (2.) Edward IV.'s coronation strengthens what principle 246 FACTIOUS KING-MAKING. of kingship? (Taswell-Langmead, 221.) (3.) What underlying causes for the war were there in the condition of the country ? (Guest, 356-358-) 113. Edward IV. Topics. 1. Circumstances favoring Edward. 2. Margaret reappears in the north. 3. Edward's marriage and its offence to the Earl of Warwick. 4. Disappointment in Edward and the conspiracy of Warwick. References. — Gardiner, i. 329-333 ; Gairdner, H. L. Y., 175-188. 114. Edward's Flight and Return. Topics. 1. Edward in Holland and the restoration of Henry VI. 2. The Hanse towns aid Edward. 3. Battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury. 4. Character and talents of Edward. 5. Strife between the king's brothers. References. — Gairdner, H. L. Y., 188-209. 115. The Usurpation of Richard III. Topics. 1. Edward's death and his heirs. 2. Gloucester as protector. 3. Gloucester proclaimed king. 4. Murder of the princes. 5. Henry of Richmond : a, his descent ; b, his marriage. References. — Gairdner, H. L. Y., 209-222; Colby, 122-125. Research Questions. — (1.) When Richard's Parliament ap- pointed the protector and fixed the succession, what sort of rights was it exercising? (2.) What is meant by being in sanctuary? (Guest, 361.) (3.) How did Henry's marriage unite the claims of Lancaster and York ? 116. Defeat and Death of Richard. Topics. 1. The first uprising. 2. Richard's attempts to strengthen himself. 3. The battle of Bosworth. Reference. — Gairdner, H. L. Y., 231-236. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 247 117. The Condition of England at the End of the Civil Wars. Topics. 1. Effect on the people and on the nobility of the wars. 2. Decline of Parliament. 3. Prosperity in trade and condition of rural labor. 4. Condition of architecture. References. — Stubbs, C. H., iii. 679-696; Bright, i. 349-354; Cunningham, G. E. I. C, i. ch. iv. Industry and commerce: Traill, ii. 393-407. Castle-building : Traill, ii. 363, 364. Research Questions. — (1.) What was the extent of the extermi- nation of the noble houses? (Ransome, 95.) (2.) How would this affect Parliament ? (3.) What ominous features of con- tinental governments did not follow in England the fall of the nobility? (Ransome, 95.) (4.) What was the social effect in England of the War of the Roses ? (5.) What increase of in- cisures in this and the preceding reigns ? (Gardiner, i. 320.) (6.) What was the effect of this upon labor ? (Cunningham and McArthur, 82-84 ; Guest, 358.) 118. Introduction of Printing. Topics. 1. William Caxton and the printing press. 2. Literature of the times. References. — Green, 295, 296; Traill, ii. 527-537. Parliament of this period : Montague, 78-86 ; Ransome, 90-99 ; Stubbs, C. H., iii. 212, 213; Taswell-Langmead, 359, 360; H. Taylor, i. 576- 588. LINEAGE OF HENRY VII. FROM JOHN OF GAUNT, THIRD SON OF EDWARD III. John of Gaunt, 13 JZ?T (John Beaufort, (John Beaufort, I Margaret, married ) J „ , , ' \ J , ,-, , <■ \ married ( „ , rIT (third wife) ) Earl of istDukeof \ Edmund Tudor, { Henry VIL Catherine < Somerset. ( Somerset. [ Earl of Richmond. Swynford. SURVEY OF GENERAL HISTORY. THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. The Rise of Absolute Monarchy and the Growth of Religions Independence. Partly as one of the causes and partly as one of the consequences of the breaking up of the feudal system in Europe, kings and sovereign princes of every rank gained power, and their governments took on a more absolute form. The check in which they had been held by strong vassals — often stronger than themselves — was weakened, and finally disappeared, before their subjects at large became able to put a curb of their own in its place. So it happens that the time to which we look as the beginning of our modern era in civilization was actually a time of darkening in political cir- cumstances, so far as liberty for the people was concerned. This effect had become so marked in the sixteenth century that a growth of despotism in government was one of two movements that controlled events in that age ; the other, in strange contrast and opposition, being a sudden outburst of freedom and independence in religious thought. The two movements were in necessary conflict, and the history of the period is mainly a history of their strife. The Emperor Charles V. and his many Realms. Remark- able consequences came in this period from the marriage (noted in our survey of the preceding age) of Philip, son of Mary of Burgundy and Maximilian of Austria, to Joanna, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. A son, Charles, who was born to those parents in the year 1500, became the heir of all that belonged to the ducal and royal houses of Austria, Burgundy, and Spain. He received his Burgundian inheritance in 1506, his Spanish inheritance in 15 16, his Aus- THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 249 trian inheritance in 15 19, and was elected in that last-named year to the German and imperial throne. He was then, at the age of nineteen, the sovereign of Spain, and of her vast possessions in America, of Sicily, of Naples, of Sardinia, of Germany, of the rich provinces of the Netherlands, and of all that the misty bounds of the " Holy Roman Empire " em- braced. No such overshadowing sovereignty had existed in Europe since the day of Charlemagne. The Protestant Reformation. In the years when Charles V. was gathering up his many crowns, Martin Luther in Germany and Ulrich Zwingli in Switzerland set in motion that great religious revolution called the Protestant Reformation, by which the Christian church in western Europe was rent asunder, one large division, known since as the Roman Catho- lic, holding fast to the ancient doctrines and modes of wor- ship, and continuing to look upon the pope as the divinely appointed head of the church of Christ; the other — the Protestant division — rejecting more or less of the beliefs of the mediaeval church, including belief in the authority of the pope. To this movement Charles V. became a formidable antagonist at once. But war with France and tasks of de- spotic government in Spain and Italy took so much of his attention and time, for some years, that Protestantism in northern Germany became a strongly organized power before it was called upon to meet the emperor's attacks. Spain. In Spain and the Netherlands, Charles could use his authority more forcibly and promptty, and he did so with a cruel hand. Freedom of thought had been crushed in Spain long before ; but some remnant of the old political freedom of the towns had survived, and he made haste to extinguish that. Perhaps it was not much missed in the Spain of that day, when wild excitements of discovery, conquest, and search for gold in America were running high. Cortes found Mexico in the third year of Charles's reign, and a dozen years later Pizarro reached Peru. The mines of both coun- tries were soon pouring an intoxicating poison into the veins 250 GENERAL HISTORY. of Spain, and her short-lived career of ruinous glory was begun. Charles V. and the Netherlands. In his Dutch and Flemish dominions, Charles commanded a persecution of the Protest- ants which is said by some writers to have destroyed 100,000 lives. That is probably a great exaggeration ; but the people burned, strangled, beheaded, and buried alive, were certainly an appalling host. Much faster than he could destroy them, however, rebellious minds were multiplied ; because the Neth- erlands were already full of schools, the people were taught to read, and no watchfulness could keep the new thinking out of the land. Charles V. and Francis I., the King of France. The one important rival of Charles V. in Europe was Francis I., King of France, and Italy was the main subject of their strife. A craving for Italian conquests had been roused in France by the expedition of Charles VIII., in 1494 (see page 204). The attempt of Charles VIII. against Naples had been repeated in the next reign (of Louis XII.), and defeated by the Spanish King Ferdinand, who secured the Neapolitan crown. Louis had then won and lost the duchy of Milan, and Louis's suc- cessor, Francis I., had won it back. Now came the young master of many kingdoms, the imperial Charles V., into the field, with determination to take all Italy to himself. His wars with Francis I. were the chief occupation of his life, and he gained his end. He made himself practically master of Italy, from Naples to Milan. He was such a master as Alaric had been, eleven centuries before. To humble a pope (Cle- ment VII.) who did not submit readily to his commands, he let loose upon Rome (1527) an army of mercenaries who sacked the venerable city with more havoc than the Goths. He brought upon the whole peninsula a Spanish blight from which it has never recovered to this day. Charles V. and the German Protestants. It was not until 1546 that the emperor was ready to make a serious attack upon the Lutherans of Germany, who faced him with an THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 25 1 armed league. Luther was then dead ; the Protestant princes were much divided, accepting no leader, and for some years they were completely beaten down. In the end, however, they rallied, and, with help from France, they forced the emperor to make terms with them, in a treaty called " The Religious Peace of Augsburg" (1555), which gave religious freedom to the ruling princes of Germany, but none to the people. Each sovereign was to be permitted to choose his own creed, and to impose it on his subjects without tolerating any other. As a practical consequence, the final division of Germany between Protestantism and Catholicism was settled, not by the people, but by their princes, and the former was rooted out in all the states over which the influence of the Hapsburg or Austrian-Spanish family prevailed. The Catholic Reaction, or Counter-Reformation. By the middle of the century, a powerful reaction against the Pro- testant Reformation began to make itself felt, caused partly by a vigorous Counter-Reformation within the Roman church, and partly by a sad decline of religious motive in the Pro- testant cause. Mercenary and political aims had been given to the movement ; men and classes in power had made it an opportunity to enrich themselves from the wealth of' the over- thrown church. Among the humbler followers of the Refor- mation, there was still the sincerity of its beginning ; but much of the control of it was in less honest hands. At the same time, the danger of the old church had brought a better class of men to its front. By a series of well-guided elections, popes who gave new strength to Catholicism were raised to the Roman throne. A general council of the church, assembled at Trent in 1545, undertook some reforms, but it did more in the way of fixing the doctrines of Catholicism and confirming the authority of the popes. To a great extent, the old church was reconstructed and reconsolidated at this time, and fresh forces were enlisted and organized in it. Of new organizations, the most remark- able was the Society of Jesus, founded by Loyola, in 1540, on 252 GENERAL HISTORY. the military principle of absolute obedience to a commanding head. Its members, known asjesuits, formed an army, for the missionary work of the church, or for any other service, that flinched from no sacrifice or danger. Abdication of Charles V. In 1555, Charles V., wearied with the burden of his greatness, began to give away his crowns. During that year and the next, he resigned his hereditary dominions to his son Philip, and abdicated the imperial throne in favor of Ferdinand, his brother. He then retired to a cloister in Spain, where the remainder of his days were spent. Philip II. Philip II., who succeeded his father in the sovereignty of Spain, Spanish Italy, and the Netherlands, but who did not receive the imperial dignity, is as hateful a character as history can show. His sole aim in life was to destroy all opinion and will in the world except his own. Philip married Queen Mary of England, but his career in that country was brief. In the Netherlands he took up his father's work of persecution with a cold persistency more horrible than any passionate zeal. The suffering people were driven to organized and united revolt (1566), under the lead of a great noble, William of Nassau, Prince of Orange, known as William the Silent, and their half-century of struggle with the heartless Spaniard is one of the most heroic conflicts in the history of the world. In the northern provinces the Span- ish yoke was finally broken, and the independent Dutch Re- public was formed, which rose to prosperity and greatness as rapidly as Spain declined. In the southern provinces the struggle failed, and they sank, like Spain and Italy, under the Austrian-Spanish blight. The Huguenots of France. In the early years of the Pro- testant Reformation, it made great progress in France and had encouragement at court. King and court became hostile ere long, but the Protestants grew in numbers and formed a party (called the Huguenots) strong enough to contend with their opponents for the control of the state. The doctrines THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 253 of the Huguenots were not those of Luther, in some particu- lars, nor their church organization the same. They followed the sterner teachings of the French reformer, John Calvin, and sought a more entirely self-governing church. Soon after the middle of the century the contending reli- gious parties, Huguenot and Catholic, came to blows, and France was torn by a long series of deplorable religious wars, which the meddling fingers of Philip of Spain helped to pro- long. At a moment of truce in those wars, the horrible Mas- sacre of St. Bartholomew's Day (1572) was contrived by Catherine de Medici, mother of the young king, Charles IX., and thousands of the leading Huguenots were slaughtered at Paris and in other towns. From that time the Huguenot party lost ground, and, though a Huguenot, Henry of Navarre became King of France in 1589, he gained the crown by re- nouncing the Protestant faith and submitting to Rome. He gave freedom of worship, however, to the Protestants of France by the famous Edict of Nantes (1593). The Checking of the Turks. In eastern Europe, the alarm- ing advance of the Turks was practically ended when their sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent, died (1566). Other Countries. In 1547, the Grand Prince of Moscow, Ivan, called " the Terrible," took the title of Cassar, or Tsar, and Russia as an empire had its birth. Poland had doomed itself to anarchy. Sweden rose to the lead of Scandinavian states, and Protestantism was established in them all. In Asia, a fresh movement of Mongol conquest reached India, and planted there the Mongol or Mogul Empire, which an English trading company afterwards overthrew. Commerce. — Exploration. — Colonization. The greatest of commercial revolutions is that which occurred in the six- teenth century, as the consequence of the Portuguese dis- covery of the ocean route to India by way of the Cape of Good Hope. The rich trade of the east deserted its old caravan and Mediterranean lines. For a century or more, the Portuguese controlled the first handling of East Indian com- 254 GENERAL HISTORY. modities, which they brought to Lisbon and there turned over to Dutch, English, and German traders for distribution through western and northern Europe. The older commer- cial capitals, Venice, Genoa, Constantinople, Alexandria, Bruges, Antwerp, lost their rank ; London and Amsterdam rose. The Hanseatic League, long declining, was nearly dis- solved. Not with quick enterprise, but slowly, the New World was being explored. In 1562 and 1564, the Huguenot Admiral Coligny attempted, in Florida, the first colonization of Euro- peans that was undertaken in any part of what became the United States; in 1565, his colony was attacked by Spaniards and fiendishly destroyed. In 1585, the first English colony was attempted by Sir Walter Raleigh at Roanoke, and failed. Literature and Art. Nowhere else, in this century, was so noble a literature inspired as that in England which adorned the great Shakespearean age ; but Spain gave birth to Cer- vantes, Portugal to Camoens, Italy to Tasso and Machiavelli, Holland to Erasmus, France to Rabelais and Montaigne. Except in the prose of Luther's translation of the Bible, which fixed the German language in literary use, the century pro- duced in German literature no notable fruit. With Raphael and Michael Angelo, Italian art reached its crowning height, and its decline began. Science. It goes hardly too far to say that modern science was born in this century, when the publication of the Coper- nican system of astronomy, recognizing the sun instead of the earth as the centre of celestial motions, began to lift the minds of men to a new standpoint for the viewing of the universe, and to jostle their thinking of nature and of natural things out of its old grooves. But most of the early fruit of the new observing and thinking was ripened in the next age. CHAPTER XII. ARBITRARY MONARCHY THE FOUNDING OF THE NATIONAL CHURCH. Tudor Kings : Henry VII. — Henry VIII. 1485-1547. 119. The Opening of the Modern Era. At the coming in of the Tudor dynasty, England may be said to have entered what we call the Modern Era, out of that state of society which we know as Mediaeval, but do not easily define. The social constitution of the nation had undergone a radical change. Villeinage in the lowest ranks and feudal baronage in the highest had both practi- cally disappeared, and the great middle class of burgesses, yeomen, and farmers, that was to rule England in the future, had begun its powerful growth. The gild organ- izations of industry and the town organizations of trade were in decay, making way for national systems to rise. Monastic ideas of religious life had fallen into contempt ; the monkish learning and philosophy of the Middle Ages no longer satisfied minds wakened by the morning of a new day. At such a time, it seems strange that the English people should apparently have forgotten their Magna Carta and their Model Parliament, and should have been giving an almost servile obedience to kings who called parliaments when it suited them to do so, com- manded legislation as they chose to have it, lutenessof and took money from their subjects very nearly as they pleased. But possibly the revival of strong king- 256 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION. [1485 ship for a time was needed to start the nation with energy in the race it had to run. We shall see, per- haps, that the national spirit found some tonic in it, after all. 120. King and Parliament under Henry VII. Henry VII. was a stranger in England when he came from exile to the throne. His title to the crown depended, even more than that of Henry IV., on the na- tional will. Yet Henry exercised, and transmitted to his successors, a more independent sovereignty than England had yielded to her kings for many gen- erations in the past. This resulted from the fact, al- ready shown, that, while Parliament continued to be, in form and theory, all that it had been made under Henry III., Edward I., and Henry IV, the nation had lost control of it, and the king had become able to use it as an instrument, more often than he was checked by it as a coordinate power. 121. Strong Government. Henry saw two principal duties before him when he came to the throne : (1) to heal the factions in the kingdom ; (2) to establish a firm, strong government. It can be said with justice that he did both. The blended white and red rose in his badge gave a meaning to his marriage with the Princess Eliza- beth which his actions did not belie. He was not the chief of a party, as five of his predecessors had been, but a really national king. He was a cool, hard-tempered, HENRY VII. 14S5-1486] ARBITRARY MONARCHY. 257 calculating man ; not generous nor genial, but well-bal- anced in most of his views. Especially by one measure at the outset of his reign, Henry showed his determination to amend the " want of governance " complained of during the whole century past. He struck at the root of faction and turbulence, by effectually attacking that organized lawlessness which the terms " livery and maintenance " represent (see sec- tion 1 10). He did this by the agency of a court , . , t, ■■ . ....... Origin of to which Parliament gave special jurisdiction the star i r-r, . , ,, - Chamber. and powers. 1 his court, however (known after- wards as the Star Chamber, from the place in which it sat), though it accomplished a great good at the begin- ning, became a source of deep mischief in the end. 122. Insurrections and Pretenders. That the nation was generally contented with Henry's government is proved by the little support given to numerous attempts against him. Repeated insurrections, set on foot or encouraged by enemies outside of the realm, more than within it, came to naught. So completely had rival claims to the crown been extinguished, except in the person of the Earl of Warwick, son of the late Clarence, whom Henry confined in the Tower, that those who would rally rebellion against Henry had to bring forward pretenders, to personate either Warwick or one of the young princes murdered by Richard III. They began, in Henry's second year, with a fictitious Warwick, who turned out to be an Oxford lad, of obscure Lambert origin, named Lambert Simnel. A mischievous SimneL Oxford priest tutored Simnel for the part he was to play, and took him to the English district of Ireland, where the Yorkists were strong. There he was received with enthusiasm as the Earl of Warwick, escaped from the Tower and preparing to demand the English crown. 258 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION. [1487-1497 He was solemnly crowned at Dublin, and received from his pretended aunt, Margaret of Burgundy (sister of Edward IV. and second wife and widow of Charles the Bold of Burgundy), a force of 2000 German soldiers, well-trained and equipped. With these and an Irish following he invaded England, entering Lancashire and marching towards York. Few Englishmen joined him, and he was easily defeated and taken prisoner at Stoke. Henry treated the pretender with a wise contempt, spar- ing his life and setting him to work as a turnspit in the royal kitchen. Simnel's ignominious downfall did not deter another rash youth from venturing on the stage with the same audacious play. The actor this time was not even an Englishman, but a native of Flanders, Perkin Warbeck by name, and he was introduced to public notice as Richard, Duke of York, the younger of the two sons of Edward IV., rescued by some means from the fate which was supposed to have overtaken both. Like Simnel, Warbeck made his first appearance among the sympa- Perkin thizing Irish, and was just as warmly received, warbeck. From Ireland he went to France, and thence to Flanders, where the dowager Duchess Margaret was again ready to play the affectionate aunt. For five years ( 1 492-1 497) the Perkin Warbeck comedy went on, with Margaret, Archduke Philip, the Emperor Maximilian, the King of France, the King of Scotland, and various minor actors taking parts. In Scotland, Warbeck was entertained as a prince, and married to a noble Scottish wife. With King James IV. of Scotland he made a miserable, bootless raid across the English border, and that ended the Scottish episode. Finally, in the autumn of 1497, he ventured from Ireland into Cornwall, where a revolt against onerous taxes had 1497-15 01 ] ARBITRARY MONARCHY. 259 just occurred. A few thousands of the people joined him and he led them to Exeter ; but failing to take that city- he lost courage and deserted his men, flying to sanctuary in the Abbey of Beaulieu. Again it was the -warbeck-s king's shrewd policy to treat the pretender with end- contempt. His life being spared, he made a full confes- sion of his fraud. He was sent to London to be paraded through the streets, before being committed to some kind of custody that was evidently lax, for he foolishly ran away. On being caught he was confined in the Tower ; and there he plotted with the unfortunate Earl of Warwick another attempt at escape. When the scheme was discovered, Henry committed the most cruel injustice of his reign, by bringing both Warwick and War- beck to trial for trea- sonable conspiracy and taking their lives. 123. Foreign Affairs. Enmity between Eng- land and France had be- come traditional ; but when the French inva- sions of Italy (see pages 204 and 250) caused j eal- ous alarm among other powers, and an opposing league was formed, Henry bar- gained sharply with the allies before he took their side. When he joined the league at last, it was on terms which left him out of the fighting, and which brought about a marriage alliance that seemed to be of great advantage to both the nations concerned. It was a marriage between KATHARINE OF ARAGON. 260 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION. [14SS-1503 Henry's eldest son, Arthur, and Katharine of Aragon, Spanish the youngest daughter of Ferdinand and Isa- mamage. b e rj a f Spain, which took place in 1501, the bride being sixteen and the bridegroom fifteen years old. A few months later, the bridegroom died, and negotia- tions were opened for a marriage of Katharine to the king's younger son, his namesake, Henry, then heir to the throne ; but some years passed before that fateful marriage was brought about. Another marriage, which had more fortunate results, „ . . between Henry's daughter, Margaret, and King Union of r, theEngiish James IV. of Scotland, was effected in 1 qo^. and Scot- J . . . , , , , . , , tish After exactly a hundred years, this led, as we crowns shall see, to a union of the English and Scottish crowns. 124. Commerce and Discovery. More than any of his predecessors, Henry seems to have been attentive to the commerce of England, and employed his shrewdest diplomacy in making openings for English traders in markets abroad. The English were hampered by many exclusive privileges given formerly to foreign traders, which Edward IV., repaying his obligations to the Han- sards, had lately renewed and increased. Henry VII. ex- erted himself, not always in fair ways, perhaps, to release the commerce of the country from these injurious bonds. It was in Henry's reign that Columbus went begging from court to court for a fleet and a commission to sail westward and to find what the unexplored ocean con- tained. While he waited wearily in Spain, the indomita- ble Genoese sent his brother Bartholomew to the English king ; but the unlucky brother, captured on the way and stripped by pirates, was long in reaching Lon- Columbus. ^ F J l ' . s . & don, and much delayed m his mission when there. Apparently he had encouragement from Henry 1488-1497] ARBITRARY MONARCHY. 261 at last, but how much is not known. Whatever it may have been was too late. Before Bartholomew Columbus reached Spain again, Christopher had obtained his little fleet of ships and had set sail on the memorable voyage. But, having missed the glory and the empire won by Isabella of Castile, Henry became her earliest competitor in the exploration of the New World. He took into his service another Italian, John Cabot, and sent him across the Atlantic in 1497. John Cabot was the first The to touch the shore of the American continent, Cabots - which Columbus had not done ; but the point at which he reached it, probably in or near the St. Lawrence Gulf, is not known. Of a second voyage made in the follow- ing year by John Cabot, or his son, Sebastian, or both, the results are almost equally in doubt. 125. Ireland. As Henry neglected nothing within the compass of his government, he gave an attention to the affairs of Ireland which that country had not received since its partial conquest by Henry II. ; but, unfortu- nately, what he did only confirmed and established the hostile separation of the English race in Ireland from the Celts. The Anglo-Irish and the Celtic , . , . , . r , Treatment Irish were on nearly the same plane of rude of the half-civilization ; yet they did not and could not become one people, because of the senseless efforts that were continually made, by harsh laws, to keep them apart. Intermarriages, foster-nursing, use of the Irish language, observance of ancient Irish laws, enjoyment of Irish sports and games, had all been prohibited, with no effect except to keep hatred alive. By the measures of Henry VII., these falsities and wrongs were more lastingly fixed. Sir Edward Poynings, sent as Lord Deputy to Ireland, in 1494, extorted from a Parliament held in the English Pale two acts that were 262 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION. [1509 famous, or infamous, in later Irish history as the " Poyn- ings Laws." One of them ordained that no Parliament should be held in Ireland until the king's council in Eng- Poynings l an d had given permission, and had approved Laws. j n ac j vance the acts proposed to be passed. The other extended to Ireland the operation of all Eng- lish laws then in force. Thus even the English in Ireland were paralyzed politically, and kept for centuries in that helpless state ; while law after law was contrived for breaking intercourse between them and their " wild Irish " neighbors (so called), and for making peace impos- sible. 126. The Last Years of Henry VII. In the later years of his reign, Henry became, without doubt, one of the most oppressive extortioners that England had had among her kings. He had shrewdly avoided laying heavy burdens of general taxation on the country, thinking it safer to do great wrong to some than to risk the discon- tenting of all ; but he seems to have actually revived some of the worst of the practices of the past. By this despotism he made himself hateful to a large class of his subjects, and two unscrupulous lawyers, Empson and Dudley, who were the principal agents of the king in collecting "fines for fictitious offences" and the like, paid with their lives, after their master died, for the indignation they had helped to excite. Henry died in April, 1509, at the age of fifty-two. 127. Henry VIII. Familiar as we all are with por- traits of Henry VIII., which show a remarkable grossness of figure and face, we cannot easily picture to ourselves the handsome young prince that he is said to have been when he came to the throne. But he was famed abroad ftor personal comeliness, and equally famed for the ac- complishments he possessed. He had been carefully 1509-1511] ARBITRARY MONARCHY. 263 educated, and he had a fairly good mind ; but his egotism, his wilfulness, and his selfishness had no bounds. Those traits in the king became the cause of infinite suffering to England; but his subjects were so filled with admira- tion of his stature, his strength, his fine presence, and the bluff freedom of his manner to- ward them, that they were quite heedless of his character in the first years of his reign. One of Henry's first acts was to marry Katharine of Aragon, his bro- ther's widow, and First mar- ne ls salc * "age. t0 have done so less from policy than from choice. Katharine was twenty-five, while he was nine- teen, but her person was attractive to him then, and her manners pleased. For two years he seems to have been contented with the enjoyments of a gay and extravagant court. Then he was seized with the ambition to play a conspicuous part in the eyes of the world. An iniquitous league for the despoiling of Venice had been followed by what was styled a "Holy League" against France, formed by Ferdinand of Spain, Emperor Maximilian, and the pope. Henry was easily HENRY VIII. The Holy the League. ' 264 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION. [1511-1513 Flodden Field. drawn into the League, but only to be betrayed. His allies used him to bring pressure on France for secretly securing their own terms of peace. Meantime, while Henry was making war in France, his Scottish brother-in-law, James IV., acting on the old friendship of Scotland for France, invaded England and suffered the awful defeat of Flodden Field, where he and 10,000 of his countrymen fell. This brought Henry's nephew, James V., the son of his sister Margaret, to the Scottish throne. 128. Cardinal Wolsey. In wrath, on discovering the bad faith of his partners in the Holy League, Henry changed his whole pol- icy and determined on a close alliance with France. And then it was that Thomas Wol- sey, who had been a chaplain at court for some years, and lately the king's almoner, rose to leadership in council and ministry. The French war had given Wolsey an op- portunity to show his varied abilities, and es- pecially his great organ- izing power. Henry, with all his egotism, could see the worth of such a servant, and he was willing that the livery of the service should be as splendid as Wolsey, who loved magnificence, could desire. There- fore Wolsey became the managing minister of the king, THOMAS WOI.SEY. 1514-1516] ARBITRARY MONARCHY. 265 for state affairs in general, but particularly in the diplo- matic field, and his labors were rewarded with greater dignities and revenues (in church offices and livings) and a prouder state than any English minister had ever en- joyed before. But in Henry's relations with his minister there is no sign of a personal friendship, or of any influ- ence that ever moved his egotistic will. Wolsey was simply his magnificent servant, for doing in a splendid and powerful way what his majesty saw fit to have done. Wolsey accomplished the alliance which Henry desired. Louis XII. of France, an old man, broken in health, hav- ing lately become a widower and desiring a young wife, was offered and accepted the hand of Henry's The French younger sister, Mary, a charming girl of seven- alliance - teen. With the marriage went a treaty of close alliance, and it was followed by negotiations for a joint attack on Castile. But all the fine scheming was thwarted by the death (January, 15 15) of the elderly bridegroom, three months after he received his bride. Louis XII. was succeeded in France by Francis I., a young man of twenty-four, who threw himself into ambi- tious undertakings of war with a dash and an early suc- cess that kindled jealousies in Henry's breast. For some time Wolsey's diplomatic skill was employed in secret intrigues with Swiss mercenaries and with the emperor, to bring about attacks on Francis in Milan, which 'England should pay for without her hand being seen. But all parties in the business were cheat- ing one another in a knavish game. Wolsey, during this time, was made cardinal by the pope. He was already Archbishop of York, and held two bishoprics besides. 129. England between Charles V. and Francis I. In 1 5 16, Ferdinand of Aragon died, and his grandson, Charles, the heir of many realms, Spanish, Austrian, and 266 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION. [1516-1520 Burgundian, then came on the European stage. Of other potentates in Europe, none but the King of France could pretend to rival this young prince, then sixteen years old. England, the small island kingdom, had no weight yet that could go into the scale against these two. That she should even aspire to the holding of the scales ENGLISH WARSHIP WHICH CONVEYED HENRY VIII. TO FRANCE. between them was a daring thought ; but it was the thought that Wolsey conceived and carried out with matchless dexterity and success. England was raised from a low place in the eyes of Europe to one of extraor- dinary height, when measured by her true national rank and power. She figured as the arbiter of the continent, and was regarded for a few years as the keeper of the public peace. 1519-1522] ARBITRARY MONARCHY. 267 Early in 15 19, Maximilian died, and Charles and Fran- cis were competing candidates for the imperial crown. Henry, too, offered his name to the electors ; but hardly with serious hopes. The prize fell to Charles, and in his- tory he is known best by the most sounding of his many high titles, — as the Emperor Charles V. Henry was now courted by both Francis and Charles, and his inter- course with them was so managed by Wolsey as to make a profound impression on the public mind. In May, 1520, the emperor visited him in England ; the next month Henry and the King of France had of the three . . ~ . . . monarchs. a famous meeting near Calais, at a place so magnificently prepared that it was known as " The Field of the Cloth of Gold;" and in July Charles and Henry had a second interview at Calais. The great cardinal was a figure in these proceedings as distinguished as the kings, and both Francis and Charles offered influence in his favor at the next election of pope. The parties were playing a game of duplicity all round ; but England, her king, and her cardinal were made conspicuous by the game. 130. King Henry against Luther. At this time, Henry was watching with anger the religious agitation roused in Germany by Luther ; and, when a tract by Luther on " The Babylonian Captivity of the Church " appeared, he wrote a reply to it, which he sent in sump- tuous binding to the pope. The pope in return praised the king's book highly, and gave him the title of " De- fender of the Faith," which he accepted with great pride. 131. Renewed War with France. In 1522, England took part with the emperor in a war that had broken out the year before between Francis and Charles. Her part was inglorious, and she had no profit from the war. National expenditure had risen to an unparalleled 268 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION. [1522-1527 height ; taxation had become the heaviest and arbitrary modes of raising money the most oppressive ever known. There were angry mutterings and threatening signs. Even Henry, who tried to shut his eyes to everything that crossed his will, could see that he was making a failure again in war, and Wolsey began to manoeuvre for a changing of sides. Decisive reasons for the change were supplied when Francis suffered a great defeat at Pavia and was carried prisoner to Spain. Charles was then too triumphant ; Francis was so helpless that he was willing to pay heavily for Henry's aid. Wolsey wrung from the latter, accordingly, two millions of crowns, at which cost, after long bargaining, the King of France, in 1527, obtained the English alliance, which did him little good. 132. Henry's Wish to divorce Queen Katharine. Costly and profitless as the war had been, the French alliance was hateful to English feeling ; and Wol- sey, already detested by the nobles as an upstart, and odious to the people as minister of the king's oppressions, became the object of a new storm of wrath. Public hostility could matter little, so long as the all-powerful king stood by him ; but that support was slipping away. Certain evil desires had arisen in Henry's despotic mind. If the great cardi- nal could help him to gratify them, well and good ; if AXNE BOLF.VN. 1527-153°] ARBITRARY MONARCHY. 269 not, let the cardinal beware. The king, in a word, had tired of his Spanish wife, whose charms were Anne fading ; and a young lady, Anne Boleyn, had Bole y n - lately appeared at court, who pleased his eye. It came, therefore, to the king's mind, after eighteen years of marriage with his good wife Katharine, that she had been his brother's widow ; that his union with her was sinful, because forbidden by Holy Writ ; that the pope who granted a dispensation for it had no power to do so ; that the disapproval of Heaven was shown in the fact that no son born to Katharine had lived ; and that, there- fore, his conscience required him to put her away. To give him freedom for another marriage, he demanded that the reigning pope, Clement VII., should annul his predecessor's dispensation ; and Wolsey, in the face of the fact that Katharine's nephew, the emperor, held Pope Clement in his power, was given the impossible task of bringing this about. When he failed (1529) The f a uof he was in disgrace, — a useless servant, cast Wolse y- off and thrown out to his many enemies, to be hunted down. At first they were satisfied to strip him of his offices and estates ; but after a few months they found pretexts for a charge of treason, and the king ordered his arrest. Being already broken in health, the shock was fatal, and the great cardinal died (November 29, 1530) on the journey, as a prisoner, to London from York. 133. The Divorce. — The King's Marriage to Anne Boleyn. Henry's purpose was not shaken by his failure at Rome. If the pope would not give him authority to divorce his wife, he would seek authority elsewhere. On the suggestion of one of his chaplains, Thomas Cranmer, he sent agents abroad to obtain opinions from learned doctors of the law, against the validity of the papal dis- 270 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION. [1529-1532 pensation which had allowed him, in 1509, to marry his brother's widow. By more or less bribery, as it seems, the desired opinions were secured, from universities in Italy and France, while Oxford and Cambridge were forced to pronounce to the same effect. Armed with these favorable opinions, the king bore down all resistance at home to what he desired to do. He had found the new chief servant that he needed Thomas i n one Thomas Cromwell, a London attorney, Cromwell. w ^\o was more capable than Wolsey for the work now in hand. Cromwell and Cranmer entered into the business with zeal ; but the chancellor, Sir Thomas More, one of the purest, noblest, most admirable men of his age, stood aloof. In 1529, an obedient Parliament had been assembled — the first in six years — packed with royal servants, elected at command. Its main business was to intimi- date the clergy by threatening bills, which it did with such effect that the Convocation, or clerical assembly of the church in England, was driven, in 1 531, to declare the king to be " the singular protector and only supreme The king governor of the English church, and, as far as heado^the trie ^ aw °f Christ permits, its supreme head." church. _a, still more submissive document was extorted from the leading clergy the next year. The situation had then become one which impelled Sir Thomas More to withdraw from office, and he resigned. The king had professed great affection for More, until he found an immovable conscience underlying the sweet nature of the man, and from that moment the honest chancellor was doomed. Henry's projects were helped at this juncture by the death of Archbishop Warham of Canterbury, who had opposed the divorce. Cranmer was made archbishop ; 1533-1534] ARBITRARY MONARCHY. 271 and then, feeling sure of a decree at home that could be set against the pope's, Henry was secretly married to Anne Boleyn (January, 1533). In May, cranmer-s Cranmer, as primate, held an ecclesiastical court, action - in which he tried the question of the king's marriage to Katharine and pronounced it void. A few days later, he gave a second decision, which sanctioned the marriage to Anne, and she was publicly crowned as queen. 134. The Separation of the Church of England from Rome. In March, 1534, the final sentence of Rome was pronounced by Pope Clement, declaring Katharine to be Henry's legitimate wife. Before this was known in Eng- land, the king had begun to take steps for casting off the authority of the Roman pontiff, making the church in England an independent church, in order to place his divorce and re-marriage under cover of English law. By successive acts of Parliament, every kind of payment hitherto made to the Roman See was stopped ; every species of license and dispensation formerly obtained from the pope was forbidden ; the king's first The Act of marriage was declared void, while that with Succession - Anne was affirmed, and a daughter, Elizabeth, lately born to Anne, was recognized as the true heir to the crown. To refuse acceptance by oath to this last-named act, or to speak against it, or to use words denying the titles of the king, the new queen, or their heirs, or to refuse to acknowledge the king as being " the Supreme Head in Earth of the Church of England," were made treasonable crimes, punishable with death. 135. The Feeling of the English People. The scan- dalous business of the king's divorce and second marriage was plainly hateful to all classes of his subjects, for they lost no opportunity to manifest their sympathy with Queen Katharine and her daughter Mary, and their 272 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION. [1534-1535 dislike and scorn of Anne Boleyn. But the feeling with which they saw their church severed from Rome is less certainly known. There is little evidence at this time of any widespread revolt of religious opinion or feeling in England against the papacy or the papal church, like that which swept Germany and other parts of the conti- nent into the movement of the Protestant Reformation. Apparently, in fact, there was less of a re- ligious agitation in the English mind during these days than there had been in Wiclif's time ; and the coun- try at large would seem to have been less prepared than then for a movement of separa- tion from the Roman church, so far as mo- tives from religious feeling or opinion are concerned. On the other hand, there had been so long a habit in England of resisting papal exactions and disputing papal claims that the idea of separation may easily have been received with no general shock. 136. Execution of More, Fisher, and others. But, whatever the feeling of the country may have been, it was not consulted by the arrogant king. Much or little as there may have been of a Reformation spirit in the country, he made no concessions to it, accepted no sup- port from it. His purpose was not to rid England of papacy, but to set up a papacy or pontificate of his own, SIR THOMAS MORE. I535-I536] ARBITRARY MONARCHY. 273 in the place of that of the Bishop of Rome. He intended to be, for England, both pope and king. The Lollard and the Lutheran were rebels against his supremacy as much as against that of the Roman pope, and he pursued them with rope and brand. Every kind of difference with the despot had become a deadly crime. Sir Thomas More, whom all men loved, and the of More good Bishop of Rochester, John Fisher, who was venerated by all, went to the scaffold (1535) because they could not, by oath, give approval to the divorce. One John Frith was burned for holding a Protestant view of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, while three Car- thusian monks were hung and quartered for denying the king's headship in the church. And the ferocity of the tyrant was not yet half roused. 137. Execution of Anne Boleyn. — Henry's Third Marriage. In January, 1536, the divorced Queen Kath- arine died, and by her death she seems to have doomed her rival, Anne. The king had Queen been tiring of the latter for some time, but feared to reopen the old divorce question if he tried to make himself wifeless again. But no sooner was Kath- arine out of the way than he determined to be rid of Anne Boleyn, and his creature, Thomas Cromwell, lost no time in finding the means. On charges of misconduct and of conspiracy, which few who have investigated the matter give credit to in the least, she was condemned and beheaded (May, 1536), while five unfortunate gentle- men, accused of complicity in her crime, shared her fate. Henry married his third wife, Jane Seymour, on the day after Anne's head fell. 138. Suppression of the Monasteries. The minister chosen by the king for the exercise of his new spiritual powers, as Supreme Head of the church, was no man 274 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION. [1537-1547 of piety, — no clergyman even, — but the unscrupulous attorney, Thomas Cromwell, whom he appointed to be " vicar-general," and who proceeded with instant zeal to "reform" the church by seizing its wealth. That many of the monasteries misused the vast wealth that they held in trust, and that their usefulness, for the most part, was being lost, is hardly open to doubt ; but it is equally beyond doubt that public interests and moral considerations had little to do with Cromwell's proceed- ings against them. His first "visitation " and report led to an act of Par- liament, in 1536, which dissolved about 380 of the smaller communities, and placed their property at the disposal of the king. This measure was one of the causes of a re- volt, that year, in the north, which bore the The Pil- . grimageof singular name of "The Pilgrimage of Grace." Grjic© It was an unsuccessful rising, but it furnished a pretext for making the overthrow of monasteries com- plete, and that work was accomplished during the next three years. Besides the monasteries, which seem to have exceeded 600 in number, more than 2000 chantries, or endowed chapels, and numerous allied institutions, were suppressed. The land acquired by the king from these suppressions was enormous in extent, while the The spoils. jewels, the gold, and the plate taken from them and from the shrines of saints, which were stripped soon after, represented an incalculable spoil, mostly seized to be squandered by the king. " During the last eight years of his life he [the king] gave away about 420 monasteries Division of or s ^ tes °^ monasteries. ... His bounty was the spoils. no t bestowed, it must be confessed, according to public virtue or service ; the palace got much of it ; every cook who could please his palate with a dish, every ruffler who spread a finer cloak before his eyes, might 1536-1539] ARBITRARY MONARCHY. 275 look to have. His gaming debts are said to have made away with a great deal ; and, besides the creatures of the palace, there were land-jobbers and blood-suckers of every kind." 1 The confiscation of the property of the monasteries was followed, in 1545, by a statute which placed at the disposal of the king " the property of all col- 11 ii i-ii., ^ Danger to leges, fraternities, brotherhoods, and gilds, and universi- it is the opinion of some historians that " the universities, with all their colleges, would have been swept into the all-devouring exchequer " if Henry had not died when he did. 139. The Ten Articles and the Six Articles of Pre- scribed Belief . In 1 536, Henry's subjects were definitely told what they might and what they might not believe, in religious matters, by the publication of a manual of Ten Articles, originally drafted by the royal hand. In these articles, says Mr. Froude, " the principles of the two re- ligions [Catholic and Protestant] are seen linked together in connection, yet without combination." They " were debated in convocation, and passed because it was the king's will. No party were pleased." Nevertheless, " they were sent round through the English counties, to be obeyed by every man at his peril." 2 Only for three years, however, did this kingly mix- ture of Roman and Protestant doctrine represent the permitted beliefs of Englishmen. Then their spiritual dictator, having had an angry dispute with some German theologians, turned sharply against the reform- The Six ing creeds and issued a new edict of Six Arti- Artlcles - cles, which restored the Roman faith substantially complete. These articles were embodied in an act of 1 Dixon, Hist, of the Church of England, ch. x. 2 Froude, Hist, of Eng., ch. xii. 276 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION. [1538-1539 Parliament, with death penalties prescribed that were brutal in the extreme. The sufferers in the persecution that followed are said to have been " a very considerable number." 140. Reginald Pole and his Family. In 1538, Regi- nald Pole, a cardinal at Rome, whose mother, the Count- ess of Salisbury, was the niece of Edward IV., attacked Henry in a book, " On the Unity of the Church." The pope (Paul III.) soon after- wards issued a Bull of Deposition, which he had held back for three years, commanding Henry's subjects in England to recognize him no longer as king. There were many, no doubt, in England, who welcomed both the book and the bull ; but no movement among them is shown to have occurred. Nevertheless, three of the near relatives of the cardinal were promptly put to death, and, after an interval, the gray head of his mother, the Countess of Salisbury, was delivered to the executioner's axe. 141. Henry's Fourth and Fifth Marriages. — The Fall of Cromwell. — Execution of Katharine Howard. In 1537, Henry's third wife, Jane Seymour, had given birth to a son, but died soon after. He remained a wid- ower for two years, and was then persuaded by Cromwell to marry a German princess, Anne of Cleves, as a step towards allying himself with the Protestant German THOMAS CROMWELL. 1534-1540] ARBITRARY MONARCHY. 27/ states ; but when the poor princess arrived she did not please him, and was divorced almost as soon as wed. A fifth wife, Katharine Howard, was then taken by the king from his own court. He was angry at his disap- pointment with Anne of Cleves, and characteristically turned his anger against the man who had suggested the unsatisfactory match. Cromwell's unfaltering services in the past could not save him from his master's present wrath. Arrested on a charge of treason, he was con- demned without a hearing, by bill of attainder in Parlia- ment, and hurried to the block. Before the year (1540) ended, Henry had discovered misdoings in Katharine Howard and sent her to the same death. 142. Ireland and Wales. A rebellion in Ireland, in 1534, led to measures there which more nearly accom- plished the subjugation of the island than any that had gone before ; and Henry, not satisfied with being styled Lord of Ireland, as his predecessors had been, took the title of King. He created an Irish peerage, and by distributing earldoms among the turbulent chiefs, and giving them a share in the pillage of Irish monasteries, he sought to reconcile them to the English rule. But he more than spoiled the effect of this policy by roughly attempting to force upon the Irish people his recon- structed church. Their previous attachment to Rome and the pope had been very slight ; but this made it pas- sionately strong, and raised the most lasting of all bars to a union between the English and themselves. Wales was more wisely dealt with in Henry's reign, by being finally incorporated into the English kingdom, with parliamentary representation. 143. Scotland. Henry made repeated efforts, without success, to persuade his nephew, the young king of Scot- land, James V., to follow his example in dealing with the 278 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION. [1537-1546 church. He could not overcome the French influence at the Scottish court, which was increased, in 1538, by the marriage of James to a French princess, Mary of Guise. At length, Henry, in 1542, revived the old claim of supremacy for the English crown over the Scottish, and began war. A Scottish army, entering Cumberland, was disgracefully routed at Solway Moss, and King James was so affected by the disaster that he died soon after. A few days before his death, news came to him that his queen had given birth to a daughter. The daughter was that Mary, Queen of Scots from her infancy, whose tragical story is known to all the world. Attempts to make peace, on the basis of a betrothal of the infant Queen of Scots to Prince Edward of Eng- land, were defeated by the French party in Scotland, led by Cardinal Beaton, a bold and able man. -A.llifLB.C6 with Henry went again into alliance with the Em- peror Charles, and carried on a fruitless war in both Scotland and France for the next two years, burn- ing Edinburgh and taking Boulogne, but getting no ad- vantage from either exploit. 144. The Last Days of Henry VIII. Peace was made with France and Scotland in 1 546, and near the end of that year the king, already diseased, and too gross in body to support his own weight, became seriously ill. He was still capable, however, of taking one more life. The aged Duke of Norfolk, and Norfolk's son, the Earl of Surrey, had been faithful supporters of his throne ; but they were unfriendly to the relatives of Jane Seymour, Henry's third wife and mother of his son and heir. The Seymours wished to be rid of them, and easily persuaded the dying tyrant to have charges of high treason brought against both. Surrey, the most graceful poet of his time, was hurried to the block; his father was saved by the 1509-1547] ARBITRARY MONARCHY. 279 timely death of the king. Norfolk was to have been beheaded on the morning of January 28, 1547 ; the king died on the night of January 27. Henry had married a sixth wife, Katharine Parr by name, in 1543. She had no children. The family left by him consisted of Mary, the daughter of Henry's Katharine of Aragon, Elizabeth, the daughter heirs - of Anne Boleyn, and Edward, who was Jane Seymour's son. Edward succeeded his father, being ten years old. 145. Learning and Literature. The " New Learn- ing," as it was called, of the Renaissance, — the learning and thinking that were inspired by study of Greek and Latin literatures, by study of the Bible in its original tongues, and by observation of man and the world as they are, — had entered England before Henry VIII. came to the throne, and good seed from it was sown in the early years of his reign, by such teachers and scholars as John Colet and Sir Thomas More ; but it was chilled by his blighting despotism, and had no wholesome growth while he lived. If we take out of the literature of his reign the " Utopia " of More and the poems of Surrey, both of them murdered victims of the king, there is little left that deserves to be named. The licensing of four publications of the Bible in the English language is one redeeming act to be credited to Henry VIII. He had hunted Tyndale, the translator of the Bible, to death, in the Netherlands, caus- The E ing him to be strangled and burned (1536), lishBiDl e- before it occurred to his infallible mind that the Bible might be a serviceable weapon against the pope. Moved by that idea, he then suffered a number of successive revisions of the translation to be printed and sold. 146. The Economic Condition of England. It is the opinion of the economic historian, Professor Rogers, that 280 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION. [i 547 Henry VIII. wrecked the prosperity of England during most of his reign. "His rapacity and waste," says the professor, " were immeasurable and all-devouring." The towns suffered with the country, and their decline be- tween 1 5 1 5 and 1544 is a well-marked fact. 1 Nothing else that Henry did wrought, probably, such great and lasting misery as the debasement of the cur- rency which he persistently carried on, and which his successor continued, until the English shillino- Debase- mentofthe piece, in 1 55 1, contained less than one seventh of the silver that had been in the shilling of 1527. This was royal robbery of the poor on an infa- mous scale. Prices generally were raised more than 100 per cent., while wages rose but 50. One cause of suffering to a large class, for which the king was not responsible, was an increasing abandonment of crop culture for sheep-raising, which turned Decline of , r r , , , , . agricui- large areas of arable land into pasture, and tended to the inclosure of commons and open fields. This threw many out of agricultural employment, arid benefited the greater landowners at the expense of the yeomanry and the farming class. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS. 119. The Opening of the Modern Era. Topics. 1. Change in society, trade organization, and religious life. 2. Reaction in political life. References. — Colby, 129-133; Traill, ii. 441-443, iii. 131-144, 153-167; Rogers, ch. xii. Research Questions. — (1.) What churchman did Henry VII. appoint to office under him? (Traill, ii. 464.) (2.) Henry's ap- pointment led to what power ovei the monasteries ? (Guest, 387.) (3-) What was found to be their condition ? (Guest, 387; Traill, ii. 467. 474, 475.) 1 Rogers, History of Agriculture and Prices, vol. iv. ch. iii. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 281 120. King and Parliament under Henry VII. Topics. 1. Henry a constitutional monarch. 2. Lack of spirit in the Parliament. Reference. — Gairdner, Henry VII., ch. xiii. 121. Strong Government. Topics. 1. Henry's duties. 2. His character and policy. 3. His action against livery and maintenance. References. — Montague, 92-104 ; Traill, ii. 452-464. Star Chamber: Gardiner, i. 348; Bright, ii. 359; Green. 302, 303. Research Questions. — (1.) What was Henry's attitude toward the enforcement of the law ? (Guest, 375, 376.) (2.) What was the value to England of the Tudor policy ? 122. Insurrections and Pretenders. Topics. 1. Satisfaction with Henry. 2. Lambert Simnel : a, his pretensions; b, disposal by Henry. 3. Perkin Warbeck : a, his role ; b, raid from Scotland ; c, exe- cution. Reference. — Gairdner, Henry VII., chs. iv., vii. 123. Foreign Affairs. Topics. 1. Henry and the league against France. 2. Marriages of the royal family. Reference. — Gairdner, Henry VII., chs. ix., xi. 124. Commerce and Discovery. Topics. 1. Henry's interest in English trade. 2. Henry and Bartholomew Columbus. 3. Henry and John Cabot. References. — Gardiner, i. 356; Moberly, 76, 77; Traill, ii. 496- 498; Colby, I33-I35- Research Questions. — (1.) Where did the English do most of their trading on the continent ? (2.) If other nations traded there. what would be the condition of the money? (3.) What are 282 ARBITRARY MONARCHY. money-changers? (4.) What modern institution sprang out of money changing and hoarding? (5.) Where was the first Eu- ropean bank founded ? (6.) Name all the voyages made to Amer- ica during this reign, and show the lands explored. 125. Ireland. Topics. 1. Henry's foolish policy with Ireland. 2. Poynings Laws : a, their content ; b, their effect. Referenxe. — Gairdner, Henry VII., ch. viii. 126. The Last Years of Henry VII. Topics. 1 His methods of extortion and his agents. 2. His death. Reference. — Gardiner, i. 357, 358. Research Questions. — (1.) Describe the operation of "Mor- ton's Fork." (Guest, 375.) (2.) Why did Henry use these methods of getting money instead of parliamentary grants ? (3.) In what position toward his Parliament did his wealth place him ? (4.) What other circumstance increased Henry's absolutism ? (Taswell-Langmead, 366.) 127. Henry VIII. Topics. 1. Henry's early qualities. 2. His marriage and part in continental affairs. 3. Battle of Flodden Field. References. — Moberly, ch. viii. ; Colby, 137-139. Research Questions. — (1.) With what feeling toward his peo- ple did Henry begin his reign? (Gardiner, ii. 361.) (2.) How did lie feel toward men of learning? (Green, 310; Moberly, 1 10, in; Guest, 391.) (3-) How was he disposed toward the navy? (Moberly, 103, 108, 109, 206.) (4.) What policy of his father's did he follow out ? (Moberly, 106.) (5.) What feeling for the papacy did he hold in his early years ? (Moberly, 114.) 128. Cardinal Wolsey. Topics. 1. Wolsey's services and his magnificence. 2. The alliance with France. ■ TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 283 3. Henry's intrigues against France and Wolsey's promotion. References. — Gardiner, ii. 363-366,369-384; Bright, ii. 375- 386; Green, 320-331 ; Moberly, 136-150, 156-167; Creighton's Cardinal Wolsey ; Guest, 393-399 ; Colby, 137-142. Research Questions. — (1.) What was Wolsey's ambition? (Moberly, 137.) (2.) What were his conspicuous talents? (3.) Tell of his splendor. (Moberly, 138.) 129. England between Charles V. and Francis I. Topics. 1. Charles V.'s territory and England's increased importance. 2. The competition for the imperial crown. 3. Henry courted by Charles and Francis. Reference. — Bright, ii. 377, 378. Research Questions. — (1.) Point out on the map the posses- sions of Charles V. (2.) Give some of the most striking fea- tures of the Field of the Cloth of Gold. (Creighton, Cardinal Wolsey, ch. iv.) 130. King Henry against Luther. Topic. 1. Henry as the defender of the faith. References. — Gardiner, ii. 377-379; Green, 320, 321 ; Moberly, 150-156 ; Traill, iii. 34-54. Research Questions. — (1.) What was Luther's early attitude toward Rome ? (Moberly, 154.) (2.) Compare his doctrines at this time with those of Wiclif. (Green, 239.) (3.) " The Baby- lonish Captivity" and Henry's reply. (Moberly, 155.) 131. Renewed "War with France. Topics. 1. England's part and Charles's success. 2. Wolsey sells the English alliance to France, Reference. — Gardiner, ii. 369-372. 132. Henry's Wish to divorce Queen Katharine. Topics. 1. Hostility to Wolsey on the part of the people. 2. The king's desire for a divorce. 3. Wolsey's failure with the pope and his fall. Reference. — Moberly, 156-167. Research Questions. — (1.) What were some of the reasons for 284 ARBITRARY MONARCHY. Wolsey's unpopularity with the people and with the king ? (Mo- berly, 148, 158; Gardiner, ii. 372.) (2.) What effect upon Parlia- ment did the fall of the powerful minister have ? (Ransome, 106, 107.) 133. The Divorce. — The King's Marriage to Anne Boleyn. Topics. 1. Cranmer's and Cromwell's assistance; More's opposition. 2. Henry declared the head of the English church. 3. Cranmer as Archbishop of Canterbury sanctions Henry's marriage. Reference. — Gardiner, ii. 385-389. Research Questions. — (1.) How was Parliament's control over taxation in the reign of the Tudors shaken ? (2.) How did Henry VIII. get money ? (Montague, 95, 96.) (3.) What difference be- tween the attitude of Henry VII. toward Parliament and that of Henry VIII. ? (Gardiner, ii. 385.) (4.) What force did Parlia- ment give to Henry's proclamations ? (Montague, 98.) (5.) What was the effect of this upon their own power ? 134. The Separation of the Church of England from Rome. Topics. 1. Sentence of the pope and his authority cast off. 2. Punishment for refusal to accept the Act of Succession. References. — Gardiner, ii. 374-391. Acts of treason and su- premacy: Gardiner, ii. 392, 393; Bright, ii. 395; H.Taylor, ii. 75, 76. 135. The Feeling of the English People. Topic. 1. Feeling: a, toward the king ; b, toward the church. Reference. — Moberly, 170-178. 136. Execution of More, Fisher, and others. Topics. 1. The king's purpose. 2. His opposition to pope and reformers and his executions. References. — Moberly, 182-184. Sir Thomas More : Moberly, 387,388; Green, 314-316; Guest, 392. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 285 137. Execution of Anne Boleyn. — Henry's Third Marriage. Topics. 1. Death of Katharine and charges against Anne. 2. Marriage with Jane Seymour. Reference. — Bright, ii. 398-400. 138. Suppression of the Monasteries. Topics. 1. Thomas Cromwell as vicar-general. 2. Dissolution of the smaller communities. 3. The Pilgrimage of Grace and overthrow of clerical institu tions. 4. The plunder taken by the king and his use of it. 5. Further legislation against colleges, fraternities, etc. References. — Gardiner, ii. 394, 397-400; Bright, ii. 410,411; Green, 338, 339; Colby, 147-150; Moberly, 187-200; Traill, iii. 54-65; Gibbins, 83-85 ; TasjteH-Langmead, 431-436. Research Questions. — (1.) What famous shrine did Henry strip? (Guest, 410, 411.) (2.) Trace Henry's growing opposition to the church. (Moberly, 192.) (3.) What did he do for the Bible ? (4.) How would the suppression of the monasteries raise up defenders for the reformation ? (Montague, 94.) 139. The Ten Articles and the Six Articles of Pre- scribed Belief. Topics. 1. Content of the Ten Articles. 2. Restoration of the Roman faith in the Six Articles. References. — Gardiner, ii. 395-400; Bright, ii. 412. 140. Reginald Pole and his Family. Topics. 1. Pole's attack upon Henry, and the pope's bull. 2. Henry's revenge. Reference. — Green, 346, 347. 141. Henry's Fourth and Fifth Marriages. — The Fall of Cromwell. — Execution of Katharine Howard. Topics. 1. Anne of Cleves and Katharine Howard. 286 ARBITRARY MONARCHY. 2. Execution of Cromwell and Katharine Howard. Reference. — Bright, ii. 412-415. 142. Ireland and Wales. Topics. 1. Creation of Irish peerage. 2. Results of his attempt to reconstruct the Irish church. 3. Incorporation of Wales. Reference. — Gardiner, ii. 401-404. 143. Scotland. Topics. 1. Henry's attempts to influence James. 2. Battle of Solway Moss and birth of Mary, Queen of Scots. 3. Attempts at peace and new alliance with Charles V. Reference. — Gardiner, ii. 404-409. 144. The Last Days of Henry VIII. Topics. 1. Last days of the king. 2. Execution of Surrey. 3. Family left by Henry. Reference. — Moberly, 231-235. 145. Literature and Learning. Topics. 1 . The Renaissance in England. 2. Henry and the Bible. References. — The new learning: Gardiner, ii. 366-36N ; Mo- berly, 79-94; Green, 303, 304, 320; Colby, 135-137; Traill, iii. 85-98. Erasmus: Guest, 388-390; Green, 305-316; Traill, iii. 86-89. 146. The Economic Condition of England. Topics 1. Effect of Henry's reign on England. 2. Debasement of the coinage and increase in sheep-raising. References. — Trade and industries: Gibbins, 82-99; Cunning- ham and McArthur, 66-68; Bright, ii. 467-472; Moberly, 122- 130; Green, 326, 327 ; Traill, iii. 114-131 ; Rogers, chs. xi., xii. Debasement of the coinage : Gibbins, 85 ; Cunningham and McArthur. 142-146: Traill, iii. 124-126; Rogers, 342, 343. CHAPTER XIII. PROTESTANT REFORMATION AND CATHOLIC REACTION. Tudor Sovereigns: Edward VI. — Mary. 1547-1558. 147. Edward VI. and the Protector Somerset. A boy-king was once more on the English throne. Author- ized by Parliament, his father had left a will which ap- pointed a council of regency to administer government EDWARD Vlt AND COUNCIL. in Edward's name until he should be eighteen years old. A majority of the council were " men of the new learn- ing," so called, who favored much more of a change and 288 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION. [1547-1548 reformation in the church than mere secession from Rome. Its most important member was Edward Sey- mour, Earl of Hertford, the elder of the young king's uncles ; the next in influence was Cranmer, the Arch- bishop of Canterbury ; but Hertford was really supreme, and was made, by the first act of the council, Lord Pro- tector of the Realm. By another of its earliest acts he was created Duke of Somerset ; his brother, Thomas Seymour, was appointed High Admiral of England, and titles and liberal estates from monastery lands were freely distributed to members of the council and their friends. 148. The English Wooing of Mary, Queen of Scots. Henry VIII., in his arrogant way, had tried to force the Scots to betroth their infant queen, Mary, to his son Edward, and had failed. The ruling influence then in Scotland was that of Cardinal Beaton ; but the cardinal had been murdered, in 1546, by certain fierce reformers, whom he cruelly persecuted, and the reformation party in Scotland now favored a renewal of Henry's design. On their invitation, Somerset led an army to Edin- burgh once more, to capture a bride for his young Pinkie king ; and again the savage courtship failed, cieugh. 'r/kg s C0 |- s W ere badly beaten at Pinkie Cleugh, six miles from their capital ; but they refused more stub- bornly than ever to yield the hand of their five-year-old queen. The next year they sent her to France, betrothed to the dauphin, and she was reared at the French court (the court of Catherine de Medici), an alien to her own country and an enemy of the reform. 149. Cranmer and the Reformation. It was soon understood that the new government inclined to do more than had yet been clone in the reformation of the church, and reformers in some parishes, of London and else- where, began at once, without waiting for authority, to 1547-154S] PROTESTANT REFORMATION. 289 pull down the images of saints, destroy crucifixes, and erase paintings from the walls. In a few months, orders issued by the Protector made the work of destruction general and complete. "The churches were new white- limed, with the Commandments written on the walls." 1 How far the reforming zeal of the Protector sprang from sincere beliefs is a question not easy to decide. It is certain that he exposed himself, like many other men of that time, to seri- ous doubts on this point, by the greediness with which he helped himself to riches taken from the church. In the case of Cranmer, who was the guiding mind of the refor- mation under Edward VI. , the doubts that touch his character are of quite another kind. He was no doubt a sincere believer in the doctrines of the re- formation, and was hon- est in helping forward the separation of the English church from Rome ; but it is hard to see honesty in the pliant service that he gave to Henry VIII., throughout the business of the divorce and the variation of Henry's religious commands. It seems plain that he cranmer's was lured by ambition into a place where no- character - thing but moral courage could have kept his integrity safe, and such courage he did not possess. He became the tool of a despotic master, whom he dared not resist. 1 Froude, Hist, of England, ch. xxiv. THOMAS CRANMER. 290 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION. [1547-1552 But Henry's death set him free, and what he did during the next six years may be supposed to represent the con- victions of his mind. Edward's first Parliament, in 1547, made a sweeping repeal of most of the church legislation of Henry VIII., including the Six Articles, and the statute book was cleansed of many of the monstrous enactments of the last reign. All earlier acts against heresy were repealed ; but it remained possible, under the common law, to burn men and women for forbidden opinions, as was proved before long. The king was again declared to be the supreme head of the church, and denial of his R6116W6(1 piiiage of spiritual supremacy was again made treason- able and punishable by death. The confisca- tion of lands endowing chantries, colleges, and gilds was renewed and enlarged, and that which Henry had not lived long enough to take was now mostly gathered in, and distributed in the same rapacious way. Meantime, a commission of divines, with Cranmer at the head, was busy in the preparation of an English Prayer Book, to supersede the Latin service in the church. Their work was adopted, in 1549, by an Act of Uniformity, which prescribed its use in every church and forbade all worship in other forms. Three years later it was revised by a second commission, The Prayer Book of and a few changes have since been made ; but the Prayer Book now used in the English church is substantially as it was then composed. 150. Suffering. — Discontent. — Insurrection. Ap- parently the people at large were not prepared for the great changes in doctrine and worship that had now been forced upon the church. In many towns the new beliefs had spread widely ; but, generally, through the country, and particularly in the west and north, the innovations 1549-155*] PROTESTANT REFORMATION. 291 were disliked. This disaffection lent strength to a sharper discontent, produced by a state of suffering among the laboring poor that was probably worse than England had ever known before. The diminution of tillage, the in- crease of pasturage, the inclosure of common lands, the debasing of the currency, begun by Henry and increased by the Protector, all combined to spread poverty and dis- tress ; while the charitable food-giving of the monasteries was stopped. The rich had been enormously enriched with the lands and treasure of the religious houses and the gilds ; the poor had had nothing from the overturn- ings of the time but increase of hardship and want. Risings in a dozen counties, during 1 549, were most of them locally put down. The more alarming insurrec- tions were in Devon and Cornwall, where 4000 men are said to have perished in battle or by the executioner, before order was restored, and in Norfolk, where Ket , s a wealthy tanner, named Ket, became the leader rebelll0n of 20,000 insurgents of the peasant class. Of Ket's army, 2000 were slain, and Ket himself was hanged. German and Italian mercenaries were employed against both these revolts. 151. The Execution of Lord Seymour and the Pall of Somerset. In the spring of 1549, Lord Seymour, the younger brother of the Protector, was accused of treasonable ambitions and brought to the block. Before that year closed, Somerset himself had been cast from his high seat and was at the mercy of his foes. Besides offending many people, he had alarmed the landowners, by proposing to check their inclosure of common lands. He was stripped of his offices and of a large part of his wealth, and was confined for some months in the Tower. Then he was released and enjoyed liberty and life for nearly two years; but when, in 1551, he made some 292 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION. [1551-1553 movements that caused alarm, he was brought to trial and sentenced to death. 152. Ascendency of the Duke of Northumberland. The council of regency resumed the authority which the Protector had practically absorbed ; but John Dudley (son of the extortionate minister of Henry VII.), Earl of Warwick at first, but soon made Duke of Northum- berland, became the leader in affairs. There was no gain to England in the change, for rapacity, waste, and corruption in the government went on as before, and the land was in continued distress. Since the repeal of the statutes against heresy, ingen- ious lawyers had found authority in the common law for destroying forbidden opinions by fire, and that authority was used twice before the close of Edward's reign. The Burnings ^ rst victim was a woman, Joan Bocher, who for heresy, j-^jj some peculiar view of the incarnation of Christ ; the other was a Hollander in London whose belief was unitarian, denying the divinity of Christ. Both were tried before commissions of which Cranmer was the head ; and Latimer, the most eminent preacher of his day, was one of those who sent Joan Bocher to the stake. To establish a more absolute standard of authorized belief than the Prayer Book supplied, forty-two TheThirty- . . . . .. y . . . . y . nine articles of faith were set forth in 1553, m the name of the king. Subsequently these forty- two articles were reduced to the thirty-nine now main- tained in the English church. 153. The Illness and Death of Edward VI. — Scheme to change the Succession. In the winter of 1553, the young King Edward, always delicate, showed marked signs of a fatal disease, and the prospect of his early death caused alarm among those who were carrying on I 553l PROTESTANT REFORMATION. 293 the government in his name. According to the Act of Succession, as finally shaped, the crown would pass from Edward to his elder half-sister, Mary, whose hostility to all the changes in the church, and generally to those who had brought them about, was well-known. Natu- rally, it was the desire of the latter to prevent her acces- sion, and Northumberland, who had everything at stake, devised a scheme to that end. He persuaded Edward that, even without au- thority from Parlia- ment, he might dictate the succession by will. The young king, ac- cordingly, signed a will, on his deathbed, in which he left the crown to neither of his sisters, but to a lady descended from his father's sister, Mary. That younger sister of Henry VIII., who mar- ried the elderly King of France (see section 128), had taken for a second husband Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, and had left three granddaughters, the eldest of whom was Lady Jane Grey. It was to this great-granddaughter of Henry VII., in the female line, that Edward bequeathed his crown. Of all the plotting in her behalf Lady Jane knew nothing at all. She was an innocent girl, not LadyJane yet sixteen, sweet in character and quite re- Grey - markable in mind, with a passion for learning that was LADY JANE GREY. 294 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION. [1553 rare in her sex at that time. She already wrote in Latin and Greek, had the use of Italian and French, and was mastering Hebrew when a sorrowful fate brought her studies to a close. To make sure that his scheme should be profitable to himself, Northumberland secured her marriage to Guildford Dudley, his son ; but, pleading to be left at home until her husband and herself grew older, she stayed with her mother while the fatal conspiracy went on, knowing nothing of the web that was being woven round her feet. Nearly at the last hour, when Edward was at the point of death, she was taken to her father-in-law's house and told of the destiny prepared for her ; but she could not be made to realize it as a fact until, after the young king had breathed his last (July 6, 1553), the lords of the council knelt to her as queen. Then she was overwhelmed, and fell fainting to the floor. So innocent was Lady Jane Grey of ambition, or of any guilt in the plot for which she was used ! 154. The Failure of the Proclamation of Queen Jane, and the Accession of Queen Mary. Northumberland had reckoned that his possession of the government, and his probable ability to secure the person of the Princess Mary, with the Protestant support he might expect, would enable him to carry his project through. He miscalcu- lated on every point. Princess Mary had been fore- warned and prepared ; secret information was hurried to her on the instant of Edward's death, and she fled to friends in Norfolk, proclaiming herself queen and sum- moning support as she went. The feeling of the coun- try was shown from the first moment to be on her side. Protestants as well as Catholics resented the selfish pro- jects of Northumberland, and knew nothing of the virtues of Lady Jane Grey. When heralds proclaimed the acces- sion of the latter (July 10), Protestant London was omi- 1553] CATHOLIC REACTION. 295 nously silent and cold. When Northumberland led forth his troops, to pursue Mary into Norfolk, he found that they could not be trusted, while the people were every- where hostile, and he gave up his attempt. With his own voice, at Cambridge, he proclaimed Mary to be queen ; the next morning he was arrested and sent to the Tower. Mary entered London on the 3d of August, met at the QUEEN MARY TUDOR, OR MARY I. gates by her sister Elizabeth, who had quietly waited the turn of events. At first she showed a generous dis- position, and is said to have been willing to save even Northumberland from the block ; but her counsellors would not consent. Besides Northumberland, only two of his confederates were then put to death. It is to the credit of Queen Mary that she resisted strong urging, from her cousin, the Emperor Charles, and from others, 296 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION. [1553 to put Lady Jane Grey to death at that time ; but the guiltless victim of Northumberland's plot was kept in prison, with her husband and other friends, and their fate was but postponed. 155. The First Year of Mary's Reign. If we remem- ber that the gross wronging of Mary's mother was the beginning of all that had been done in the English church, and that Mary herself had been continually branded and shamed in the proceeding, we cannot think it strange that she came to the throne with a passion- ate desire to undo the whole work. From the first mo- ment, she did not disguise her wish. , When her first Parliament came together, in Novem- ber, it was found willing to restore the ancient service in the church, and to repeal all statutes which recognized the divorce of Henry VIII. from his first wife, but so strongly opposed to a restoration of papal authority that the queen was compelled to defer that part of her design. Acts were passed which annulled practically everything that had been done in church matters during Edward's reign, putting them back to about the state in Action in . > i , ^<- church which they were left at Henry s death. So far, apparently, and no farther, a large body of the supporters of Mary desired to go with her in restorative work. Several conservative bishops who had been de- posed from their sees in the late reign — Gardiner of Winchester and Bonner of London among the number — used their influence to keep the reaction within such bounds ; but Mary had the obstinacy of her father, and only bided her time. Another purpose, more opposed to the feeling of her Mary's subjects, was equally fixed in the queen's mind. t^PMiip 6 ^ ne had determined to marry Philip of Spain, of spam. — |-] ie emperor's son, — her junior by ten years. i 5 54] CATHOLIC REACTION. 297 She was Spanish in every sympathy, and Philip was her ideal of a man. Parliament petitioned humbly against the marriage, but with no effect. 156. Wyatt* s Rebellion. Feeling against the mar- riage of the queen to her Spanish cousin was probably strong enough to produce a revolution, if a capable leader had called it out ; but the men who undertook to do so were wanting in boldness, as well as in position and weight. Only one of the chiefs in a wide conspiracy performed his part with courage to the end. Sir Thomas Wyatt, son of the poet, rallied 15,000 men in Kent (Jan- uary, 1554), and marched on London; but, having no support from other quarters, he was overpowered. The queen was in serious danger for a time, but faced it with the courage that belonged to her race. If the Tudor courage in Mary's nature was called out by this abortive rebellion, the Tudor temper was equally hardened by its effect. Mercy had no longer any toler- ance in her heart. On the morning after Wyatt was over- come she signed a warrant for the execution of Lady Jane Grey and Guildford Dudley, who, as captives in J . Execution the Tower, had no possible connection with his of Lady _ Jane Grey. attempt. 1 hree days later they suffered death. At the same time, the queen's sister, Elizabeth, was sent to the Tower, with a hope, plainly shown, that some ground might be found for putting her to death. Eliza- beth's name had been used by the conspirators, and their plan had been to place her on the throne ; but the pru- dence of her conduct, then and always during Mary's reign, gave no opportunity to connect her with treasonable designs. Of those concerned in Wyatt's rebellion, some sixty or eighty were beheaded and hanged, including the Duke of Suffolk, the father of Lady Jane Grey. 157. Papal Authority restored. The marriage of 298 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION. [i554 Mary and Philip took place in July (1554). In Novem- ber a new Parliament was convoked, and the elections had been managed so carefully that it proved to be a body obedient to the will of the queen in every particular save one. That one was the restoration of the property taken from the monks, the friars, and the chantry priests. Almost every opulent family in the kingdom is said to have had some share in the divi- sion of that wealth, or to have acquired some interest in it, and Parliament, re- presenting the op- ulent class in the main, would do anything that the queen demanded except to surrender those spoils. It drove, in fact, an obstinate bargain with the queen and with Cardinal Pole, who appeared as the legate of the pope, by which, on one side, the owners of church property were guaranteed against disturbance in their possession, and the realm of England received papal absolution " from all heresy and schism ; " on the other side, all acts against the supremacy of the Roman See were repealed, and the heresy laws were restored, including the horrible act " for the burning of heretics " which had disgraced the reign of Henry IV., a hundred and fifty years before. That the hand of Philip was in PHILIP II. I555-I558] CATHOLIC REACTION. 299 this, he left proof in a letter of his own, written to his sister Juana : " With the intervention of the Parliament," he wrote, " we have made a law, I and the most illustrious queen, for the punishment of heretics and all enemies of holy church ; we have revived the old ordinances of the realm, which will serve this purpose very well." And he was right. They served the purpose well. 158. The Persecution. Early in 1555, the enforce- ment of the act " for the burning of heretics " was be- gun. Rogers, a canon of St. Paul, was the first to be sent to the stake. A deposed bishop, Hooper, was the next to suffer, followed after an interval by the three most con- spicuous victims of the persecution, Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley. Cranmer alone sought to save Cranmerat himself by renouncing his beliefs ; but his cour- the stake - age rose when death had to be faced, and he met it manfully, thrusting his right hand, which had signed a recantation, into the fire to be first burned. From that time the persecution was relentlessly pressed in every part of the land. Says the Roman Catholic historian, Dr. Lingard, who writes of the painful subject with great fairness of mind : " The persecution continued till the death of Mary. Sometimes milder counsels pre- vailed ; and on one occasion all the prisoners were dis- charged on the easy condition of taking an oath to be true to God and the queen. But these intervals were short ; and, after some suspense, the spirit of intolerance was sure to resume the ascendency." Making allowance for condemnations that were not entirely for theological beliefs, Dr. Lingard concludes that "in the space of four years almost two hundred persons per- of the ished in the flames for religious opinion." 1 Other writers have placed the number burned at nearly 1 Lingard, Hist, of Eng., vol. vii. ch. iii. 300 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION. [1555-1558 three hundred.' The contemporary Lord Burleigh wrote that, " by imprisonment, by torment, by famine, by fire, almost the number of four hundred were lamentably de- stroyed." Was it Mary and her Spanish husband, or Gardiner, her chancellor, or Cardinal Pole, who became Arch- bishop of Canterbury, that inspired the persecution most ? There are differences of view, but the greater weight of judgment is against the queen. The German historian, The euiit Professor Ranke, who examines the question of Mary. with no partiality, believes a statement made by Gardiner, that the chief impulse to the revival of the barbarous old heresy laws came from Mary herself, and is convinced " that the persecutions would never have begun without her." His final judgment is that "no ex- cuse can free her memory from the dark shade which rests on it." 1 But who can doubt that being the wife of the " man of blood " from Spain had much to do with making her the " Bloody Mary " of English history ? 159. The Close of Mary's Reign. It is probably the fact that Mary's attachment to the Roman creed and worship was shared by a majority of her subjects ; but she failed to kindle among them her own fury against the preachers and professors of another faith. It is manifest that the persecutions were abhorrent to the people at large, and that the Roman cause in England was profoundly weakened by their effect. Her Spanish mar- riage grew continually more hateful to all classes, after Philip had succeeded to his father's sovereignty, and especially after England, in 1557, had been drawn into the endless Spanish war with France. The country was in a state of suffering, deepened even from that of the preceding reign. The vigor of the nation seemed 1 Ranke, Hist, of Eng., vol. i. book ii. ch. viii. 1558] CATHOLIC REACTION. 301 to be lost. It had no standing in Europe ; it could do nothing with success in war. At last, even Lossof Calais, which it had been the pride of England Calais - to hold on French soil for two hundred years, was lost (1558). There was plenty of rebellion in English hearts, much conspiring talk, much intriguing with great numbers of English refugees in France ; but cautious men were kept quiet by dread of what Philip might do with the fleets and armies of Spain. The queen was as unhappy as her kingdom. After a few months of marriage, her beloved Philip had left her, and he made her but one brief visit more. She had prayed for a son and none was given her. The heresy among her subjects proved too obstinate to be crushed. Even the pope had taken the side of France against Philip and herself, and had ordered Cardinal Pole back to Rome. Everything had disappointed her hopes. In the autumn of 1558 Deathof she sickened of a fever then raging in England, Mar y- and on the 17th of November she died. A few hours later, Cardinal Pole breathed his last. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS. 147. Edward VI. and the Protector Somerset. Topic 1. The council of regency and its membership. References. — Bright, ii. 422, 423. History of regency: Taswell- Langmead, 349-359; H. Taylor, ii. 109-114. Research Question. — (1.) Describe the state of mind of the clergy under the Protector. (Green, 360.) 148. The English Wooing of Mary, Queen of Scots. Topics. 1. Henry VIII.'s design toward Mary, Queen of Scots. 2. Renewal of Henry's design and battle of Pinkie. Cleugh. 302 PROTESTANT REFORMATION. 3. Betrothal of Mary, Queen of Scots. Reference. — Bright, ii. 425-427. 149. Cranmer and the Reformation. Topics. 1. Destruction of images, paintings, etc. 2. Sincerity of the Protector and of Cranmer. 3. Repeal of the Six Articles and renewal of Act of Supremacy. 4. New confiscation and preparation of English Prayer Book. Reference. — Green, 357, 358. 150. Suffering. — Discontent. — Insurrection. Topics. 1. Condition of popular belief. 2. Grounds for discontent. 3. Effect of changes upon rich and poor. 4. Ket's rebellion. Reference. — Bright, ii. 430-433. Research Question. — (i.) What evil proceeding of Henry VI IP's time was followed by Edward VI.? (Gardiner, ii. 420.) 151. The Execution of Lord Seymour and the Pall of Somerset. Topics. 1. Seymour's ambitions and death. 2. Somerset's downfall and execution. Reference. — Bright, ii. 429-434. 152. Ascendency of the Duke of Northumberland. Topics. 1. The new leader. 2. Executions for heresy. 3. Articles of faith. Reference. — Green, 359-362. 153. The Illness and Death of Edward VI. — Scheme to change the Succession. Topics. 1. Sickness of the king. 2. Northumberland's plot to change the Act of Succession. 3. Lady Jane Grey : a, her character ; b, her marriage ; c, her innocence of treason. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 303 References. — Gardiner, ii. 420. Lady Jane Grey : Gardiner, ii. 420-423; Bright, ii. 441, 444-447, 45*5 Green, 361-363; Colby, 152-154; Guest, 419-423; H.Taylor, ii. 132, 134; Green, H. E. P., ii. 232-242. Research Questions. — (1.) Explain "Edward's plan" as ar- ranged by Northumberland. (Green, 361.) (2.) What made it easy for the duke to get Edward's consent to the plan? (3.) Why was Henry VIII.'s will more binding than that of Edward VI ? (Gardiner, ii. 420.) 154. The Failure of the Proclamation of Queen Jane, and the Accession of Queen Mary. Topics. 1. Northumberland's miscalculation. 2. Mary's action and the people's loyalty to her. 3. Mary's attitude at first toward her enemies. Reference. — Bright, ii. 442-447. Research Questions. — (1.) What influences were paving the way for Mary's accession, even in the reign of her father? (Mo- berly, 174.) (2.) What political reaction in her favor at the pro- clamation of Lady Jane? (Green, 361.) 155. The First Year of Mary's Reign. Topics. 1. Natural reason for Mary's religious attitude. 2. Her first Parliament. 3. Her marriage. Reference. — Gardiner, ii. 421-423. Research Questions, (i.) In what way was Mary's accession a new departure for England ? (Taswell-Langmead, 396.) (2.) What political objection did the English have to the marriage of Mary with Philip? (Guest, 421.) (3.) What religious objection did they have ? (Guest, 422.) 156. Wyatt's Rebellion. Topics. 1. Uprising because of the queen's marriage. 2. Mary hardens her heart. 3. Death of Lady Jane Grey and action against Elizabeth. Reference. — Bright, ii. 449-452. Research Questions. — (1.) What events of Mary's youth would 304 CATHOLIC REACTION. naturally prejudice her against Elizabeth? (2.) How would the question of legitimacy keep Mary and Elizabeth always hostile ? (3.) What religious reason for this was there also ? 157. Papal Authority restored. Topics. 1. The new Parliament. 2. Opposition to restoring church property. 3. Parliament makes a bargain with Mary. 4. Philip's part in it. Reference. — Bright, ii. 453. 158. The Persecution. Topics. 1. The first victims. 2. Cranmer at the stake. 3. Extent of the persecution and Mary's responsibility. Reference. — Green, 363-368. 159. The Close of Mary's Reign. Topics. 1. The feeling of the people on the persecution. 2. Decline of the nation and the loss of Calais. 3. Queen and people alike unhappy. References. — Green, 366, 36S, 369 ; Guest, 434; Traill, iii. 191- 193. State of society in these reigns : Bright, ii. 462-484 ; Creigh- ton, Age of Elizabeth, 19-21 ; Traill, iii. 230-274. LINEAGE OF THE TUDOR FAMILY OF ENGLISH SOVEREIGNS, FROM HENRY VII. Henry VII., 14X5-1500, married - Elizabeth, (daughter of Edward IV.). Margaret, married James IV. of Scotland. Henry VIII., i5 9-i547 married 1. Katharine of A rago7i. 2. Anne Boleyn. 3. Jane Seymour. James V., of Scotland, married Mary of Guise. Mary, I5S3-I558. Elizabeth, 15S8-1603. Edward VI., '547-1553- Mary, Queen of Scots CHAPTER XIV. the elizabethan age. The Last of the Tudors : Queen Elizabeth. 1558-1603. 160. The Accession of Elizabeth. The death of Mary was a relief at which England rejoiced with no disguise ; the crowning of Elizabeth was accepted by all parties without apparent dissent. Yet what did England know of this new sovereign, — this young woman of twenty- five years, who had lived a secluded life ? It is hardly possible for us to realize the uncertainty with which she was given the enormous powers of the crown. All the questions of religion and the church that had twice been turned and overturned, within eleven years, were once more flung into a royal lottery wheel, to be settled by a drawing blindly made. Of any other settlement for those questions than by the will or the opinion or the caprice of the crowned sovereign, whether man or woman or child, there was little dream in those days. What Elizabeth would do with the church, what creed she would dictate to her subjects, what attitude towards the pope she would take, none knew, and all parties had hopes. 161. The Character of Elizabeth and. her Reign. In the character of Elizabeth, strength and weakness were singularly mixed. Her strength was in a spirit that knew little of fear. It was the courage of her father, 306 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION. [1558 without the heartless stolidity that he showed ; and it was made so inspiring by her sex that it stimulated the nation, at a critical time, more than any valorous leader- ship by a man could have done. Of intellectual strength, there is little to be found in her conduct of affairs. She was hesitating, capricious, deceitful ; swayed often by trivial influences ; guided by no principle ; giving infinite trouble to the able ministers who served her with the patience of wise men. Like her father, she had good judgment of men, choosing them for her service with few mistakes ; and she was more faithful to them than he, taking from them as much guidance as her capri- ciousness would permit. She was hardly less wilful than Henry, and hardly less egotistic ; but her selfishness was not so supreme. She identified herself with England, whereas Henry had identified England with himself. She made the nation proudly conscious of her love. Circumstances gave a remarkable distinction to Eliza- beth's reign. Between its beginning and its ending Eng- land was born into a new life, through marvel- Eiizabeth lous changes in the mind and spirit of the people. When, therefore, we look back to that astonishing age, we see the throned figure of the queen in a glorified light, and may easily give her more credit for the grandeur of her reign than is her due. 162. The New Reformation of the Church. The in- tentions of Elizabeth concerning the church were promptly intimated by the appointment of Sir William Cecil (after- wards Lord Burleigh) to be her secretary, and evidently to be the counsellor in whom she placed her trust. Cecil had been secretary to Edward VI., and was known to be a Protestant at heart, though he had been kept in public service during Mary's reign, and had outwardly conformed to the Roman rites. His political ability was very great, 308 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION. [1559 and he retained Elizabeth's confidence for forty years. A plainer notice of royal intentions was given in a pro- clamation, soon issued, which forbade preaching by the clergy, " until consultation might be had in Parliament by the queen and the three estates ; " but ordering that worship should continue meantime in the established form. Late in January, 1559, Parliament assembled. Pro- testant candidates had been recommended to the electors by Elizabeth, and a Protestant Parliament was New Act of , , . it ^ i Suprem- duly sent up, to be as obedient to the new queen as the Catholic Parliament had been to her predecessor. A new Act of Supremacy was passed, which again severed the English church from Rome, requiring bishops and clergy, and all laymen in office, to renounce obedience to the pope. This act repealed once more the terrible statutes against heresy which Mary had revived. The Act of Supremacy was followed by a new Act of Uniformity, which restored to use the second Prayer Book of Edward VI., with some slight changes, forbid- ding any other liturgy, with penalties of impris- New Act of , , . , . , - 1 • i Uniform- onment, even tor lire in the case of a third offence. If Elizabeth and her counsellors aban- doned the fagot and stake as instruments of religious persuasion, they intended, nevertheless, that no opinions except their own should have a voice. Of the bishops, all but one refused the oath required, and were removed ; but the clergy in general are said to have submitted to the law, and the mass of the people gave obedience to it by due attendance at clergy and church. Two kinds of very earnest opposition were kept alive, however : one among ardent Catholics, who maintained hidden priests and worshipped 1559] THE ELIZABETHAN AGE. 309 in secret places according to the ancient rites ; the other among Protestants, who demanded far more of a change in creed and worship than the queen and Parliament had prescribed. 163. The Question of the Queen's Marriage. Next in importance to the questions of religion was the ques- tion of the marriage of the queen. Her subjects were exceedingly anxious that she should become a wife and mother, to remove all doubt as to the succession to the throne. The first proceeding of her first Parliament was humbly to convey to her the national wish. She gave a polite reply, but made it plain that the matter, in her view, was one to be settled by herself. If, however, she came to any decision in her own mind, she never allowed it to be known. The question remained open and irritat- ing for many years. Queen Elizabeth showed many and lasting signs of affection for Lord Robert Dudley, son of the late Duke of Northumberland, and was supposed to be intending to give him her hand. Dudley, who became Earl Th eEariof of Leicester, is under suspicion to this day of Leicester - having caused his wife, Amy Robsart, to be murdered, in order to free himself for the royal marriage to which he aspired ; but his guilt has not been proved. It is certain that he was most unfit in all respects to be the husband of the queen. Quite probably she had resolved from the first to share her throne with no man, and to give the influence of a husband to none. 164. Elizabeth and Mary Stuart. Most of the seri- ous troubles of the reign of Elizabeth arose from the relationship of the Queen of Scots to the English royal line. If the marriage of Anne Boleyn to Henry VIII. was not lawful, as Roman Catholics believed it was • not, and if, therefore, Elizabeth was not lawfully one of her 310 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION. [1559-1560 father's heirs, then the English crown should have gone, by right of inheritance, to the Scottish queen, whose grandmother was the ^0:- ^ >^_ elder daughter of Henry VII. Had Mary Stuart not married in France, it can hardly be doubted that the Catholics, controlling the English govern- ment when Mary Tu- dor died, would have brought her to the throne. But patriotic Catholics preferred a Protestant sovereign, even doubting her legitimacy, to a Catho- lic queen wedded to a French king, and likely to unite the French and English crowns on one head. So long as the French character clung to Mary, her pretensions were not dangerous ; but, in 1560, Francis II., her husband, died, after a brief reign of eighteen months, and she returned to her own country in the following year. Then, as Queen of Scots, and no longer of France, she became the desire of English Catholics, and Catho- Queenof ncs were supposed at that time to be the ma- scots, jority of English people. Political reasons, too, were all in favor of a union of the English and Scottish crowns. Personally, Mary possessed charms which Eliz- abeth lacked. Her courage was equal ; her intelligence was probably superior ; in decision she was the stronger of the two. But Elizabeth had a perfect command of MARY STUART. I557-I559] THE ELIZABETHAN AGE. 311 her passions, while Mary had none, and that was the winning quality by which the former triumphed in the duel between the two. 165. The Reformation in Scotland. The movement which overturned the old church in Scotland was a move- ment of the people, in opposition to the government, from beginning to end. The Scottish church was ex- ceptionally wealthy and corrupt. It had no hold on the veneration of the people, and the ideas of the Reforma- tion, set forth by zealous preachers, were rapidly spread abroad. Then a meaner influence came to their aid. Scottish nobles caught a hint from the examples set in England and Germany, and hungered for a confiscation of the property of the church, which was said to cover half the kingdom. It is plain that this motive enlisted some, though not all, in a powerful combination r , T . r , „ • ,1 1 Lords of of the "Lords 01 the Congregation, as they theCon- were called, which took form near the close of the year 1557, under a covenant (the "First Covenant" of the Scottish Reformation) to "maintain, nourish, and defend the whole congregation of Christ." The leader of the movement was John Knox, a preacher of intense earnestness and commanding powers, who had returned lately from a long exile, in England at first and then in Geneva, which had been the refuge of many ministers of the reform. Under the regency of Mary of Guise, mother of the absent young queen, French influence had directed the government more than even Scottish friendship for France could willingly bear, and national jealousies had begun to arise. A political feeling was thus brought to the support of the Lords of the Congregation, when, in 1559, freshly roused by the cruel burning of an aged preacher at St. Andrews, they rose in open revolt ; but 312 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION. [1559-1561 the whole temper of the rising was directed against the obnoxious church. Beginning at Perth, incited by Knox and other preachers, a storm of destructive rage The rising r ° against the broke out and swept the land. Monasteries church. i,i n • t • • n t • and abbeys were laid in rums, and the images and pictures of saints in the churches were ruthlessly destroyed. Protestant congregations were formed, which took possession of the parish churches, stopped the Mass, and established worship according to their own forms. The religious revolution was an accomplished fact, we may say, from that year ; for, though the reformers had still a struggle before them, their work was never un- done. With help from France, the regent was able to check the revolt, and its leaders cried to England for aid. But any rebellion of subjects against their sovereign was hateful to Elizabeth, and she gave slight and grudging support to the insurgent Scottish lords. They held their ground, however, and Queen Elizabeth was arranging Death of terms of peace for them with the regent, when the regent, the latter died, in June, 1 560. In August, the Scottish Estates met and renounced the authority of the pope, prohibited the Mass, and adopted the Genevan or Calvinistic confession of faith. Four months later, Francis II. (the husband of Mary Stuart) was dead, the Guises had been driven from power in France, and Mary, stripped of French support, was preparing to return to her own land. 166. Mary Stuart in Scotland. Mary Stuart re- turned to Scotland in August, 1 56 1 , being then in her nineteenth year. Her beauty and her winning ways were The Eari of not eas Y to resist, and she won devoted ad- Murray. m i re rs and friends. She listened to the advice of her half-brother, James Stuart, Earl of Murray, who HISTORICAL MAP OF SCOTLAND. 314 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION. [1561-1565 was the leader of the Protestant lords, and attempted no rash interference with the religious changes that had been made. Towards Elizabeth, Mary acted a conciliatory part, dropping the title of Queen of England, which she had assumed in France, but steadily urging her claim to be acknowledged as the next heir to the English crown. Prudence may have forbidden that acknowledgment on Elizabeth's side ; but the refusal of it deepened feeling in Mary's favor, among English Catholics, as well as among her subjects at home. With Mary, as with Eliza- beth, the question of marriage became a subject of much negotiation and debate. Elizabeth, fearing a Catholic Thesucces- alliance that would make the Queen of Scots 810n " more dangerous to herself, brought forward Leicester, her own favorite, as a candidate for Mary's hand, and promised the English succession to her if she made that choice ; but the Scottish queen knew that no marriage could give more offence to her English Catho- lic friends. Their wishes pointed to a cousin of Mary Lord Stuart, Lord Darnley, son of the Earl of Len- Damiey. nox> w }-, h a d been born and bred in England, under Catholic influences, and was looked upon as an English Catholic lord. 167. Mary's Marriage to Darnley, and his Murder. In the end, it was to Darnley that Mary gave her hand (July, 1565). Certain of the Lords of the Congregation, with Murray at their head, rose in revolt, looking to Eng- land for help, which Elizabeth had led them to expect. They found themselves deserted, as happened very often to those who trusted the English queen. Elizabeth had blustered before the marriage ; after it she hesitated ; while Mary, acting with vigorous decision, drove the re- bellious lords across the English line. 1565-1567] THE ELIZABETHAN AGE. 315 But while she thus defended her choice of a husband, Mary was sickening of it in her heart. Darnley's hand- some person disguised a most offensive foolishness and coarseness of mind. Worse than quarrels oc- Darnley's curred, for the husband was daily provoking cliaracter - the wife's contempt, and the contempt soon turned to hate. In June, 1566, the queen gave 'birth to a son, and her friends in England as well as her subjects in Scot- land were greatly rejoiced. Her position in both coun- tries was never so strong as at that hour ; but her ruin was near. Among those who had always stood by her, the boldest and most reckless was James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell. Mary lost her heart to the bold adventurer, and • 1 • 1 • 1 o, 1 1 Bothwell. with it lost conscience and sense. She had a husband, he had a wife ; they planned to rid themselves of both. Bothwell obtained release from his wife by divorce ; Mary sought the same escape from Darnley, but found no hope. Whether she consented to worse measures, or was ignorant of them, is a question still dis- puted, but the evidence against her is strong. Darnley was killed under circumstances in which she acted a sus- picious part. What seemed to be proof of her complicity in the murder came subsequently to light, in a bundle of letters, apparently her own letters to Bothwell, which he had kept in self-defence. Those who doubt Mary's guilt dispute the genuineness of these " Casket The Caske t Letters," as they are known ; but many impar- Letters - tial historians are convinced that the letters were written by the Queen of Scots, and that her guilt is beyond doubt. [yS 168. Mary's Marriage to Bothwell, and her Deposi- tion. Suspicion of Mary's connivance in the murder of her husband was made certainty in the public mind by 316 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION. [1567-1568 her marriage to Bothwell within less than three months. There was a pretence of force being used by the daring lover ; but her willingness in the whole proceeding seems plain. Then the allegiance of the Scots to their queen was cast off ; the affection of English Catholics and the sympathy of all Catholic Europe were chilled. After a vain attempt to rally support, Bothwell and Mary bade farewell to each other at Carberry Hill (June, 1567), he escaping to Denmark and she surrendering to the con- federated lords, who protected her with difficulty from the rage of the people, and who nearly decided on their own part to put her to death. Pending the Mary in , . * ° Lochieven determination of her fate, they imprisoned her Castle. . J r in Lochieven Castle, forced her to sign an abdi- cation, crowned her infant son, James VI., and chose the Earl of Murray to govern as regent in his name. At this critical moment in M,ary Stuart's career, a strange champion came to her defence : no other, in fact, than her great rival, the English queen, who resented furiously the attempt by subjects " to call their sovereign to account." Her interference probably saved Mary's life at the time. It revived a faction in the Mary flees . to Eliza- dethroned queen s favor, by the help of which she escaped from Lochieven and put herself at the head of a considerable force ; but a single battle at Langside (May, 1568), near Glasgow, scattered her army, and Mary then fled to England, throwing herself upon the hospitality of the rival who had taken up her cause. 169. The Queen of Scots in England. Nothing could have embarrassed Queen Elizabeth more, or driven her to a worse showing of the hesitating duplicity of her char- acter, than this action of the Queen of Scots. Refusing to recognize the Scottish regency or the infant King 156S-1570] THE ELIZABETHAN AGE. 317 James, and professing to maintain the queenship of Mary Stuart unimpaired, she kept her in England, neverthe- less, neither avowedly as a prisoner nor hospitably as a guest, for nineteen years. There was no surer way to excite the interest of the world and its sympathy for her rival ; no surer way to breed plots and intrigues in her behalf ; and they followed, of course. In Scotland, they cost Murray his life. He was shot by an assassin, in 1570, as he rode through the street. 170. English Plots and Insurrections. The first Eng- lish conspiracy, in 1569, was in support of a plan for the marriage of Mary Stuart to the Duke of Norfolk, the highest of the English nobles in rank. It came to an outbreak in the northern counties, but was vigorously suppressed. Norfolk had taken no open part in it, and after a short imprisonment in the Tower he was set free ; but a new and larger plot, to marry him to the Queen of Scots and to place them unitedly on the English throne, was soon on foot, with encouragement from the pope and hope of help from Philip of Spain. Elizabeth's vigilant ministers found it out, and Norfolk's death on the scaf- fold brought the project to an end. In the midst of these conspiracies (February, 1570), and to give them support, the pope (Pius V.) launched a bull of deposition against Elizabeth, of deposi- releasing her subjects from allegiance to her as queen. It had none of the intended effect. 171. Foreign Circumstances which protected Eng- land. In pursuing the remarkable story of the Queen of Scots, we have left events behind us to which we must now return. The new separation of the church of England from Rome, by Elizabeth, would have been a dangerous chal- lenge to Catholic Europe, and especially to Philip of 3i» RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION. [155S-156S Spain, if circumstances had not singularly protected the English queen. Philip's hands were doubly tied, by his jealous fear of France, and by the work of persecution and oppression, in Spain and the Netherlands, which chiefly occupied his thoughts. To cast Elizabeth down would be to raise Mary Stuart in her place, and so to establish in Eng- land the influence of France. How could he maintain his despotism in the Low Coun- tries if England and France, or England alone, should block the passage by sea, through the Chan- nel, from Span- ish to Dutch and Flemish ports ? Even before the brutalities of his lieutenant, the Duke of Alva, had driven the des- perate provinces to revolt (1568), peace with Eng- land was very nearly the greatest need in Philip's de- signs, and he was forced to become actually the friend and counsellor of Elizabeth as against the Queen of Scots. Trouble with France, on the other hand, was prevented by the early death of Mary Stuart's husband, Francis II., THE NETHERLANDS : SHOWING DUTCH AND SPANISH POSSESSIONS. I55S-I56S] THE ELIZABETHAN AGE. 319 by the displacement of her relatives, the Guises, from power, and by the strife of Catholic and Huguenot par- ties, soon breaking (1562) into actual war. Elizabeth had no more sympathy with the Huguenots, or with The the Protestants of the Netherlands, than with Hu e u enots. the reforming Scots. She did give some help to the Huguenots, in 1562, but she was bribed to it by their surrender to her of the port of Havre, which she hoped to be able to exchange for Calais. It was an unsuccessful venture, and she soon drew back. Elizabeth's great min- ister, Cecil, afterwards Lord Burleigh, wished to make England the head of a powerful Pro- testant league, to with- stand Spanish designs. The queen would not have it so, and her course, which kept England in an always uncertain neutral state, is thought by her warm admirers to have been due to a clear foresight of the prosperity and strength which the country gained during a long period of peace. But her conduct seems Elizabeth's rather to have been that of an irresolute though neutrallt y- courageous mind, wavering between influences that moved her dislike, or her vanity, or her temper, on one side, and her really good sense on the other. As for principle, there is little to be discovered in Queen Eliza- beth by those who praise her most. 172. The Jesuit Mission. The Society of Jesus, an SIR WILLIAM CECIL. 320 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION. [1577-1584 enemy more formidable than Philip, entered the field against Elizabeth at about the middle of her reign. Catholic missionaries from an English seminary estab- lished at Douay, in northern France, had been working secretly in England, and one of them was executed, in 1577, for bringing into the country a papal bull. This roused instead of checking the missionary spirit in the Catholic church, and the Jesuits, then young as an order, came forward with ardor to join the Seminarists in their perilous work. Probably some of the missionaries were enlisted in plots against the crown, if not against the life, of the queen ; while others worked with purely religious aims. But the government pursued them all alike, as conspira- tors and traitors, and dealt with all who concealed and abetted them in the same undiscriminating way. It is use of tne disgrace of Elizabeth's reign that torture, torture. which had rarely been employed by English courts, to wring confession and disclosure from persons accused, and which had never been sanctioned by Eng- lish law, was systematically used in these prosecutions for the first time. In Catholic eyes, the whole pursuit of the Jesuits and the seminary priests, and of those who gave them hospi- tality, was a religious persecution ; while the English government claimed to be simply defending itself against political attacks. There is evidently truth in both views. The prosecution of the missionaries and their Catholic friends was undeniably a very cruel persecution, and the motives in it were both political and religious, Persecu- tion of the darkly mixed. Undeniably, too, there was an equally dark mixing of religious and political purposes on the Catholic side. As to the number of Catholics who suffered death in Elizabeth's reign, there 1584-1586] THE ELIZABETHAN AGE. 321 is no trustworthy account. Statements vary so widely as between 35 and 200. Many died in prison ; many were impoverished ; many fled. 173. The Babington Plot and the Execution of Mary- Stuart. Treasonable plotting was not lessened, but in- creased, by the severe measures of the government ; and Philip of Spain, like a venomous spider, was at the centre of the great web of intrigue. Assassination was one of his political arts, He used it in July, 1584, to rid himself of -William the Silent, Prince of Orange, in the Nether- lands. He was now ready to have Elizabeth removed in like manner, even though Mary Stuart took her place ; for war between England and Spain had been practically begun. Fears for the queen became so lively in England after the murder of the Prince of Orange that a great national association was formed, pledged to "prosecute to the death any pretended successor " in whose favor " any act or counsel to the harm of the queen's person " Fears for should be attempted. The same declaration the< i ueei1 - was embodied soon afterwards in an act of Parliament, as a warning and menace to the partisans of the Queen of Scots. But the conspiracy of assassination was not given up. It had gone so far, in the summer of 1586, that men in the household of Queen Elizabeth were enlisted to take part. At the same time, every move in it was known to Sir Francis Walsingham, the queen's vigilant secretary of state, whose spies were in the enemy's camp. Wal- singham was accused afterwards, in fact, of hav- waising- ing connived at the plot until Mary Stuart could ham ' be caught in its fatal mesh. It is still a question in some doubt whether the unhappy Mary was or was not a con- senting party to the plan for taking Elizabeth's life. 322 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION. [1586-1587 With Walsingham's connivance, letters passed between the captive queen and one Babington, the chief actor in the conspiracy, and they seem to leave no doubt that murderous intentions in the scheme were understood by both. But those who think Mary innocent believe that Walsingham tampered with what she wrote, in order to bring about her death. * Elizabeth now yielded, with a reluctance that was doubtless sincere, to the demand of her council that the Queen of Scots should be tried for complicity in the plot. But when the trial had taken place, when the ver- dict of guilt had been pronounced, when she had signed a death warrant with her own hand, and when Mary, is obedience to it, had been brought to the bloc! Trial and ° execution then Elizabeth showed surprise, grief, and ans:e, of Mary. K & . ' & at what had been done, raging against her coun- cil for having executed the warrant, and sending one of her secretaries to a long imprisonment because he had delivered it, as she must have intended him to do. Mary Stuart was beheaded at Fotheringay Castle, on the 8th of February, 1587, displaying remarkable courage and dignity at the last. 174. Conflict with Spain and Beginnings of English Sea-power. The execution of Mary Stuart practically ended hope among the English Catholics of a succession to the crown that would restore their church. Nothing, after Mary's death, could be expected to accomplish that, except foreign conquest — Spanish conquest — which no great number of Catholic Englishmen was ready to ac- cept. But abroad, in Catholic Europe, hostility to Eliza- beth was lashed to a new rage. Philip of Spain was set free to act against her, in his own interest, as a champion of the church, commissioned to win the English king- dom by conquest for himself. 1572-1585] THE ELIZABETHAN AGE. 323 Mary's execution cannot be called the cause of war between Spain and England, because war had long ex- isted as a fact, though never acknowledged to be war. That singular state of things is not easily understood at the present day. It was something out of the anarchy of the Middle Ages that had not yet been overcome. QUEEN ELIZABETH CARRIED IN STATE TO HUNSDON HOUSE. On land, in western Europe, a civilized order, under law- ful authority, was fast taking some settled form ; but the ocean was still a barbarous domain, where no Lawless- authority ruled, where no law prevailed. War, nessat sea. piracy, and sea-voyaging trade were hardly known apart. Governments neither gave much protection to their sub- jects at sea nor exercised much control over them. If traders of one nation, or one town, suffered wrong from citizens of another town or country, they commonly took redress into their own hands, and made such retaliations 324 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION. [1572-1585 as they pleased. If some attacked others without provo- cation, there were none to watch their doings. Thus hostilities at sea which might be called piracy, or priva- teering, or commercial self-defence, according to the view, were always going on. As religious and political animosities between the Eng- lish and the Spaniards grew more bitter, such hostilities increased. Both the English and the Dutch disputed and resented the Spanish and Portuguese claim to exclu- sive rights in the New World and in the East, and they had no scruple as to the means by which they broke it English down. The English were as active in the work hostilities as t j ie Dutch, and their government more than toward Spain. winked at what they did. It was then that English seamanship began to be really trained, and the adventurous English spirit to be fully roused. As early as 1562, the famous John Hawkins, afterwards Sir John, thrust himself into the Spanish slave trade, finally' employing a strong fleet, and compelling the Spanish commanders of West Indian ports to admit his cargoes of negro captives and allow them to be sold. From this kind of slave trading to more piratical private warfare the step was easy, and it was soon taken by such bold adventurers as the redoubtable Francis Drake. Francis For more than a dozen years before England Drake. an( j Spain were avowedly at war, Drake and others attacked Spanish- American settlements, fought Spanish warships, plundered Spanish treasure ships, and shared the .spoil with English courtiers, and even with the English queen. In 1577, Drake set sail on a mem- orable voyage, which followed the route of Magellan to the Pacific, gathered booty along the whole Peruvian coast, and tl>en circled homeward by the Cape of Good Hope, having rounded the globe. 1585-15S7] THE ELIZABETHAN AGE. 3 2 5 175. Aid to the Dutch Provinces. The undeclared war between England and Spain may be said to have reached an open state in 1585, when Elizabeth was at last persuaded to send a few troops to the help of the struggling people of the Dutch Netherlands. The south- ern or Flemish provinces had been overcome already by the power of Spain. The Dutch provinces in the north were fighting with the last of their strength. If they fell, nothing would stand any longer between England and the formidable Spanish king. Yet, even in that ex- tremity, Elizabeth haggled with the provinces for months over the price they should pay her for a few thousand troops, and the security they should give. They offered her the sovereignty of their country, which she would not accept. In the end, she took Flushing and Brill to hold in pawn, and sent the incompetent Leicester, with a body of ill-furnished and unpaid men, to trouble the Dutch more than to help them, and to make a pitiful showing of her parsimony, her arrogant egotism, and her inability to let any undertaking be made complete. Individual Englishmen gave splendid service to the cause of Dutch freedom ; Sir Philip Sidney consecrated it by an heroic death ; but the brave Hollanders owed little thanks to Elizabeth for the independence they finally won. 176. The Great Armada. Philip II. had long been fumbling with plans for the invasion of England, and after the execution of Mary Stuart he took them ear- nestly in hand. The war then became undisguised. Eng- lish pirates became commissioned privateers, and swarmed in thickening numbers over the sea. Drake was still chief among them, and worried the King of Spain with wonderful success. In the spring of 1587, he sailed into the harbor of Cadiz, where part of Philip's fleet was being 326 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION. [1587-1588 fitted out, and destroyed fifty or sixty ships, doing damage which is said to have delayed the intended expedition for a year. This he called " singeing the King of Spain's beard." Philip's preparations were finished in the following summer, and a fleet, proudly called " the Invincible Armada," being apparently the most formidable that the world had yet seen, set sail for the English coast. Then the English people showed the stuff of which they were made. It was by no energy or efficiency in their govern- ment, but by their own roused spirit and practical com- petency, that they were ready to repel the mighty attack. The whole nation except its queen seems to have risen to the demands of the hour. Official preparation for defence was hand-tied by the niggardliness of Elizabeth, English w ho pinched even the food of the sailors on her tioTfor ships ; but citizens and cities, shipowners and defence. sailors, fishermen and farmers, Catholics and Protestants, vied with each other in eager volunteering. Religious differences were forgotten ; it was a united nation of Englishmen that rose to face the invasion from Spain. The queen contributed brave speeches and an intrepid bearing, which had their effect ; but they were worth something less than the private vigor and liberal- ity that got the country under arms, on shipboard and on land. On the 29th of July, the lumbering and ill-managed Armada was sighted from the English coast, and skirmish- ing attacks upon it were begun. Drake, Howard, Haw- kins, Frobisher, and most of the great sea-captains of the age, were in the lead of the English fleet, with scores of volunteers like Sir Walter Raleigh under their command. For one full week a running fight was kept up, while the Armada slowly made its way to Calais roads. There '588] THE ELIZABETHAN AGE. 327 SPANISH ARMADA ATTACKED BY THE ENGLISH FLEET. it waited in vain for an expedition from the Netherlands, which the Dutch had blocked up ; and there its The great doom fell upon it. Gathered in growing num- def eat - bers outside, the English sent fireships into the midst of the clumsy Spanish fleet, and a fatal panic arose. Cables were wildly cut and all command of the drifting ships was lost. Some were entangled together, some went ashore, some were burned; the greater number were. carried up the coast, scattered by the wind and pursued by the Eng- lish, to be captured, or to be driven on the sandbanks of Holland, or to make a long and desperate flight north- ward, around Scotland into the Atlantic, through storm after storm, and to strew all the western coasts of the British isles with wrecks. " Of 1 34 vessels which sailed from Corufia in July, but 53, great and small, made their escape to Spain." " Of the 30,000 men who sailed in the fleet, it is probable that not more than 10,000 ever saw their native land again." 1 With the destruction of the Armada all real danger to England from the enmities which Philip represented was 1 Motley, Hist, of the United Netherlands, vol. ii. ch. xix. 328 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION. [1553-1583 at an end. It was securely a Protestant nation from that day, and securely a rising power, destined to play an important part in the future of the world. If the roused temper of the country had had its way, it would have Result for pressed the war with Spain to some sharp con- Engiand. c lu S ion ; perhaps to the shattering then and there of the Spanish dominion in America, which Drake, and Raleigh, and many more were eager to undertake. But Elizabeth would not have it so, and the war went on in a way that gave little new fruit. 177. Exploration, and the Beginnings of Coloniza- tion. The new sense of strength in the nation that followed the defeat of the Armada was everywhere felt. There had been some stir of enterprise before, even in the reign of Mary, when Willoughby and Chancellor attempted to find a northeastern arctic passage, beyond Norway, to China, or Cathay, with the result of an open- ing of Russian trade, pushed thence by routes overland into the heart of the Asiatic world. Later, by almost a quarter of a century, Frobisher, in 1576, began the search for a northwestern passage to Cathay ; while Drake, at the same time, was sailing more successfully the south- western route to the same goal, and circumnavigating the globe. The year (1578) in which Drake passed the Straits of Magellan was the year in which England's claim to a share in the possession of the New World was first put forth, in a patent issued to Sir Hum- Humphrey phrey Gilbert " for the inhabiting and planting Gilbert. r . . , . ,, y-,.,, , of our own people in America. Gilbert s at- tempt, in 1583, under this patent, to found a colony in Newfoundland, failed, and he lost his life in the returning voyage. His step-brother, Sir Walter Raleigh, succeeded no better, under a similar patent, the next year ; but from that time on there was a steady 1558-1603]. THE ELIZABETHAN AGE. 329 hardening of the determination to dispute possession of America with Spain. Colonizing waited a little, but exploration went on, and trading enterprises were pushed farther and farther afield. A Levant Company, incorporated in 1581, soon reached India in its operations, by way of the Persian Gulf ; and in 1600 the East India Company, which rose afterwards to such greatness and India power, was first formed. The Dutch had moved ompany - faster than the English, and led them as yet in most fields ; but the latter were crowding them hard before the close of Elizabeth's reign. 178. Prosperity and Distress. A great but unequal improvement in the condition of the country went on throughout the reign. It was due to several causes, but especially to the restoration of an honest coinage, which was probably the wisest of all the measures that Eliza- beth was ever persuaded by her able ministers to under- take. Without it, nothing else could have brought pros- perity back. In two ways, moreover, there were great gains to England from the dreadful sufferings of the Flemish Netherlands : large numbers of skilled artisans, escaping from Spanish tyranny, came to settle in English towns, and a profitable share of the trade which Philip's armies drove away from the Netherlands fell into Eng- lish hands. For nearly half a century, England was sufficiently at peace to gather from all these sources an enormous gain. But the laboring classes, unhappily, got no fair share of the increasing wealth. Wages advanced more slowly than prices, as happens always, and the cost of T he wage- living was harder for wage-earners to bear. In earners - the midst of a prosperous era for the upper and middle classes there was much distress in the lower ranks of RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION. [155S-1603 EDMUND SPENSER. life, and the framing of Eng- lish poor laws, for the main- tenance of charity by public taxation, was begun. 179. The Great Age of English Literature. Of the marvellous outburst of English literary genius that began in the later third of Queen Eliza- beth's reign, what can be said fitly in so limited a book as this ? All the world-wakening influences that sprang, in the preceding century, from the invention of printing and the discovery of America, seem to have concentrated their intellectual effects, in England, upon the little period of forty years that lie between the beginning of Spenser's " Faerie Queene," in 1589, and the writing of Milton's first great poem, the "Hymn on the Nativity," in 1629. Within that brief space of time the whole of Shakespeare's work was done, the whole of Bacon's, Sidney's, Marlowe's, Beaumont's and Fletcher's, Middleton's, Webster's, Daniel's ; the writ- ings of Raleigh and the splen- did prose of Hooker were produced ; Chapman, Ben Jon- son, and Drayton were yield- ing their best ; Hobbes, the philosopher, grew to manhood and- Oliver Cromwell to middle life ; Bunyan, Fuller, Walton, Jeremy Taylor, George Her- bert, Sir Thomas Browne, Herrick, Massinger, Lord RICHARD HOOKER. i 5 58-1603] THE ELIZABETHAN AGE. 331 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. Clarendon, were in child- hood or in youth. It was a marvellous period, and a third of it lies within Eliza- beth's reign. 180. The Rise of the Puritans, Presbyterians, and Independents. From the beginning of Elizabeth's reign, a large section of the English Protestants had been dissatisfied with the constitution of the church that she established, or with the creed and ritual that she dictated to it, or with both. They had been silenced by measures almost as harsh as the measures which suppressed Catholic dis- content ; but their numbers grew. For the most part, at the beginning, the objection of dissenting Protestants was to the ceremonies and vestments which the queen forced them to retain in public worship, and to which all must conform. They contended for more simplicity, more " purity," as they phrased it, of worship, and that phrase finally caused the name " Puritans "to be given to them. Along with these Puri- tans were others who went farther, objecting to the francis bacon. 332 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION. [1558-1603 whole government of the English church. A large and growing party wished to bring in the Genevan or Pres- byterian church system, framed by Calvin, having no bishops, but governed by synods and assemblies, in a republican mode. Their ideas were extremely hateful, of course, to the imperious queen. Still another but much smaller party maintained the right of each Chris- tian congregation to govern itself, with interference from none, even of its own kind. These were called Brownists at first, from the name of their leader, but afterwards Independents or Separatists. They were persecuted, in 1592, so savagely, six being put to death, that they were supposed to have been suppressed ; but the sect, or its distinguishing doctrine, survived, and six- Piigrim teen years later (1608) an Independent congre- ofNew gation, driven by renewed persecution from Scrooby, in Nottinghamshire, to Holland, formed there the company which migrated, in 1620, to America, — the Pilgrim Fathers of New England. For the enforcement of despotic measures of church government a tribunal, called the Court of High Com- mission, was created, which exercised fearful powers after 1583, and which became an intolerable instrument of oppression, then and in -the following reigns. Puri- tanism, Presbyterianism, and Independency were all stim- ulated in their growth by the queen's attempts High com- to put them down, and the rousing of an inde- mission. , . . pendent feeling m religious matters woke up the political spirit that had been dormant for so long a time. The democratic temper in English blood began to be stirred once more. In every succeeding House of Commons elected under Elizabeth the Puritan party showed a growing courage and strength. The last Parliament that was held (1601) before Eliza- 1558-1603] THE ELIZABETHAN AGE. 333 beth died, drew from her an unaccustomed tribute of respect for its voice. She had long been oppressing the country by grants of "monopoly" to favorite courtiers, whom she wished to reward without cost to herself. Such a grant allowed the holder to control the sale of some article, on which he could, accordingly, extort his own price. It was one of the most detestable - , . , t. t 1 Monopoly. of despotic schemes. Parliament was about to pass an act boldly prohibiting such monopolies, when the queen sent an amiable message, announcing that the grievance should be removed. This seems to have been the first positive step taken by the English Parliament towards the recovery of its old constitutional place in the government. 181. Ireland. The blind and heartless treatment of Ireland was never worse than during Queen Elizabeth's reign. She renewed her father's attempt to force the church of England on the country, with services in the English language, which few outside of the English Pale could understand. There was seemingly no thought of attempting to recommend the new form of worship by persuasion or explanation of any sort. In other matters the misgovernment was on the same lines, keeping animosities alive, cultivating feuds, provok- ing revolts. A succession of formidable rebellions oc- curred, led either by the O'Neils of Ulster, whom Henry VIII. had made Earls of Tyrone, or by the Norman Geraldines of the south, whose chief had become Earl of Desmond in the late creation of Irish peers. In 1599, the Earl of Essex, who had been the chief favorite of the queen since the death of his step-father, Earlof Leicester, was sent to Ireland as lord-lieuten- Essex - ant, with extraordinary powers. His management of affairs was disappointing, and he angered the haughty 334 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION. [1601-1603 queen by returning to England without leave. Seeing that her favor was lost and that his enemies were likely to cause his ruin, he recklessly undertook to excite an armed demonstration in London against them, which miserably failed. He was then arrested, tried for trea- son, and executed (February, 1601). The queen is said to have shown great remorse afterwards on account of his death. 182. Death of Queen Elizabeth. Her life was now drawing to a close, and she suffered much at the last in body and mind. Her final illness came upon her in the spring of 1603, and she died on the 24th of March, in the seventieth year of her age and the forty-fifth of her reign. On her deathbed, for the first time, she indicated her wish that James of Scotland, son of Mary Stuart, should be her successor on the throne. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS. 160. The Accession of Elizabeth. Topics. 1. Public feeling about Elizabeth. 2. Great issues to be decided. Reference. — Gardiner, ii. 428. 161. The Character of Elizabeth and her Reign. Topics. 1. The situation and her courage in facing it. 2. Her character and her love for England. Reference. — Green, 369-379. 162. The New Reformation of the Church. Topics. 1. Appointment of Cecil and Elizabeth's proclamation. 2. The new Acts of Supremacy and of Uniformity. 3. Attitude of the clergy and people toward them. References. — Bright, ii. 488-494. Acts of Uniformity and Supremacy: Gardiner, ii. 429; Bright, ii. 493, 494; Green, 377; Traill, iii. 312, 314; Taswell-Langmead, 441, 442. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 335 Research Questions. — (i.) Why had it become difficult to make religious changes ? (Creighton, iii.) (2.) From what three causes did Elizabeth fear trouble ? (Bright, ii. 489, 490.) (3.) How was she enabled to play them off, one against another? (Guest, 431, 433> 434-) (4-) What became in time the corner-stone of her for- eign policy? (Beesly, 101.) (5.) Trace the changes in the church in England from Henry VI I. 's appointment of Cardinal Morton to office under him, through Wolsey, Cromwell, Cranmer, and Gardiner, down to Elizabeth's time. (Montague, ill, 112.) (6.) What was the position of the church as a whole under Elizabeth ? (Traill, iii. 308-310.) 163. The Question of the Queen's Marriage. Topics. 1. The importance of it. 2. Her treatment of the subject and her suitors. Reference. — Beesly's Queen Elizabeth, ch. iv. Research Questions. — (i.) What justified Elizabeth in neither marrying nor naming a successor ? (Ransome, 115, 116; Green, 384.) (2.) What novel of Scott shows her attitude toward Leices- ter, and the sort of entertainment in which she delighted ? 164. Elizabeth and Mary Stuart. Topics. 1. Mary's claims and England's objections to her. 2. Changed feeling toward Mary as Queen of Scotland. 3. Mary and Elizabeth contrasted. References. — Beesly, ch. iv. ; Creighton, 68, 69. Research Questions. — (1.) How did Mary's claim contravene Henry VIII.'s will? (Gardiner, ii. 435.) (2.) What greater sig- nificance has the rivalry between the two queens than claims to the throne? (Gardiner, ii. 436.) (3.) What effect did Mary's claim have on English foreign relations ? 165. The Reformation in Scotland. Topics. 1. The Catholic church in Scotland. 2. The Lords of the Congregation and John Knox. 3. The uprising against the church. 4. Appeal to Elizabeth and success of revolt. Reference. — Bright, ii. 495-498. 336 THE ELIZABETHAN AGE. Research Questions. — (i.) Contrast the course of the Reforma- tion in Scotland and in England. (Gardiner, ii. 434.) (2.) Why were the English people less restive under the change ? (Mon- tague, 107.) 166. Mary Stuart in Scotland. Topics. 1. Mary's attitude toward a, religion ; b, Queen Elizabeth. 2. Controversy over her marriage. Reference. — Creighton, 65-75. 167. Mary's Marriage to Darnley, and his Murder. Topics. 1. Revolt provoked by her marriage with Darnley and its results. 2. Birth of Mary's heir. 3. Infatuation for Bothwell and murder of Darnley. 4. Proofs of Mary's guilt. Reference. — Creighton, 72-78. 168. Mary's Marriage to Bothwell, and her Deposition. Topics. 1. Effect of the marriage on the people. 2. Imprisonment in Lochleven castle. 3. Elizabeth's interference and Mary's arrival in England. Reference. — Creighton, 78-82. 169. The Queen of Scots in England. Topic. 1. Vacillating policy of Elizabeth and its results. Reference. — Green, 388, 389. 170. English Plots and Insurrections. Topics. 1. Two plots for the marriage of Mary and the Duke of Norfolk. 2. Papal bull of deposition. Reference. — Green, 389-392. 171. Foreign Circumstances which protected England. Topics. 1. Circumstances which kept Philip of Spain friendly. 2. Conditions in France. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 337 3. Cecil's design and Elizabeth's course. - Z*>iS-4l rl/-d>~&- References. — Beesly, ch. vi. The Massacre of St. Bartholomew : Gardiner, ii. 449; Bright, ii. 526-528; Creighton, 1 18-127. 172. The Jesuit Mission. Topics. 1. Seminary at Douay and its Jesuit allies. 2. Persecution of the Jesuits by Elizabeth. 3. Difference of view as to this persecution. References. — Beesly, ch. vii. The Jesuits : Gardiner, ii. 453- 456; Bright, ii. 546-549; Creighton, 159-166; Green, 408-410 ; Beesly, ch. vii. Research Questions. — (1.) What was the English feeling about torture? (Beesly, 143-145; Taswell-Langmead, 453, footnote.) (2.) What experience among English sailors might have made people acquiesce in its use against Jesuits ? (Gardiner, ii. 447.) 173. The Babington Plot and the Execution of Mary 1. Renewed intrigues and association to protect the queen. ^jUmJU^' 2. Plot to assassinate the queen. . J>L . . r/ 4-W^ 3. Mary's complicity and execution. - ^ (^ ^ 4. John Hawkins and Francis Drake. References. — Green, 411-416; Creighton, 173, 181, 193. Research Questions. — (1.) What claim to the English throne did Philip put forth on the death of Mary? (Gardiner, ii. 458.) (2.) In what way had Elizabeth given him further offense? (Creighton, 116.) (3.) What position was Elizabeth forced to take toward the Protestants by Philip's attack? (Bright, ii. 519, 338 THE ELIZABETHAN AGE. 175. Aid to the Dutch Provinces. Topics. i. Elizabeth grudgingly helps the Dutch. 2. Individual service to the cause of Dutch freedom. References. — Creighton, 167-174; Green, 400. 176. The Great Armada. Topics. 1. Singeing the King of Spain's beard. 2. The Invincible Armada and the rise of the English people. 3. Appearance of the Armada and the fight to Calais roads. 4. English fireships and the destruction of the Armada. 5. Continuation of the war. References. — Beesly, ch. x. ; Gardiner, ii. 458-464 ; Creighton, 181-186; Traill, iii. 416-418, 459-462; Guest, 435 ; Green, 418. Research Questions. — (i.) What other reason than a religious one did Philip have for his attack on England? (Gibbins, 120.) (2.) How was the fear of the English that Philip would introduce the Inquisition borne out by his preparations? (Creighton, 181, 182. (3.) What was the attitude toward Elizabeth of the Catho- lic leader of the English fleet ? (Gardiner, ii. 460 ; Bright, ii. 557.) (4.) What does this show as to Catholic feeling in England toward Philip? (5.) Compare the Armada and the English fleet. (Bright, ii. 560 ; Gardiner, ii. 459, 460.) 177. Exploration, and the Beginnings of Colonization. Topics. 1. Opening of Russian trade in previous reign. 2. Frobisher's and Drake's voyages. 3. Gilbert's and Raleigh's attempts to colonize. 4. The Levant and the East India companies. References. — Traill, iii. 477-508. Commerce : Green, 394, 395 ; Gibbins, 94, 95 ; Cunningham and Mc Arthur, 109-120: Creigh- ton, 135-137; Traill, iii. 539~542. Research Questions. — (1.) What relation is there between the crusading spirit and the colonizing spirit? (Creighton, i.) (2.) What connection can you trace between the Reformation in England and the rise of her commercial greatness and coloniza- tion? (3.) Where did Spain and Portugal get their claims to America? (Gardiner, ii. 447.) (4.) Why did the Spanish object TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 339 to the English trading with their colonies ? (5.) Who began the slave trade? (Traill, iii. 541.) 178. Prosperity and Distress. Topics. 1. Sources of prosperity : a, honest coinage ; b, Flemish artisans. 2. Distress of the lower classes and the poor laws. References. — Green, 392-398 ; Bright, ii. 573 ; Cunningham and McArthur, 91, 92; Traill, iii. 246-256, 548-558; Taswell-Lang- mead, 477-480. Social life : Gardiner, ii. 465-468; Green, 396- 398 ; Creighton, 200-206 ; Traill, iii. 377-398, 564-578. Agri- culture : Gardiner, ii. 464; Bright, ii. 572, 573; Green, 393, 394; Gibbins, 108, 109; Rogers, ch. xvi. ; Traill, iii. 351-359, 533-53S. Research Questions. — (1.) Why should Flemish refugees come to England? (2.) What arts would the Huguenots bring in? (3.) If wars in the low countries depressed manufactures there, what effect would that have on the English wool trade and woolen manufacture? (4.) What connection between inclosures and poor laws? (5.) What effect upon the price of food products would result from the flocking into the country of refugees? (6.) This would encourage what sort of industry ? (7.) What does the trade between England and Antwerp largely consist of to-day ? 179. The Great Age of English Literature. Topics. 1. Immediate springs of the intellectual awakening. 2. Great writers of the period. References. — Creighton, 208-226. The drama: Green, 426- 438; Creighton, 218-226; Guest, 439, 440; Traill, iii. 338-341. 180. The Rise of the Puritans, Presbyterians, and Independents. Topics. 1. Dissenters from the church of England: a, Puritans; b, Calvinists; c, Independents. 2. Court of High Commission and the effect of its, action. . 1 aaaA. 3. Opposition to monopolies.- -fy/r^k iL^v ^^^^ References. — Traill, iii. 424-431; dfcirdinerjpi. 478; Bright, ii. V 579,580; Green, 405; Creighton, 235; Colby, 159-162; Gib- bins, 100-102; Beesly, 223, 224. The Court of High Commis- 34° THE ELIZABETHAN AGE. sion : Taswell-Langmead, 459 ; Gardiner, ii. 470 ; Bright, ii. 569; Green, 470, 471; Creighton, 50, no. Elizabeth and the Commons: Gardiner, ii. 444, 445, 468; Green, 401-405; Mon- tague, 109-112; Ransome, 1 12-122; Taswell-Langmead, 469- 486. Church government of the Calvinists : Gardiner, ii. 430, 431 ; H. Taylor, ii. 168-170. Research Questions. — (1.) Puritanism tended to develop what traits of character, as shown by the migration to America ? (2.) How would this make Puritans valuable in a Parliament? (3.) What made the queen incline to favor them in the early part of her reign ? (4.) Describe the rise of the High Church party. (Bright, ii. 569.) (5.) Where was the Separatist colony in Amer- ica planted ? (6.) Show from American colonies the absence of the idea of " toleration " from the religious disputes. (7.) Who appointed the officials of the Court of High Commission? (8.) Against whom did it naturally direct its action, and how did this affect public opinion? (Gardiner, ii. 470.) (9.) What invention made the suppression of free speech very difficult? (10.) How did Elizabeth evade the power of Parliament ? (n.) What events of her reign forced her to call a Parliament? (12.) Where did Elizabeth get the power to pack a Parliament ? (Montague, 95.) 181. Ireland. Topics. 1. Result of forcing the English church upon Ireland. 2. Successive rebellions. 3. Essex in Ireland and his death. Reference. — Green, 442-458. 182. Death of Queen Elizabeth. Topic. 1. Circumstances of her death and her successor. Reference. — Beesly, ch. xii. Research Questions. — (1.) Compare England's advance in wealth and civilization under the Tudors with any previous period of its history. (2.) How largely is this advance due to the Tudor rulers? TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 341 SURVEY OF GENERAL HISTORY. THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. The Founding of Modem Science. If the period that covers about half of the fifteenth century and half of the sixteenth is properly described as being that of a Renaissance or new birth of mind in western Europe, then the last years of the sixteenth century and the whole span of the seventeenth may be called the school-time of its youth. Its powers were then matured, and its especially modern work, in what we call modern Science and modern Philosophy, was fairly be- gun. It accepted the new view of God's universe which Copernicus had opened up when he showed that man's little habitation, the earth, is not the centre of celestial motions, but only a satellite of the sun. Then Kepler found the laws of the revolutions of the planets ; Galileo brought the tele- scope to the help of the astronomer's eye ; and Newton dis- covered the one force and the one law that act alike in wheel- ing planets and falling stones. Ideas of law and unity in nature were substantially formed, and all our present science is but a larger building on that foundation of scientific think- ing which the seventeenth century laid down. The Beginnings of Modem Philosophy. At the same time, with the rise of scientific knowledge, there came new ques- tionings as to what knowledge is, what certainties it has, by what methods it can be best pursued, and how, with what faculties, on what materials, the mind is working when it thinks and questions, and forms the beliefs which it accepts as a knowledge of things. From these philosophical in- quiries by Bacon, Hobbes, and Locke in England, by Des- cartes and Malebranche in France, and by Leibnitz in THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 343 Germany, modern thought took its spirit and its guidance scarcely less than from the search ings of science in the phy- sical world. The Golden Age of Literature. The ripened powers of mind in this remarkable age produced a literature, in the three leading nations of the time, that has never, as a whole, been equalled since. Taken together, England, France, and Spain show nothing in any other age that compares with the Poetry, the Drama, the Romance of the century, or little more than a century, which takes in Shakespeare, Ben Jon- son, Milton, Bunyan, Dryden, Corneille, Racine, Moliere, Cervantes, Lope de Vega, and Calderon. It is the century in which the English and French languages received their literary form, stamped on one by a noble version of the Bible (the " authorized version " of King James), and on the other by the classic prose writings of Pascal and his contempora- ries, and by the dictates of "The Academy," which Richelieu founded in 1635. It was the "golden age " of letters in the greater part of western Europe, though the golden days of Italy were far in the past, and those of Germany were still to come. The Thirty Years' War. We suffer a shock when we turn from these intellectual splendors of the seventeenth century to look at the social circumstances of the age ; for the scenes of war, oppression, and common misery that filled it are among the worst that history can show. The conflict of reli- gions in Germany gave rise to the most dreadful of the wars. Its outbreak was in Bohemia (1618), where the Protestants at- tempted to take the crown of their kingdom from the House of Austria, and to place it on the head of the Elector Pala- tine, a Protestant prince. From that beginning it spread, until not only all Germany was at strife, — Protestant princes against Catholic princes, — but the whole of western Europe was more or less drawn into this barbarous " Thirty Years' War." The people at large had little to do with the begin- ning or prolongation of the war, and bore little part in it, 344 GENERAL HISTORY. except as victims of the death and misery it caused. For the most part, it was carried on by hired armies of ruffians, who fed, clothed, and paid themselves by the plunder they gathered as they marched. The Elector Palatine was driven from his principality, be- sides losing the Bohemian crown. He had married the daughter of James I. of England, and that foolish king med- dled in the quarrel with nothing but mischievous effects. Denmark and Holland interfered weakly, with no results. But, in 1630, a famous king of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus, came to the rescue of the broken Protestant cause. For two years he was victorious, and then he fell, at Lutzen (1632). The war raged on, through sixteen more years, prolonged mainly by the instigations and the help of Cardinal Richelieu, who then ruled France, and who aimed at future conquests on the Rhine. When peace was made at last (the Peace of Westphalia, 1648), Germany was half a desert, more broken and divided than ever, and, more than ever, the House of Austria, nomi- nally the imperial head of the Germanic states, had become an alien power. The Rise of Prussia. But another House, destined to push the Austrian aside, was just coming to the front. At the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War, two branches of the Hohenzollern family had been in possession of two princi- palities in the north, the electorate of Brandenburg and the duchy of Prussia, both of which were Wendish or Slavonic lands. In 1618 the younger line died out, and Brandenburg and Prussia were then united under the head of the Branden- burg branch, whose son and successor appears in German history as " The Great Elector," because of the skill with which he raised himself and his House in importance during and after the Thirty Years' War. France wider Richelieu. While Germany in this period went to wreck, France was being nationally moulded by a powerful hand. Its Huguenot king, Henry of Navarre, THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 345 killed by an assassin in 1610, had left it in a promising state. But the son, Louis XIII., who succeeded him, was a child ; and the government, for a dozen years, controlled by Italian favorites of the queen-mother, Marie de Medici, could hardly have been worse. Then the young king, who had no ability in himself, came under the influence of an extraordinary man, Cardinal Richelieu, who ruled France for eighteen years as though the sceptre was his own. He crushed the Hugue- nots as a disturbing political party, while he let their religion alone ; he bent the necks of the powerful nobles ; he prepared the monarchy to become a brilliant and deadly despotism ; and so he started France upon a career as pitiful in reality as it was splendid in the outward show. He did Europe a great service by checking the dangerous growth of power in that Austrian and Spanish family-circle of clannish potentates which took form in the preceding century ; but he cleared the way, in doing so, for a still more threatening power to arise. France imder Mazarin. Richelieu died in 1642, and Louis XIII. in 1643. Once more a child, Louis XIV., became king, under the regency of a queen-mother, Anne of Austria, and again a struggle of factions occurred. Cardinal Mazarin, who took Richelieu's place, was adroit rather than strong, and it was only after a series of shameful civil wars, known as the wars of the Fronde, that the control of the government came into his hands. The frivolous and contemptible spirit of these wars, in which no pretence, even, of a public aim or a patriotic motive appeared, puts them strikingly in contrast with the serious civil conflict in England that had just reached its crisis when they began (see chapter XVII). Mazarin carried Richelieu's war with Spain to what seemed to be a successful close. The Treaty of the Pyrenees (1659) which ended it gave France important gains ; but it prepared a long train of future wars, by arranging for the marriage of the young king, Louis XIV., to a daughter of the Spanish royal house. Both parties to the marriage renounced, for 346 GENERAL HISTORY. themselves and their descendants, all possible claims to the Spanish crown ; but the renunciation meant nothing to Louis XIV., as events were to prove. France wider Louis XIV. This despotic master of France was one of those hateful products of royalty who grow mon- strous in self-conceit, and scornful of the moral laws and de- cent constraints that bear on common men. He had the talent of an actor for playing a pompous kingly part exceedingly well ; but he played it at the cost of ruin to France. His peculiar piety cost the country almost as much. It resented the toleration that his grandfather had guaranteed to Hugue- not worship, and he revoked (1685) the wise Edict of Nantes (see page 253), thereby driving out of his kingdom not far from half a million of the most skilful workers in all its cher- ished arts, and breaking down the industries of France. Of course such a reign had to be lighted up with the blaz- ing glories of war, and Louis XIV. had no scruple as to the pretexts on which he attacked his neighbors, when it pleased him to set his armies at work. For half a century western Europe was torn and tortured by the succession of cruel wars which he forced reluctant nations to fight in self-de- fence. Thanks to the despotic power he had received from Richelieu and Mazarin, he could drain the resources of France without any check ; and, for servants, he had the pick of an age that was rich in gifted men. There was no single power that could resist him in war. One by one they would have gone down before him — the Dutch Republic most cer- ainly of all — if William of Orange, Stadtholder of Holland and afterwards King of England, had not organized leagues against him, with a patient courage that yielded to no defeat. Before William died, the " grand monarch," as he was styled in France, had been compelled by the Treaty of Ryswick (1697) to surrender very nearly every conquest he had made. The Dutch Netherlands. This Prince of Orange was a great- grandson of that heroic William the Silent who led, in its beginning, the Dutch revolt against Spain. The United Pro- THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 347 vinces of the northern or Dutch Netherlands had fought the Spaniards until 1607, when a truce for twelve years was arranged. Meantime the southern provinces, known there- after as the Spanish Netherlands, had given up the attempt to break their yoke. At the end of the truce, the Spaniards renewed their struggle with the Dutch, and it was not until 1648 that they acknowledged the independence which the latter had won practically long before. Shortly afterwards, a grandson of William the Silent, who was stadtholder or chief magistrate of the United Provinces, attempted to make himself king, but died in the midst of his schemes. The office of stadtholder was then abolished, and remained so for more than twenty years, during which time Holland, the chief pro- vince in the Union, controlled the federal government so entirely that the federation came to be called by its name. John de Witt, Grand Pensionary of Holland, as the chief magistrate of that province was entitled, took the stadthold- er's place. But, in 1672, a French invasion of Holland brought about a revolution, in which De Witt was murdered, and William of Orange was raised to the office that his ances- tors had filled. Throughout this period, the Dutch were outdoing all other peoples in industry and trade, and they arrived in the course of it at more enlightened conditions of freedom than existed elsewhere in the world. Other Countries. Spain, meantime, was going to decay, under the double despotism of its monarchy and its Inquisi- tion, while Italy was suffering the blight of Spanish rule in the south and Austrian rule in the north. The Turks made their last fight for Hungary, — their last advance to Vienna, which they besieged in 1683, and which owed its deliverance to John Sobieski, the heroic Pole. Hun- gary was wholly and finally wrested from them in 1699, and its crown, elective until then, became hereditary in the pos- session of the Austrian House. Poland was fast sinking to the state of anarchy in which 348 GENERAL HISTORY. its national life, briefly revived by Sobieski, was doomed to expire. Russia, growing slowly into form as a barbaric empire, came just to the point, when the century closed, of receiving from Peter the Great the mechanic arts of civili- zation which he travelled abroad, as a common workman, to learn. In America, the seventeenth century was the period of colonial settlement, by English, Dutch, Swedes, and French. In the far eastern world many changes occurred that were of lasting effect : China came under the rule of the Manchu dynasty of emperors, which reigns at the present day ; the great Mongol or Mogul empire in Hindostan attained its greatest power and extent ; at the same time the famous East India Company of English merchants, which was des- tined to take the sovereignty of India from the Moguls, acquired its footing, and the Portuguese were supplanted in the Malay Archipelago by the Dutch. THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION. 1603-1688. CHAPTER XV. WANING REVERENCE FOR ROYALTY. The First Stuart King : James I. of England and VI. of Scotland. 1603-1625. 183. James I. of England and VI. of Scotland. Among the possible successors to Elizabeth, James Stu- art could be accepted with the least dispute. He was the nearest heir to the throne, and the probable advan- tage to both countries of a union of the English and Scottish crowns could hardly be denied. But, while willingly received, he was not a welcome king. Scotch- men were foreigners to Englishmen in that day, and were much disliked. Towards a king from Scotland the English could not possibly have the deferential feeling which sovereigns of their own stock had commanded for some generations past. No tact nor wisdom could have won it for him ; and James had neither wisdom nor tact. He was a foolishly conceited man, shrewd in some ways, and quite learned for a prince, but confidently per- suaded that no others in the world were so knowing as himself. He had preposterous notions of "the divinity that doth hedge a king," though afflicted with character infirmities and oddities of person and manner of James - that made them seem doubly absurd.' He was coarse in 35o THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION. [1603-1604 speech, uncleanly in his habits, intemperate in drinking, and without dignity of any sort. Such a king could not fail to finish practically the breaking of that strange spell which the autocratic royalty of the Tudors had cast on the English mind, but which religious op- position had begun to weaken before he came. James came to his new kingdom full of self-sufficient feeling, but with no understanding of the English people or their political constitution. In Scotland, the Pres- byterian clergy, with their great popular influence, had interfered with his arbitrary exercise of power. In England, as head of the church, he expected to be free from such of Eng- interference, as he saw that Elizabeth had been. He probably went to his southern kingdom with nothing more fixed in his mind than the purpose to keep Presbyterianism down, and, if that were done, saw no- thing to obstruct the prospect of an absolute reign. 184. The King's Dealing with Puritans and Catho- lics. The first question with which King James had to deal concerned the treatment that the English Puritans were to receive. The question stood open until January, 1604, when James summoned four Puritans to meet JAMES I. OF ENGLAND, VI. OF SCOTLAND. 1604] WANING REVERENCE FOR ROYALTY. 351 bishops and others of the opposite party, for a discus- sion of the differences between them in his presence, at Hampton Court. He seems to have listened with fairness to the debate, until one of the Puritan speakers unluckily let slip the word "presbyters," whereat the king flamed out in abusive wrath. That had settled the matter ; the case was closed. " If this be all they have to say," cried the angry "head of the church," as he left the room, "I shall make them conform them- selves, or I will harry them out of the land." " In two minutes," remarks the historian of his reign, Professor Gardiner, " he had sealed his own fate and the fate of England." 1 For when he resolved to harry the Puritans out of England, with the help of applauding bishops, who declared that " His Majesty spoke by inspiration of the Spirit of God," he opened a conflict which brought his son to the block, which drove his grandson from the throne, and which forever ended the power of kings in England to "harry " anybody out of the land. The wishes of the king were car- ried out as promptly as possible by the bishops, who framed a new and stricter code of ecclesiasti- , , , . , . Action cal law, applying penalties of the to everybody who refused to declare that neither the Prayer Book nor the Thirty-nine Articles of the church contained anything con- trary to the Word of God. By the enforcement of the new code, some 300 clergymen were driven from the church. 1 Gardiner, Hist, of Eng., 1 603-1 642, vol. i. ch. iv. ANNE OF DENMARK, WIFE OF JAMES I. Showing the " wheel far thingale " then worn. 352 THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION. [1604 The Catholics fared no better than the Puritans at the hands of the king. Before the death of Elizabeth, when he was seeking the good-will of his mother's toward the English friends, he had given them reason to catholics. expect from him a tolerant rule. For a time, in fact, he did stop the enforcement of penalties against the Catholics ; but he soon yielded to the clamor which this produced, and consented to new laws more severe than the old. 185. The First Encounter of a Stuart King with an English Parliament. Before the first Parliament that he summoned (March, 1604) came together, James had opened a quarrel with the Commons, by attempting to empower the Court of Chancery to judge the qualifi- cations of its members. The dispute ended in a com- promise, as concerned the elections then in question, but the substantial victory was on the parliamentary side. The jurisdiction of the House of Commons over its own elections was never called in question again. The upper House was more in agreement with the crown than the lower, and Lords and Commons worked at cross purposes so persistently that nothing was done. James had his heart set on a complete union of his two kingdoms in one; but his English subjects were in no mood to consider the scheme. The usual and and com- needed " subsidies " from the Commons, which were grants of a fixed tax on incomes from land, were obstinately withheld ; while, on the other hand, important measures that the Commons wished to pass, including measures to check the proceedings of the king and the bishops against the Puritan clergy, were smothered in the House of Lords. In July, the abortive session was ended by a scolding harangue from James, in which he lectured the Commons like an angry i6o 4 ] WANING REVERENCE FOR ROYALTY. 353 schoolmaster talking to unruly boys. On its own side, the House of Commons had already prepared a digni- fied address to the undignified sovereign, calmly making known to him that he had been misinformed as to the English constitution and the prerogatives of the English crown. Conspicuous among the commoners in this Parliament was Sir Francis Bacon, who bore an honorable and in- fluential part in what was done. If the moral Lord energy of that remarkable man had been equal Bacon - to his surpassing intellect, he might have become the great leader of the people towards a peaceful recovery of constitutional rights. He could give, and he did give, wise counsel, to both Elizabeth and James, tending to tolerance in the church and good government in the state ; but, also, he could pliantly lend himself to the carrying out of meaner counsels than his own. 186. Plot against the Government. For the discon- tent of the Catholics there was no voice in Parliament ; they were excluded from it by the oaths required. Con- spiracy under such circumstances was inevitable ; yet very few persons appear to have been engaged in the plots that occurred. In the first year of the new reign there were discoveries of an alleged intrigue with Spain, in which Protestants were involved, Sir Walter sir waiter Raleigh being one of the accused. Raleigh, Ralei s h - the most energetic man of genius in his time, had power- ful enemies at court, especially in Robert Cecil, son of the late Lord Burleigh, who had established himself in favor with King James. Of all men in England, Raleigh seemed the least likely to engage in plotting with Spain ; but his enemies, who wished to remove him from their path, contrived to have him accused, convicted, and sen- tenced to death. He was then respited by royal order, 354 THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION. [1604 but kept imprisoned in the Tower for fifteen years, until the long-suspended sentence of death might be executed more infamously at last. A more real and darkly conceived plot was formed, in 1604, when half a dozen desperate men among the Cath- olics, who shared their secret with a few others, laid plans for blowing up the two Houses of Parliament, at the mo- ment of the opening of the session, when the king and VAULT BENEATH THE OLD HOUSE OF LORDS. the Prince of Wales would be present and the Lords and Commons assembled in the same hall. They first hired a house adjoining the Parliament building, and presently found that a coal cellar, reaching under the very chamber of the House of Lords, could be leased, which made their task easy. They stored an enormous quantity of gun- powder in the cellar, covered it with coal and wood, and 1604-1606] WANING REVERENCE FOR ROYALTY. 355 prepared to explode it at the proper hour. The meeting of Parliament was postponed from time to time, , r , r TheGun- until more than a year passed atter the forma- powder tion of the plot. Finally the ceremonies of the opening were appointed for the 5th of November, 1605, and on the eve of that day the conspirators had every- thing ready for their terrible deed. But one of their number, seeking at the last moment to save a friend, sent him a mysterious message, which roused suspicions, and caused the vaults of the Parliament building to be searched. The powder was discovered, and a single actor in the plot, Guy Fawkes by name, was seized on the spot. His associates were all taken soon afterwards and suffered death with him, or were killed in resisting arrest. The anniversary of the plot* so narrowly escaped, is still remembered in England, being popularly known as " Guy Fawkes's Day." The effect of the great ex- citement produced was to expose the Catholics in Eng- land to laws much more severe than before. 187. King James and the English Parliament again. The second session of James's first Parliament was mainly taken up with the passing of new laws against the Catho- lics, concerning which king and Commons were agreed. With the beginning of the third session, in November, 1606, the old conflict was revived. The Commons re- fused to open free trade with Scotland, and disputed an opinion from the law officers of the crown, that Scotch- men born after the accession of King James .. Thepost . to the English throne (" post-nati," they were nati " called) were entitled in both kingdoms to the privileges of the native-born. Their feeling on this latter subject was made bitter by the gifts, pensions, offices, and other favors which the king lavished on his Scottish friends. Another cause of ill-feeling arose from the king's 356 THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION. [1606-1607 evident desire to be on good terms with Spain. He never comprehended the antagonism of political, reli- gious, and commercial feeling with which the English people regarded that dangerous power. Apparently he was flattered by efforts which the Spanish court made to cultivate his good-will. Being naturally inclined to peace, and looking as coldly as Elizabeth had done on the heroic struggle of the Dutch, he was easily induced, soon after his accession, to conclude a treaty The king's . . Spanish with Spain which was much disliked. Fresh irritations were continually occurring, and the Commons desired a renewal of war, to which the king would not consent. The suggestion of a marriage be- tween his eldest son and the infanta (royal princess) of Spain was being dangled before his eyes, — a piece of treacherous flattery that lured him for years. In July, 1607, the Parliament was prorogued (its session suspended indefinitely), and was not permitted to assem- ble again for two years and a half. 188. Multiplied Offences of the Government. Be- fore Parliament met again, many things had been done which angered the public mind. The so-called " post- nati " of Scotland, whom Parliament had refused to nat- uralize in England, were declared to be natural subjects of the king in both kingdoms, by a decision obtained from the Court of Chancery. By another judgment, pro- cured from the Court of Exchequer, a doctrine most threatening to the constitution was affirmed ; for it con- Royai "im- ceded authority to the king to levy " imposi- positions." ti ons " — customs duties — on imports and ex- ports, at will, without parliamentary consent. This was a deadly blow struck at the most precious of all the Eng- lish safeguards of political freedom, going far towards nullifying that chief provision of the Great Charter i6o6-i6o 7 ] WANING REVERENCE FOR ROYALTY. 357 which was the longest fought for, and the hardest to win (see section 69). If the king could tax the com- merce of the country at will, he had gained an independ- ence which even the Tudors had claimed but once, in Mary's reign. A different spirit prevailed in the Court of King's Bench, where a majority of the judges, under the lead of a great lawyer, Sir Edward Coke, courage- sir Edward ously upheld the English common law against Coke ' the High Commission clerical court. King James gave an angry and violent support to the latter, and Coke and his associates were baffled for the time. Still another, perhaps the sharpest among all the pro- vocations to ill-will that James offered his subjects, was that which came from his silly affection for The king's worthless favorites, and from the recklessness r^"^' with which he enriched them at public expense. Carr - One such parasite of royalty, a young Scot, named Robert Carr, afterwards made Viscount Rochester and Earl of Somerset, was rising to offensive prominence at this time. 189. The Virginia Colony in America. It was in the midst of these circumstances at home, that the small beginnings of an " English nation planted in America " were successfully made, by the colony which landed on James River, in the pleasant month of May, 1607, and which was saved from the fate of Raleigh's earlier settle- ments by the resolute energy of Captain John Smith. The king, in 1606, had chartered a great colonizing corporation, in two branches, one known as the London Company, receiving rights of settlement on the Atlantic coast of North America from the mouth of the Potomac southward to the region of Cape Eear ; the other, called the Plymouth Company, having similar rights from about 358 THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION. [1607 Long Island to Nova Scotia, at the north. The whole section of America, between Spanish settlement in Flor- ida and French exploration in the St. Lawrence valley, was claimed to be the property of the English crown, and this was the beginning of an actual occupation of the country, to make the claim good. Both companies sent out colonies in 1607, but that of the Plymouth Com- pany, landing near the mouth of the Kennebec River, had no success. New England was to be planted a little later, in a very different way. 190. The Plantation of Ulster in Ireland. At the time when this first English settlement gained its foot- ing in America, a notable undertaking of Scotch and English colonization in Ireland was begun. In the clos- ing years of Queen Elizabeth's reign, the subjugation of Ireland, so lc t labored at in vain, had been prac- tically completed by Lord Mount joy, who succeeded Essex in the command, and who made a desert of the regions which would not submit. The subjugation was followed by measures for breaking up the primitive organization of the Irish septs, or clans, by converting their chiefs into landlords, having rights of property and entitled to definite rents, but deprived of the arbitrary power they had exercised from ancient times. It was clearly a measure in the .interest of the people at large ; but, like everything else done in Ireland, it was carried out in an exasperating way. Then the new zeal of King James for the English church was aroused to " harry " the Catholics and make matters worse. It would be strange if no plot of rebellion had been provoked. Eng- lish officials in Ireland claimed to have discovered such a plot ; but Irish historians contend that it was invented for the ruin of the greater chiefs. At all events, the two most dangerous Irish lords, O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, and B Longitude W h c i6o 7 -i6ii] WANING REVERENCE FOR ROYALTY. 359 O'Donnell, Earl of Tyrconnell, were accused of rebel- lious schemes and fled to Spain (1607). Six counties in Ulster were then declared to be coruscated, the greater part of the native population was removed, and large numbers of Scottish and English settlers were brought in to take their place. 191. Dissolution of the First Parliament of King James. The extravagance of the king compelled him to call Parliament together, in 1609, and ask for the fill- ing of his purse ; but he asked in vain. The Commons would give no attention to his wants until their com- plaints against his government had been plainly set forth and a satisfying answer to them made. Fruitless wran- gles were prolonged until February, 161 1, when James, especially angered by some flings at his obnoxious Scotch favorites, dissolved the refractory Parliament and so ended its term of life. For the arrogance of the attempts which this absurd monarch was making to acquire more absolute power than even the Tudors had claimed, he must not be held responsible alone. He was scarcely more than the tool of a new conspiracy against English liberty and law, the responsible authors of which were found among the clergy of the ruling party in the church. An absolute monarchy to uphold a despotic priesthood, in a state- controlled church, was the object of their desire. They flattered the conceit of the foolish king, and filled him with such notions of a " divine right " in his kingship as went beyond all former bounds. Thev were The real assisted by a certain class of lawyers, who prac- conspira- tised in the church courts, where the canon or civil law, derived from the Roman, prevailed, and where the English common law was rather despised. Another class, too, the chancery lawyers, who looked slightingly 360 THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION. [1611-1613 at the common law, in which English rights and liberties had their root, gave a shameful encouragement to the pretensions of King James ; and Bacon was among these. On the other hand, the lawyers of the common law courts, venerating the precedents of English history, both legal and political, and inspired by Chief Justice Coke, became stubborn leaders of resistance to royal and ecclesiastical usurpation, throughout the long conflict that was now begun. 192. The Reign of Favorites. After the dissolution of 161 1, James avoided the election of a new Parliament for three years. All imaginable devices for raising money were employed, and the making of public debt went on. But there was no economy at court, and no learning of Death of wiser ways. The better influences there, on Prince nd tne contrary, disappeared in the course of the Henry. y ear T 6i2, when Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, and Prince Henry, the eldest son of the king, were laid in the grave. Salisbury had few sterling principles, but much excellent sense ; and Prince Henry had seemed to be far superior to the stock from which he sprang. After their death, there were none to resist the in- fluence of Carr, the worthless favorite, who ruled and befooled the silly, tippling king. In 161 3, Carr became Earl of Somerset, and was omnipotent at court for three ran of years. All bowed before him, and he levied somerset, tribute from all who sought office or favors from the head of the state. Then came an overwhelm- ing; accusation and conviction of crime which ended his career. A new favorite, of like worthlessness, had already won the affections of King James, and was ready to take Somerset's place. This was a young Englishman, plain George Villiers at first, Duke of Buckingham at last, 1614] WANING REVERENCE FOR ROYALTY 361 whose handsome person, agreeable manners, easy con- science, and small self-respect fully qualified , ■ r ■ r mi Rise of him to be the chief parasite of a contemptible Bucking- court. After Buckingham's rise, no measure could be adopted, no man could enter or be advanced in public office, except in return for favors, flatteries, or payments to him. 193. The Addled Parliament. In 1614, James was persuaded to let certain officious politicians of the day manage elections for a new Parliament, which should be, they assured him, so made up as to do exactly what he wished, without question or com- plaint. But the scheme of the "undertakers," as they were called, leaked out, and their men were beaten overwhelmingly in country and town. The House of Commons elect- ed was more than ever hostile to the king and court, and James dissolved it, in wrath and disgust, after a session of two months, in which no bill was passed. It was called the " Addled Parliament," because it had brought nothing forth. 194. Spanish Courtship. For seven years more there was no Parliament, and the government went on from bad to worse along unconstitutional ways. In his need of money, the rich dowry to be expected with a Spanish infanta became an object of increased desire to James; GEORGE VILLIERS, DUKE OF BUCK- INGHAM. 362 THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION. [1614-1617 and his second son Charles, now heir to the crown, and approaching a marriageable age, was put forward as a suitor for her hand. The Spaniards again encouraged the suit. The impending struggle in Germany and the prospect of renewed war with the Dutch gave them stronger reasons than ever for wishing to keep England on their side. In appearance, James had bound himself already to the opposite party in Europe, by giving his daughter Elizabeth in marriage to the Elector Palatine, a Protestant German prince ; but the prospect of a Span- ish alliance turned him squarely around, and filled him with visions of an influence at Madrid that should keep Europe at peace. That the Spanish court ever intended to permit the marriage is open to grave doubt ; but its cunning diplo- macy was able to keep James bargaining for the prize through some years, while his sub- jects looked angrily but helplessly on. 195. The Fate of Sir "Walter Raleigh. The king's eagerness for amity with Spain, and the opposing eager- ness of many English- men to reopen war with that power, worked tragically together to bring a great man to his death. Brooding in his long imprisonment over the projects of American adventure from which he had been snatched, Sir Walter Raleigh persuaded himself that he knew where SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 1617-1618] WANING REVERENCE FOR ROYALTY. 363 to find some of the rich mines of "El Dorado," — that mythical land of gold which men dreamed of in those days, as being hidden somewhere in the heart of South America. At last he was given liberty for the search, — not pardoned, but released from the Tower, with his old death sentence still in suspense, — and he had to pledge his very life that he would do nothing hostile to Spain. He was prostrate with fever when his little fleet reached the Guiana coast (161 7), and was forced to stay behind, while his young son and some of his men went up the Orinoco to seek the imagined mines. The Span- iards, knowing his plans, were lying in wait. The Eng- lish attacked them and were repulsed ; young Raleigh fell ; the failure was complete ; and Sir Walter, broken- hearted, returned Jiome, to lay his gray head on the block, and to pay the vengeful price that Spain demanded from King James for the friendship which he truckled meanly to win. 196. The Thirty Years' War. In 161 8, the long-threat- ened conflict between Protestant and Catholic Germany was opened by a revolution in Bohemia, which placed the crown of that kingdom in dispute between the Emperor Ferdinand, head of the House of Austria, and the Elec- tor Palatine, son-in-law of King James (see page 343). The unhappy elector was not only driven from Bohemia, but lost his electoral states, and Germany was plunged for a whole generation into the most horrible of all Euro- pean wars. Meantime, the English people were shamed and enraged by the ignoble attitude towards these criti- cal events in which they were kept by their king. By a prompt and positive policy, in one direction or the other, he might have either held back the Elector Frederick from his fatal mistakes, or saved him from their worst results ; and it is not improbable that he might, by firm 364 THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION. [1618-1621 action, have brought the whole dreadful war to a close at some early stage. As it was, he only meddled in fee- ble ways, with a watchful eye for smiles or frowns at Madrid. If he allowed English volunteers to go to the Palatinate, he also gave authority to raise English regi- ments for the service of Spain ; and he refused shelter to his own daughter in England through fear of the anti-Spanish influence she might have. Apparently the one man besides Buckingham who had influence with James was Gondomar, the pro- Gondomar. 110 • 1 • • 1 t-. \- 1 foundry able Spanish minister at the English court, and he, by vast superiority of mind and will, rarely failed to dominate both the favorite and the master whom the favorite led. 197. The Third Parliament of King James. In the autumn of 1620, the Elector Frederick's Palatine domin- ions were seized, not by Austrian but by Spanish troops, and James did then, for a moment, make some show of resentment, and indulge in threatening talk. He went so far as to summon Parliament again, to ask supplies for war, and the greater part of England was wild with joy. In the following January, Parliament met, and proved to be a remarkable body of strong and earnest citizens, largely of the Puritan stamp. They came to- gether with an anxious wish to avoid all quarrelling with the king, and to act with him heartily in aid of the elector and his friends. But James's momentary impulse in that direction had already cooled, and he would take no decided course. In June, Parliament was adjourned ; in November, it was summoned again, the king being once more in the mood to give help to his daughter and son. But the patience of the Commons was worn out. They were no longer able to refrain from speaking plainly on the Span- 1621-1622] WANING REVERENCE FOR ROYALTY. 365 ish match and the whole Spanish policy of James. Their memorial on these subjects drew a letter of astounding insolence from Gondomar, the Spanish envoy in -11 Gondo- England, to the king, whom he haughtily called mar's upon to punish the House, because, he dared to write, " I have no army here at present to punish these people myself." Instead of resenting so unheard-of an insult to the nation and himself, King James directed all his wrath against the Commons, in abusive and threat- ening letters, which wholly denied their claim to free speech, and violently reasserted all his own pretensions to absolute power in government by divine right. The Commons in reply entered a memorable protestation in their journal ; whereupon the king came down to the House and tore the leaves on which it was written from the book. A few days later (January 6, 1622) he dis- solved the Parliament, and sent a number of its leading members to the Tower. 198. The Disgrace of Lord Bacon. During the ses- sion of this Parliament, it gave attention to a scandalous fresh growth of monopolies and patents which Bucking- ham and his parasitic crew had started up. Its inves- tigations wakened a bitter feeling against Lord Bacon, and circumstances came to light which led to the charge that, in his high office, as lord chancellor, he had taken bribes. He was brought to trial and it was proved, and he acknowledged, that he had accepted large gifts from people who were parties in suits before him. He could plead in defence the lax customs of his day ; but Bacon, the great philosophic thinker, was one whose standards, in conduct as well as in thought, should have been higher than those of common men. The trial of Lord Bacon, which drove him from his office in disgrace, was a revival of the long-suspended power of parliamentary impeach- 366 THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION. [1620-1621 ment, and gave one more sign of the resurrection of con- stitutional government in the English realm. 199. The Voyage of the Mayflower and the Found- ing of Plymouth Colony. It was in the midst of these events in Old England that the settlement of New Eng- land in America was begun. The Scrooby congregation of Independents which sought shelter at Leyden, in Holland, from King James's persecution, in 1608 (see sec- tion 180), obtained permission in 1620 from the London Company (or London branch of the Virginia Company) THE MANOR-HOUSE AT SCROOBY, WILLIAM BREWSTER'S RESIDENCE. to make a home for themselves on the part of that com- pany's American grant which is now the New Jersey coast. In the fall of the same year their memorable voyage to America was made, in the little ship May- flower, which was driven out of its course, and landed them, not where they intended, but in Cape Cod Bay. There they had no rights ; but during the next year they procured a patent, or grant, from the " Council for New England," under which name the Plymouth branch of the Virginia Company had been reorganized ; and thus the Plymouth Colony of the Pilgrim Fathers was planted in a bleak and stony land. 1623-1625] WANING REVERENCE FOR ROYALTY. 367 200. Prince Charles at Madrid. The final folly in the Spanish marriage business was committed in 1623, when Prince Charles went with Buckingham, both dis- guised, on a madcap journey to pay court in person to the princess at Madrid. It was a fool's errand, from which some knowledge was brought back. The Span- iards supposed that the prince came to enter the Catho- lic church, and to promise the restoration of Catholicism in England. They could scarcely be made to understand that the latter was impossible, and that the former would lose him the English crown. When they did become convinced that his visit meant no such thing, their utmost ingenuity was employed for six months in trying to get rid of the troublesome suitor without a quarrel and con- sequent war. But the quarrel was not to be escaped. Buckingham and Charles returned home in a rage, to lead the outcry for a Spanish war. 201. The Last Days of the Reign. As an advocate of war with Spain, Buckingham won a short-lived popu- larity that was immense. A new Parliament was sum- moned, to vote supplies, and preparations began ; but nothing effectual was done, since all management was in Buckingham's incompetent hands. On the abandonment of the Spanish match, a wife for Charles was sought in France. That, too, would bring a Catholic queen into England, which the Protestants were unwilling to have done. To quiet their feeling against the French marriage, both James and Charles gave pledges to Parliament that no promise of favor to English Catholics should be made. They soon J Proposals discovered, however, that the bride from Paris of mar- could no more be had without that promise than the bride from Madrid ; and thereupon Charles per- suaded his father to sign an agreement which violated 368 THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION. [1625 their pledge. This seems to have been the first exhibi- tion by Charles of the falsity in his nature which after- wards brought calamity to the country and ruin to him- self. While arrangements for the French marriage were pending, James was stricken with a fever and died on Death of the 2 7th of March, 1625, leaving the monarchy James. anc j ^ e people in a state of antagonism well advanced towards the conflict of war that was soon to be reached. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS. 183. James I. of England and VI. of Scotland. Topics. 1. James's claims to the throne and the feeling against him. 2. His character and its effect on the people. 3. His ideas at his succession. References. — Bright, ii. 592; Green, 477-482; Colby, 1S1-184; Gardiner, P. R., 13-15 ; Montague, 114, 1 15 ; Ransome, 123, 124; Guest, 442, 443. Research Questions. — (1.) Give and define the phrase which shows James's idea of his kingship. (Guest, 444.) (2.) This is a revival and extension of what old theory of kingship ? (3.) What was there in the membership of the House of Commons to make a struggle with such a king inevitable ? (4.) What party in the church naturally allied itself with his idea of king- ship, and why? 184. The King's Dealings with Puritans and Catholics. Topics. 1. The discussion at Hampton Court and its results. 2. The bishops' code and James's treatment of Catholics. Reference. — Bright, ii. 587-589. Research Questions. — (1.) What was the only good that came of this conference? (Bright, ii. 587.) (2.) How widely is this version of the Bible used to-day? (3.) What edition is supplant- ing: it ? TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 369 185. The First Encounter of a Stuart King with an English Parliament. Topics. 1. Dispute about jurisdiction over elections to the Commons. 2. Friction between the Lords and Commons. 3. James's dismissal of Parliament and address of the Commons. 4. Sir Francis Bacon. Reference. — Green, 480-482. 186. Plot against the Government. Topics. 1. Catholic discontent and plots. 2. Sir Walter Raleigh and the intrigue with Spain. 3. The gunpowder plot : a, participants ; ^detection; c, results. Reference. — Bright, ii. 589-592. 187. King James and the English Parliament again. Topics. 1. Agreement over anti-Catholic laws. 2. Disagreement over : a, post-nati ; />, Spanish friendship. 3. Session of Parliament indefinitely suspended. Reference. — Green, 483-485. 188. Multiplied Offences of the Government. Topics. 1 . Decisions of the Court of Chancery and the Court of Exchequer. 2. Attitude of the Court of King's Bench. 3. The king's favorites. Reference. — Gardiner, ii. 483, 484, 4S6-4S8. 189. The Virginia Colony in America. Topics. 1. James River colony. 2. The London and Plymouth companies. 3. First failure of the Plymouth Company. Reference. — Colby, 1 71-174. 190. The Plantation of Ulster in Ireland. Topics. 1. Subjugation under Mountjoy and Irish chiefs made landlords. 2. Accusation of Irish lords and confiscations in Ulster. Reference. — Green, 452-459. 370 WANING REVERENCE FOR ROYALTY. 191. Dissolution of the First Parliament by King James. Topics. i. The king's demand for money. 2. Complaints of Parliament and its dissolution by James. 3. The king's supporters in his despotic course. Reference. — Bright, ii. 592-595. Research Questions. — (1.) Who calls Parliament and dismisses it? (2.) What does it mean to prorogue Parliament? (3.) To dissolve it? (4.) To adjourn it ? (5.) How early was regularity in its meetings established? (Taswell-Langmead, 268; also Ency. Brit.) (6.) How frequently does it meet at the present time? 192. The Reign of Favorites. Topics. 1. Devices of the king to raise money. 2. Deaths of Cecil and Prince Henry. 3. Reigns of Somerset and the Duke of Buckingham. Reference. — Bright, ii. 592-599. Research Questions. — (1.) Describe James's court. (Green, 487.) (2.) How did James create new peers ? (3.) What king of the Norman family sold offices in this way? (4.) What excuse did he have? 193. The Addled Parliament. Topics. 1. The scheme of the undertakers. 2. Reason for the nickname " addled." Reference. — Bright, ii. 599, 600. 194. Spanish Courtship. Topics. 1. Government without Parliament. 2. Influence of Spanish marriage upon James's policy. Reference. — Bright, ii. 604-606. 195. The Fate of Sir Walter Raleigh. Topics. 1. Raleigh's release and search for " El Dorado." 2. His failure and death. Reference. — Green, 488, 489. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 37 1 196. The Thirty Years' War. Topics. i. Revolution in Bohemia and beginning of Thirty Years' War. 2. The king's policy and England's disgust. Reference. — Bright, ii. 601-603. 197. The Third Parliament of King James. Topics. 1. Reason for summoning Parliament and its desires. 2. Trifling of the king and Gondomar's insolence. 3. Parliament dissolved and members imprisoned. References. — Green, 489-493. Growth of parliamentary power in the reign of James I.: Gardiner, ii. 500; Bright, ii. 588, 603, 604; Ransome, 126-137; Montague, 115, 116; H. Taylor, ii. 210-252; Taswell-Langmead, 492-496, 529-531. 198. The Disgrace of Lord Bacon. Topics. 1. Corruption of the king's supporters. 2. Accusation of Bacon, his defence, and disgrace. 3. Revival of the power of impeachment. Reference. — Green, 490, 491. 199. The Voyage of the Mayflower and the Founding of Plymouth Colony. Topics. 1. Scrooby congregation of Independents. 2. Their settlement at Plymouth. References. — Colby, 1S4-188; Green, 505-509. 200. Prince Charles at Madrid. Topic. 1. Charles and Buckingham visit Spain and return in anger. Reference. — Bright, ii. 604, 605. 201. The Last Days of the Reign. Topics. 1. Popularity of Buckingham and the French marriage. 2. Pledges of Charles and his father, and Charles's duplicity. 3. The king's death. Reference. — Gardiner, ii. 498-501. CHAPTER XVI. THE QUARREL BETWEEN KING AND PEOPLE. The Second Stuart King: Charles I. 1625-1642. 202. Charles I. Charles was in his twenty-fifth year when he came to the throne. Unlike his father, he was agreeable in person and manner, and could bear himself with the dig- nity that befits a king. In blamelessness of private life, in many refinements of feeling and taste, he offered an example to be admired. He could be chaste, he could be temperate, he could be courteous ; but he could not be up- right ; he could not be straightforward in what he said and did ; he could neither deal hon- orably with opponents nor be faithful to friends. This weakness of integrity was balanced in Charles by no intellectual strength. He was narrow in his views, arrogant in his temper, impatient of facts. He had learned from his father to look on royalty as something divine, and on the constitutional rights of the people as CHARLES I. 1625] THE QUARREL. 373 mere gracious gifts from their kings. With such ideas and such a character, he was about to undertake the government of a nation that had wakened to the study of its own past and was discovering that the recent preten- sions of its sovereigns had no historic ground. 203. Bad Faith in the Beginnings of the Reign. On the i st of May, Charles was married to Henrietta Maria of France. He had accomplished his marriage by break- ing faith with the English Parliament, to satisfy the French court ; having accomplished it, he broke the pledges given in France, in order to escape trouble at home. In both actions his evil counsellor was Bucking- ham, whose influence over Charles was even greater than it had been over James ; but the dishonesty was characteristic of both. They had promised to suspend the laws against Catholics in England, and they dared not attempt to make the promise good. 204. The First Parliament of King Charles. Both Charles and Buckingham were full of great warlike designs, and had rushed into undertakings that depended on Parliament for means to carry them through. Yet, when Parliament met in June (1625), the king would sub- mit to it no plain statement of his plans, but demanded in vague terms an extraordinary supply, for purposes of war, to be voted on trust. The Commons felt no trust in the king or his minister, and required to know more before voting supplies. For two hundred years it had been the practice, at the beginning of each king's reign, to grant him " tonnage and poundage " (customs revenue) for life. But, since the late king had assumed authority to impose and in- crease duties at will, the Commons now declined to make the grant for more than a single year. Charles haughtily resented the proceeding, and Parliament was dissolved, 374 THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION. [1625-1626 while the tonnage and poundage bill waited action in the House of Lords ; but duties were levied as though it had passed. 205. The Cadiz Expedition. Buckingham and the king soon gave an exhibit of the corruption and incom- petency with which the public business was being done. They sent out an expedition in October, with no plan of action, apparently, but expecting to capture somewhere a Spanish treasure fleet, with silver enough to put them at their ease. It was wretchedly manned, rottenly equipped, and there was no capability in the command. It failed miserably in an attempt against Cadiz, and its ships straggled home with neither honor nor spoils. 206. The Second Parliament of King Charles. To everybody but Charles and his favorite, the disgraceful mismanagement of the Cadiz expedition justified more than the distrust which the Commons had expressed. To the king it signified nothing that needed to be ac- counted for or reformed. After failing in attempts to raise money by pawning the crown jewels, he called another Parliament, and treated it precisely as before. The new House of Commons was more hostile to Buck- ingham than the old, and it began inquiries which led to his impeachment for trial before the Lords ; but the king dissolved Parliament and brought the trial to a close. At this session, three men appeared as leaders of the Commons who were destined to act great parts in Eng- lish affairs. They were Sir John Eliot, John Hampden, Hampden, and John Pym, all of whom had sat and Pym. .^ p ar i j ament before, but had taken less promi- nence in its work. In the midst of the session King Charles had the fblly to arrest Eliot and another member for bold speaking ; but that audacious interference with 1626-1627] THE QUARREL. 37b parliamentary freedom of speech produced such excite- ment, shared even by the House of Lords, that he quailed, and the imprisoned members were released. 207. Rupture with France. Again the king was with- out any lawful provision of means for carrying on the wars that he had under- taken in Germany and against Spain ; and yet he was fatu- ously provoking a quarrel with France. The provocation be- gan with his breach of the agreement he had made at the time of his marriage, to shelter the English Catholics from op- pressive laws. That not only produced bad feeling at the French court, but caused quarrels between Charles and his young wife, which he attributed to the influence of the companions who came with her from France. After much Q ueen unseemly bickering, he expelled her chaplain Hennetta - and all her ladies from the country, and thus violated still more of the agreements that were made when he received her hand. These quarrellings only helped, however, to widen the breach with France which other witless measures were bringing about. Richelieu, the great minister then con- trolling the French government, had political aims which exactly accorded with English interests and desires. He JOHN PYM. 376 THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION. [1627-1628 wished to check the growth of the Austro-Spanish power, and sought to act in cooperation with England, Holland, and the other Protestant states ; but Charles seemed perversely determined to drive him from that friendly course, taking an arrogant and dicta- torial attitude on every question that came up. It was a natural consequence that France finally (March, 1627) entered into an alliance against England with Spain, and Charles, with no money and no parliamentary support, had doubled the war on his hands. 208. The Forced Loan. The king's conflicts with Parliament had only hardened his despotic resolution, and he now undertook the collection of a forced loan, which was levied on all tax-paying citizens at a certain fixed rate. Those resisting were imprisoned, or dragged from their homes to be sent into the army or the fleet. .An opinion to support the measure was demanded from the judges, and, when they refused it, the chief justice was dismissed and a follower of Buckingham was seated in his place. These bold undertakings of undisguised des- potism had no small success, since the personal suffering which each opponent risked was very great ; but increas- ing numbers took the risk. Men like Hampden and Eliot set examples, and so, too, did Sir Thomas Went- worth, who was afterwards to become the chief supporter of the king. Though a large sum was actually wrung from unwilling lenders, it was far from enough to meet the needs of the war ; and, after a great part of the royal plate had been sold, Charles yielded to necessity and summoned Parliament once more (March, 1628). 209. La Rochelle and the Isle of Re. Meantime, Buckingham had personally undertaken a campaign in France, and had failed. He had led an expedition of 6000 men to the Isle of Re, which lies on the French 1627-1628] THE QUARREL. 377 coast, at the entrance to the harbor of the city of La Rochelle. The Rochellese were Huguenots, and were induced by promises of help to undertake a fresh revolt. But the English proved unable even to reduce a strong- fort that was held by the French king's troops on the isle. After besieging it for more than three months, they were driven to their ships with terrible loss. Buck- ingham had proved his personal valor, and had shown soldierly qualities ; but the disaster was charged against him, and increased the detestation in which he was held. 210. King and Parliament again. — The Petition of Right. The Parliament which assembled in March found Charles still disdainful in his tone, while its own disposi- tion had not been sweetened by recent events. It was full of a new bitterness, which the forced loan and the arbitrary imprisonments had stirred up, and it was sternly resolved that the liberty and the property of Englishmen should be, in some way, protected against such intoler- able abuses of royal power. In the late experience of the country, the protection of the courts had failed. A situation so perilous to personal freedom put all minor questions out of sight, and the Commons would give no heed to foreign enemies until they had settled what to do in defence of themselves against the tyranny at home. Foremost in their discussion of measures was Sir Thomas Wentworth, who then made his last appearance on the popular side. Deliberation in Parliament over the action to be taken was careful and long, with scarcely more earnestness in the Commons than in the Lords. Buckingham and the king had driven a majority of the peers, at last, to strong sympathy with the feeling in the lower House. After various proposals and changes of plan, the final outcome 378 THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION. [1628 of the discussion was an instrument known as the " Peti- tion of Right," adopted by both houses and sent to the king for the assenting answer that would confirm it as part of the constitutional law of the realm. Charles, who could do nothing in an honest way, gave his ness of answer at first in evasive words, only offering a vague declaration of his will to do right. The feeling which this roused in both houses was star- tling even to him, and, when he threatened to silence Par- liament by a dissolution, he received a message from the House of Lords which warned him to reconsider his course. For once he did so, and, being again asked for a straightforward answer to the Petition of Right, he pronounced the customary words that made it law. This famous declaratory instrument, which ranks, among the constitutional documents of English history, Petition of on ty second in importance to the Great Charter Right. itself, was designed to leave no longer an open question as to the right of the king to extort gifts, loans, benevolences, or taxes from his subjects, without parlia- mentary consent, or to commit them arbitrarily to prison, or to quarter sailors and soldiers upon them, or to subject them to martial law. But by not defining the term " tax " it still left room for controversies to arise. Almost immediately, the disputing on that point began, when the Commons undertook legislation. concerning the "tonnage and poundage" tariff, which the and pound- judges had decided that the king could regu- late at will. By a summary prorogation of Par- liament its action was stopped. But it had voted him a liberal money grant, which enabled him to fit out a new expedition to relieve Rochelle, where the Hugue- nots were still expecting English help. 211. Assassination of Buckingham. If Bucking- 1628-1629] THE QUARREL, 379 ham's influence had really been, as was believed, the cause of misgovernment, and the prime source of trouble be- tween king and people, such trouble might now have disappeared ; for Buckingham was assassinated, by one Felton, at Portsmouth, in August, 1628, while preparing to take command of the new expedition to Rochelle. But Buckingham's death only showed that the troubles of England came from the character of its king. The fleet prepared to relieve Rochelle was sent under the Earl of Lindsey, and completely failed. Fallof The beleaguered town surrendered, and no Rochelle - hope of success appeared in any of the various fields of war that had been so rashly entered by Charles. 212. Resistance to Tonnage and Poundage. The interrupted action of Parliament on tonnage and poundage had instigated many merchants to resist payment of the king's impositions, sometimes by force. Goods were seized, men imprisoned, courts appealed to, and a hot agitation of the subject was soOn in train. The proro- gation of Parliament had been until October, but Charles found reasons for postponing the meeting until January in the following year (1629). 213. Laud and his Church Party. An agitation more widespread than that concerning tonnage and poundage was then heating English feeling throughout the land. It came from nothing new, but simply from a growing opposition to the doctrines and practices which a minority of the clergy, supported by the king, were forcing on the church. To a great extent, the issues had become politi- cal, and those who could not accept the high notions of royal authority that were held by the king and supported by the ruling clergy were driven, more and more, into the so-called Puritan ranks. In the party of the royalist clergy, as they may be 3 8o THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION. [1628-1629 called, a leader, William Laud, had risen, who ac- quired as fatal an influence over Charles in church matters as Buck- ingham had exer- cised in political affairs. Laud had the priestly dic- tatorial spirit, as Charles had the kingly, and they worked in perfec- tion together. Al- ready, as Bishop of London, Laud was more po- tent in the church than the Archbishop of Canterbury, whose seat he was afterwards to fill. He cared little for doctrinal opinions, but greatly for the forms, cere- Laud's monies, and outward incidents of religion, and position. kj s w jjj wag | DCn t upon having a rigid uniform- ity in those, while doctrinal controversy should be sup- pressed. The defining of the creed of the church in its Thirty-nine Articles had not stopped such controversy within its own ranks ; for both parties accepted the articles, each finding its own theology in them, with consequent disputing, which, in Laud's view, ought to be stopped. Neither party dreamed of liberty for all opinions ; the intolerance of the age was common to both. Each wished to subjugate the other ; the Calvinistic Puri- WILLIAM LAUD. 1628-1629] THE QUARREL. 38 1 tans by authority of Parliament,' where their ascendency had become complete, and the ritualistic clergy by au- thority of the king, the bishops, and the clerical Convo- cation of the church. The political conflict was inflamed by the religious strife. To suppress controversy, Charles was now easily persuaded to issue a Declara- TheDecia- tion, commanding that no man thereafter should ratlon - print or preach anything that "put his own sense or comment " into the meaning of the Articles of the church, or anything " other than is already established in Convocation with our royal assent." ► 214. The Commons in Tumult. The Commons, at their meeting, in January, 1629, took up the question of tonnage and poundage angrily, until the king saw fit to assure them that he did not intend to levy duties by his "hereditary prerogative," and there seemed to be fair promise of an amicable settlement of the dispute. But then the religious issue was brought into the House, with a rush of bitter feeling that swept even members like Sir John Eliot into an unreasonable course. They set two objects before themselves, and passionately pur- sued both : (1.) To punish the bishops and clergymen who were introducing what they looked upon as " popish " innovations in church ceremony ; (2.) To put their own theological construction on the Articles of the church, and to allow no other to be written of or preached. Pro- ceedings against the bishops were begun, and drew from Oliver Cromwell, a new member, his first brief speech. An effort to define the Articles produced nothing but a resolution that was too vague for any practical effect. But all the promise of a settlement of tonnage and poundage was destroyed by the passion of the religious debate. On the 2d of March, the House received a royal order 382 THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION. [1629 scene in Parlia- ment. to adjourn, and it was believed that dissolution would follow. Eliot and others determined that, before their separation, they would pass resolutions in the nature of closing an appeal to public feeling in the country. To prevent such action, the speaker attempted to leave the chair ; but he was forcibly held down by two members, one of whom put the resolutions to vote, in the midst of a wild tumult and struggle, and they were adopted, just as the king, with an armed force, arrived to clear the chamber. That riotous scene was the last that England saw of any Parliament for eleven years. 215. Government without Parliament. Charles was now to try his final experiment upon the patience of the English people, to find how long they would en- dure to be taxed and ab- solutely ruled, without even the forms of con- sent from themselves. He commanded that none should petition him to call a Parliament again, and constitutional counsels were thus denied access to his ear. He revenged himself on Eliot and other leaders of the Commons by sending them to the Tower, evading parlia- mentary privilege by charging them with sedition and riot. Judges had been made pliant by a few summary changes on the bench, and the offending members were quite at the mercy of an implacable king. Standing on SIR JOHN ELIOT. 1629-1632] THE QUARREL. 383 the privilege of Parliament, and refusing to make any defence, they were condemned to imprisonment and heavy fines, with offers of grace if they would acknow- i mprison . ledge their fault. One by one, all yielded except ™ e e a ^ h a ^ d Eliot, who calmly refused to make terms with Eliot ' tyranny, until he died, after three years and a half of merciless confinement, deprived of proper exercise and air. The malignity of the king pursued him even after death, refusing to give his body to his friends. Evidently, after the dissolution of Parliament, there was some reaction of sentiment against it, for a time. Many who wished to check the king drew back from the extreme ground to which the Commons had advanced. They feared absolute power in Parliament no less than in the crown. Some passed entirely over to the i-i a r-- t-i -iTT Sir Thomas royal side. Among them was Sir 1 nomas Went- went- worth, who had accepted a seat among the peers as Viscount Wentworth, and who soon shared with Laud the most intimate friendship and confidence of the king. By reviving many obsolete royal claims to fees and fines ; by inventing many new ones ; by creating oppres- sive monopolies again ; by cheating creditors and heaping up debt ; by breaking engagements abroad, and making the nation a byword for weakness and shabby ways, the government contrived to exist without lawful parliament- ary grants. The Star Chamber court, insti- The king . s tuted, or recreated, by Henry VII. (see section *°?}™g for 121) as a tribunal for curbing the greater nobles, mone y- and Queen Elizabeth's church Court of High Commis- sion (see section 180), now became more formidable in- struments of despotism than ever before, being used for the king's profit, as well as for the gratifying of his impe- rious will. 384 THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION. [1628-1640 In 1633, the archbishopric of Canterbury became va- cant, and the primacy in the church was given, as long intended, to Laud. From that day there was no peace in England for those who resisted Laud's beliefs, as to the place of a communion table in a church, or as to vest- ments or postures in worship ; or as to Sunday amuse- Laud'sop- nients, or as to the morality of the stage, or as pressions. t0 opinions proper to be put into books. So sleepless an energy of censorship in religion had never been known before. When, in 1634, one Prynne had his ears cut off for writing a " Scourge of Stageplayers," there was little public feeling shown; but when, three years later, the same obstinate Prynne was sentenced in Star Chamber to a second cutting of his ears, for writing of Sabbath breaking in offensive terms, and when he suffered with two other like offenders, all three going- then to imprisonment for life, the London crowd strewed flowers in their path. But no warning was taken by Charles or Laud. 216. The Puritan Emigration to New England. So disturbing and discouraging to the Puritans was the state of the country at this period that a great movement among them of emigration to New England was set on foot. A small settlement, headed by John Endicott, was planted at the site of the present city of Salem, Massa- chusetts, in 1628. In 1629, a royal charter was procured by a corporation entitled " The Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay," in possession of which a large colony, with John Winthrop for its governor, crossed the * Atlantic in the following year and established homes where Boston and the neighboring towns have risen since. Others followed to the same region, from which they spread into the Connecticut Valley and to Narragansett Bay, until New England is believed to have had in 1640 1633-1634] THE QUARREL. 385 a population of 20,000 souls. The charter of the Com- pany of Massachusetts Bay gave power to its governor and council for any legislation not in conflict with Eng- lish laws ; and so the colony entered upon a remarkably independent career, which it was able to pursue for many years. 217. Wentworth in Ireland. In the same year in which Laud became primate, Wentworth obtained a field for the exercise of his great administrative powers, by appointment to the lord-lieutenancy of Ireland. He governed the troubled island for six years, with an un- doubtedly honest purpose to better the condition of its people, and with undoubted success in many respects. He established its linen industry, improved its agriculture, increased its commerce, and left it more generally pros- perous than when he came. It was an intelligent despot- ism that he introduced, but it was a despotism more absolute than even Ireland had experienced before. It was what he and Laud, in their intimate correspondence, called "Thorough," stopping at nothing short of the full attainment of the objects which their own judgment de- termined to be good. 218. Ship-money, and Hampden's Refusal to pay it. Peace had been made with France in 1629, and with Spain in the following year ; but Charles, notwithstand- ing his troubles at home and his want of means, could not refrain from incessant attempts to play a part in European affairs, for which he needed especially some show of naval strength. His attorney-general, a learned lawyer, named Noy, recalled to mind that English kings in early times had required coast towns and maritime counties to furnish needed ships in time of war, and that Queen Elizabeth did the same when the Armada was fought. Those precedents were held to have established a royal 386 THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION. [1634-1637 right, which Charles exercised at once (1634), though no war could be shown to exist. There was a fatal success in the device, and it led the mischievous inventiveness of the king's bad counsellors to further steps. They argued that if seaport towns might be called upon for ships, then inland towns, with equal reason, might be called upon for money with which to build and maintain ships. Charles thought the reasoning excellent, and, in 1635, a demand for "ship-money" was made on the whole kingdom, as a general tax. Legal resistance seemed hopeless, because the judges had de- cided for the king in advance, and none was effectively made. But next year, when the de- mand came again, John Hampden determined to spend his whole estate, if need be, in forcing the question to a full and open trial, rather than pay the twenty shillings for which he was assessed. Six months were occupied in the trial of his case, all England listening and learn- ing what the issue involved. The king won his twenty shillings from John Hampden, of course, but the last veil of disguise upon the despotism he was setting up disap- peared in the argument which sustained his claim, and its nakedness was laid bare. 219. Laudism in Scotland. — The Bishops' Wars. But, after all, it was the Scots and not the English who first brought the arrogant career of King Charles to a halt. Pricked on by Laud, he determined to force the use of a prayer book on the Scots, and to strengthen the feeble episcopacy which his father had succeeded in setting over their church. His plains were laid in 1633, but it was not until 1637 that the prayer book, as ap- proved by Laud, was ready to be sent to Scotland, with the king's commandment for its universal use. Then the blood of the Scottish nation boiled up in wrath. At I637-I638J THE QUARREL. \S7 the first reading of the book in the great Edinburgh church of St. Giles a riot occurred, and when Ri 0tat st. Charles gave sharp orders for the punishment Glles ' s - of the rioters, he found that practically the whole nation was at their back. Men of every class swarmed into the capital, and or- ganized measures to resist the attack on their church. Four committees, called The Tables, representing nobles, ST. GILES'S CHURCH, EDINBURGH. gentry, ministers, and burghers, were appointed to act for the whole, and these, sitting together at Edinburgh, be- came a kind of improvised Parliament, holding vastly more power than those who acted for the king. Scottish feel- ing grew more stern. Early in 1638, the people set forth their cause and bound themselves together in it by a 388 THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION. [1638-1640 National Covenant, the signing of which began in the Greyfriars' churchyard at Edinburgh and was tionai continued in every part of the land. The king threatened to prepare for war, but thought bet- ter of it, and in September he offered to revoke the prayer book, as well as to limit the bishops' powers. It was too late. He had authorized, at the same time, a General Assembly of the church to be held at Glasgow, and that body, when it met in November, took matters into its own hands, defiant of the king. It deposed the bishops, abolished episcopacy, and restored the Presby- terian system in full. After that revolutionary action, the king's authority could only be recovered by arms, and he undertook pre- parations for war ; but when he had mustered his forces on the border, near Berwick, the Scots faced him The First . Bishops' with an army so much better than his own that War he dared not fight. He made a treaty with them (June, 1639), which ended what was called the First Bishops' War. The treaty provided for another General Assembly, and for a meeting of the Scottish Parliament, or Estates. In both meetings, when held, the proceedings were more defiant of the king than before, and Charles was driven to another attempt at the subjugation of his northern kingdom by force. This time he was persuaded by his councillors to seek help in England from a Parliament (April, 1640), hoping that English grievances could be put out of mind by rousing feeling against the Pariia- Scots. But he was quickly undeceived. The Commons showed more readiness to take sides with the Scots than with the king, and were hastily dis- solved after a fruitless session of twenty-three days. With the advice of his evil counsellors, Charles then put i6 4 o] THE QUARREL. 389 forth a second effort to raise an army, by the arbitrary impressment of men. Wentworth, who had come over from Ireland, and who had been made Earl of Strafford, was the animating spirit in what the king now did. But nothing could overcome the unwillingness with which the royal banners were followed to the Bishops' War north. The Scottish force boldly crossed the Tweed, drove the disorderly royal bands from Newburn (August, 1640), and established themselves on English soil. The Second Bishops' War was as hopeless a failure for the king as the first, and far more serious in results. The Scots dictated their own terms of peace : would keep their army on foot ; would have it paid by the king, at the rate of 250 pounds a day ; would stay meantime in northern England until everything had been arranged ; and Charles could do nothing but assent. 220. The Long Parliament. In the desperate situa- tion to which he had brought himself, the king still tried to evade demands in England for a meeting of Parliament, by calling a Great Council of Peers, after the manner of the early Norman kings. But the peers would only indorse the national demand for a Parliament, and he had to yield. The summons went forth, and a Parlia- ment, overwhelmingly Puritan and intensely radical in mind, came up to Westminster with the fixed resolve that no mandate of royalty should disperse its members until it had done for England some saving work. It assembled November 3, 1640, and on that day the power that he had used so arrogantly and so foolishly fell from King Charles. 221. Attainder and Execution of Strafford. Almost the first act of this Long Parliament, as it came to be called, was to arraign Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, on charges of high treason, committed in the giving 390 THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION. [1640 of treasonable counsels to the king. Strafford, as the ablest, was the most feared of all the royal council ; he was hated for what seemed to be apostacy in his course, and he was suspected of having planned to bring an army from Ireland to use against both English and Scotch. To make conviction more sure, the pro- ceeding against him by impeachment was changed to an act of attainder, which condemned without trial and was a bad exercise of power. Both houses passed the act, and Strafford's fate was then de- pendent on the honor, the courage, and the gratitude of the king. By refusing to approve the bill, Charles could at least have kept his own hands clean, and possibly he might have made the execution of Strafford too unlawful a deed for Parliament to com- mit. " Upon the word of a king," he had written to the unfortunate man, "you shall not suffer in life, honor, or fortune ; " but the word of a king in Charles's mouth was a faithless word. The rage of London, crying for Strafford's death, was more than he had the manly honor to defy, and he signed the act which was the death-war- rant of his faithful servant and friend. " Put not your trust in princes," said the earl with stately bitterness THOMAS WENTWORTH, EARL OF STRAFFORD. 1640-1641] THE QUARREL. 391 when he heard what the king had done, and he went with calm dignity to the block. Next to Strafford, Laud was most hated and feared. He, too, was accused of high treason, arrested, and sent to the Tower, but no immediate prose- cution was begun. The habit of loyalty still kept men frftm imputing guilt to the king himself. He was as- sumed to have been sinned against by wicked councillors and ministers, who did wrong things in his name. 222. Restoring the Constitution. For months, after failing in plots to bring an armed force to London, Charles was cowed by the fierce resolution that the Commons had shown. He gave his assent to bills which required the election of a Parliament every three years, whether sum- moned by the king or not ; which took away his power to dissolve or adjourn Parliament without its own con- sent ; which declared ship-money illegal ; which made tonnage and poundage dependent on parliamentary con- sent ; which abolished the Star Chamber and the Court of High Commission, — which stripped the king, in fact, of all the tyrannical prerogatives he had claimed, and yet did little more than restore the constitution to what it was in Lancastrian times, save in the one matter of parliamentary dissolution, which contained a revolution in itself. In all these measures a great majority of the Commons, following the lead of Hampden and Pym, were substan- tially agreed ; but when they came to deal with questions concerning the church a division of parties appeared. One extreme party, beginning with proposals for the exclusion of bishops from the House of Lords, de- manded finally the complete abolition of that office in the church, and brought in what they described as a "root and branch bill." They were resisted, not only 39 2 THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION. [1641 by the clerical party, but by a party of moderate men, who wished to preserve episcopacy, while seeking to lib- eralize the constitution of the church. Lucius Cary, Falkland Lord Falkland, one of the largest-minded, no- andHyde. bi es t gentlemen of his day, and Edward Hyde, who appears in later times as Earl of Clarendon, were the leaders of these. From that day the two parties divergAl, and unity of opposition to the king was broken up. 223. Insurrection in Ireland. These divisions, with some revival of ill-feeling between English and Scotch, and a reckless stirring up of the fear of Puritans that was felt in Ireland, gave new hopes to Charles. He went to Scotland to carry on intrigues, and he schemed at the same time with Irish Catholics for an army to be used in England for his support. Nothing came of his work in Scotland, but his plotting in Ireland had terrible effects. It fired the passions which Wentworth's harsh government had prepared, and an insurrection broke out (October, 1641) that set England aflame with excitement when news of it arrived. How widespread and savage a massacre of English settlers in Ulster and other parts of Ireland occurred, is a question in dispute to this day ; but there seems to be no doubt that the fury of the rising cost great numbers of lives, though early accounts went wildly beyond the truth. 224. The Grand Remonstrance. A new question was now to be faced : How could forces for dealing with the Irish insurrection be raised without giving a dangerous instrument into the king's hands ? Fresh divisions were produced between the two houses and between extreme and moderate men in both. These were widened by the determination of Pym and his followers that the whole tyrannical conduct of the government of King Charles, from the beginning of his reign, should be plainly reviewed 1641-1642] THE QUARREL. 393 and set forth in a Grand Remonstrance, ostensibly ad- dressed to the king, but in reality a powerful arraignment of the king, intended to revive the memory of his treach- eries and tyrannies in men's minds. Many thought this a needless raking up of old complaints, after Charles had yielded so much, and the Grand Remonstrance was carried (November, 1641) by a bare majority of eleven. It was soon after this that the king's courtiers began to deride the London crowds, which hooted the bishops and uttered Puritan cries, by calling them "Roundheads," because their hair was close heads and cut, whereas the fashion of the day among the gentry was to wear it long. The nickname grew in use until it became a common designa- tion for the par- liamentary party, while those on the king's side were called " Cav- aliers," probably taking the t name to themselves as a boast that they represented what the Romans would have called the "equestrian " class. 225. The King and. the Five Members. If Charles, even at this time, had been capa- ble of a temperate and straightforward course, he could probably have won back to himself a stronger party than JOHN HAMPDEN. 394 THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION. [1642 that led by Pym. But he struck down his last chance by a senseless act. Having secretly schemed an im- peachment of five members of the House of Commons, Pym and Hampden included, on the charge that they had traitorously endeavored to subvert the laws and gov- ernment of the kingdom, he went personally (January 3, 1642), with a following of armed men, to Westminster Hall, intending to seize them as they sat in the House. Warned of his coming, the five members had withdrawn, and he missed his prey ; but by this crowning outrage he had put the issue, between Parliament and himself, beyond peaceful settlement, and had forced an appeal to arms. 226. Preparations for War. Quitting Westminster Hall, as an unsafe place, the Commons followed their threatened colleagues tjo the city, but returned a few days later in triumph, escorted by great bodies of the London people, who had risen in arms. The king left Whitehall in affright, never to enter it as a free man again. A great part of the Lords remained still in their House, acting with the Commons, making Parliament complete. Moderate men on all sides labored still to find a ground of peaceful compromise and avert civil war. For four months the fruitless effort was prolonged, and never with a chance of success. It was not now the obstinate arrogance of Charles, but the unyielding resolution of a radical majority in the Commons, that put peace beyond hope. Apparently they had no wish to avoid war, for two reasons, that can be well understood : (1) They saw no safety for them- selves or for the country in any settlement that would depend on the good faith of Charles ; (2) they were con- templating a religious revolution that was not in the least likely to succeed without force. During these months 1642] THE QUARREL. 395 of the winter and spring of 1642 the uncompromising attitude was theirs, not the king's. When the „ . . „ Spirit of Lords had yielded to their demand for exclu- tnecom- . mons- sion of bishops from the upper House, the king yielded, too, and approved the bill. On the more vital question, of the control of the militia, he offered great concessions at last, but refused to abdicate his office in military affairs entirely, as the Commons insisted that he must do. It was on that question that peace-making hopes were finally wrecked, and a warlike arraying of forces began. But those questions were only on the surface of the conflict, after all. The true causes of civil war were the determination of a large part of the subjects of King Charles to take all power of trick, treachery, and oppres- sion out of his hands, whatever other evils they might create in so doing, and their equal determina- Puritan tion to have their turn in dictating beliefs, determina- . . ,. tions. forms of worship, and system of discipline to the church. Of these, it was the latter — the animus of religious feeling — that gave its real energy to the parlia- mentary revolt. There was no thought of religious lib- erty in its aims ; the Puritan intentions were as intolerant as the policy of Laud. Nor was there much conception of freedom in the political plans on the parliamentary side. Their result, when accomplished, was a revolution that simply transferred sovereignty from the king to the House of Commons, with powers of oppression un- checked ; and, with the possession of those powers, the tyrannical temper flashed up as readily in parliamentary votes as it had in royal commands. 396 THE QUARREL. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS. 202. Charles I. Topic. i. Charles's character and views. References. — Bright, ii. 608, 609; Green, 495 ; Montague, 118; Ransome, 138, 139. 203. Bad Faith in the Beginnings of the Reign. Topic. 1. Charles's marriage and his broken pledges. Reference. — Bright, ii. 608-614. 204. The First Parliament of King Charles. Topics. 1. Charles's designs and his treatment of Parliament. 2. Attitude of Commons and their dissolution. 3. The king's levies. Reference. — Gardiner, ii. 502, 503. Research Questions. — (1.) What were the legal and illegal sources of the king's revenues? (Ransome, 151-155.) (2.) What might be said to constitute the private property of the crown ? (3.) What contributed to make Charles's court expensive ? (Traill, iv. 76.) (4.) How would this need for money make for parlia- mentary greatness ? 205. The Cadiz Expedition. Topic. 1. Its plan and failure. Reference. — Green, 496-500. 206. The Second Parliament of King Charles. Topics. 1. Its attitude and impeachment of Buckingham. 2. Eliot, Hampden, and Pym. Reference. — Bright, ii. 615-617. Research Questions. — (1.) Trace Eliot's career. (Green, 497- 499, 502, 505, 515.) (2.) Trace Pym's career. (Green, 535, 536.) TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 2>97 207. Rupture with France. Topics. i. Causes which led to the rupture. 2. France joins Spain against England. Reference. — Gardiner, P. R., 52-57. 208. The Forced Loan. Topics. 1. Despotic levy and attempts to enforce the same. 2. Resistance forces Charles to summon Parliament Reference. — Gardiner, ii. 505-50S. 209. La Rochelle and the Isle of Re. Topics. 1. Buckingham's expedition to France. 2. Effect on English feeling of its failure. Reference. — Bright, ii. 621. 210. King and Parliament again. — The Petition of Right. Topics. 1. Charles's attitude and the new grievances of Parliament. 2. Union of Lords and Commons upon the Petition of Right. 3. Charles compelled to accept it. 4. Importance of petition and its contents. 5. Contest about the term "tax." References. — Bright, ii. 622-624; Green, 501, 502; Ransome, 142-144; Montague, 119; Gardiner, P. R., 57-60; Taswell- Langmead, 539-548 ; H. Taylor, ii. 266-274. Money bills and the Commons : Taswell-Langmead, 574, footnote. Research Questions. — (1.) What is the right of habeas cor- pus? (2.) Why is it a fundamental safeguard to the liberty of the subject? (3.) Is the right of habeas corpus ever suspended? (Montague, 142, 143.) (4.) Was this a peculiarly English right, or was it general ? (5.) How was the validity of the Act of Habeas Corpus tested in the time of Charles I.? (Bright, ii. 619, 620.) 398 THE QUARREL. 211. Assassination of Buckingham. Topics. i. Buckingham's influence removed. 2. Surrender of Rochelle. Reference. — Green, 502-504. 212. Resistance to Tonnage and Poundage. Topics. 1. Opposition of merchants to the king's levy. 2. Defection of the Court of Exchequer. Reference. — Gardiner, ii. 512. Research Questions. — (1.) What were the names of the other two ordinary courts ? (2.) How did these differ in theory from the courts of High Commission and of the Star Chamber? (Ran- some, 124.) (3.) In practice, how was the king able to dominate the ordinary courts ? 213. Laud and his Church Party. Topics. 1. Dissensions in the church. 2. Archbishop Laud's character and attitude. 3. Intolerance of both parties and Charles's declaration. References. — Green, 509-514; Gardiner, P. R., 75-82, 85-90. Research Questions. — (1.) Why was the idea of toleration pre mature at this time? (Gardiner, P. R. 106.) (2.) Why did Par- liament take issue with the declaration of Charles I. when they had submitted to those of his predecessors? 214. The Commons in Tumult. Topics. 1. Discussion of tonnage and poundage. 2. The religious issue and the two aims of Parliament. 3. Appearance of Oliver Cromwell. 4. Eliot's resolution and the dissolution of Parliament. Reference. — Gardiner, P. R., 65-69. 215. Government without Parliament. Topics. 1. Refusal to summon Parliament, arrest of Eliot and others. 2. Reaction against Parliament and defection of Wentworth. 3. Government's measures to obtain money. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 399 4. Revival of Star Chamber and Court of High Commission. 5. Laud's oppressions and the reaction among the people. References. — Green, 514-520; Bright, ii. 627-629. Research Questions. — (1.) What are commercial monopolies? (2.) How did Parliament regard them ? (3.) What were some of the monopolies granted by Charles? (Bright, ii. 629.) (4.) What was the tenor of Prynne's " Scourge of Stageplayers " ? (Gar- diner, ii. 519.) 216. The Puritan Emigration to New England. Topics. 1. John Endicott and the founding of Salem. 2. John Winthrop and the colony of Massachusetts Bay. Reference. — Green, 505-509. Research Questions. — (1.) Of what church were the Puritans? (2.) After going to America, what change did they make in their church government ? (3.) Why was this a natural change for a colony settling in a new country to make ? (4.) Who had a voice in settling the affairs of the colony? (5.) Where did they meet for such discussions? (6.) If this meeting turned its attention to civil affairs, what would it be called? 217. Wentworth in Ireland. Topics. 1. His government of Ireland. Reference. — Bright, ii. 632-636. Research Questions. — (1.) What is the most important export from Ireland to-day? (2.) Is the surface of Ireland such as to make sheep-raising profitable? (3.) Why did Strafford build up the flax industry if that tended to destroy the wool industry ? (Cunningham and McArthur, 135-138.) (4.) What views were current at that time regarding the commerce of colonies ? (5.) Is that the right policy to pursue with colonies ? (6.) From what you know of the troubles in Ireland, what must have been the condition of Irish agriculture? (7.) How far was the English government responsible for this? (8.) When James I. ascended the throne, why did the Irish Catholics look for kindness from him ? (9.) Did the Scotch colony which Strafford planted tend to promote harmony ? 400 THE QUARREL. 218. Ship-money and Hampden's Refusal to pay it. Topics. i. Charles's restless ambitions and Noy's advice. 2. Demand for ship-money and John Hampden's resistance. References. — Green, 527-531; Bright, ii. 629, 630; Gardiner, P. R., 91-94; Guest, 456,457; Montague, 120, 121; Ransome, 154, 155; Taswell-Langmead, 561-576; H. Taylor, ii. 265, 286- 290. Research Questions. — (1.) Why did Hampden object to this tax of twenty shillings ? (2.) Why was Parliament especially interested in the outcome of his trial ? (3.) Contrast the navy of those days with that of to-day. (4.) Of what use to a country is a navy? (5.) Who has the largest navy of to-day ? (6.) What service did Charles render the navy? (Traill, iv. 48.) (7.) Why then did the people oppose him ? 219. Laudism in Scotland. Topics. 1. King James's church policy in Scotland. 2. Charles's reforms and the riot of St. Giles. 3. The Tables and the National Covenant. 4. Action of the General Assembly and the First Bishops' War. 5. Charles's efforts to obtain support in England. 6. The Second Bishops' War and the terms of peace. References. — Bright, ii. 636-644. Presbyterians in Scotland: Gardiner, P. R., 102-108; Bright, ii. 652, 653 ; Green, 522-525. 220. The Long Parliament. Topics. 1. Great council of peers. 2. Temper of the new Parliament summoned. References. — Gardiner, P. R., 1 10-125; Green, 535-547; Bright, ii. 644-658; Montague, 124-127: Ransome, 158-162; Taswell- Langmead, 577-586; H. Taylor, ii. 308-348. 221. Attainder and Execution of Strafford. Topics. 1. Act of attainder against Strafford. 2. Charles deserts Strafford. 3. Arrest of Laud and assumption as to guilt of king. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 401 References. — Bright, ii. 645-649. Research Questions. — (r.) Trace the career of Strafford. (Gar- diner, ii. 508, 514.) (2.) Define treason. (3.) Was Strafford guilty of treason? (4.) Is a bill of attainder justifiable? (5.) What excuse for it in this case ? (6.) Describe his trial from Bright, ii. 645-649. (7.) This impeachment of ministers shows that the Parliament regarded ministers as responsible to whom ? 222. Restoring the Constitution. Topics. 1. Work of Parliament. 2. Dissension in Parliament over the church question. Peference. — Gardiner, P. R., 113-11S. 223. Insurrection in Ireland, Topics. 1. Charles's intrigues. 2. The Ulster massacre. Reference. — Gardiner, P. R., 119, 120. 224. The Grand Remonstrance. Topics. 1. New questions in Parliament. 2. Object of Pym's party. 3. Roundheads and Cavaliers. References. — Gardiner, ii. 534; Guest, 452, 453; Bright, ii. 656; Green, 540-543; Taswell-Langmead, 590-597; H.Taylor, ii. 311-313- Research Questions. — (1.) How was Parliament divided polit- ically ? (Bright, ii. 656.) (2.) How was it divided religiously? (3.) Was the political or religious object at length attained? (4.) The Grand Remonstrance was the embodiment of what sort of control ? (5.) The Long Parliament left the constitution in what shape ? (Montague, 127.) 225. The King and the Five Members. Topic. 1. Attempt to arrest five members and its results. References. — Gardiner, P. R., 122-124; Bright, ii. 657, 658; Green, 544-546; Taswell-Langmead, 597-606; H. Taylor, ii. 3I5-3I7- 402 THE QUARREL. Research Questions. — (i.) What was wrong about Charles's attempt at impeachment? (2.) Describe his visit to the House. (Green, 544-546.) 226. Preparations for War. Topics. 1. The Commons supported by the people. 2. Obstacles to peace presented by the Commons. 3. Concessions by the king's supporters. 4. True causes for the civil war. 5. The result of the revolution. References. — Harrison, Oliver Cromwell, ch. iii. Agriculture and the reclamation of the fens : Cunningham and McArthur, 182-184; Gibbins, 109-111; Rogers, 452-460; Traill, iv. 115- 122. Social life: Traill, iv. 157-172. CHAPTER XVII. THE OVERTHROW OF THE MONARCHY. Charles I. 1642-1649. 227. The Eve of the Civil War. By May, 1642, the hopelessness of a peaceful settlement was becoming plain, and members of the moderate party, as well as the thorough partisans of the king, began to slip away from both houses of Parliament, going to join Charles at York, where he had then fixed his court. Military prepara- tions were active on both sides, and the king was intriguing for foreign aid. He applied to Scotland for assistance, which was refused ; and Queen Henrietta, who had acquired great influence over her hus- band, went abroad, vainly seeking help from Denmark and the Dutch. In July, Parliament had forces in the field, with the Earl of Essex in chief com- mand, and had secured control of the fleet ; in August, the king formally raised his standard at Nottingham, summoning loyal subjects to its defence. England was then divided into hostile camps. Generally, the party of Par- liament controlled the counties of the south and east, while that of the king was stronger in the heads and north and west. Generally, too, nobles and gentry went to the side of the crown, yeomen and towns- men into the parliamentary ranks, but that social division A CAVALIER. 404 THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION. [1642-1643 was far from complete. There were many of rank and estate who opposed the king, and many who stood by him in the towns and on the farms. 228. The First Battles. At the outset, there was little of military training in the forces on either side, and the advantage belonged naturally to the Cavaliers, espe- cially to their mounted troops, commanded by the king's nephew, Prince Rupert, of the Palatine family, who won the first success of the war in a skirmish, near Worces- ter, at Powick Bridge. The main royal army was then at Shrewsbury, preparing to move against London, which it presently did. Essex, who had been at Worcester, intercepted the march at Edgehill, close by Banbury, where the first serious battle was fought (October 23). Rupert, in a headlong charge, drove the Roundhead cavalry from the field, and kept up a long pursuit, leav- ing the weaker part of the king's forces to a desperate fight, in which they were nearly overcome. They held their ground, however ; Essex withdrew, and the royalists advanced, taking Oxford and Brentford, and approach- ing London very close. But the militia of the capital faced them at Turnham Green so resolutely that Charles shrank from the risk of a stroke that might possibly have ended the war. He established his headquarters at Oxford, and for nearly a year nothing effective was accomplished on either side. In the scattered fighting that went on through those months, the Cavaliers had most frequent success. One otherwise trivial skirmish, at Chalgrove Field, near Ox- ford (June 18, 1643), cost the life of John Hampden, Death of wn0 happened to be near the place when Ru- Hampden. p er t' s caV alry came galloping down. He threw himself into the fight with them, as a volunteer, and received a mortal wound. It was not so much by what ENGLAND AT THE BEGINNING OF THE CIVIL WAR WITH HISTORICAL DETAIL FROM 1600 • 1900 Scale of Miles A longitude 4 TVoSt of Qreeow:cTi B 1643] OVERTHROW OF THE MONARCHY. 405 he did that John Hampden was raised to a high place in English history as by the impression of a surpass- ingly noble character that he left on the minds of politi- cal friends and foes. 229. Oliver Cromwell and his " Ironsides." At mid- summer, in 1643, the situation looked promising to the king's friends. They had beaten their opponents in sev- eral minor fights ; Bris- tol had been stormed by Rupert, and Gloucester was about to be besieged. They were planning to set free their forces in the north and west, for co- operation with the army at Oxford, expecting to hem London in, and they seemed likely to succeed. Anxiety among the Par- liamentarians was giving rise to talk of peace. But one Puritan leader, Oliver Cromwell, was making ready at this time to change the aspect of affairs. He had left his seat in Parliament, to raise, first a com- pany and then a regiment, of such mounted men as might face the best of Prince Rupert's troops. Years after- wards, in a speech, he told of the plan (being no soldier then) on which he set to work : " I raised such Cromwe ii>s men," he said, "as had the fear of God before P° llt; y- them, as made some conscience of what they did ; and from that day forward, I must say to you, they were never beaten." Cromwell's men were never beaten, be- cause, first of all, as he said, he had picked them for the OLIVER CROMWELL. 406 THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION. [1643 conscience they had in what they did, and also because, having the genius of command, he brought them to a perfect discipline, and led them with an energy that no- thing could resist. The scene of Cromwell's first labors in the field was a region that embraced his own county of Huntingdon, with Cambridge, Hertford, Essex, Norfolk, and Suffolk, that strongly Puritan district acting unitedly, in The East- _ ° J . . . . ,, , ' em Associ- an Eastern Association, as it was called. 1 he Earl of Manchester was major-general of the association, but Cromwell, first as one of four colonels of horse and soon as second in command, was its master spirit and master mind. In July (1643), he was sent into Lincolnshire, and the first notable proof that he gave of his own military quality and that of his men (who got the name of " Ironsides ") was at Gainsborough, where he routed a large body of the mounted Cavaliers, and then, encountering their main army, protected his infantry in a remarkable retreat. This, according to one of his con- temporaries, "was the beginning of his great fortunes, and he now began to appear in the world." Two months later, Cromwell joined Sir Thomas Fair- fax, and took part in the routing of a body of Winceby royalist horse, at Winceby (October 11), which forced the Marquis of Newcastle to abandon the siege of Hull. 230. The First Battle of Newbury. Newcastle's fail- ure in the north had frustrated the royal plan for bring- ing his army to join a movement against the capital ; and, meantime, the plan had been equally broken up in the west. It depended on the taking of Gloucester, which the king, in person, besieged. Essex made a bold march from London, with the train-bands of the city, to rescue the town, and Charles withdrew ; but Essex, on ,,6 4 3] OVERTHROW OF THE MONARCHY. 407 his return, was fought at Newbury (September 20) and nearly suffered defeat. The noble Falkland was among the many who fell in this fight. 231. The Solemn League and Covenant with the Scots. Parliament now opened negotiations with the Scots, who offered help against Charles on the condition that their Presbyterian system should be adopted in the organization of the English church. But most of the English Puritans, though inclined to a Presbyterian sys- tem, were unwilling to surrender the church so entirely to the control of its clergy as the Scotch had done. That serious obstacle to an alliance was overcome, how- ever, in the treaty as it was finally framed. The agree- ment made was for the reformation of religion in Eng- land and Ireland " according to the Word of God and the example of the best reformed churches." "According to the example of the best reformed churches " meant to Scotch Presbyterians their own church ; " according to the Word of God " meant to English Puritans their own interpretation of the Word ; and thus both parties were made willing to sign the " Solemn League and Cove- nant," as the instrument was styled. The alliance with the Scots was the last work of John Pym, who had been thus far the statesman of the Puri- tan revolution, the strong, inflexible, sagacious ,, * 1 1 1 t» i< • 1 tt- John p y m leader who held Parliament to its work. His great labors were undoubtedly the cause of his death (December 8, 1643). An Assembly of Divines, appointed by Parliament, was already in session at Westminster, revising The West- the Thirty-nine Articles, and considering ques- minster tions connected with the constitution of the church, but entirely subject to the authority of Parlia- ment in what it did. 4oS THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION. [1643 " n 232. The King looking to Ireland. While Parlia- ment was arranging its alliance with the Scots, the king had looked to Ireland for reinforcements, and, by a truce with the insurgent Catholics, had been able to bring- away some regiments of the English who served there. He then opened negotiations with the Irish Catholics, who were willing to give him 10,000 men, in return for an independent Irish Parliament and a reestablished Catholic church. These dealings with the Irish caused a bitter feeling among his friends and seriously harmed his cause. 233. Marston Moor and Lostwithiel. In the spring of 1644, a Scottish army, under Alexander Leslie, Earl of Leven, joined Fair- fax, Manchester, and Cromwell in besieg- ing the Marquis of Newcastle at York. By a long march, Prince Rupert came to Newcastle's aid, and reached the be- leaguered city on the 1st of July with 18,000 men. Not satisfied with forcing the be- siegers to withdraw, he followed them, with Newcastle's army added to his own, to Marston Moor (July 2), and suffered there the most disastrous defeat that either party had sustained since the war began. Crom- well and his troops were the winners of the fight, driving &w PRINCE RUPERT. 1644] OVERTHROW OF THE MONARCHY. 409 Rupert's cavalry from the field and then returning to rescue the remainder of the army from defeat. The scattering and capture of the royal army were so com- plete that Rupert gathered only 6000 horsemen from the wreck. Newcastle fled the country in shame. The king's cause was lost in the north. This great success of the Parliamentarians in the north was offset in a large measure by disagreements among them and failures in the south. Essex had placed nearly 10,000 men in a situation at Lostwithiel, near Fowey, in Cornwall, from which there was no escape, . , n 1 • o 1 i Incompe- and they were compelled, in September, to lay tencyof down their arms. In the following month, the Manches- inertness of Manchester, who wanted peace, caused a second battle with the king at Newbury to be practically lost. Both Essex and Manchester were now discredited as military commanders, and resolute move- ments to displace them were begun, with Cromwell in the lead. 234. Growth of Independency and Republicanism. The feeling of Cromwell and his followers at this time was not merely that of soldiers disgusted with in- active commanders ; it had, beyond that, a religious and a political side. A rapid spread of thought was going on, particularly in the army, which doubted the need of any king, and which doubted still more whether the in- terests of religion required one creed, or one form of worship, to be forced on all men by one oppressive church. A few broad thinkers, like Milton and Roger Williams, had begun to lead the reason and the moral sense of men towards religious toleration as an absolute Christian principle ; but, even without rising to their view, many others were being forced by the circumstances of the 410 THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION. [1644-1645 time to see the folly of attempts to compel men to think Religious alike in matters of religion, or to worship God in toleration. one prescribed way. Cromwell, for example, did not understand toleration as a principle, for he had no thought of extending it to practices, either Roman or Anglican, that seemed idolatrous to him. But, in- side the bounds of what he held to be Protestant belief and worship not idolatrous, he wished the exercises of religion to be free, in such congregations as people chose to form. Such ideas of a limited toleration he shared with an increasing body of men ; and this rising party, to which the old name of the Independents was given, was soon to be formidable, with a man like Cromwell at its head. Generally, the Presbyterians, who formed a large ma- jority in Parliament, were carrying on the war with a view to the saving of the monarchy, after forcing the king to surrender some of the powers that he claimed and to join them in a reconstruction of the church. Essex, Presby- Manchester, and other military chiefs agreed andinde- w ^ tn them, and acted with those aims. On pendents. t ne other hand, the Independents were becom- ing convinced that the war could have no satisfactory end until there had ceased to be a king and a prescribed ceremony in the worship of God. Thus the original Puritan party, from whose resistance to a tyrannical king the civil war sprang, was now divided into two, between which there was coming a struggle over the conduct and the objects of the war. 235. The Self-denying Ordinance and the New Model Army. The situation that existed in the fall and winter of 1644-45 called Cromwell back to his seat in Parlia- ment, where his influence soon appeared in two radical measures, both of which were carried after a contest 1644-1645] OVERTHROW OF THE MONARCHY. 411 quite prolonged. The first, called the Self-denying Ordi- nance, excluded every member of Parliament from mili- tary command ; by which means Essex, Manchester, and others of their kind were quietly put aside. Cromwell shared their fate — for the time being, but not for long. The second act provided for a reorganization of the army on a national footing, supported no longer by voluntary contributions, but by a general tax. Over the army of the New Model, as it was known, Sir Thomas Fairfax- was made commander-in-chief, with large powers in the selection of officers of subordinate rank. The office of lieutenant-general was left unfilled, none doubting that Cromwell would occupy it in due time. Fairfax was a soldier who ignored parties, religious and political, so completely that none knew his views. But he admired Cromwell, shared his spirit in the war, and was open to his advice. Naturally, therefore, the New Model of the army was a Cromwellian model ; J A Crom- it was officered, for the most part, by fervently weiiian religious men, who filled its ranks with " Iron- sides " of their own stamp. It gave to the Independents a power which the Presbyterian Parliament would be utterly unable to resist, if a serious conflict came. 236. The Execution of Laud. While the Self-denying Ordinance and the army bill were pending, Archbishop Laud suffered a long-delayed retribution at the hands of those whom he had oppressed. For months he had been on trial before the few peers who remained in the House of Lords. Then his enemies, fearful that he would escape, resorted to a bill of attainder, like that which doomed Strafford, and sent him to the scaffold, on the 1 Oth of January, 1645. 237. Montrose in the Highlands. In the fall of 1644 a threatening movement in the north of Scotland was 412 THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION. [1644-1645 begun by James Graham, Marquis of Montrose, originally a Covenanter, who became dissatisfied with the govern- ment set up under the Duke of Argyle. Having adopted the cause of the king with fiery zeal, Montrose made his way into the Highlands and there roused the clans that were enemies of the great Clan Campbell, of which Argyle was chief. In his hands the fierce Highlanders became ef- fective soldiers and car- ried all before them. The lands of the Campbells were terribly harried ; large forces of the Cove- nanters were defeated, and Dundee was taken and sacked. Early in the sum- mer of 1645, Montrose was prepared for an actual conquest of the Lowlands, and practically accomplished it for the moment by two fresh victories, at Alford and Kilsyth. Glasgow and Edinburgh submitted to him, and Argyle's government was broken up. 238. The Battle of Naseby. — End of the First Civil yZa,r. The successes of Montrose in Scotland came too late. Before his last victories were won, the royal cause in England had received a shattering blow. Fairfax, with his new army well in hand, had obtained authority to quit sieges and wasteful scatterings of his force, and to fight Charles as soon as possible in the open field. On the request of the army and the petition of London, Cromwell had been exempted from the Self-denying JAMES GRAHAM. MARQUIS OF MONT- ROSE. 1645-1646] OVERTHROW OF THE MONARCHY. 413 Ordinance, had been appointed lieutenant-general, and joined Fairfax just in time to take part in the decisive fight. The king's army was brought to a stand at the Northamptonshire village of Naseby, on the 14th of June, and, being not more than 7500 strong, against nearly 14,000, it was utterly crushed. A political no less than a military disaster overwhelmed the king at Naseby. By the capture of his correspond- ence and other papers, all his intrigues with Discovery the Irish Catholics and with the French, for ^^ s foreign soldiery to be brought into England, intri e ues - were made public, and inflamed English feeling against him anew. After Naseby, there were twelve months more of war, mostly sieges, before the royalists were completely over- come. Cromwell was especially busy in this concluding work. " There are few parts of England where one fails to meet some ruined castle or dismantled manor- Cromwell's house, of which the local rumor records that ' it actmtv - was battered clown by Cromwell in the troubles.' " 1 The most important sieges were of Bristol, where Rupert surrendered in September, and of Basing House, a great stronghold in Hampshire, stormed and destroyed the next month. During September, all that Montrose had gained in Scotland was lost. His Highlanders dropped Defeatof away, until only a few hundreds of followers Montrose - remained. With those he attempted to join the king in England, but was attacked at Philiphaugh, and his little company cut to pieces, though he escaped. 239. The King's Surrender to the Scots. Long after his followers generally had lost hope, the king kept them under arms. Apparently there was no time during the 1 F. Harrison, Oliver Cromwell, ch. v. 414 THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION. [1646-1647 year after Naseby in which he might not have made terms fairly favorable for himself with the Scots, and even with the English Presbyterians, by agreeing to their religious demands. But, faithless as Charles showed himself to be in so much of his conduct, he was heroic in fidelity to the English church, and, rather than consent to its overthrow, he steadfastly declared that he would lose his crown and his life. Negotiating, more or less, with all parties among his opponents, he sought to play them against each other, and to gain time, always hoping for some advantage to himself from the ill-temper that was growing up between Presbyterians and Independents, Parliament and Army, English and Scots. It was not until May, 1646, when his last refuge, at Oxford, was about to be attacked, that he personally surrendered, not to the English, but to the army of the Scots, making his way to their camp, before Newark, in disguise. The surrender of the king to the Scots did not mean submission to their terms. He still thought that he could work them to a quarrel with the English and use them for his own ends. Parliament had offended them in many ways ; its promised payments to them were far in arrears ; it was slow in establishing the Pres- andthe byterian church, and it intended to make that church subject to Parliament, which was contrary to Scotch ideas. The situation would have opened oppor- tunities to a really shrewd opponent ; but Charles schemed until the quarrelling parties were more ready to make terms with one another than to parley longer with him. 240. The King given up by the Scots. Before the close of the year 1646, the Scots had come to an agree- ment with the English Parliament, in accordance with which they delivered the king to English commissioners (February 3, 1647), an d marched away to their own coun- r647] OVERTHROW OF THE MONARCHY. 415 try, leaving the English Presbyterians and the Independ- ents to settle matters between themselves. Those two religious parties, one controlling Parliament and the other controlling the army, were probably both opposed by a majority of the whole nation ; but that majority could only look on while the " sectaries," as they were called, strove against each other for power. 241. Parliament and Army. Parliament brought on the strife by attempting to disband the army without providing for arrears of pay, and by treating its petitions with insult and rebuke. Cromwell exerted his influence in Parliament and in the army to make peace ; but the course of the parliamentary leaders left him no chance. The soldiers had organized a parliamentary body of their own, composed of representatives, called Agitators (using the word in the sense of "agents"), The elected from each regiment, and were giving A s itators - close attention to public affairs. Parliament was known to be secretly negotiating with the king, and, towards the end of May, Cromwell learned that Charles had agreed to an establishment of the Presbyterian church for three years, during which time some permanent settlement should be arranged. The Scots were to be brought in again to help establish the king's government on those terms. That information determined his course. 242. The King in the Hands of the Army. When Cromwell had decided to lead opposition to Parliament his measures were prompt. He gave secret orders to a certain Cornet Joyce, who made a quick march to Holmby House with a picked body of horse, and secured posses- sion of the king. The movement was a complete sur- prise ; Charles was successfully removed to Newmarket (June 8, 1647), and held there under guard. The army leaders then attempted, without success, to 416 THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION. [1647 make terms with the king, and to persuade Parliament, at the same time, to fix a date for its own dissolution and for the election of a new House. A period of con- siderable disorder ensued. The Independent PrtrlinriiGiit in confu- members of Parliament were frightened away by a London mob ; whereupon the army, under Fairfax, marched into the city, and many Presbyterians left Parliament in alarm. Meantime, fresh proposals, very carefully drawn up by Cromwell's son-in-law, Ireton, had been submitted to the king. They outlined a scheme of constitutional govern- ment, with a tolerant church, a responsible administra- tion, and a popular Parliament, which went farther to- wards what has since been realized in England than any Proposals political plan framed before. The king rejected to the kmg. ^gjjj [ n n j s haughtiest tone, having opened a new intrigue with the Scots, and being full of confidence that a powerful army from the northern kingdom would soon pour into England, to make him, in his own words, "really king again." But the " Heads of Proposals," as Ireton's scheme was known, dissatisfied a large faction in the army as much as they did the king. The republican Inde- The Heads . J , £ ,, of Pro- pendents were numerous, and some of them, called Levellers, held extreme democratic and socialistic views. They were opposed to all dealings with the king. Against this faction Cromwell stood in bold contention for many months. With his clear, practical grasp of facts, he could see that England was not pre- pared for republican government ; that there would be failure in an attempt to set it up by the little half-vision- ary party on which it must depend ; and that the best hope of rescue from the confused political state into which Enoland had fallen was in some kind of guarded 1647-164S] OVERTHROW OF THE MONARCHY. 417 restoration of the king to his throne. If the king had been any man except Charles I., Cromwell and other reasonable men of the time might have found a way to success. 243. Escape of the King to the Isle of Wight. Against the Heads of Proposals the democrats brought forward a project of radical revolution, styled the " Agree- ment of the People," and excited a mutiny in the army, which Cromwell sternly repressed. There were threats at the same time against the king, which alarmed him, and he contrived to escape to the Isle of Wight, where he hoped to be safer and more free. He was confined, however, in Carisbrooke Castle, as strictly a prisoner as before, yet with liberty enough to be able to finish his intrigue with the Scots. He signed a secret " Engage- ment " with their agents in December, 1647, which pro- mised on his side to establish the Presbyterian church in England for three years, suppressing all the sects, and on their side to send an army to his support. Cromwell had early knowledge of what the king was doing, and abandoned further efforts in his behalf. — 244. The Second Civil War. Movements in Scot- land to carry out the agreement with Charles were begun in the spring of 1648. They were followed by risings in Wales and Kent, with the London Presbyterians in a threatening mood. Fairfax suppressed the insurrection in Kent, and Cromwell dealt with that in Wales, after which the latter marched northward to meet the Scots, who had entered England under the Duke of Hamilton, in July, and taken Carlisle. With 8600 men, Ba ttieof he attacked 24,0x30, according to his reckoning Preston - of the enemy, at Preston, on the 17th of August, and fought and pursued them for three days, until he had slain, captured, or scattered them all. 418 THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION. [1648-1649 245. Pride's Purge. While the second civil war was being thus quickly fought out, Parliament had reopened conferences with the king, on the old plan of intolerance for everything except the Presbyterian church. This was more than the victorious army could be expected to endure. Cromwell, Ireton, and others urged a forci- ble dissolution of Parliament, preparatory to a new elec- tion ; but, on the 5th of December, a meeting of officers with Independent members of the House of Commons, who feared the result if an election should be held, de- cided in favor of what was styled a " purging " of the House, by expulsion of the members whose doings were disliked. This high-handed measure, which ended the last pretence of constitutional authority in the English government, was carried out the next day by a regiment of soldiers, commanded by Colonel Pride. One hundred and forty-three members were thrust from the House of Commons by what received the name of " Pride's Purge," leaving a small remainder, known afterwards as "the Rump." 246. Trial and Execution of the King. The " purg- ing " of the Commons was followed by clamors for the trial of the king, and an ordinance for his arraignment was adopted by the fragment of a House, which then proceeded to create a High Court of Justice, to form which 135 commissioners were named. Sixty-eight of these, only, appeared at the sittings of the court, in Westminster Hall. Cromwell took his place with them ; Fairfax refused. On the 20th of January, 1649, Charles was brought into the presence of this court and impeached as " a tyrant, traitor, murderer, and a public and implacable enemy of the Commonwealth of England." He proudly refused to recognize the tribunal by any answer or de- fence, and was condemned to death. A scaffold for his 1649] OVERTHROW OF THE MONARCHY. 419 TRIAL OF CHARLES I. execution was erected at the front of the palace of White- hall, and there, on the 30th of January, he was beheaded, submitting to his fate with a courage and dignity that showed his character at its best. No man ever suffered for treason in England who had wronged the country so deeply as Charles, or brought so dire a calamity upon it. His condemnation, if pro- 420 THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION. [1649 nounced by a lawful tribunal, and his execution, if com- manded by the nation, would have been indisputably just. But, as it was, he became the victim of a usurpa- tion of power more lawless than the worst of his own, and was so glorified in his death on the scaffold by a semblance of martyrdom that all the falsities of his life have been obscured. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS. 227. The Eve of the Civil War. Topics. 1. The king at York and his appeals for assistance. 2. Essex in command of the parliamentary forces. 3. Division of people and country between the two causes. Reference. — Harrison, Oliver Cromwell, 54-58. Research Questions. — (1.) For what two reasons did men turn to the king? (2.) Name and describe two noted men who acted on these two reasons respectively. (Green, 542.) (3.) How did the king and how did Parliament get money for war. (Bright, ii. 665.) 228. The First Battles. Topics. 1. Cavalier success at Powick Bridge and Edgehill. 2. The militia at Turnham Green. 3. John Hampden's death and character. References. — Gardiner, P. R., 127-130; Colby, 193-195- 229. Oliver Cromwell and his " Ironsides." Topics. 1. Royalist successes early in 1643. 2. Cromwell's army. 3. Cromwell at Gainsborough and Winceby. References. — Bright, ii. 662; Harrison, Oliver Cromwell; Green, 553-596; Gardiner, P. R., 128-183; Guest, 463-475 ; Tas- well-Langmead, 61 1 ; H. Taylor, ii. 325~355 : Macaulay, i. 91-108 ; Hallam, ii. 2-32. Research Questions.— (i.) Give the comparison which Crom- TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 42 1 well makes between the royal forces and those of the Parliament. (Gardiner, P. R., 129.) (2.) What sort of genius did this show him to possess ? 230. The First Battle of Newbury. Topic. 1. Essex's efforts to raise the siege of Gloucester. Reference. — Gardiner, P. R., 130, 131. 231. The Solemn League and Covenant with the Scots. Topics. 1. Parliament negotiates with the Scots. 2. Solemn League and Covenant ; Westminster Assembly. Reference. — Gardiner, P. R., 131-137. 232. The King looking to Ireland. Topic. 1. Negotiations with Ireland and its effect. Reference. — Green, 550, 551. 233. Marston Moor and Lostwithiel. Topics. 1. The battle of Marston Moor. 2. Royalist victory at Lostwithiel. 3. Inefficiency of Essex and Manchester. Reference. — Harrison, Oliver Cromwell, 73-78. 234. Growth of Independency and Republicanism. Topics. 1. Growing feeling as regards a king and religious toleration. 2. Differing views of Presbyterians and Independents on the preservation of the monarchy. References. — Presbyterians and Independents: Gardiner, ii. 543; Bright, ii. 670-672, 680-684 ; Green, 555 ; Gardiner, P. R., 130-142; Macaulay, i. 90, 91. 235. The Self-denying Ordinance and the New Model Army. Topics. 1. Cromwell's two measures in Parliament. 422 OVERTHROW OF THE MONARCHY. 2. Fairfax and the army of the New Model. Reference. — Harrison, Oliver Cromwell, 84-89. 236. The Execution of Laud. Topic. 1. The Bill of Attainder. 237. Montrose in the Highlands. Topic. 1. His Highland army and its victories. Reference. — Gardiner, P. R., 142, 143. Research Questions. — (1.) Of what race were the Highlanders? (2.) Why would they naturally take the side of the king ? (3.) Why would they make good soldiers ? (4.) What other branch of the same race as the Highlanders did the English have for neighbors ? (5.) Which side did they take in the civil war ? 238. The Battle of Naseby. — End of the First Civil War. Topics. 1. Fairfax's victory at Naseby and capture of the king's papers. 2. Close of the war in England and Scotland. Reference. — Harrison, Oliver Cromwell, 89-99. 239. The King's Surrender to the Scots. Topics. 1. The king's obstinacy and his tactics. 2. His surrender at Oxford and renewed intrigues. Reference. — Bright, ii. 677-679. 240. The King given up by the Scots. Topics. 1. Scots deliver up the king. 2. Strife for power between the sectaries. Reference. — Bright, ii. 679, 680. 241. Parliament and Army. Topics. 1. Mistake of parliamentary leaders. 2. The Agitators. 3. Secret negotiations between king and Parliament. Reference. — Harrison, Oliver Cromwell, 104-110. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 423 242. The King in the Hands of the Army. Topics. 1. Cromwell secures the king. 2. Attempt of army leaders to make terms with the king. 3. Fairfax enters London. 4. Ireton's proposals to the king and Charles's reply. 5. The Levellers and Cromwell's view of the situation. Reference. — Harrison, Oliver Cromwell, m-119. Research Questions. — (1.) What danger was there in the army overawing the Parliament? (2.) What can be said in justifica- tion of the army's action. (Gardiner, P. R., 148.) 243. Escape of the King to the Isle of Wight. Topics. 1. The Agreement of the People. 1. The king in Carisbrooke Castle. 3. The 6ecret " Engagement " with the Scots. Reference. — Bright, ii. 684-686. Research Questions. — (1.) Why did neither party feel that it was possible to make terms with Charles? (2.) What was the king's design ? (3.) What effect did the breaking out of war anew have on the feeling toward him ? 244. The Second Civil War. Topics. 1. Fairfax in Kent. 2. Cromwell in Wales and Scotland; battle of Preston. Reference. — Harrison, Oliver Cromwell, 120-126. 245. Pride's Purge. Topics. 1. Parliament reopens negotiations with Charles. 2. Purging of the House. Reference. — Harrison, Oliver Cromwell, 126-128. 246. Trial and Execution of the King. Topics. 1. Creation of High Court of Justice and trial of Charles. 2. His execution. 3. Illegality of his sentence. Reference. — Harrison, Oliver Cromwell, 128, 129. CHAPTER XVIII. COMMONWEALTH AND PROTECTORATE. The Rump Parliament and Oliver Cromwell. 1649-1660. 247. The Founding of the Commonwealth. A small, sifted remnant of the House of Commons, elected more than eight years before, was all that the wreck of consti- tutional government in England had now left, to act with pretended authority in the national name. Yet this little band of men assumed to be, not merely a true House of Commons, one branch of a true Parliament, but a full and complete government for " the Commonwealth of England," as the state was now described. It abolished the House of Lords as " useless and dangerous," and "the office of a king " as "unnecessary, burdensome, and dangerous ; " and so it boldly took all the functions of government into its own hands. It did so by no power in itself, but as the instrument and agent of an army, that had come to be likewise a political party and a strange confederation of religious sects. For executive action in the government, a Council of State was appointed, which became scarcely more than TheCoun- a parliamentary committee, since thirty-one of cii of state. - ts f or ty-one members were taken from the membership of the House. John Milton, the poet, was appointed Latin secretary to the Council, and conducted its correspondence with foreign states. 248. The Late King's Son. Immediately on receiv- ing news of the execution of his father, the late king's i6 49 ] COMMONWEALTH AND PROTECTORATE. 425 son, Charles, then in Holland, assumed the royal title, and set forth his claim to the throne. At Edinburgh, he was proclaimed king at once, on condition that he should " give satisfaction concerning religion," accord- ing to the covenants. In Ireland, he was offered the support of a combination that had been formed between Catholics and Protestant royalists ; but they, too, imposed conditions, which called for an independent Parliament and a free Roman church. Between the two proposals, Charles, an indolent and frivolous youth, who dreaded the grim Covenanters, decided to accept the Irish offers first, and preparations for making Ireland a base of opera- tions against England were soon under way. 249. Cromwell in Ireland. The royalist plans in Ireland were known early to the heads of the English Commonwealth, and Cromwell was sent to deal with them. He reached Dublin in the middle of August and began a horribly merciless campaign. Moving first against Drogheda, or Tredah, twenty-three miles from Dublin, a place defended by about 3000 picked offi- cers and men, he took it by storm and slaughtered the garrison to the last man. At Wexford there was an- other general massacre after the storming of the town. Cromwell's excuse for these atrocities was that they would "tend to prevent the effusion of blood for the future " by stopping resistance ; but nothing that he gained in that way could compensate for the undying passion of hatred that he kindled in the Irish heart. As he began the war he continued it, with a cruelty that can never be forgotten. In the spring of 1650, danger to England from Irish royalism was so far ended that Cromwell could return home. 250. War with the Scots. Cromwell was needed in England to defend the Commonwealth against the Scots. 426 THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION. [1650 They had brought the young Charles Stuart to their terms, when he found his hopes from Ireland cast down. He had agreed to sign the Covenant, to become a Pres- byterian, to join the Scots in forcing Presbyterianism on England and Ireland, and to deal harshly with Catholi- cism in both. He was playing a deceitful game, which the Covenanters appear to have understood quite as well as his friends. The agreement of Charles with the Covenanters was practically a betrayal of Montrose. He had sent that bravest of his friends into Scotland, on a mission of hostility to the very cove- nanting party which he now embraced as his own. Mont- rose had entered the High- lands in the early part of April (1650), to attempt again what he had done in 1644-45, but had met with disappointment and defeat. On the day (May 1) when Charles was signing his treaty of alliance with the Cove- nanters, at Breda, in the Netherlands, his faithful servant was a fugitive, flying from their soldiery, in the Scottish hills. On the 18th of May the fugitive had of Mont- become a captive, and entered Edinburgh, tied hand and foot, in a cart. On the 21st he was hanged. Twelve days later, Charles, then acquainted with the fate of Montrose, set sail from Holland to re- ceive a crown from the hands that had put his loyal friend to death ; and on the way he bound himself once more to the Covenants by a solemn oath. The chiefs of the English Commonwealth did not wait for the Presbyterian attack from the north ; they fore- COMMONWEALTH FLAG i6 5 i] COMMONWEALTH AND PROTECTORATE. 427 stalled it. Within a month after Cromwell's return from Ireland, he was on his way to take command of the army already assembled on the Scottish border ; within another month he was marshalling it in the suburbs of Edinburgh, offering battle to the Scots. Manoeuvring followed, in which he was outdone by the Scottish general, David Leslie, and was compelled to fall back to Dunbar for supplies. Leslie pursued, with a force twice the strength of the English, and the latter, for a time, were Battle of dangerously placed ; but the Scots, by a fatal Dunbar - change of position, offered Cromwell an opportunity that he was swift to improve. A sudden charge in the early morning (September 3) threw them into confusion, and drove their cavalry in flight through crowded masses of half-wakened foot-soldiers, producing utter panic and rout. The city of Edinburgh surrendered, though its castle held out for three months. Leslie gathered the frag- ments of his wrecked army at Stirling ; Charles and the government were at Perth. The grasp of the Presbyterian clergy on political affairs in Scotland was broken by the defeat at Dunbar, and a party rather national than religious was formed around Charles. On the 1st of January, 165 1, he was formally crowned at Scone. "With no scruples ingof . Charles II to hold him back," says the most careful his- torian of the period, " he had lied his way into the com- manding position which was now his." 1 It was a position soon lost. 251. Scottish Invasion of England. — Battle of Worcester. Cromwell was disabled by illness in the spring of 165 1, and it was not until July that movements against the Scotch at Stirling were seriously begun. By crossing the Forth and taking Perth he cut their sources 1 S. R. Gardiner, Commonwealth and Protectorate, vol. i. ch. xiv. 428 THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION. [1651 of supply, which forced them to quit Stirling and move south. They were then persuaded by Charles to push on to England, where thousands of royalists, he expected, would rise to join them as they advanced. Cromwell had foreseen the undertaking, and his measures for defeating it were well prepared. As the army of Charles marched rapidly down the western side of the island, through Car- lisle, Cromwell followed as rapidly by the eastern route, gathering forces that were ready in place for him on the way, and when the Scots reached Worcester he was in their path, with nearly twice their number of men, and better prepared for fight. Few royalists had joined them, even in the counties that had been strongest for the king. On the 3d of September — exactly a year after the battle of Dunbar — Cromwell made his attack, and fin- ished, there at Worcester, his military work. He had no more battles to fight. The Scottish army was de- stroyed. Charles escaped and was a hunted fugitive in The royal England for six weeks, concealed by royalists fugitive. anc | p asse( j f r om place to place, disguised as a servant or a farmer's son, with a stained and sometimes smutted face ; hidden once in the foliage of an oak at Boscobel, and going through numberless romantic adven- tures, which he seems to have enjoyed. At last, he was taken by a fishing vessel to the French coast. The Scottish invasion and its tremendous defeat had roused a feeling in England which Cromwell and the more enlightened leaders were anxious to take advantage of, in the election of a new Parliament. They Want of a newPariia- used their influence to bring about a dissolution of " the Rump ; " but that usurping body could not be induced to give way. And so an opportunity for possibly settling the Commonwealth on some broader basis of popular consent was lost. i6 S i] COMMONWEALTH AND PROTECTORATE. 429 252. Scotland and Ireland. The strength of Scot- land was broken at Worcester, and General Monk, whom Cromwell left in the north, had little trouble in complet- ing a practical conquest of the country. Ireton and Ludlow were employed for something more than two years in finishing the subjugation of Ireland after Crom- well left them. Then followed what has been called the Cromwellian Settlement of Ireland, a barbarous measure, for which Cromwell is held responsible in the main. It was an attempt to sweep the whole population of Irish property owners from three fourths of the island, into the one district of Connaught, taking their lands and giving them smaller allotments in the wilder western region, on which to live. The laboring people were left behind, for the service of the new settlers (English sol- diers and other colonists) who took possession of the confiscated lands. All other royalist and Catholic Irish, and even citizens of several English-peopled towns, were ordered to remove into Connaught before May 1, 1654, on pain of death. The monstrous ejectment could not be perfectly carried out ; but enough was done to cause measureless suffering and grief, and measureless hate. 253. The Maritime Revival. Half a century of domes- tic disturbance had deadened the spirit of maritime enter- prise and ambition which stirred England in the Eliza- bethan age. Meantime the superiority of the Dutch had increased. They had become the carriers of most of the commerce of the world, with the spice trade, the herring fisheries, the whale fishery — all sources of immense wealth — ■ in their hands. But now English energy began again to make itself felt. One of the parliamentary generals, Robert Blake, was sent to sea to learn the art of naval war, which he did with remarkable success. Swarms of royalist privateers 43° THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION. [1651-1652 were driven off ; Portugal was chastised for giving them Admiral Blake. shelter and aid the English flag was carried proudly into the Mediterranean ; and when Blake left those waters his place was taken by Admiral Sir William Penn, whose son became, thirty years later, the founder of a great American state. 254. The Navigation Act. Determined now to re- cover their own carrying trade, at all costs and imme- diately, the English ex- pelled the Dutch from it by a famous Navigation Act, passed in 165 1. The act forbade the car- rying of merchandise to and from England and her colonies in other than English ships, or ships of the countries from which imported goods came. It accom- plished the object at which it was aimed, but it did so at heavy cost. English shipping inter- ests were forcibly built up ; but the process required time, and other interests suffered in that time. Trade was lost ; many industries were crippled ; consumers paid high prices ; both England and her colonies were troubled by the ill-supply of many wants. In the end, however, the English were masters of a greater carrying trade than that of the Dutch. 255. "War with the Dutch. The last touch to many irritations between the English and the Dutch was given by the Navigation Act, and war came to an outbreak in ROBERT BLAKE. i6 53 ] COMMONWEALTH AND PROTECTORATE. 43 1 the summer of 1652. It was wholly a naval war, in which Blake on the English side and Tromp and De Ruyter on that of the Dutch were the heroes of long renown. From the first engagement of the war, the laurels were taken by Blake, though with no substantial results. In Novem- ber, he was overpowered off Dungeness, and beaten, by Tromp, who then threatened the Thames, took cattle from the Sussex coast, and swept the Channel trium- phantly with a broom at the head of his mast. In the following February, Blake had his revenge, recovering the mastery of the Channel from Tromp and De Ruyter, after a three days' fight. A two days' encounter in June went again in his favor ; but a wound kept Blake out of the final battle of the war, which was fought in the Texel, on the last day of July, 1653, and won by the English soldier Monk. The great admiral, Tromp, fell in the fight, and his countrymen suffered defeat. In arranging peace, the English strove hard to bring about a political union of the two commonwealths in one ; but the Hollanders would not consent. 256. Cromwell's Dissolution of the Rump. Neither Cromwell nor anybody else in the Commonwealth gov- ernment was willing to give the whole English people a free and full chance to elect such a Parliament as they might choose, for they knew that the enemies of the Commonwealth outnumbered its friends ; but those who opposed the Rump wished to put in place of that worn- out body some kind of a " new representative " that would command more respect. One fanatical faction, known as Fifth Monarchy Men, claimed that govern- ment should be kept in the hands of "godly people" of their own sects. Cromwell and his friends desired a broader representation, but not broad enough to let dan- gerous opponents of the Commonwealth in. The major- 432 THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION. [1653 ity in the Rump, led by Sir Henry Vane, wished to per- petuate their own membership, and to appoint elections to fill vacancies only, while they, the sitting members, might admit or reject the newly elected as they saw fit. The question ' at issue was settled in a rough way by Cromwell, on the 20th of April, 1653, when information came to him that the House was about to pass an elec- tion bill in the form it desired. He hurried in anger to the Hall, followed by a guard of soldiers, and broke in on the proceedings with a speech which grew more vio- lent as he went on, ending with the exclamations, " We Cromwell's have had enough of this ! I will put an end speech. tQ this j j t j s nQt fit y QU s h ou id sit here any longer ! " He then called in his soldiers and bade them GREAT SEAL OF THE COMMONWEALTH, SHOWING THE RUMP PARLIAMENT. clear the House. As the members went out he cried to them : " It is you who have forced me to this ; for I have sought the Lord night and clay, that He would rather sjay me than put me upon the doing of this work." This violent act of Cromwell's is not easily to be judged, for the reason that the body calling itself a Par- liament had no more constitutional right to act as a i6 5 3] COMMONWEALTH AND PROTECTORATE. 433 SIR HENRY VANE. Parliament than he had the right to break it up. Con- stitutionally, everything was in chaos. The only way in which the nation could recover a lawful government was by some free action of its people at large, and that, as the people then felt, was certain to destroy the men of the Commonwealth and all their work. Circumstances had carried Cromwell and Vane and their associates to a situation so difficult that we may hesitate to judge what they did. 257. The Barebones Par- liament. As " Captain Gen- eral and Commander - in- Chief " of the forces of the Commonwealth, Cromwell now assumed executive au- thority, acting with a Council of State. Soon after- wards, letters were sent out to the Independent or Congregational churches of the country, asking them to recommend persons fit to be members of a " New Re- presentative." Partly selecting from the lists thus ob- tained, and partly choosing otherwise, the Council made up an assembly of 140 persons, five taken from Scotland and six from Ireland, who were summoned, without other election, to meet at Whitehall, on the 4th of July, to act as a Parliament for the three countries, now assumed to be united in one. It was known as the Little Parlia- ment ; but the presence of one member who bore the strange name of Praise-God Barebone, or Barbon, led the royalists to call it derisively "the Barebones Parlia- ment." i 434 THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION. [1653-1654 This so-called Parliament was filled with earnest men ; but the majority were lacking in practical knowledge, and plunged into schemes of law reform and church arrange- Dissoiu- ment which caused great alarm. Its career tl0n - was ended before the year closed. The minor- ity had seized a moment when they were present in supe- rior numbers, and had declared the House dissolved. 258. The Instrument of Government. — The Pro- tectorate. The Barebones Parliament was dissolved on the 1 2th of December, 1653. On the 15th, a long medi- tated constitutional plan, styled the Instrument of Gov- ernment, was agreed upon between Cromwell and his officers, and, according to its provisions, he was solemnly installed the next day as Lord Protector of the Common- wealth of England. Many had urged him, it seems, to take the title of King, but he refused. His authority as Protector, under the Instrument, was to be limited by a Parliament and a Council, each largely independent in power. The Instrument provided for a Parliament to be elected by persons owning property to the value, at least, of ^200, then equal to far more than the same sum at the present day. At no time were Roman Catholics to be permitted to vote, and for the first three elections none Parliamen- tary could vote who had taken part in any war against the Parliament. This last exclusion shut out all loyalists and all those Presbyterians who had favored the recent attempt of Charles II. To keep control still more surely of the make-up of Parliament, the Council was made judge of the quaiifrcrrtions of members-elect. 259. The Protector and his First Parliament. The first Parliament elected under the provisions of the In- strument of Government did not meet until September, 1654, the Protector and Council being authorized mean- 1654] COMMONWEALTH AND PROTECTORATE. 435 time to make needed ordinances and laws. In this period they ordered the organization of the church on a footing of congregational freedom, excepting that the use of the Prayer Book was not allowed. The Court of Chancery was reformed ; the union of England, Scotland, and Ire- land in one commonwealth was decreed ; the Dutch war was brought to a close ; treaties of commerce and alli- ance were concluded with Portugal, Sweden, and Den-, mark ; the business of state abroad and at home was managed with a powerful hand. Despite the precautions used to secure a friendly Par- liament, it began immediately to revise the Instrument of Government, aiming at an enlargement of its own powers. The Protector promptly interfered, reminding members that they had pledged themselves when elected not to alter the government, and requiring them to re- peat that pledge. Those who refused (about Attempts one fourth of the whole) were arbitrarily ex- at revision, pelled from their seats. Even this did not stop the attempt of Parliament to amend the constitutional In- strument ; and in January, 1655, the Protector used his power to put an end to its work. This is the critical point in Cromwell's political career, — the point at which his statesmanship came to a final test. If any possibility existed of some arrangement that would provide a government for England to take the place of his own personal rule, without violently bringing the old state of things back, he cast it away when he " purged " and then dissolved the Puritan Parliament elected in 1654. There may have been no' such possi- bility ; but nothing shows that he fairly attempted to bring about a statesmanlike study of the situa- Cromwell's tion by all parties together. Nor does anything failure - show that he had the kind of capacity needed to inspire 436 THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION. [1656 and guide such a study, by political instincts and insight of his own. He was a man of amazing force in master- ing circumstances as they came upon him, and in com- manding an active obedience from men ; but the genius of great statesmanship, which forecalculates and antici- pates, and which exerts influence as well as power, is not to be clearly seen in Oliver Cromwell, extraordinary man as he was. 260. The Last Years of Cromwell's Domestic Rule. A more openly military character was given to the Protec- tor's government within six months after Parliament had been dismissed. Royalist plots gave the excuse for an organization of ten military districts, each commanded by a major-general, with arbitrary powers. One of the duties of the generals was the collection of a tax of ten per cent, on the incomes of royalists, which tax was im- posed by the Protector more autocratically than anything ever dared by an English king. A second Parliament was called in 1656 ; but, even with his major-generals to manage elections, the Protector found it necessary to shut out nearly a hundred of the members sent up, before it became a manageable House. Again amendments to the Instrument of Government were discussed, but this time with the Protector's con- TheHum- sent. They were submitted to him in a docu- and P Ad tion ment s ty led The Humble Petition and Advice, vice. which boldly urged him to take the title of King. Strong arguments in support of the proposal were pressed ; and Cromwell might reasonably have been persuaded that the new order of things would be more acceptable if settled into the old monarchical forms. But the re- publicans of the army were enraged by the suggestion, and he put it aside. The title of the Protector's office was left unchanged, 165S] COMMONWEALTH AND PROTECTORATE. 437 but it was clothed with more dignity and surrounded with more state. He was empowered to appoint his successor, and also to select persons for the making up of a second House in Parliament, to take the place of the House of Lords. This "Other House," for which no The other name could be found, never ceased to be "Other an object of scorn. When the Parliament, after adjourning for some months, met a second time in Janu- ary, 1658, the members excluded from the first meeting were allowed to take their seats, and they gave so much trouble that a speedy dissolution was the result. 261. The Protector's Foreign Wars. In foreign policy it was Cromwell's desire to do what Queen Eliza- beth and King James I. had each been solicited to do and would not, — namely, to put England at the head of a great Protestant league. The time for that had passed. With the ending of the Thirty Years' War, religion ceased to be a leading motive in European politics and war. But in Cromwell's government the religious influence was still alive. It made him more willing for war with Spain than with any other power, and was mixed with the English desire for a better footing in American trade. The two motives were combined in an abrupt demand on the Spanish court, made in 1654, for freedom of commerce in the West Indies, and for religious freedom to English sub- jects in the dominions of Spain, both of which demands were refused. A fleet, already prepared, under Penn and another commander, sailed instantly against for the Antilles, struck without success at San pai1 Domingo, and took Jamaica, which has been an English possession from that day. Then, in alliance with the French, the English fought Spain in the Netherlands, and took the port of Dunkirk (June, 1658) for their share of the conquests made. 438 THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION. [1658 But, before entering the alliance with France, Crom- well required, as the price of it, that a horrible persecu- tion of Protestants (the Waldenses, or Vaudois), in the The dominions of the Duke of Savoy, should be vaudois. stopped. One of the grandest of Milton's sonnets, "Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints," was inspired by the sufferings of the Vaudois. When Penn went to the West Indies, Blake entered the Mediterranean with another fleet and compelled both in the Med- tne Duke of Tuscany and the pirates of Tunis iterranean. t0 p a y indemnity for wrongs to English mer- chants and ships. The English flag had never been so vigorously upheld in foreign waters before. 262. Oliver Cromwell's Death. In July, 1658, the Protector was so stricken with grief over the fatal illness of his favorite daughter, Elizabeth Claypole, that he gave no heed to business for some weeks. Before her death, on the 6th of August, he himself had sickened, and on the 3d of September, the anniversary of Dunbar and Worcester, he died. He died, as most surely he had lived, with absolute sincerity in the religious beliefs for which, more than for any political cause, or for any per- sonal aim, he had labored and fought. Until he felt the touch of death, Cromwell seems to have decided nothing as to what should be done or at- tempted for the government of England after he laid it down. In his last hours, when almost speechless, he is thought to have named his elder son, Richard, to be Pro- Thesuc- tector in his place; but there is no certainty cession. ^^ even tn j s tardy and futile determination had been reached in his mind. It was so poor an ending to his work, so empty a conclusion, that one cannot feel willing to accept it for the best that statesmanship wield- ing great power could have brought about. i6 59 ] COMMONWEALTH AND PROTECTORATE. 439 263. Richard Cromwell and the Army. Richard Cromwell was an amiable man, with none of his father's strength, in intellect or will. His government was ac- cepted quietly for a few months ; but when a Parliament had been elected which undertook to bring the army under constraint, the latter became threatening at once. The Protector dissolved the Parliament (April 22, 1659), in obedience to military demands, and abdicated his office in the following month. Forty-two members of the old " Rump " had been invited by the soldiers to assemble and take civil authority once more into their hands. From May until October they conducted the government, with an arrogance that in- creased until they, too, quarrelled with the army and were driven out of Westminster Hall. Then, for two months, there was an open rule of the sword, with strifes of ambition among the officers, and public excitements so alarming that the Rump was taken back. 264. The Action of General Monk. Meantime, the forces in Scotland, under General Monk, had become dis- gusted with the conduct of the soldiery at London, and were willing to interfere. Monk was a soldier, apparently indifferent to the political and religious questions of the time, who could look at the state of the country with a calculating eye ; and he thought it ripe for action that GEORGE MONK. 44° THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION. [1660 would give him leadership in a settlement of affairs. His men were ready to follow, and, on the first of January, 1660, he led them across the border into England. At York, he was joined by Fairfax, and everywhere there was joyful applause as he went on. Lambert, of the London army, attempting to oppose him, was deserted by the men he led. Entering London on the 3d of Feb- ruary, Monk listened to all parties and deliberated, until he knew that the meeting of a free and full Parliament was what the nation desired. On his demand, the mem- bers ejected by " Pride's Purge," in 1648, were seated again with the Rump, to revive the Long Parliament, just long enough to authorize writs for a general elec- tion ; then it voted its own dissolution, after a nominal duration of twenty years. In the new Parliament, the Presbyterians were numer- ous, but a general eagerness to restore the monarchy and recover the old order in the country prevailed. The exiled Charles had already sent over from Breda a De- claration, vaguely promising amnesty, liberty of con- science, etc., so far as Parliament should approve. In reality, he had promised nothing for himself ; but, with no more than this doubtful pledge from him, he The . . , 7 ^ ■, monarchy was invited to the long empty throne. On the 25th of May, 1660, he landed at Dover ; on the 29th he entered London ; and the greater part of Eng- land, weary of strife, resentful of military and religious dictation, in dread of universal disorder, rejoiced madly because it had a king again. 265. The Puritans and their Enemies. The extreme Puritans who ruled England in the period of the Com- monwealth and the Protectorate had made themselves hateful to the great body of the people by their stern notions of religious duty, more than by their political COMMONWEALTH AND PROTECTORATE. 441 exercise of usurped power. The life of this world, as they looked upon it, was a serious time of preparation for the life to come, and its ordinary pleasures were temptations, for the most part, to be resolutely put aside. Their consciences, unfortunately, required more than the ruling of their own lives by this idea ; they believed that author- ity had been put into their hands to make it the rule of life for all. They strove, accordingly, with grim determination, to suppress many forms of popular amuse- ment, some of which were mor- ally as innocent as others were not. They not only forbade bearbaiting, which was brutal, horse - racing, which had many evil influences, and theatrical per- formances, which were often, in that clay, immoral, but they cut down the May-poles on English village greens, ordered Christmas to be kept as a fast day, and interfered with sports and festivities of almost every kind. If all who did these things had been as sincere as those were encewith who began it, there might have been less to spor s ' resent. But the power which the true Puritans acquired drew hypocrites into their ranks, who outdid them in pretended religious zeal, and who undoubtedly gave occa- sion for much public hatred and contempt. Neverthe- less, the profound sincerity that was in Puritanism at the bottom left plain effects in English life and character that have lasted and are to be seen to this day. 266. Thought and Letters. The great age of English PURITAN DRESS. 442 THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION. literature, which ran from the later years of Elizabeth to the early years of Charles I., was followed by a time of change, rather than of debasement or dearth. The pen of Milton, throughout the Puritan epoch, kept poetry upon its highest plane ; and though verse of a great quality was written by no other, and though no poet except Herrick could claim even a second rank, there were equivalents in the rise of a noble prose. From Milton himself we have more prose than poetry in these years; while Sir Thomas Browne, Thomas Fuller, Jeremy Taylor, Richard Baxter, were proving that the measured rhythm of verse is not needed for splendid eloquence in the English tongue. Hobbes and Lord Herbert of Cherbury were giving new thoughts to philosophy ; Bunyan was brooding over dreams from which the "Pilgrim's Progress" was after- wards wrought. A scientific curiosity concerning the natural world was beginning to enter many minds, and men who interested themselves in physical and chemical experi- ments were holding meetings to compare and discuss them, at London and Oxford, from which meet- ings, presently, the great Royal Society came forth. JOHN MILTON. Science. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 443 TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS. 247. The Founding of the Commonwealth. Topics. 1. Remnant of the House of Commons and its action. 2. Council of State and its secretary. References. — Green, 464-466, 526, 527, 531, 543, 544,572, 573, 601-605; Gardiner, P. R., 88, 89, 96, 97, 140-142, 175, 193-196; Traill, iv. 423-426 ; Patison's Life of Milton. Research Questions. — (1.) Previous to the death of Charles, to whom was the Presbyterian party opposed ? (2.) Was it on good terms with the army? (3.) Did the army have a majority among the people ? (4.) On what point only could the two par- ties unite ? (5.) What then was the political wisdom of remov- ing Charles ? 248. The Late King's Son. Topics. 1. Charles II. proclaimed in Scotland and Ireland. 2. His choice between the two. Reference. — Bright, ii. 691. 249. Cromwell in Ireland. Topics. 1. The storm of Drogheda and the massacre of Wexford. 2. Judgment of Cromwell's campaign. References. — Bright, ii. 692,693; Gardiner, ii. 562, 563; Green. 574, 575 ; Harrison, Oliver Cromwell, ch. viii. ; Gardiner, P. R., 156, 157; Guest, 468, 469; Macaulay. i. 100, 101. 250. War with the Scots. Topics. 1. Charles signs with the Covenanters and betrays Montrose. 2. Cromwell at Edinburgh and the battle of Dunbar. 3. Surrender of Edinburgh. 4. Charles crowned at Scone. Reference. — Bright, ii. 693-696. 251. Scottish Invasion of England. — Battle of Worcester. Topics. 1. Cromwell's movements and Charles's march into England. 444 COMMONWEALTH AND PROTECTORATE. 2. Battle of Worcester and Charles's flight. 3. Unsuccessful attempt to dissolve the " Rump." Reference. — Bright, ii. 696-698. 252. Scotland and Ireland. Topics. 1. Monk in the North and Ireton and Ludlow in Ireland. 2. Cromwellian settlement of Ireland. References. — Green, 589, 590; Harrison, Oliver Cromwell, 145- 147. Research Questions. — (1.) What race antagonism between the settlers from England and the original Irish ? (2.) Show how the Scottish settlers may have been nearer to them in blood ? (3.) What antagonism was there between the Scots and the Irish? 253. The Maritime Revival. Topics. 1. The Dutch and their carrying trade. 2. Robert Blake and Admiral Sir William Penn. References. — Bright, ii. 700. 701 ; Colby, 200-203. Research Questions. — (1.) From whom had the Dutch but lately won their independence? (2.) In what way would Spain send her troops to overrun Holland ? (3.) How did this tend to build up the Dutch navy ? (4.) Why could not Spain send her troops over- land ? (5.) When their independence was won, to what use could the Dutch put their ships ? (6.) Show from her resources why the people of Holland took naturally to the carrying trade ? (7.) What colony had Holland founded in America ? (8.) What trade supported it in great part ? (9.) What is her richest colony to- day? (10.) For what did the Spaniards value their colonies? (11.) For what did the Dutch and English value theirs? 254. The Navigation Act. Topics. 1. Its intention and content. 2. Its success and ill effects. References. — Gardiner, ii. 564, 565 ; Bright, ii. 698-701 ; Gibbins, 128, 168; Cunningham and McArthur, 120-124; Gardiner, P. R., 162 ; Traill, iv. 272, 273, 454, 620, 621. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 445 255. War with the Dutch. Topics. 1. Outbreak of the war. 2. Early Dutch success, later victories of Blake and Monk. 3. Reasons for England's success. Reference. — Green, 577-581. Research Questions. — (1.) Had the Dutch ever been willing to be joined with England ? (2.) What had been their reason for desiring it? (3.) How did they feel about it now? (4.) What relationship of royal families made the English unfriendly toward the Dutch ? (5.) What racial kinship is there between the Eng- lish and the Dutch ? (6.) Are the two races likely to have equally good fighting qualities? (7.) When did the Dutch settle in South Africa? (8.) What other people have mingled with them there beside the English ? (9.) Where did Cromwell get the money to pay for the Dutch war? (Gardiner, ii. 565.) (10.) Is war a good way to settle difficulties? (11.) Do wars seem to decrease with the advance of civilization? (12.) What is meant by interna- tional arbitration? (11.) Mention some occurrences which seem to indicate the growing strength of the idea of arbitration. (14.) What claims of the United States against England arising from the civil war were settled by arbitration ? 256. Cromwell's Dissolution of the Rump. Topics. 1. Objections to a free Parliament. 2. Designs of different parties and Cromwell's action. 3. Causes which led to this action. Reference. — Colby, 199, 200. Research Questions. — (1.) When was this Parliament elected which Cromwell now dissolved ? (2.) What good work had it done? (3.) Why had Cromwell no constitutional right to dis- solve it. 257. The Barebones Parliament. Topics. 1. Cromwell as the executive of the nation. 2. Selection of a " New Representative." 3. Nickname and membership of this body. Reference. — Gardiner, ii. 566-568. 44^ COMMONWEALTH AND PROTECTORATE. Research Questions. — (i.) When were the Welsh admitted to Parliament ? (2.) Was the decree against Catholics withdrawn yet? (3.) Of what religion were the real Irish? Were there then any representatives of the real Irish admitted to Parlia- ment ? 258. Instrument of Government. — The Protectorate. Topics. 1. Instrument of Government and Cromwell Lord Protector. 2. Provisions of the Instrument. References. — Harrison, Oliver Cromwell, ch. ii.; Gardiner, ii. 568; Bright, ii. 704, 705; Green, 585, 586; Ransome, 164-166; Montague, 132, 133. 259. The Protector and his First Parliament. Topics. 1. Ordinances of the Protector and Council. 2. Immediate action of the new Parliament. 3. Cromwell purges and dissolves the new Parliament. 4. Cromwell's lack of true statesmanship. Reference. — Harrison, Oliver Cromwell, 187-191. 260. The Last Years of Cromwell's Domestic Rule. Topics. 1. The ten military districts. 2. Second Parliament, its humble Petition and Advice. 3. Powers conferred on the Protector. 4. Second session of this Parliament and its dissolution. Reference. — Harrison, Oliver Cromwell, ch. xii. ; Gardiner, ii. 572, 573 ; Bright, ii. 710 ; Green, 595; Traill, iv. 243. Research Questions. — (1.) Why was Cromwell ready to ap- prove the Petition and Advice? (Bright, ii. 710.) (2.) Was Crom- well's a more, or a less personal government than that of Charles ? (3.) Was it more or less despotic ? 261. The Protector's Foreign Wars. Topics. 1. His foreign policy. 2. Cause of war with Spain ; Jamaica and Dunkirk. 3. The Vaudois persecution and Blake in the Mediterranean. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 447 References. — Gardiner, ii. 571, 572; Bright, ii. 708; Green, 59 2 > 593? 596; Harrison, Oliver Cromwell, ch. xiii. ; Guest, 473- 475; Macaulay, i. 107, 108; Traill, iv. 260-264. 262. Oliver Cromwell's Death. Topics. 1. Circumstances of his death. 2. The condition of affairs at Cromwell's death. Reference. — Harrison, Oliver Cromwell, ch. xiv. 263. Richard Cromwell and the Army. Topics. 1. Character of Richard Cromwell. 2. He dissolves Parliament and abdicates. 3. Rule by a portion of the Rump and by the sword. Reference — Bright, ii. 716, 717. 264. The Action of General Monk. Topics. 1. Monk takes control. 2. The long Parliament revived. 3. A new Parliament restores the monarchy. 4. Declaration of Breda and joy over Charles's return. References. —Bright, ii. 718-721 ; Colby, 203-205. 265. The Puritans and their Enemies. Topics. 1. Attitude of extreme Puritans toward amusements. 2. Intermixture of hypocrisy. References. — Macaulay, i. 124-130 ; Macaulay, Essay on Milton, last part. 266. Thought and Letters. Topics. 1. A time of change in literature. 2. Milton, the greatest poet. 3. Great prose writers. 4. Beginnings of science. Reference. — Green, 600-616. CHAPTER XIX. RESTORATION AND REVOLUTION. Stuart Kings : Charles II. — James II. 1660-1688. 267. Charles II. The second Charles Stuart, brought back like a conquering hero to the throne which his father lost, was one of the most worthless of English kings. He had all the vices that were in the blood of his race, and he added worse ones that were particularly his own. He was shameless in the profligacy of his life, and sur- rounded himself with the vilest court that England ever knew. A work of vengeance was the first to be taken up by the new Parliament and the restored king. Fourteen, Theregi- m a ^» °f tne prominent Roundheads, mostly cides. « regicides," as the judges of the late king were called, suffered death. The bodies of Cromwell and Ireton were dragged from their tombs in Westminster Abbey to be hanged ; those of Pym, Blake, and others were cast into pits outside. 268. The Vengeance of the Church. It was religion, more than politics, that sharpened the vengeful temper of the royalists when they recovered power. The king, having secretly given such belief as he had to the Roman communion, desired toleration for the Catholic church ; but the question in Parliament was between the Presby- terians, who had taken substantial possession of the established church, and those who expected to drive them out. Cromwell had not disturbed the Presbyterian i66o] RESTORATION AND REVOLUTION. 449 system, beyond relaxing it to make room for some Bap- tist and Independent congregations, as well as for a con- siderable number of quiet parsons of the old church, who were left in peace. For some months the Presbyterians were kept in good humor by talk of a reconstructed church, in which presbyters and syn- ods should remain and bishops should be brought back to preside. But when the Presbyterian Parliament had voted a liberal reve- nue to the king, and had been dissolved, every pretence of willingness to make a religious compro- mise was dropped. The king was not active in what fol- lowed, but simply cast off his promises, and allowed his royalist friends to have their way. Their leader was that Edward Hyde, friend of Falkland, who had acted with the Puritans in 1641-42, until the conflict came T heEariof to blows (see section 222). He had been the clarendon, chief minister of Charles I. during the war, and had passed into the service of Charles II., who made him Earl of Clarendon and lord chancellor, and trusted him in most affairs. A new Parliament was elected in the spring of 1661, CHARLES II. 45° THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION. [1661-1664 while enthusiastic loyalty burned everywhere, and nine tenths of the Commons chosen were ardent Cavaliers. They began by ordering the " Solemn League and Cove- nant " (see section 231) to be burned by the common hangman. Then they drove the Presbyterians from their political strongholds, in the towns, by passing poration a Corporation Act, which practically excluded the members of that communion from office in municipal corporations, where the election of town repre- sentatives in Parliament was generally controlled (see section no). The next blow struck was in an Act of Uniformity, passed in the spring of 1662, which expelled, from churches, schools, and universities, every minister and teacher who failed to declare, within a TheNon- . , ' conform- given time, his " unfeigned assent and coil- ists - II , • ■ 1 t» 1 r r- sent to everything m the Book of Common Prayer. No less than 2000 Nonconformists, as they were called, left their pulpits and chairs on the appointed day. Expecting that the Nonconformists would be driven by these persecutions to support him, the king now claimed that he had authority to relax the intolerant. The king's laws, or to grant exemptions from them, and design. h e intended by that means to give freedom of worship to Catholics and Protestants alike. But when his intention was understood, it stirred up the old alarms of English Protestants afresh. An act passed in 1664 punished attendance at any religious meeting of more than five persons, held in any other manner than as practised by the The Con- J r ■' venticie church of England, with imprisonment or trans- Act and the . r r . . Five-Mile portation, for terms varying from three months to seven years. At the next session of Parlia- ment a still worse law was enacted, permitting no Non- 1664-1665] RESTORATION AND REVOLUTION. 45 1 conformist minister to come within five miles of a corpo- rate town, or parish, or place in which he had preached or taught. These detestable laws were cruelly enforced. More than 8000 Protestants are said to have been im- prisoned during the reign of Charles II., besides Catho- lics in great numbers. 269. The Cavalier Parliament and the King. During several sessions, the Cavalier Parliament seemed as much in haste to destroy the checks which the Long Parlia- ment had put upon the king as it was to reestablish a despotic church. But even the fanatical loyalty of the Cavaliers was cooled in a few years by the conduct of Charles. They were forced to see what he was ; how incapable of any sense of duty, or honor, or shame. To •obtain more money for his pleasures, there was nothing that he would not do. The first shock of awakening to his real character occurred probably on the Saleof discovery, in 1662, that he had sold Dunkirk, Duilkirk - Cromwell's conquest from Spain, to Louis XIV. of France ; but that was the least ignoble of his many deal- ings with the French king. 270. War with the Dutch. Clearer light was thrown on the character of the restored Stuart and his crovern- ment by their management of a war with the Dutch, which was reopened in 1665. The causes of the war were mostly such as arose from the rivalry of the two peoples in trade, and acts of hostility were begun, on the African and American coasts, a full year before war was formally declared. One of the first of these acts was the seizure, in 1664, by an English fleet, of the Dutch colony of New Netherlands in America, which the king had granted in advance to his brother, the Duke of York, and which thenceforward bore the name of New York. 45 2 THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION. [1665-1667 Popular feeling ran strongly in favor of the war, and Parliament voted an unexampled grant of money to carry it on. But Charles made free use of the war fund for his minions and himself. At the outset, the navy was in good condition, and of course it fought well. It was what Cromwell and Blake had made it, in superior ships and armament, and in prestige. In two out of three tremendous battles fought during 1665 and 1666 it had the honors of victory, without much fruit. Between those encounters, a third took place, so obstinate that the fighting was kept up for three days, and both fleets TheEng- were half destroyed. But the English navy hshnavy. ^ad reac h ec j the end of its strength at the be- ginning of 1667. The money that should have repaired its losses and kept it properly equipped had been wasted by the king, or stolen by official thieves. De Ruyter was able, in that year, to sail boldly up the Thames to Gravesend ; to burn three ships of war in the Medway, and to keep London in blockade for some days. The war ended while the nation was writhing under this dis- grace ; but England came out of it with no less a gain than the great province of New York. The " besotted loyalty," as Mr. Hallam describes it, of the first years of the Restoration had been effectually killed. Even the Cavalier Parliament had become ready to put restraints on the king, and began to Account- . . r 1 • t • ingde- demand accounts 01 his expenditure, appointing mauded. . ., , , commissioners to examine them and make re- ports. The proceedings then taken established the prac- tice in Parliament of making definite appropriations of money for purposes distinctly set forth, and holding the crown to them by strict accounts. Clarendon, the lord chancellor, fell a victim to the angry discontent of the time. He had been very useful 1665-1667] RESTORATION AND REVOLUTION. 453 to the king, and his daughter, Anne Hyde, was married to the king's brother, James, Duke of York; Fa i lof but neither king nor duke stood by him when clarendon - he was assailed. When the Commons impeached him, in 1667, he was coldly advised by Charles to fly, and did so, becoming an exile in France for the remainder of his life, and finishing there a history of the civil war, which gives him his best title to fame. 271. The Plague and the Great Fire. In the midst of the Dutch war, London was twice afflicted in a most terrifying way. A visitation of plague in 1665 exceeded in horror the worst that had been known since the awful " black death " of three centuries before. In the next year the city (then containing about half a million people) was half destroyed by one of the most appalling conflagrations in history. Calamitous as the fire seemed, it proved to be the greatest of blessings in the end ; for it burned out the filthy breeding-places of plague, which never appeared seriously in London again, and the city when rebuilt was vastly improved. 272. The Cabal. On the fall of Clarendon, the direc- tion of public affairs fell mostly under the control of five men, who were called The Cabal, because that word hap- pened to be formed by the initials of their names : Clif- ford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley (better known by his later title, as Earl of Shaftesbury), and Lauderdale. They formed an inner section of the larger body of royal counsellors called the Privy Council, and their so-called Cabal is considered to have been the first shaping of the English Cabinet of succeeding times. 273. The Triple Alliance. The first fruit of the change in government was a change of policy with re- ference to France. This was forced by a public feel- ing, shown strongly in Parliament, of alarm at the rising 454 THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION. [1667-1672 power and threatening ambition of Louis XIV. of France. The French king was attempting to lay hands on the Spanish Netherlands, evidently meaning, when they were subdued, to attack the Dutch. The Dutch claimed Eng- lish support against him, and public opinion compelled Charles to yield it, against his will. A Triple Alliance, between England, Holland, and Sweden, was arranged in 1668, which warned Louis XIV. away from the con- quests he had planned. 274. Charles as a Hireling of Louis. The king now renewed his efforts to give toleration to Catholics and Protestant Nonconformists ; but he was resisted with greater bitterness than before. Angered and mortified by the defeat, and longing to be absolute, like the King of France, he sold himself to a disgraceful vassalage under Louis XIV., for French money and French swords, to Treaty of De used in a new attack on English liberty and Dover. j aw> j n a se cret treaty, signed at Dover, in June, 1670, he agreed to betray his Dutch allies, to assist in their subjugation by Louis, and to make a public pro- fession of the Roman Catholic religion, — an act which was certain to produce in England a religious civil war. In return, he was to receive a large yearly payment of money, and 6000 French troops for use in England to crush the expected revolt. Of this treaty, nothing was known to the Protestant counsellors of Charles, but they were tricked by a sham treaty, concluded at the same time, in which no mention of religion was made. 275. The Declaration of Indulgence. The attack on the Dutch was opened treacherously, without warning, in the spring of 1672. At the same time, Charles made the first move in his own plans, by reasserting his author- ity to suspend the penal religious laws, and issuing a Declaration of Indulgence to that effect. For Protestant 1672-1673] RESTORATION AND REVOLUTION. 455 Nonconformists, licensed places of public worship were to be allowed ; while Catholics were to have only free- dom of worship in their own homes. Even this moderate measure of indulgence roused more passion than Charles had the firmness to resist. By defrauding public creditors, he was able to post- pone a meeting of Parliament until the next spring, and his Declaration was in effect throughout that year. When Parliament met, the king faced it with an air of great resolution, saying, " I am resolved to stick to my Declaration ; " but before a month was gone his resolu- tion had oozed away. Unfortunately he had stirred up fears and passions which his surrender was not sufficient to allay. 276. The Test Act. That the king was in secret a Roman Catholic had come to be suspected, but not known. There was no concealment, however, of the fact that his brother James, Duke of York, had entered the Roman church ; and others near the king were be- lieved to be attached to the ancient faith. Parliament now determined to drive all Catholics from office, by requiring every official to declare his disbelief in the fun- damental doctrine of the Roman church (the doctrine of Transubstantiation), relative to the real presence of the body of Christ in the elements of the Lord's Supper. The intended effect was produced so far that the Duke of York, Clifford, and others resigned. 277. The Country Party. The secret of the infamous Treaty of Dover began to leak out, just enough to alarm the circles through which it spread. Shaftesbury had got an inkling of it, and was furious at the trick of the sham treaty by which he had been deceived. Charles tried by bold denials to cover his secret again, solemnly assuring Parliament, in a speech, that the sham treaty 45^ THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION. [1673-1678 was the only treaty he had made with France ; but there was no longer any trust in his word. A party, known as the Country Party, which had been growing slowly in Parliament for some years, now rapidly increased. It inclined to Puritanism, regarded the Roman church with extreme fear, was in dread of France, and detested the scandalous court. Shaftesbury, who was the most dex- terous politician of his age, went into alliance with this party, and became a popular agitator of fierce opposi- tion to the king. The leaders of the more strictly named Country Party were William Lord Russell and Algernon Sidney, the latter an avowed republican in belief. Shaftesbury's agitations and the pressure of the Coun- try Party forced the king to make peace with Holland Peace with m February, 1674, and there began then to be Holland. demands for war with France. At the same time, those who distrusted the king were divided in feel- ing, between their wish to carry England into the alli- ance against Louis XIV. and their fear as to the use that Charles might make, at home, of any army which they allowed him to raise. The French king's money was spent freely in England to keep the kingdom con- fused. Under agreement to prorogue Parliament when- ever it threatened war, Charles received an annual pen- sion, and enormous extra payments repeatedly, without shame ; while even the Country Party was more or less corrupted by Louis's gold. 278. The So-called " Popish Plot." The vague fears that troubled the country were raised to a feverish heat, in 1678, by stories of a pretended " popish plot," started by a wretch named Titus Oates. Oates, a disreputa- ble clergyman, Protestant at first, but finally Catholic, claimed to have acquired knowledge, in certain foreign 1678 i68o] RESTORATION AND REVOLUTION. 457 Jesuit houses, of a great plot on foot to murder the king, to set his brother James, Duke of York, on the throne, with the help of an army from France, and to suppress Protestantism in England by force. Shaftesbury, arch- agitator that he was, made the most of the Titu8 excitement produced. Oates was the hero of 0ates - the hour, and other scoundrels of like kind made haste to join him with fresh lies, in order to get their share of so profitable a fame. Nobody dared to doubt that England was in deadly peril, from a gigantic conspiracy against Protestantism and the constitution, which nothing but the whole energy of the country could defeat. Two thousand suspect- ed Catholics were imprisoned ; every Catholic was or- dered to quit Lon- don, and the train-bands were called out. Then began a series of murderous trials, in which judges and juries abandoned themselves to the panic of the hour. Before the madness spent itself, near the end of 1680, seven priests and ten laymen had been put to death on the perjured testimony of Oates and his fellows ; many had languished long in prison, not a few had died. 279. The Exclusion Bill. The king having no law- TITUS OATKS IN TIM I'll I'M', , 45^ THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION. [1679-1681 ful children, his brother James, Duke of York, now known to be a zealous Catholic, stood next in succes- sion to the throne. His exclusion by law was fiercely demanded, and three Parliaments were elected, in 1679, 1680, and 1 68 1, with that purpose in the minds of the Commons ; but each in turn was dissolved by the king to prevent the passing of the Exclusion Bill. Those who desired the exclusion of James were not agreed as to the successor to be named. By his first wife, Anne Hyde, James had two daughters, Mary (mar- ried to the Prince of Orange) and Anne, both Protest- ants ; and these would be the next heirs, after himself, unless his second wife, who was a Catholic princess from Italy, should give him a son. Many Protestants, urged on by Shaftesbury, contended that the latter possibility should be guarded against by excluding the whole family of the Duke of York. They wished to give the crown to a son of King Charles, who was not of lawful birth, but who might, they thought, by act of Parlia- Dukeof ment, be made the legitimate heir. This son, whom Charles had raised to high rank, as Duke of Monmouth, was generally well liked, but sober-minded people could see that an attempt to place him on the throne was certain to produce civil war. 280. The Reaction. The dread of a new civil war which then arose in men's minds, while the frenzied be- lief in a "popish plot" was dying out, caused one of those quick and extreme reactions that are sure to follow false excitements of any kind. Opinion was rallied to the side of the king, against the promoters of the Exclu- sion Bill, and especially against the Monmouth faction, Whigs and with Shaftesbury at its head. The king's party Tones. now began to be called " Tories " and the ex- clusionists " Whigs," — meaningless party names that 1681-1683] RESTORATION AND REVOLUTION. 459 were kept in English politics for a hundred and fifty years. Whig was an epithet borrowed from the Scotch, who had applied it to certain fighting Covenanters in the west. The term Tory came from Ireland, where it signi- fied a wretched outlaw of the bogs. Soon the Tories were all-powerful ; the Whig party was broken by the king, who showed energy and ability for the first time in his reign. Shaftesbury had had the city of London at his back, with its magistracies and its juries ; but court influence won the mayor and the sheriff, packed the grand jury, and so shattered his party that he fled from a charge of high treason (October, 1683), to Holland, where, three months later, shaftes- he died. Then, by high-handed proceedings in ury ' the Court of King's Bench, the charter of the city was declared to have been forfeited ; its political rights were annulled, and all its municipal offices were placed under royal control. Against many other cities the same action was taken, and, those cities being the centres of Whig opinion, the Whig party seemed to be hopelessly bound hand and foot. 281. Russell, Sidney, and the Rye House Plot. The oppressive conduct of the king and the Tories gave rise to two projects of resistance among the Whigs, one by personal violence to the king, and one by a national ris- ing to restrain his hand. Some reckless followers of Shaftesbury engaged in the former, which was a plan to seize and perhaps murder the king and the Duke of York, as they passed a place called Rye House, on their way to Newmarket from London. When the two plots came to light, they were treated falsely as one, in order to make a blacker case against the leaders of the Whigs. Along with the worse plotters, Russell and Sidney were tried, condemned, and put to death. Against Sidney there 460 THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION. [1660-1679 was almost nothing proved, except his belief in republi- can government and in the right of the people to depose an unworthy king. That Russell had even sanctioned the larger project was unproved. 282. The Habeas Corpus Act. Before the Whig party fell, it had established one of the most important guarantees of personal liberty that exist in English law, by the enactment of the famous Habeas Corpus Act, in the Parliament of 1679. It was an old principle of the English common law that untried prisoners must be brought on demand before a judge, for investigation of the grounds on which they were held ; but there were modes of evading or escaping the law, by conveying such prisoners out of reach, and by otherwise hindering the execution of the judge's writ. The act of 1679, which became the most cherished in the statute book, was a more thorough measure for enforcing the law. 283. The State of Scotland. The state of Scotland was worse than that of England, and had been so through- out the reign of Charles. Cromwell's conquest appeared to have broken the old spirit of the nation for a time, and, in its joy at being delivered by the Restoration, it had permitted the king to do nearly what he willed. Its feeble Parliament abolished the Presbyterian system and established episcopacy at his command, with a certain toleration in worship, called the Indulgence, allowed to Presbyterian ministers who accepted it in due form. The stricter Covenanters * refused to listen to these " in- dulged " clergymen, and resorted to secret meetings in the mountains and on the wild moors, to hear preachers 1 The name " Covenanters," given first to the signers of the National Covenant in 1638 (see section 219), was afterwards ap- plied to all who adhered to the old Kirk of Scotland — the Pres- byterian church. 1669-16S5] RESTORATION AND REVOLUTION. 461 of their own, who "would not bow the knee to Baal." For years there was no movement of rebellion among them, beyond the attempt to assemble in retired places for forbidden services of preaching and prayer. Yet they were hunted, shot, hanged, imprisoned, tortured, harried by wild Highlanders, like deadly enemies of the state. In 1669, the Earl of Lauderdale, one of King Charles's Cabal, was sent as royal commissioner to Scotland, and he established there a reign of corruption and cruelty that would have shamed a Turkish bashaw. Toward the end of his rule he was joined in the persecution of the Covenanters by a soldier of evil fame, John Graham of Claverhouse, Viscount Dundee. It was then Claver . that the hunted people were driven into posi- house - tive rebellion by their maddening wrongs. In May, 1679, Claverhouse was defeated by the Covenanters at Drum- clog. A month later they were routed by Monmouth at Both well Bridge. Soon afterwards the direction of affairs in Scotland was given to the Duke of York, who contin- ued the merciless policy that Lauderdale had introduced. 284. Death of Charles II. — Accession of James II. The practice in government which James had found in Scotland was now to be widened on a greater field ; for the three kingdoms of his brother were about to be put under his hand. The exclusionists had been thwarted ; nothing stood in his way to the throne ; and when Charles II., stricken with apoplexy, died suddenly on the 6th of February, 1685, James II. became king. If no difference of religion had arisen between James and his subjects, he would still have been, probably, as impossible a king as his father, the first Charles, character He had the same despotic temper, with even of James - more doggedness of will and blindness to any view of 462 THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION. [1685 things except his own. "I will make no concessions," was his declaration, again and again. 285. The Argyle and Monmouth Rebellions. A Parliament elected in April contained only forty members of the House of Commons whom the king himself would not, he declared, have chosen. Toryism was at its height when the reign began. There was nothing, then, at this time to encourage a movement of rebellion against King James ; but such a movement was foolishly under- taken by some of the accused Whigs who had fled to Holland in 1683. The Duke of Mon- mouth, one of the refu- gees, was persuaded that he had a claim to the crown which the greater part of the English people approved and would sustain. The Duke of Argyle, in exile from Scotland, was equally per- suaded that the Highlanders of his clan and the Cove- nanters of the Lowlands would rise if he appeared among them. Two expeditions were accordingly planned, one led by Argyle, to rouse Scotland ; the other by Mon- mouth, to raise England in revolt. Argyle landed in May, and was overtaken by disaster so quickly that his execution at Edinburgh occurred be- fore the close of the following month. The failure of Monmouth was equally swift. Landing at Lyme Regis, in Dorset, on the nth of June, he advanced into Somer- JAMES II, 1685] RESTORATION AND REVOLUTION. 463 set and was joined by some 5000 or 6000 farmers, pea- sants, and townspeople; but the gentry held aloof. His followers were entirely untrained and poorly armed, and when he undertook, on the 6th of July, to surprise a camp of regular royal troops on Sedgemoor, by a night attack, there was almost no chance of sedge- success. The repulse and rout were complete, the pursuit fierce, the butchery of helpless fugitives un- merciful ; few escaped. Monmouth, soon captured, in disguise, was executed at London only nine days after the fight. The battle of Sedgemoor was the last ever fought on English soil. 286. The " Bloody Assizes " of Judge Jeffreys. Fugitives from the battle were hunted through the sur- rounding country for days by a Colonel Kirke ; but Kirke and his ruffianly soldiers were angels of mercy compared with the judge who came afterwards on the scene, to wreak vengeance in colder blood, under outraged forms of law, for the satisfaction of the implacable king. Be- fore he came to the throne, James had discovered this creature, Jeffreys ; had used influence to put him on the bench ; had since made him chief justice, and had pro- mised him the office of lord chancellor, the highest judicial seat in the realm. In September, Jeffreys was sent to conduct the trial of hundreds of wretched men, women, and young girls, who had embroidered colors for Mon- mouth, or given a night's shelter to fugitives from Sedge- moor, or lent countenance to the late rising in some way, — whether trifling or serious mattered little in Jeffreys's measuring of guilt. The story of those " Bloody As- sizes," as they are known in English history, cannot be told here. Of Jeffreys's victims, 320 were hanged and 840 sent to slavery in the West Indies, which was a fate dreaded more than death. The only appeals that won 464 THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION. L16S5-16S7 mercy from either the king or his judge were those backed by great bribes. 287. Parliament and. the King. While gratifying his malignity, James expected to terrorize the country and make it submissive to whatever he chose to do. He went forward now with bold steps on the path he had deter- mined to take : increased his army ; appointed Catholic officers to high commands, defiant of the Test Act ; de- manded from Parliament that not only the Test Act but the Habeas Corpus Act should be repealed ; and turned a deaf ear to his wisest Catholic counsellors, who saw that he was taking a ruinous course. The very Tories who had pleased him so well when Parliament met refused to tamper with the Habeas Corpus Act or the Test Act ; remonstrated in plain terms against his violation of the latter law and against his standing army, and gave him only half the supply of money that he asked. He pro- rogued the Parliament in disgust and never allowed it to meet again. 288. The Dispensing Power. What Parliament would not do for the king was partly done by the judges of a packed court. By removing four, to make room for his own creatures, James secured a bench which decided that he had power to dispense with the requirements of the Test Act, and he began a startling exercise of that power. Catholics were appointed to the highest places in church and state ; Protestants in office near the king, even his own brothers-in-law, of the Hyde family, were dismissed on refusing to change their faith. In fact, though not in name, the Court of High Commission, abolished by act of Parliament in 1641, was audaciously revived, for the swift punishment of clergymen who preached against the doctrines of Rome. In all these violent and unconstitutional proceedings James acted 16S7-16SS] RESTORATION AND REVOLUTION. 465 against the wishes of the pope and against the judgment of his wisest Catholic counsellors in England. 289. The Declaration of Indulgence. Thus far, James had shown no sign of a tolerant disposition towards any Protestant sect, except the Quakers, or Friends, whom he patronized in a singular way. But now he turned to the Presbyterians, Baptists, and other perse- cuted sects, with sudden professions of friendship and a zeal for toleration at large. On the 4th of April, 1687, he issued a general Declaration of Indulgence, suspend- ing all penal religious laws, against Protestants and Cath- olics alike. The relief was welcome to the persecuted sects, but the mode in which it came was not. Nor did the better class of English Catholics, apparently, approve the rash and high-handed way in which James had under- taken to liberate their church. His course excited as much political as religious alarm, increased by continual attacks on the constitution and on all the safeguards of law. The universities were ........ r ■> ■ 1 1 • Theuni- assailed, their rights 01 election overthrown, their verities professors and fellows arbitrarily expelled. For the surer packing of a new Parliament, county and town officials all over the kingdom were turned out, to make way for tools of the court ; but even with that done the king dared not allow an election to be held. 290. The Trial of the Seven Bishops. Blind to all the signs which warned him that his subjects would en- dure little more, James repeated his Declaration of In- dulgence in April, 1688, and ordered it to be read in every church. The Archbishop of Canterbury and six bishops then signed a petition to the king, asking him to withdraw a command which, the clergy could not obey without assenting to a violation of law. He rejected the petition with rage, and so he drove the clergy of a 466 THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION. [1688 church which, for years, had preached the extremest doctrine of submissiveness to kings, into an attitude of rebellion that refuted and cancelled forever, on that point, all that it had taught. There were few ministers in the whole kingdom who read the Declaration on the ap- pointed day, and the royal mandate was defied as much by the Nonconformists as by the clergy of the estab- lished church. The seven bishops who had petitioned him were marked by the king to receive punishment first. Their petition he claimed to be a seditious libel, and they were sent to the Tower, where they remained in confinement for a week, before being admitted to bail. A fortnight later they were tried in the packed Court of King's Bench, amid as great excitement as was ever known, and were acquitted by the jury, despite every effort to the con- trary of judges and king. 291. Birth of an Heir to King James. The revolt of the clergy and the trial of the bishops had shown that the king had no longer any hold on the loyalty of the coun- try. Still, it might have borne with him till his death, in the expectation that his daughter, Mary, and her hus- band, the Prince of Orange, would peacefully succeed ; but just at this time, while the greatest agitation pre- vailed, that expectation was dispelled by the birth of a son to James. This broke the patience of the people down. They suspected fraud ; they were persuaded that some child, not the queen's, had been smuggled into the palace to be put forward as an heir to the crown. So England was now ripened for a revolution which seems to have been, for the moment, more unanimously de- manded and universally approved by the people than any other, perhaps, that ever occurred in the world. 292. The Coming of William of Orange. On the i6SSj RESTORATION AND REVOLUTION. 467 day of the acquittal of the bishops, June 30, 1688, an invitation, bearing great names, was sent to William of Orange, urging him to come and lead a national rising for the rescue of England from the peril it was in. He had long been in correspondence with the discontented ; he knew the state of affairs, and he accepted the invita- tion, with the entire concurrence of his wife. On the 5th of November he landed with a small force at Torbay. England rose to welcome and support him, as it had promised to do. King James was deserted by his own courtiers, by his own soldiers, one by one, in rapid suc- cession, and finally by his daughter Anne. On the 12th of December he fled from London, and his enemies were careful to assist him in escaping to France. His blun- dering reign was at an end. 293. Social State of the Restoration Period. There is no reason for believing that the corrupting influence of a vicious king and court in this period was widely spread. The nation continued to be extensively Puri- tanized, and more healthily so, perhaps, than when Puri- tanism was in fashion and in power. Even in London — in "the City," properly called so — the Puritan Sab- bath was quite strictly observed. Outside of the capital and its near neighborhood, there must have been scanty knowledge of public affairs, even among the better informed. Travel was difficult and dangerous ; the roads as bad as possible ; highwaymen numerous. But the small beginnings of a different state of things were being made : the beginnings of a postal system, of public coach lines that attempted speed, and of newspapers. In the reign of Charles II. the News . first attempt to collect news systematically for P a P ers - publication, by the employment of reporters (" spyes," the publisher called them), was made by one Roger 468 THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION. [1660-1688 JOHN BUNYAN. L' Estrange. In London, people generally resorted for news to the coffee houses, which became the most nota- ble institutions of the Eng- lish capital at this time. 294. Literature and Sci- ence. That Milton, living through half the period of the Stuart Restoration, gave his greatest works to the world in that time ; that the years of Charles II. were the years in which the law of gravitation was discovered, by Isaac Newton, and the greatest English study of the Milton, human mind was made, by John Locke, are the Locke 11 ' three grand facts that shine out of the general Bunyan. meanness in this chapter of English history. The poetical literature of the day contains but one name to set with Milton's, and that is the name of Dryden, whose genius was crip- pled and whose poetry was stiffened in form and spirit by the utter poverty of inspiration that had fallen on the age. But nearer than Dryden to Milton, in imaginative genius, was John Bunyan, and, next after " Paradise Lost," the prose alle- gorical drama of "The Pilgrim's Progress," sir isaac newton. 1660-1685] RESTORATION AND REVOLUTION. 469 which the Puritan tinker wrote in Bedford jail, is the highest literary product of the time. The drama of the restored theatres was debased to the last degree. A noble prose came from the pulpit and from the religious writers of the period, but little of lasting worth from any secular source. Towards Science rather than towards Letters the in- tellectual interest of the age was drawn. It was really the age of full birth for Science, — the age in which natural phenomena began to win the gen- eral attention of inquiring minds. 295. Industry. — Commerce. — Colonization. The persecution of Hugue- nots and the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, in France, drove thou- sands of the most skil- ful French workmen in many arts and trades to England, during the later years of Charles II. and the reign of James. Their coming was favorable to a large number of English in- ... . JOHN LOCKE. dustnes ; to silk and linen weaving especially, but also to the manufacture of paper, glass, clocks, surgical instruments, and the like. The Commonwealth policy of the Navigation Act was maintained, but with changes (1663 and 1672) which made it as hostile to the English colonies in The Navi- America as it was to foreign rivals in the ocean nation Act. carrying trade. The colonists were allowed to import nothing from any country except England, and trade 470 THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTION. [1660-1685 between one colony and another was required to pass through an English port or else to pay a heavy tax. The avowed object was to keep the colonies "in a firmer dependence ; " but the effect was to plant the seeds of a desire for independence, which grew from that time. As stated already (see section 270), the Dutch colony of New Netherlands was acquired by conquest in 1664, con- firmed by treaty in 1674, and became New York. New Jersey was included in the cession of Dutch rights, and, after some changes of ownership, passed into the posses- sion of proprietors, mostly Quakers, of whom William Penn was one. In 1681, the great province of Pennsyl- vania was granted to Penn, in satisfaction of a debt which the English crown owed to his father, Admiral Penn. Eifty years earlier (1632), the neighboring province of Maryland had been granted by Charles I. to trie Catholic Lord Baltimore. In 1663, the second Charles had made a great grant of territory south of Virginia, extending to Florida, to a company of his courtiers, including General Monk (Duke of Albemarle), Clarendon, and Shaftesbury, who named it Carolina in honor of the" king. The line of English colonies, having some organized form, on the Atlantic coast, was now nearly complete. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS. 267. Charles II. Topics. 1. His character. 2. First acts of vengeance. Reference. — Green, 629-632. Research Questions. — (1.) What two of these regicides are connected with the history of America ? (2.) What does the fact that the people bore patiently with Charles's prosecution of his revenge in the case of the regicides and of Cromwell and Ire- ton show of the conditions on which the Restoration was effected ? TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 47 1 (3.) To what degree could the Restoration be considered a reli- gious movement? 268. The Vengeance of the Church. Topics. 1. The king's desire and the hope of the Presbyterians. 2. Reaction against Presbyterianism. 3. The Corporation Act and the Act of Uniformity. 4. The king's attempt to give religious freedom. 5. The Conventicle and the Five Mile acts. Reference. — Green, 619-625. Research Questions. — (1.) If Presbyterians were in charge of the municipal elections, how would the Corporation Act affect the parliamentary majority. (2.) How would the feeling of low churchmen interfere to defeat the king's aim ? (3.) If the king could not accomplish his aim through religious feeling, what other sentiment could he appeal to? (Ransome, 188, 189.) 269. The Cavalier Parliament and the King. Topics. 1. Early and later attitudes of the Cavaliers in Parliament. 2. Sale of Dunkirk. Reference. — Bright, ii. 726, 727. 270. War with the Dutch. Topics. 1. Causes of the war and seizure of New Netherlands. 2. Charles's use of the grant of Parliament. 3. The navy and De Ruyter's victory. 4. Reaction against the king and the fall of Clarendon. Reference. — Bright, ii. 735, 736. Research Questions. — (1.) Whom did Charles II. marry? (Gardiner, ii. 587.) (2.) What possession did she bring to Charles ? (3.) Locate this place on the map. (4.) How does the colony which has grown up from this compare in importance with other foreign possessions of Great Britain? (5.) How did the Dutch view the English possession of this colony? (6.) Name the pos- sessions which the Dutch hold in that vicinity to-day. (7.) How does the possession of India influence England in European poli- tics to-day ? 472 RESTORATION AND REVOLUTION. 271. The Plague and the Great Fire. Topics. i. Ravages of the plague. 2. Effect of the fire. References. — Colby, 205-208; Gardiner, ii. 590-592. The plague in London : Bright, ii. 732 ; Traill, iv. 465-470 ; Defoe, Journal of the Plague. 272. The Cabal. Topics. 1. Origin of the name. 2. Germ of the English Cabinet. Reference. — Bright, ii. 739. Changes in the Privy Council : Ransome, 177, 178; H.Taylor, ii. 367-369. 273. The Triple Allianc'e. Topic. 1. Threatening power of France, and appeal of the Dutch. Reference. — Green, 637, 638. 274. Charles as a Hireling of Louis. Topic. 1. Conditions of the king's secret treaty with France. Reference. — Bright, ii. 741, 74 2 - Research Questions. — (1.) When does bribery as a political force appear? (Bright, ii. 747, 748, and Gardiner, ii. 611.) (2.) Was an alliance with France the right one for England to make at this time? (3.) In what way had the aspect of continental politics changed. 275. The Declaration of Indulgence. Topics. 1. Attack on the Dutch and the Indulgence. 2. The repeal of the Indulgence. Reference. — Green, 639, 640. Research Questions. — (1.) What religious party had now a majority of the country against it? (2.) When the dissenters joined with churchmen to oppose the Indulgence, what treat- ment did they bring upon themselves? (3.) What is an estab- lished church? (4.) Are dissenters compelled to contribute to its support if they do not attend it ? (5.) Does that seem a fair TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 473 arrangement ? (6.) On what terms did Parliament now begin to grant supplies ? (Bright, ii. 737.) (7.) Where did the king nat- urally turn when he wanted to borrow ? (8.) Out of what sources of income did the king expect to meet this debt ? (9.) Was it then, in fact, the king's debt or the country's debt? (10.) To whom do we ascribe the beginning of this debt in England ? (Taswell- Langmead, 620.) 276. The Test Act. sL Topics. 1. Religion of the king and his brother. 2. Parliament passes the Test Act. Reference. — Green, 641. 277. The Country Party. Topics. 1. Discovery of the secret treaty of Dover. 2. Shaftesbury and the Country party. 3. Peace with Holland. 4. Corrupting influence of the French king's money. Reference. — Green, 645-649. 278. The So-called " Popish Plot." Topics. 1. Perjured testimony of Titus Oates and others. 2. Popular fear and attack on the Catholics. Reference. — Hale, Fall of the Stuarts, 21-24. 279. The Exclusion Bill. Topics. 1. Objection to James as Charles's heir. 2. Disagreement over another successor. Reference. — Gardiner, ii. 617. 280. The Reaction. Topics. 1. Rise of Whigs and Tories. 2. Fall of Shaftesbury. 3. Forfeiture of the London and other charters. References. — Gardiner, ii. 620; Green, 657; Hale, Fall of the Stuarts, 33-36; Montague, 141; Ransome, 185, 186; Macaulav. i. 200. 474 RESTORATION AND REVOLUTION. Research Questions. — (i.) When did the name "trimmer" come into play in English politics? (Gardiner, ii. 618.) (2.) What does it mean ? (3.) What does the fall of one after the other of the king's ministers show of the struggle between king and Parliament ? ^ 281. Russell, Sidney, and the Rye House Plot. Topics. 1. Two Whig projects of resistance. 2. Treatment of those engaged in the Rye House Plot. Reference. — Hale, Fall of the Stuarts, 60-66. 282. The Habeas Corpus Act. Topic. 1. Its importance and former enforcement. References. — Montague, 142, 143; Bright, ii. 753; Ransome, 184; Hale, Fall of the Stuarts, 32; H. Taylor, ii. 380-383; Taswell-Langmead, 623, 627. 283. The State of Scotland. Topics. 1. Recstablishment of Episcopacy in Scotland. 2. Persecution of Covenanters by Lauderdale and Claverhouse. 3. Battles of Drumclog and Bothwell Bridge. 3. The Duke of York in Scotland. Reference. — Hale, Fall of the Stuarts, 37-42. Research Questions. — (1.) Had the union of kingdoms brought about by Cromwell remained in force? (Green, 714.) (2.) What was the condition in Ireland? (Gardiner, ii. 595.) 284. Death of Charles II. — Accession of James II. Topics. 1. Change in rulers. 2. Character of James. Reference. — Hale, Fall of the Stuarts, 68-70. 285. The Argyle and Monmouth Rebellions. Topics. 1. Power of Toryism and outbreak of the rebellion. 2. Death of Argyle and the battle of Sedgemoor. Reference. — Hale, Fall of the Stuarts, 88-101. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 475 286. The " Bloody Assizes " of Judge Jeffreys. Topics. i. Kirke and Jeffreys. 2. The " Bloody Assizes." References. — Green, 665, 666 ;. Colby, 214-217. VJ 287. The Parliament and the King. Topics. 1. The king's ruinous course. 2. Tory opposition in Parliament. Reference. — Ransome, 184- 191. 288. The Dispensing Power. Topics. 1. The king packs the bench and annuls the Test Act. 2. Revival of the Court of High Commission. 4. Obstinacy and lack of wisdom in James. Reference. — Hale, Fall of the Stuarts, 107-110. 289. The Declaration of Indulgence. Topics. 1. The king's attitude toward Protestant sects. 2. Objection to Declaration and alarm at the king's course. Reference. — Montague, 145. 290. The Trial of the Seven Bishops. Topics. 1. Repetition of the Indulgence and petition of the bishops. 2. Arrest and trial of the bishops. Reference. — Hale, Fall of the Stuarts, 125-129. 291. Birth of an Heir to King James. Topics. 1. Effect of the birth of an heir. 2. Suspicion of fraud and its results. Reference. — Gardiner, ii. 643. 292. The Coming of William of Orange. Topic. 1. Invitation to William and end of James's reign. Reference. — Hale, Fall of the Stuarts, 134-146. 476 RESTORATION AND REVOLUTION. 293. Social State of the Restoration Period. Topics. i. Healthy growth of Puritanism. 2. Growth of towns and condition of highways. 3. Gathering of news and coffee-houses. References. — Gardiner, ii. 628-634. Coffee-house of the period : Colby, 208-212; Bright, ii. 747; Gardiner, ii. 630; Macaulay, i. 286-290. 294. Literature and Science. Topics. 1. Literature; Milton, Dryden, Bunyan, and Locke. 2. Science ; Sir Isaac Newton. References. — Traill, iv. 422-438. The Royal Society : Gardi- ner, ii. 598; Guest, 487, 488; Green, 609-611 ; Macaulay, i. 317- 322 ; Traill, iv. 286, 403, 404, 462. 295. Industry. — Commerce. — Colonization. Topics. 1. Huguenot refugees. 2. The Navigation Act and the colonies. 3. New York, Pennsylvania, and the Carolinas. References. — Bright, ii. 790-804. Trade and finance: Bright, ii. 792-800; Gibbins, 129-138; Traill, i v. 445-460. Agriculture in the seventeenth century: Cunningham and McArthur, 182- 185; Gibbins, 108-120; Rogers, 452-467; Bright, ii. 793, 794; Traill, iv. 11 5-1 21, 439-445 ; Macaulay, i. 242-246. LINEAGE OF THE STEWART OR STUART SOVEREIGNS OF SCOTLAND AND ENGLAND, FROM MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS. Charles II., _ 1 660- 1 685. Mary," married William II., Prince of Orange. Mary, Queen of Scots, married Henry, Lord Darnley. James I., 1603- 1625, of England (being lames VI. of Scotland), I Charles I., 1623-1649, { married I Henrietta Maria ( of France. James II., 1CS5-168S, married Anne Hyde. William of Orange, (afterward William III. of England). Mary, 1689-1694, married William III., {of Orange), 1689-1702. Anne, 1702-1714. SURVEY OF GENERAL HISTORY. THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. Early Characteristics. The glow and brilliancy of intellec- tual life in the seventeenth century was followed by a time of chill and dulness, which lasted, in the eighteenth century, through its early and middle years. There seemed to be some deadening of spirit in the world, — some loss of warmth and earnestness in feeling, — some general weakening of the beliefs that inspire and the hopes that uplift. Voltaire, who treated everything with a mocking wit, appeared to be the representative genius of the age. Poetry was stiffened into the cold forms of verse that we find in the rhymed essays of Pope, and the nobler arts in general were touched by the same pervading chill. Scientific studies were carried forward diligently with eye and hand, observing and experimenting; astronomers watched the heavens, mapped the stars, gathered facts industriously ; geology, chemistry, and botany were really founded as true sciences, and the great field of electrical discovery was opened up. There was notable progress, indeed, along many lines of advance in knowledge ; but it was seldom lighted, as it had been before and would be again, by flashes of new scientific thought. Later Characteristics. But genial influences of some kind were working under the cold surface of that peculiar age to stir its blood. Their first and finest effect appeared in many signs of a new growth of fellow feeling among men, — a quickened attentiveness to sufferings and wrongs, — a deep- ened sense of duty to humanity at large. Many of the noblest of benevolent movements were begun before the 478 GENERAL HISTORY. eighteenth century closed : the condemnation of slavery and the slave trade, for example ; the reforming of barbarous pris- ons ; the better treatment of the insane ; the teaching of the deaf and dumb. The growth of fellow feeling which gave these kindly proofs was being carried, at the same time, into political ideas. Notions of freedom and equal rights, which had been, for two centuries and a half, beaten down in the minds of every people except the English, Dutch, and Swiss, began to revive. Under such generous influences, poetry was once more in- spired. Lessing, Goethe, and Schiller gave Germany, at last, its high place in the choir of song. Cowper and Burns put life and natural feeling again into English verse. Music was raised to a higher place among the great arts. All literature took on a warmer tone, and all philosophy was led, by Im- manuel Kant, into loftier regions of thought. Then began that wonderful refitting and refurnishing of the earth, by mechanical invention and scientific discovery, which has made it a habitation for mankind so very different from that which our ancestors knew (see Survey, Nineteenth Century). T7ie Last Years of Louis XIV, Europe was still harassed, in the first years of the century, by the unscrupulous ambi- tions of Louis XIV. of France. Despite his solemn renun- ciation, for himself, his wife, and all their descendants, of all claim to the Spanish crown (see page 345), he had persuaded the childless and half imbecile King of Spain, Charles II., to bequeath the whole Spanish dominion to one of Louis's grandsons, who might inherit, likewise, the crown of France. Charles died in 1700; his bequest was accepted, and the young French prince was sent to take possession of the Spanish throne. With great difficulty, after much discouragement, William of Orange formed a new Grand Alliance, of England, Hol- land, Austria, and most of the German states, to oppose this practical union of Spain with France. The " War of the THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 479 Spanish Succession," which opened then, raged in the Neth- erlands, -France, Spain, Germany, Italy, America, and on the ocean, for twelve years (1702-17 14). William of Orange died just as it began, but two great soldiers, Marlborough and Prince Eugene of Savoy, who commanded the armies of the allies, won- a series of extraordinary victories, which stripped its tinsel glories from the reign of Louis XIV., broke the military prestige of France, and mortally weakened Spain. By the treaties of Utrecht and Rastadt, in 17 13 and 1 7 14, France yielded Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Hud- son's Bay to England; Spain gave up Gibraltar and Minorca to the English, Naples, Milan, Mantua, Sardinia, and most of the Spanish Netherlands to Austria, Sicily to the Duke of Savoy, with the title of king, and certain strong forts on the Flemish frontier to the Dutch. The French intruder, Philip V., kept his throne, however, and founded a Bourbon line of Spanish kings. In 17 15,, Louis XIV. died, leaving a kingdom that had rea- son to remember him with hate. ' The Wars of Charles XII of Sweden. Another war was raging meantime in the north and east. Peter the Great of Russia had conspired with the kings of Poland and Denmark to take territory from a young king of Sweden, Charles XII., who came to the throne in 1697. They thought him weak and frivolous ; they were quickly undeceived. Instead of attacking they were attacked, and it was in their dominions, not his, that the war was fought for nine years (1 700-1 709). Charles was ruined at last by the mistake which Napoleon repeated a hundred years later, — leading his army into the depths of Russia and wearing it out in a useless march. He was killed in 17 18. Alliance against Spain. Before this happened, the powers of the west were again in arms, with a strange shifting of sides. The Bourbon Philip V. of Spain had quarrelled al- ready with his royal relatives of France, over schemes into which he was drawn by a reckless minister, Alberoni, and by 480 GENERAL HISTORY. his queen, Elizabeth Farnese. The result was an alliance of France with England, Holland, and Austria, in a war which drove Alberoni from power and did fresh injury to Spain. As one consequence of the war, the Duke of Savoy ex- changed Sicily for Sardinia, and bore the title of King of Sardinia from that time. The War of the Polish Succession. A few years of peace followed the Spanish disturbance, and then the disputed elec- tion of a king of Poland gave rise to another war (1733). France pressed one candidate, Austria and Russia another, and they fought over the result, Spain and Sardinia being joined with France. This gave the occasion for what is known as the " First Family Compact " of the Bourbon kings of France and Spain. Austria suffered heavily in the war, losing Naples and Sicily (" the Two Sicilies," so called), which were conferred on the Spanish king's younger son. Thus a third Bourbon monarchy arose. The War of Jenkins's Ear. Out of the Bourbon Family Compact came feelings and provocations which led to a petty war between England and Spain (1739), commonly spoken of as "the War of Jenkins's Ear" (see section 329), which soon merged itself in the great conflict described next below. The War of the Austrian Succession. The emperor, Charles VI., who died in 1740, left no son, but willed his he- reditary sovereignty, as Archduke of Austria, King of Hun- gary, etc., to his eldest daughter, Maria Theresa. The will had been legally sanctioned by the principalities concerned, and it had been solemnly guaranteed by the sovereigns of almost every European state ; yet Charles was hardly buried before half the guarantors of that Pragmatic Sanction, as it was called, were making combinations to seize some part or the whole of the dominions he had bequeathed. Frederick II. of Prussia (called " the Great "), the kings of Spain, France, and Sardinia, the electors of Bavaria and Saxony, were all in the attack, either separately or together ; England and Holland, alone, among the important powers, supported THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 481 Maria Theresa in her rights. Frederick of Prussia tore Sile- sia and Glatz from her possession ; the King of Spain ob- tained spoils to the extent of three Italian duchies, and the King of Sardinia was bought over to the Austrian side by a small territorial bribe. France, Bavaria, and Saxony suffered heavily in the war, and were glad to end it, by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748, with no gain to themselves. Prussia, and the Seven Years' 1 War. The War of the Aus- trian Succession was really profitable to but one of the par- ties engaged in it, and that was the King of Prussia. Prussia (with Brandenburg united to it — see page 344) had been raised from a duchy to a kingdom in 1700, by decree of the emperor, Leopold I. Frederick the Great was the third of its kings. Of his remarkable ability there is no question, and it was soon sharply proved. He had roused an impla- cable enemy in Maria Theresa, and she worked unceasingly, after the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, to make a combination against him. Russia and Saxony were first brought secretly into her scheme ; then, when England and France came to blows in America (see sections 336, 337), and the former went into alliance with Frederick, she drew France into her league. As her combination finally shaped itself, it embraced Austria, France, Russia, Sweden, Poland, Saxony, and the Palatinate, with Spain added at the last. Against this appalling league of enemies, bent on his destruction, the King of Prussia de- fended himself, with little more than English help, for seven years (1756-1762), and gave up not one foot of the soil that he claimed ; while England, his ally, came out of that terri- ble Seven Years' War with enormous colonial conquests from France and Spain (see sections 338-340). Germany. The treaties of Paris and Hubertsburg, 1763, which ended the Seven Years' War, were followed by a gen- erally peaceful period in Germany of about thirty years, dur- ing which the people of that much troubled, much divided, much oppressed country, found the first fair opportunity that had been given them to waken and exercise their genius in letters, science, and art. 482 GENERAL HISTORY. The Partition of Poland. It was in this period, however, that the destruction of the Polish nation was accomplished, by Frederick and Joseph, in conspiracy with the Russian em- press, Catherine II. This was done by three successive partitions, in 1772, 1793, and 1795. The first partition had so sobering an effect on the Polish nobles that they consented, in 1791, to the adoption of a new constitution, which went far in many directions towards popular rights ; but the movement was too late. It only provoked fresh attacks, and Poland, as a nation, disappeared. Catherine II of Russia. Catherine II., then empress of Russia, was a German princess, who had mounted the throne of her husband, the late Tsar, after causing his deposition and death. A woman of great ability, of strong will, and of no moral principle, her reign is the most notable in Russian history except that of Peter the Great. Besides adding the larger part of Poland to the empire, she subjugated the Tar- tars of the Crimea and made extensive conquests from the Turks. She did more than even Peter to bring Russia into closer relations with western Europe and under the influence of its ideas and its arts. France and the French Revolution. In France, the impos- ing monarchy that Louis XIV. had built, and which crushed a miserable people, kept up its delusive show throughout the long reign (17 15-17 74) of his successor, Louis XV.; but the crashing fall of it came before the century was at an end. Apparently the people were suffering less from their dreadful misgovernment in the last half of the century than they had been in the first ; but their consciousness of it had increased. New ideas of political right had been planted in their minds, and the founding, in America, of the republic of the United States (1776-1783) had a powerful effect in stimulating the growth of such ideas. Thus it happened that the Bourbon monarchy became unendurable to them after it had passed its worst state, and they wreaked vengeance for its oppres- sions on the least oppressive of its kings. THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 483 In 1788, the king, Louis XVI., yielded to demands for a meeting of the States-General, the ancient national legislature of France, which had not been assembled since the year 161 4. When it met, in 1789, the Third Estate, or Commons, grasped control ; the king's authority vanished ; a storm of revolution broke out, and rising mobs of peasants and work- men began to drive the oppressive nobility to flight. No training had prepared the French people for a moderate or prudent use of the power thus suddenly seized. In destroy- ing the old wrongs they knew not where to stop, or how to construct a free government in the place of the despotism they had overthrown. The fiercest and wildest spirits among them (organized in what came to be called Jacobin Clubs) took the lead. A constitutional monarchy, agreed to in 1791, was cast down a year later, and the king was put to death. His queen, Marie Antoinette, followed him to the guillotine in 1793. Then followed the awful period known as the " Reign of Terror," during which thousands of per- sons suspected of hostility to the revolution were put to death. At last, the Jacobin leaders began to destroy one another, and when Robespierre, the most influential among them, fell (July, 1794), the Reign of Terror came to an end. Meantime the Revolutionists had plunged France into war with its neighbors on every side, undertaking to break mo- narchical governments down. Their wars had been carried on with astonishing success ; but far greater successes came after the downfall of the Terrorists, when Napoleon Bona- parte rose to command. Two years (1796-97) of dazzling victory over the Austrians in Italy gave Napoleon such a mastery of the French army, and such a hold on the admira- tion of the people that he was able (1799), to overthrow the government then in power, and to set up a new one, with himself, as First Consul, at its head. Then began, as the eighteenth century closed, the long struggle of Europe against the devouring ambition of this unscrupulous master of France. THE PERIOD OF ARISTOCRATIC GOVERNMENT. 1688-1820. CHAPTER XX. the settlement of a constitutional monarchy. William and Mary. — Anne. 1688-17 14. 296. Pilling the Vacant Throne. It is not easy to see how the Tories and Whigs, who jointly brought Wil- liam of Orange to England, could ever have agreed as to what should be done after he came, if James had not, fortunately, cleared most of the difficulties of agreement away, by his opportune flight to France. If he had stayed in England, it could hardly have been possible to deprive him, in Tory eyes and Tory thought, of the sacred character and authority of a king. By quitting it, he furnished the ground for a plausible theory, which many Tories were willing to accept, that he had abdi- cated the throne. Then came anxious debate as to the mode in which the vacant throne should be filled. In the end (February 13, 1689), William and Mary were declared to be jointly king and queen ; but full regal power was conferred on the former, to be exercised in the name of both. Thus the ancient right of the Eng- lish people to regulate the hereditary succession of royal- born persons in their monarchy was exercised once more, and established for all time. 297. The Declaration of Rights and the Bill of 1689] A CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY. 485 Rights. At the same time, in the same instrument, a broad declaration of the principles of constitutional gov- ernment, which the late kings had obstinately violated, was made by Parliament and accepted by the new sover- eigns, " so that the right of the king to his crown and of the people to their liberties might rest upon one and the same title-deed." In the following October, Parliament embodied the Declaration in a Bill of Rights, which takes its place with Magna Carta and the Petition of Right, in forming what has been called " the legal con- stitutional code " of English government. The Bill of Rights extinguished, forever, the claim of authority in the crown, without consent of Parliament, to suspend or to dispense with any law, or to levy money in any manner, or to interfere with the right B mof of petition, or to raise or keep a standing army Rl & ht8 - within the kingdom in time of peace. It established lastingly the freedom of parliamentary elections, the free- dom of speech and action in Parliament, and the fre- quency of its meetings "for the amending, strengthening and preserving of the laws." It prohibited "cruel and unusual punishments," excessive fines and excessive bail. It secured to "subjects which are Protestants" (not to Catholics) the right to " have arms for their defence." It named the queen's sister, Princess Anne, as the suc- cessor to King William and Queen Mary, if the latter should leave no children, and it excluded from the throne every person belonging to the Roman church, or married to one in that church. 298. The Deeper Effects of the Revolution. The immense importance, however, of the political revolution of 1688 is not found in the enactments of constitutional law to which it led, so much as in the changed state of mind that it forced upon the people. That obstinate 486 ARISTOCRATIC GOVERNMENT. [1689 and fatal superstition of loyalty which had looked upon a king as a sacred personage, divinely gifted with an authority which none could resist without sin, had no root left in the English mind. The church, which planted' that superstition, had now helped to tear it away. 299. The Tory Reaction. — The Jacobites. Never- theless, the " glorious revolution " was followed by a mean reaction of sentiment, which went to even dangerous lengths. Because the new king was not gracious in man- ners ; because he was grave and silent ; be- cause he was a for- eigner and spoke Eng- lish badly ; because he was a statesman with broad views, who stud- ied the common inter- ests of the two coun- tries that he ruled, in their relation to affairs at large ; because he would not be the mere chief of a party, but tried to be a national king ; and, also, be- cause he did undoubt- edly lavish too many favors on Dutch fol- lowers and friends, there was a shamefully large number of men in both church and state who soon forgot the intolerable conduct of James and were ready to bring the old king back. If experience had taught anything to the latter, it seems possible that the Tory reaction would have gone far enough to restore him to the throne. But, WILLIAM III. 1689] A CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY. 487 fortunately, every expression that came from him helped to discourage the thought of his return. Those who con- tinued to regard him as the rightful king, and his son as the rightful heir to the crown, were called Jacobites, from the Latin form of the name of James. 300. The Mutiny Act. William was harassed through- out his reign by jealousies and treacheries, against which no common resolution or ability could have contended with even moderate success. A mutinous movement in the army, which occurred in March, 1689, and which was vigorously checked, gave rise to a device whereby the maintenance of a necessary standing army without danger to popular freedom was made practicable for the first time. Martial law and courts-martial, which are necessary to military discipline, were authorized for a period of six months only. At the expiration of the act it was renewed for a year, and the same practice has continued until the present day. Only from year to ' year has the crown been given power to govern and con- trol an armed force. This created a new necessity for the annual summoning of Parliament, and an added safe- guard of constitutional government was secured. 301. The Toleration Act. There was never before, and probably never afterwards, so much friendliness be- tween the clergy of the established church and the Nonconformists as appeared in the early days of the Revolution, which they had joined hands in bringing about. It soon vanished, but it lingered long enough to smooth the passage of an act which tolerated non- conformity in a peculiarly English way. The new law repealed none of the old statutes, requiring attendance at the services of the church of England and prohibiting other religious assemblies, but it stopped magistrates from applying them to Protestants who took the oaths 488 ARISTOCRATIC GOVERNMENT. [1689 of allegiance and supremacy ; and it allowed dissenting ministers to omit several of the articles of the church of England from the affirmation of their belief. Catholics, it will be seen, had no share in the relief that was given by the so-called Toleration Act. It embodied, in reality, no principle of religious toleration, but could not have been passed if tolerant ideas had not gained ground. 302. The Non-Jurors. Many of the clergy were found to be still looking reverently upon James as the lawful king, and Parliament thought it necessary, therefore, to require an oath of fealty to King William and Queen Mary from every person holding office or place in church or state. About 400 of the clergy, including the Arch- bishop of Canterbury and six bishops, refused the oath and were displaced. These, known as Non-Jurors, formed a distinct body, which claimed to be the true church of England, and they and their successors, for more than a century, maintained that claim. 303. The Revolution in Scotland. Revolutionary events in Scotland had kept pace with those in England, but more disorder attended them and more resistance was made. Many of the clergymen of the Episcopal church were riotously driven ("rabbled," as the Scotch termed it) from their parishes at once, by the long persecuted Covenanters ; and one of the first acts of the Scottish Estates, when called together, was to abolish episcopacy and restore the Presbyterian church. James was de- clared, not to have abdicated the throne, but to have forfeited it, and William and Mary were chosen to be jointly king and queen. Viscount Dundee, the " bloody Claverhouse," went into the Highlands, as Montrose had done half a century before, and stirred up certain of the clans. A veteran force sent against him, under General Mackay, was routed 16S9-1692] A CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY. 489 with great slaughter at Killiecrankie (July 27) ; but Dun- dee fell in the fight, and his Highland host melted away. There was no general submission, house however, until two years later, when the chiefs sam ' were offered pardon and a payment of money if they took the oath of allegiance to William and Mary before the 1st of January, 1692. All accepted the terms and were duly sworn ; but one among them, Macdonald of Glencoe, mistook the official to whom his submission should be made, and could not correct his mis- Massacre take until the day of grace was passed. He of Glencoe - had powerful enemies, who probably misrepresented the facts of his delinquency to the king. By some means, at all events, they obtained authority to proceed against Macdonald and his clan as rebels, and used this as the warrant for a treacherous and cowardly deed. The Mas- sacre of Glencoe, in which men and boys and even women were shot down at midnight, by soldiers whom they had entertained for a fortnight as friends, is one of the hor- rors of Scottish history, and a blot on William's reign. 304. The Orange Conquest of Ireland. King James, while he reigned, had undone the old wrong of religious oppression in Irish government by putting a new form of the same wrong in its place. In other words, he had stripped the Protestant Anglo-Irish population of their oppressive power, and transferred it, without any* check, to the Catholic Celts. The latter, when the English revolution occurred, were in full possession of a formid- able army, filled the offices of the Irish government, occupied the benches of the courts, and controlled the corporations of even the Protestant towns. The viceroy, Richard Talbot, Earl of Tyrconnel, who accomplished the change, was a man sure to give it the worst possible effect. 49° ARISTOCRATIC GOVERNMENT. [1689 The Irish took arms, nominally for King James, but in reality for themselves, making use of a fair opportunity The Irish to break the English yoke. A tumultuous ris- rising. m g occurre d, in which almost the last traces of order in the country disappeared. Protestant and English residents fled by thousands into England or to the districts in the north where some defence might be made. Londonderry and Enniskillen became the two rallying points of such resistance as the Protestants of Ulster could undertake. In March, 1689, James arrived in Ireland, with a liberal equipment of ships, money, arms, and officers for his Irish troops, provided by his friend and ally, the King of France. His aim was to use Ireland for the recovery of England ; James's Dut tne a ^ m °f n ^ s supporters there was to win attempt. independence for the Irish crown. The latter carried things their own way. They extorted the king's consent to sweeping measures of confiscation and ven- geance, which hardened English and Scottish hostility to him and made his return to the lost British thrones more than ever an impossible event. In April, James led a numerous army to attack London- derry (known commonly by its older name of Derry), which was scantily provisioned and poorly prepared for the siege that its people determined to endure. Lundy, the military governor of the town, proved treacherous or faint-hearted, and wished to surrender ; two regiments sent from England to support him thought the place could not be defended, and went back ; but the stout-hearted men of Derry organized their own defence and would not Siege of gi ye U P- When their store of wholesome food Derry. was consumed, they ate the flesh and even the skins of horses and dogs. Many died of starvation and of the fevers that famine breeds. For weeks they saw 1689-1691] A CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY. 491 in the distance an idle fleet that King William had sent to their relief, but which did not attempt to break the Irish blockade. At last, on the 30th of July, one of the ships passed the boom which the enemy had stretched across the river Foyle, and reached the starving town with a saving cargo of food. The besiegers then lost hope of success and marched away. At nearly the same time the Enniskilleners won a decisive victory at Newton Butler, routing 5000 of their assailants with little loss to themselves. In August, William sent an army to Ireland under Marshal Schomberg, a French Protestant soldier, and he followed it personally the next June (1690), with fresh troops. On the 1st of July he fought the Irish and French army of James, near Drogheda, and Battle of won the decisive Battle of the Boyne, from theB °y ne - which the defeated ex-king fled back to France. William entered Dublin and took control of the government ; but Irish resistance was not fully overcome until the next year. 305. The Violated Treaty of Limerick. The war was ended by a treaty, signed at Limerick, October 30, 1 69 1, which pledged to the Catholic Irish a little mea- sure of freedom in their religion, and promised to reward their submission by sparing their estates. This treaty was shamefully set at naught by the Anglo-Irish, in their Parliament, as soon as they had recovered power. It was violated by confiscations and persecuting laws, which, says Mr. Hallam, " have scarce a parallel in European history, unless it be that of the Protestants of France after the revocation of the edict of Nantes." Stripped of property on slight pretences, deprived of arms, denied the means of education, excluded from office and shut out of many employments, " the native population," says 49 2 ARISTOCRATIC GOVERNMENT. [1690-1691 Lord Macaulay, " was tranquil with the ghastly tranquil- lity of exhaustion and despair." 306. King William's Troubles in England. The troubles of King William were increasing in England, where few of the politicians of either party gave him an honest support. The late Stuarts had befouled the whole government, including Parliament, with corrup- tions which time, only, could cure, and, with all his high courage, he had become so despairing in 1690 that he nearly determined to resign the crown. His absence in Ireland gave the signal for activity among his enemies in both England and France. To encourage insurrec- tion and prepare for invasion, a great French fleet, under Count de Tourville, approached the English coast and Beechy defeated the English admiral, Lord Torrington, Head. wno f ee b]y commanded the united squadrons of Dutch and English ships, in a battle fought off Beachy Head (June 30, 1690). But when Tourville attempted a landing on the Devonshire coast, the country rose in arms to repel him, showing plainly that the plots to re- store James with foreign aid had little popular support. William's difficulties in England and Ireland were weakening his hand in the great European struggle with Louis XIV., which he still guided and inspired. Louis made head against his opponents during these first years of William's English reign ; but he did so at a cost which exhausted the resources of France, while England, politi- cally troubled as she was, but with the com- The strug 1 - giewith mercial energies of her people comparatively free, grew steadily in wealth and strength. In America, where this contest is sometimes called King William's War, and sometimes the First Intercolonial War, there were attempts made to drive the French from Canada, but without success. 1692] A CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY 493 La Hogue. Louis's last undertaking against England was in May, 1692, when he prepared to send James, with a formidable French and Irish army and a powerful fleet, to reclaim the throne. Russell, the English admiral then commanding in the Channel, had been in trai- torous correspondence with the Jacobites, and was ex- pected to betray his trust ; but when the moment came he was not base enough for the deed. He attacked the French fleet near the Bay of La Hogue and de- stroyed the greater part. The treachery promised by Russell had also been promised by another more notable man. John Chur- chill, Earl (afterwards Duke) of Marlborough, who acquired the highest fame ever won by an Eng- lish soldier, and tarnished it with displays of the meanest character, was then beginning the min- gled glory and shame of his career. He had deserted James under circumstances of peculiar dishonor, and afterwards offered service to him as a trai- tor and spy. His perfidy was discovered, and, early in 1692, he was dismissed from the high offices and commands that William had trusted to him. 307. Beginning of Party Ministerial Government. As a consequence of the Revolution, Parliament, or, strictly speaking, the House of Commons, had gained power to control the executive government in most branches of JOHN CHURCHILL, DUKE OF MARL- BOROUGH. Marlbor- ough's treachery. 494 ARISTOCRATIC GOVERNMENT. [1694-1697 affairs. Practically, therefore, government had become impossible without agreement between the administra- tion and a majority of the popular House ; and, since political parties were now distinctly formed, it followed that the party which had a majority in the House of Com- mons must also hold the chief ministerial offices, if the administration of government was to be smoothly carried on. This was a new situation, existing nowhere else in the world, and it was not understood for some years. The first experiment with a party ministry, made up to be in agreement with the majority in Parliament, was tried by William in 1695. Of the Whigs then brought into office, four leading statesmen, the ablest among whom was Lord Somers, became the special counsellors of the king. The Junto. _, , . T , , They were known as the Junto, and they re- sembled the English Cabinet of later times much more than the Cabal of Charles II. had done ; but a perfected Ministry, united in responsibility, taking office and quit- ting office together, was yet to come. 308. Death of Queen Mary. Late in December, 1 694, Queen Mary died, and her death was a grievous public loss, as well as a crushing affliction to the king. He was supported no longer by the loyal affection that she had inspired, and which he could not win. England was heavily burdened by the war, and disheartened by what seemed to be want of success. Yet success, as William saw, was being surely attained, in the wearing out of the strength of France, and he was able to hold his unwilling Peace of subjects and allies to the task until Louis XIV. Ryswick. humbled himself to the acceptance of terms, in the peace-treaty of Ryswick (October, 1697), which took from him all his conquests, except Alsace, and acknow- ledged William to be the rightful English king. 1697-1698] A CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY. 495 To keep the peace thus gained, it was necessary that the alliance which William had created should still face the King of France, armed and ready ; for the question of the Spanish Succession (see page 478) was i • _ ti v 1 ■ • ^ ne Span- looming up. But Parliament, listening to no ishSucces- argument, cut the army down at once, and the king was left without power to obstruct the new designs of France. 309. The Act of Settlement. Elections in 1698 gave the Tories a great majority in Parliament, which soon forced the surrender of the government to a ministry that was hostile to the whole policy of the king. Yet this same Tory Parliament and ministry were so free from Jacobitism that they framed and passed an act which positively barred the return of James or his de- scendants to the throne. William and Mary were child- less, and the last of the children of Mary's sister, Anne, had recently died. Aside from James II. and his son, there was a daughter of James's sister, Henrietta, and there were several children of Elizabeth (called Queen of Bohemia), the daughter of James I., for whom the crown might be claimed. Of these, only one, . . The Sophia, Electress of Hanover, had remained in Eiectress the Protestant faith, and to her and her descend- op ants, for that reason, the Act of Settlement appointed the regal succession after Anne. It enacted, further, that every future English sovereign must join the church of England, and it added important provisions to those contained in the Bill of Rights, for limiting the power of the sovereign ; while it imposed, for the first time, a dis- tinct responsibility on the ministers and advisers of the crown. This was the last of the great statutes by which the English monarchy is constitutionally limited and de- fined. Its passage by a Tory Parliament shows the advance in political ideas that had been going on. 49 6 ARISTOCRATIC GOVERNMENT. [1701-1702 310. Opening of the War of the Spanish Succession and Death of William III. The passage of the Act of Settlement was soon followed by the death of James II. (September, 1701). On that event, the son of James was defiantly recognized as King of England by Louis XIV., and assumed the title of James III. English feeling resented this offensive action in France, and became instantly ready for war. A new Parliament was called and the Whigs returned to power. But King William, always feeble and suffering in body, was now a nearly dying man, unable to take the field, and Marlborough, forgiven his treacheries, was trusted with the command of forces sent to the help of the Dutch. Just as hostilities were beginning, an accident wmiam hastened William's death. The stumbling of his horse gave him a shock and an injury which his weakened frame. could not bear. He died on the 8th of March, 1702. 311. Important Measures of William's Reign. Be- sides the great constitutional measures that have been described, the reign of William and Mary was marked by several important acts. By one bill (called the Second Triennial Bill) the duration of every Parliament was limited to three years ; by another, trials for treason were regulated, for the protection of the accused ; by the defeat of a third bill, the licensing and cen- Freedom . of the sorship of the press was brought to an end. The Bank of England was founded in 1694, when the permanent national debt of England had just begun its enormous growth. 312. Queen Anne and her Reign. Anne was seated on the throne without open dispute, and, in the series of strangely fortunate happenings which helped the English people to take all real sovereignty from the crowned head 1702-1714] A CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY. 497 of their government, and to establish it in their represent- ative House of Commons, her reign has a quietly impor- tant place. Having not much force in character or mind, she was easily pushed into the background of English politics, where kings and queens (with one exception, that we shall find in George III.), have since remained. The crowned heads have been conspicuous hitherto, in the front of everything political that we have had to re- late, and the story has been little more than one of a long struggle to keep their pretensions in check ; but now, from this point, they count for little, as a rule, in Eng- lish political history. Its conflicts hereafter are between parties among the peo- ple themselves ; its is- sues are between their differing interests and views ; its important actors are uncrowned. 313. The Epoch of Political Parties. Un- til the time of the Stuarts, the only wide- spread opinions or feel- ings that had force enough to cause large divisions of party were such as sprang from differences of religion or church. Under the Stuarts, a strong mix- ture of political with religious disagreements began to appear ; but, still, the animating oppositions, even through the Civil War and after it, almost to the final revolution, were religious ; QUEEN ANNE. 498 ARISTOCRATIC GOVERNMENT. [1702-1714 political issues had a secondary place. It was in the reign of Charles II., as we have seen, that a distinctly political spirit began to show itself, in the rise of two opposing parties, Whig and Tory, which represented mainly a division between minds that were open to new ideas on public questions and minds that were not. In Queen Anne's time, the shaping of those parties, and the exciting of political action as a matter of contest between them, became a very notable fact. For the most part, the commercial and industrial classes in the towns, and the Nonconformists generally, were Whigs ; and so many of the nobles inclined to Whig views that the party commanded, on most questions, a wwgs and majority in the House of Lords. On the Tory Tories. ^^ w ^ f ew exceptions, were the " gentry " class of landowners, often spoken of as "the squires," and the clergy of the established church. The weight of numbers was commonly with the Tories, and the queen's feelings were strongly in their favor ; but cir- cumstances and superior intelligence gave more control over the course of events to the Whigs. 314. Literature and Politics. The literature of Queen Anne's time and of the following reign gives remarkable evidence of the wakening of the English mind to an intellectual interest in public affairs. At no other time has so high an order of literary genius been enlisted in party warfare ; and never have such masterpieces of literary art been produced in party disputes as were con- tributed then to enduring literature by Swift, Addison, Steele, Defoe, Arbuthnot, and Gay. The same cause, more than any other, gave rise to the famous London coffee-houses of that day, as lively centres of news-telling and conversation ; and the talk of the coffee-house gave its quality and tone to the Addisonian essay, which was the exquisite literary creation of the age. 1702-1714] A CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY. 499 LONDON COFFEE-HOUSE IN THE REIGN OF ANNE. 315. Marlborough and the War. When Anne came to the throne, and for some years after, she was under the influence of the Duke of Marlborough, through his wife, to whom she was passionately attached. This gave the whole influence of the crown to the support of the war with France (which extended to America and was there called "Queen Anne's," or the "Second Intercolo- nial War "), though the Tories, who claimed both Marlbor- 500 ARISTOCRATIC GOVERNMENT. [1704-1709 ough and the queen for their party, were eager to bring it to an end. The Whigs, adhering to the foreign policy of the late King William, were ardently for the war, and Marlborough, agreeing with them in this, was gradually drawn to their side, carrying with him Lord Godolphin, an able Tory minister of finance. The marvellous mili- Bienheim, tary successes of the duke, who never lost a and" 11168 ' battle, — his intoxicating victories at Blenheim, oudenarde. Ramillies, and Oudenarde, — popularized the war, brought the Whigs back to power, and forced the queen, against her will, to give the ministry into their hands (1 704-1 708). This ended the friendship be- tween Queen Anne and the Duchess of Marlborough, which the latter had been wearing out by her arrogant use of it in the interest of the duke. A new favorite, Mrs. Masham, whom the Tories controlled, obtained in- fluence over the queen. 316. The Union with Scotland. If the Whigs could claim the glory of the war, the Tory ministry might boast that the greatest achievement of peaceful statesmanship in Anne's reign was accomplished by their hands. The union of Scotland and England in one kingdom, with one Parliament and one crown, so long seen to be neces- sary for the peace and prosperity of both, but resisted so long by paltry jealousies on each side, was brought about in 1707, and the two realms were merged in the Kingdom of Great Britain, so styled from that time. 317. Toryism in the Church. The Tories were at a disadvantage on the questions of the war ; but they had the influence of the church on their side,- and it was able to revive issues that had seemed to be dead. It attacked the dissenters with fresh intolerance, and it began a re- newed preaching of the servile doctrine of non-resistance to kings. In 1709, after the Whigs had regained power, 1709-1713] A CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY. 501 one Dr. Sacheverell stirred great excitement on this sub- ject by a Jacobite sermon in St. Paul's cathe- dral, which the ministers of the day were un- Sache- wise enough to make important by bringing the preacher to a solemn trial before the House of Lords. The clergy rallied to his defence, and their influence ENGLISH FLAG. UNION FLAG. SCOTTISH FLAG. raised a storm which swept away the Whigs, to the de- light of Queen Anne. 318. The Treaty of Utrecht. The nation grew weary of the war, and that feeling helped the overthrow of the Whigs. The Tories, led by Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, and Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke, took control of the government, the queen creating new peers to give them a majority in the House of Lords. In 1 71 3, they brought the war to an end, by a treaty (the Peace of Utrecht) which was bitterly denounced by the Whigs, as being treacherous to the allies of England and false to herself. This famous treaty added, however, some important possessions to the rising British empire, including Gibraltar and Minorca in the Mediterranean, Acadia (which the English had named Nova Scotia) and the whole of Newfoundland, with Hudson's Bay 502 ARISTOCRATIC GOVERNMENT. [1713-17H and Straits, in America ; and it gave to Englishmen a shameful monopoly of slave trading with the American colonies of Spain. England came out of the war with immense prestige, Position of having taken a rank not recognized before in England. European eyes. She had risen to a supremacy in naval power that she never lost ; she had demonstrated a military capacity equal to France ; she had given proofs of a wealth that could bear almost any strain. 319. The Death of Queen Anne. Signs of breaking health in the queen were warning both parties to prepare for a change on the throne. The prospect was welcome HACKNEY COACH IN THE REIGN OF ANNE. to the Whigs, but it caused among the Tories great con- fusion and doubt. The latter had passed the act which would carry the crown to the Hanoverian House, but they were dissatisfied with their work. The Electress Sophia was dead ; her rights had passed to her son George, Elector and Duke of Hanover and Brunswick- Luneburg, whose confidence, there was reason to believe, had already been won by the Whigs. If the Pretender in France, who styled himself James III., had consented to renounce the Catholic faith, it seems probable that the Tory party would have taken up his cause and brought i 7 i4] A CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY. 503 him in on the death of Anne. Even when he refused, there was a section of the party, led by Bolingbroke, that laid plans in his behalf, from which nothing could possibly come. The hopeless division of the Tories made it easy for the Whigs, when Anne died suddenly, in August, 1 714, to guard the throne for George I. until he arrived to take possession, in the following month. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS. 296. Filling the Vacant Throne. Topics. 1. Effect of James's flight upon his deposition. 2. The proclamation of William and Mary as joint rulers. References. — Bright, iii. 785-789. Character of William : Green, 675-677 ; Guest, 499, 500; Montague, 156; Traill, Wil- liam III., ch. i. ; Macaulay, ii. 126-134. Research Questions. — (1.) Why did England appeal to Wil- liam rather than to any other European sovereign? (2.) How did kings, on gaining power, usually act toward the leaders of the opposite party? (3.) What was William's course in this re- spect? (4.) Who had made himself obnoxious to the people in James's reign? (5.) How did the people take revenge? (Guest, 499, 500.) 297. The Declaration of Rights and the Bill of Rights. Topics. 1. Action of Parliament. 2. Content of the Bill of Rights. 3. Settlement of the Succession. References. — Bright, iii. 806; Green, 683 ; Ransome, 191-196; Montague, 146-148; Traill, William III., 54, 55; Taswell-Lang- mead, 654-661. Research Questions. — (1.) To whom was the control of the army transferred ? (2.) What dangers did this tend to avoid ? 298. The Deeper Effects of the Revolution. Topic. 1. Death of the old feeling of the divine rights of kings. Reference. — Bright, iii. 806, 807. 504 A CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY. 299. The Tory Reaction. — The Jacobites. Topics. i. William's character and causes of opposition to him. 2. James's unsatisfactory attitude. Reference. — Hale, Fall of the Stuarts, 158, 159. 300. The Mutiny Act. Topics. 1. Mutiny in the army and changes in discipline. 2. Yearly grant to the crown of power to control an army. Reference. — Hale, Fall of the Stuarts, 162, 163. Research Questions. — (1.) What is meant by martial law? (2.) What is a court-martial ? (3.) Why is the trial of soldiers for their offences necessarily different from that of civilians? 301. The Toleration Act. Topics. 1. The new Act of Toleration. 2. The exclusion of Catholics. Reference. — Montague, 150-152. 302. The Non-Jurors. Topic. 1. Oath of fealty and displacement of non-jurors. Reference. — Hale, Fall of the Stuarts, 159, 160. 303. The Revolution in Scotland. Topics. 1. Episcopacy abolished and William and Mary proclaimed. 2. Battle of Killiecrankie. 3. Submission of Highlanders and Massacre of Glencoe. Reference. — Hale, Fall of the Stuarts, 152-154. 304. The Orange Conquest of Ireland. Topics. 1. Catholics restored to power by James. 2. Rising for James and his arrival in Ireland. 3. James a helpless tool in the hands of his supporters. 4. Siege of Londonderry and victory of the Enniskilleners 5. Battle of the Boyne. Reference. — Hale, Fall of the Stuarts, 168-186. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 505 Research Questions. — (1.) What was the real design of the uprising in Ireland? (Bright, iii. 812.) (2.) What people took over the lands of Ulster at the Cromwellian settlement ? (3.) Who settled most of Leinster and Minister? (4.) What name was given William's followers in Ireland, from the name of his house ? 305. The Violated Treaty of Limerick. Topics. 1. Content of the treaty. 2. Action of the Anglo-Irish Parliament. Reference. —Hale, Fall of the Stuarts, 197, 198. 306. King William's Troubles in England. Topics. 1. Corruption in the government and despair of William. 2. Repulse of the French invasion. 3. Louis's success on the continent. 4. Second attempt at French invasion and its defeat. 5. Treachery of Marlborough. Reference. — Green, 694-696. Research Questions. — (1.) What other means than open war did James employ to regain his throne ? (Hale, Fall of the Stuarts, 235, 236. (2.) To what measure for the protection of William did this lead ? (3.) What was there in William's early history to account for his persistent opposition to Louis XIV. of France? (Traill, William III., ch. ii.) 307. Beginning of Party Ministerial Government. Topics. 1. Gain in parliamentary power. 2. First trial of party ministry and the Junto. References. — Green, 696-699. The ministry: Gardiner, iii. 687,688; Ransome, 200, 201; Montague, 166, 167; Traill, Wil- liam III., ch. xi.; Macaulay, iv. 348-357; Taswell-Langmead, 674-677. Research Questions. — (1.) What principle of the kingship was settled forever by the seating of William and Mary on the throne ? (2.) In the new idea of government which came in with William, what part was assigned to the king ? (Bright, iii. 808.) (3.) What weight did he attach to party considerations? (4.) What 506 A CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT. was the result of this variance between king and the Parlia- ment? (Bright, iii. 809.) 308. Death of Queen Mary. Topics. 1. Effect of her death. 2. Peace of Ryswick. 3. Mistake of Parliament in disbanding arm)'. Reference. — Bright, iii. 844-860. Research Question. — (1.) How did the people receive the news of the Peace of Ryswick and what objects did William attain by it ? (Bright, iii. 859.) 309. The Act of Settlement. Topics. 1. Hostility of the Tories toward James. 2. Possible heirs to the throne. 3. Choice of Electress Sophia. 4. Safeguards provided by Act of Settlement. Reference. — Montague, 153-156. 310. Opening of the "War of the Spanish Succession and Death of William III. Topics. 1. Death of James II. and recognition of James III. by Loui3. 2. Preparation for war and death of William. References. — Bright, iii. 862-874. The Grand Alliance : Gar- diner, iii. 675 ; Bright, iii. 873 ; Green, 703 ; Morris, Age of Anne, 33-41. 311. Important Measures of William's Reign. Topic. 1. Three important acts passed during his reign. References. — Bank of England: Gardiner, iii. 660; Bright, iii. 843,844; Green, 699; Cunningham and McArthur, 148-153, 161 ; Macaulay, iv. 392-403,555-561. Research Questions. — (1.) What was the condition of the press at this time ? (Guest, 505, 506.) (2.) In view of William's wars, were the taxes likely to be sufficient to pay the bills of the gov- ernment ? (3.) What did the government do to get money ? (4.) How did this get the name of the funded debt ? (Traill, iv. TOPiCS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 507 522.) (5.) Where did the English get the idea of the bank, and how did it affect trade ? (Traill, iv. 524.) (6.) What was the state of the coinage under William ? (Hale, Fall of the Stuarts, 233.) (7.) While the money was being called in for recoinage, what difficulty was there in transacting business ? (8.) How did the bank help the government at this crisis? (Bright, iii. 850.) (9.) By what measure did the government help itself? (Bright, iii. 851.) (10.) Was there any security for these Exchequer Bills except the faith of the government? (11.) What is such a debt called? (12.) What part of our currency constitutes a similar debt ? 312. Queen Anne and her Reign. Topics. 1. Effect of her character in the growth of parliamentary power. 2. Position of the crown henceforth. Reference. — Ransome, 207-209. 313. The Epoch of Political Parties. Topics. 1. Early prevalence of religious differences. 2. Rise of political differences and the division of parties. Reference. — Morris, Age of Anne, 120-131. 314. . Literature and Politics. Topics. 1. Political writers. 2. Coffee-houses. Reference. — Morris, Age of Anne, 21 1-241. 315. Marlborough and the War. Topics. 1. His influence at court. 2. Policy of the Whigs. 3. Blenheim, Ramillies, and Oudenarde. References. — Morris, Age of Anne, 42-118, 132-137; Colby, 226, 227. Research Questions. — (1.) What famous stronghold in Spain did the English obtain by this war? (Guest, 511.) (2.) Bring into class and read Southey's poem relating to Blenheim. 508 A CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT. 316. The Union with Scotland. Topic. i. Work of the Tories. References. — Gardiner, iii. 685 ; Bright, iii. 924-928 ; Green, 714, 715"; Morris, Age of Anne, 145-153 ; Colby, 227-229 ; Montague, 158-161. 317. Toryism in the Church. Topics. 1. Attempt to revive dead issue. 2. Trial of Dr. Sacheverell. Reference. — Morris, Age of Anne, ch. xiii. 318. The Treaty of Utrecht. Topics. 1. Tory control and end of the war. 2. Possessions added by the treaty. 3. Prestige of England. References. — Gardiner, iii. 696, 697 ; Bright, iii. 921 ; Green, 719; Morris, Age of Anne, ch. xv. ; H. Taylor, ii. 456, 457. Research Questions. — (1.) Prove from the terms of the treaty of Utrecht that this was a trade war. (2.) How does the con- cession of the slave trade to England indicate that the old the- ory of colonial trade still held? (3.) In what quarter beside America was French trade beginning to clash with English trade ? (4.) What doctrine of European politics did the treaty of Utrecht plainly enunciate ? (Green, 721.) 319. The Death of Queen Anne. Topics. 1. Dissatisfaction of Tories with the Act of Settlement. 2. Death of Anne and accession of George I. References — Morris, Age of Anne, ch. xviii. Irish penal legis- lation : Gardiner, iii. 686; Lecky, i. 301-328, ii. 241, 265-315. John Locke: Gardiner, iii. 652; Bright, iii. S49 ; Green, 615; Traill, iv. 563-565. Research Question. — (1.) In what famous novel of Thackeray are the times and manners of Queen Anne portrayed ? CHAPTER XXI. THE ESTABLISHING OF MINISTERIAL GOVERNMENT. Hanoverian Kings : George I. — George II. 1714-1742. 320. George I. Once more, reverence for royalty was lowered in English minds by a change of family on the throne, and so much that it has had no seri- ous political influence since. The effect went far to- wards making the crowned head of the government a merely convenient figure, such as it is at the present day. The new king was more foreign and more a stranger than William of Orange had been, and of William's ability he had none. He knew nothing of England ; he had not even learned its language ; he only comprehended that the Whigs were bound by their own interests to stand by him, and he put himself help- lessly into their hands. He was unable to take part in GEORGE I. 5IO ARISTOCRATIC GOVERNMENT. [1714-1716 the council of his ministers, and never ventured to refuse his assent to an act which Parliament had Helpless- . _, ... nessofthe passed. By mere incapacity, he set an example in these two particulars which became a rule for his successors ; and nothing, in the strange moulding of the British constitution, has done more to bring about a practical shifting of the whole responsibility of govern- ment from the wearers of the crown to the ministers who act in their name. 321. Tories and Jacobites. The power gained by the Whigs on the accession of George I. was held with- out break for a generation. The Tory party was sunk into a state of sour discontent, which vented itself in a a good deal of sentimental Jacobite talk, but which, among Englishmen, had not much rebellious intent. In Scotland, where a great deal of bitterness against the union with England prevailed, there was enough Jacobite Jacobite ardor to encourage a rising for the Pretender, rebellion, in 1715. A few English Jacobites, in Northum- berland, attempted to support the Scottish movement, but it was feebly done. A battle at Sheriff muir, in Scot- land, ended the undertaking, and the Pretender, arriving on the scene too late for any service, was glad to escape back to France. 322. Parliament and the Whigs. The Whigs had a great majority in the first Parliament elected under George I., but the king and his German court were soon so unpopular in the country that they feared to face a new election at the end of three years, as required by the Triennial Act. They evaded the clanger by tenniai P a very bad piece of legislation, known as the Septennial Act ( 1 7 1 6) , in which Parliament prolonged its own term, and the term of succeeding parliaments, to seven years. 1715-1720] MINISTERIAL GOVERNMENT. 5 1 T 323. Foreign Relations. The death of Louis XIV. of France, in 171 5, brought about a great change in the situation of affairs abroad, with the effect of drawing France, England, and Holland together, in an alliance against Spain. They were afterwards joined by Austria, and a short war, in which England took part with her fleet, defeated Spanish attempts to break the arrange- ments of the Treaty of Utrecht, and secured peace for a number of years. Disagreements between King George and some of his ministers arose out of these events. The king wished to use England in selfish schemes for enlarging and strengthening his Hanoverian dominions, and several ministers who opposed him resigned Sir Robert (171 7). One of these was Sir Robert Walpole, Wal P° le - who had been first lord of the treasury and chancel- lor of the exchequer for two years. In 1720 Sir Robert returned to office, and then entered on a notable career. 324. The South Sea Bubble. When Walpole was re- called, the country was on the eve of a ruinous disaster which the ministers had helped to bring about. They had given encouragement to a frenzy of speculation, which raged in both England and France. Started in France, by a vast mad project known as "The Mississippi Scheme," it had spread to England, and produced there one equally mad. A "South Sea Company," chartered some years before, with special privileges of trade in Spanish America, made some kind of delusive bargain with the English government, in 17 19, for paying off the national debt. The scheme rested on wild ideas of the trade which the company would control, and those ideas, encouraged by the government, fired a craze of excite- ment in the public mind. Everybody became eager to get shares in the company, at any price, no matter what. Before the end of June, 1720, buyers were paying more 512 ARISTOCRATIC GOVERNMENT. [1720-1742 than ten times the nominal value of the stock. At the same time, fraud and folly were floating a thousand other senseless projects in the market, and people of all classes ran after them in mobs, with money in their hands — small savings and large fortunes alike — to be thrown away. In September the waking from this strange delirium came, with an awful shock, which burst the air-blown bubbles of speculation, and spread ruin and wretchedness over the land. 325. Walpole, Prime Minister. Walpole had opposed the dealings of the government with the South Sea Com- pany ; he had written and spoken with sound sense on the subject, and now men turned to him for help from the trouble into which the country had been plunged. A new ministry was formed, in which he became distinctly the head, and he held that position for more than twenty years. Since a ministry ex- isted, there had usually been one man who was recognized as holding the chief place, but never in the sense in which Walpole now took that place. Each minister had for- merly acted in his own office with a certain independence of power ; but Walpole established an authority over his colleagues which gave him the general direction of public affairs. He was too jealous a chief, and the effect of his con- duct was to drive men of spirit and talent from the government ; but he practically created the Prime Min- istry and the Cabinet of England — the office of that great minister who stands almost in the place of the COSTUME OF A GENTLE- MAN IN 1721. 1720-1742] MINISTERIAL GOVERNMENT. 513 sovereign, as the real and responsible executive of gov- ernment, and the united council of associated , , , ... , The ministers by whom the prime minister is served English and advised. He left but one thing remaining to be done for the completion of the system of ministerial government in England as it is now carried on. That one thing was the fixing in practice of a rule that ministries shall quit office when outvoted in the House of Commons on any proposal that they make. That became a little later the estab- lished rule, and thus, though ministers are ap- pointed by the SIR ROBERT WALPOLE. sovereign, they cannot stay in office without the approval of the representatives of the people. 326. Walpole's Character and Administration. Sir Robert Walpole had no shining qualities or brilliant gifts. His morals, his manners, his tastes, were anything but refined ; his ideals in statesmanship were prosaic in the last degree. He aimed at nothing but strictly material benefits to the country, with an eye to its comfortable 514 ARISTOCRATIC GOVERNMENT. [1720-1742 contentment, and nothing else. But that was what Eng- land most needed in his day, for the stable settlement of its parliamentary constitution, under the new race of kings, and there was almost perfect practical wisdom in the policy that he carried out. He kept the country out of war for a score of years, by steadily resisting frothy passions in Parliament and Hanoverian ambitions in the king. He softened the operation of the hard laws against dissenters, but would not have the worst of therri repealed, because such measures would excite the Jacobite temper in the clergy of the established church. He lightened the national burdens by careful economy and skilful measures of finance. He lapped England in a restful prosperity and ease that were politi- cally but not morally for its good. On its moral side, Walpole's statesmanship of plain common sense offers nothing to admire. He had no scruple as to the means by which its objects were at- tained. He not only increased the use of corrupt influ- ence in parliamentary elections and in Parliament itself, Political which had been growing since the Stuart resto- corruption. ra ti on> but he did so, apparently, with no wish for a purer state of things. He had nothing but derision for all classes of reformers and all notions of reform. The age was one of generally low aims, little warmth of feeling, little faith in humanity, little inspiration of any nature, and Walpole's personal influence and public policy helped, unquestionably, to lower the prevailing tone of disposition and thought still more. 327. Death of George I. and Accession of George II. When George I. died, in 1727, it seemed impossible that Walpole should continue in power. Positive hatred had existed between the late king and the son who succeeded him, and the animosity of the latter extended to his 1727-1742] MINISTERIAL GOVERNMENT. 515 father's ministers and friends. But George II. was in- fluenced by a queen more intelligent than himself, and with her support the reins of government were kept in Walpole's hands. 328. Growth of Opposition. For a dozen years in the new reign, Walpole was still supreme ; but the oppo- sition to him grew strong at last, by a combination of resentful and discontented Whigs with the small body of Tories that was still active in public life. It was managed for a time on the latter side by the skilful hand of Bolingbroke, who had obtained pardon and permission to return to England, after long exile, partly spent in the service of the Pretender, in France. The opposing Whigs were led by William Pulteney, afterwards Earl of Bath, and Lord Carteret, afterwards Earl Granville, both able men, and it included a group of talented The eider and high-spirited young men (scornfully alluded Pitt - to by Walpole as " the Boys "), the most conspicuous of whom was William Pitt. 329. The Fall of Walpole. It was a sign of healthy wakening in English feeling, that the attack of the oppo- sition to Walpole, especially on the part of the younger men, turned chiefly against his corrupt practices ; but his guilt in those practices was not the cause. of his fall. He suffered finally for what was most praiseworthy in his policy, its obstinacy against war. Spain was giving rough treatment to English smugglers, who swarmed about her colonies, carrying on a forbidden trade, and when, in 1738, one Captain Jenkins came home with an ear torn off by Spanish officials, there was a rage excited which nothing but war would appease. Wal- .. The pole obtained promises of reasonable satisfac- ^j^g's tion from Spain, but he could make no head Ear " against the furor which his opponents worked up, and 5 i6 ARISTOCRATIC GOVERNMENT. [1739-1742 " The War of Jenkins's Ear," as it was called, broke out, in October, 1739. Unwisely, the defeated minister stayed in office for two years more ; but his supremacy was lost, and in 1742 he resigned, retiring, with the title of Earl of Orford, to the House of Lords. 330. The Methodist Revival. It was in these last years of Walpole's ministry, when England, spiritually, was in a most lifeless state, IM^^ that a " extraordinai T reli - gious revival, out of which rose the Methodist organi- zation of a new church, was begun by John and Charles Wesley, by George White- field, and by others who joined them in their mis- sionary work. They were clergymen of the church of England, and it was not their purpose to lead any new movement of separa- tion from it ; but the emotion which they believed to be essential to religion, and which they sought to arouse, was disapproved by the ruling clergy of the church, and most of its pulpits were closed against their preaching. Driven to the holding of open air meetings and to the building of plain chapels for their congregations, which quickly swelled to thousands, their movement became, without intention, a great secession from the established church. But even the established church was stirred pro- foundly by the passionate revival, and the whole moral and religious tone of English society was affected to a greater depth in its lower classes than it had been by the wakening of the Puritan age. JOHN WESLEY. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 517 TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS. 320. George I. Topics. 1. Effect of the change in the royal family. 2. Characteristics of the king. 3. Precedent which he established in legislation. References. — Bright, iii. 930,931; Green, 721, 722; Morris, The Early Hanoverians, 27, 28. Research Questions. — (1.) Trace the claim of George I. to the throne. (2.) Point out Hanover on the map. (3.) What is its approximate size ? (4.) What is meant by an electorate ? (5.) What other kings of England had been first magnates on the con- tinent ? (6.) When was this union with Hanover dissolved ? (Morris, Early Hanoverians, 24.) (7.) Heretofore, what had been the custom of the kings in regard to council meetings ? (8.) What change in this procedure did George I.'s ignorance of Eng- lish make ? (9.) This established what change in government ? (10.) After the establishment of party government, to whom were ministers responsible ? (11.) While they were responsible to the king, what way only had Parliament to bring them to account ? (Montague, 171.) (12.) What treatment was given Anne's last ministry? (Bright, iii. 932.) (13.) Why is this likely to be the last impeachment for political purposes in English history ? 321. Tories and Jacobites. Topics. 1. Tory weakness and discontent. 2. Jacobite uprising in Scotland. Reference. — Bright, iii. 931-938. 322. Parliament and the Whigs. Topics. 1, Unpopularity of the king and the court. 2. The Septennial Act. Reference. — Gardiner, iii. 704, 706. Research Questions. — (1.) Is the Septennial Act still in force? (2). How could it be justified ? (Bright, iii. 939.) 323. Foreign Relations. Topics. 1. Alliance on the continent. $l8 MINISTERIAL GOVERNMENT. 2. Disagreement over the king's continental policy. Reference. — Bright, iii. 942-946. 324. The South Sea Bubble. Topics. 1. The Mississippi Scheme. 2. The South Sea Company. 3. Frenzy of speculation and awakening from the delusion. References. — Gardiner, iii. 711, 712; Bright, iii. 949-954; Green, 728;' Colby, 229-231 ; Morley, 62-64 ; Traill, v. 127-129, 144, 145; Lecky, i. 348-350. 325. Walpole, Prime Minister. Topics. 1. His attitude toward speculation and his rise to power. 2. Creation of prime ministry and cabinet. 3. One thing remaining to be done. Reference.— Gardiner, iii. 712-730. Sir Robert Walpole : Bright, iii. 913, 931, 942-987; Green, 720-734; Morley, Walpole ; Colby, 235-237; Montague, 172, 173. Research Questions. — (i.) In becoming prime minister, Wal- pole took, in fact, the place which had been vacated by whom ? (2.) How was the title regarded at first? (Gardiner, iii. 717.) (3.) What government office did and does the prime minister usually hold ? (4.) Why? (Gardiner, iii. 720.) 326. Walpole's Character and Administration. Topics. 1. His traits and policy. 2. His corrupting influence. References. — Morley, Walpole. Rotten boroughs: Ransome, 112, 165 ; H. Taylor, ii. 466-468. Research Questions. — (1.) What were Walpole's qualities as a peace minister, and as a financier ? (Green, 730.) (2.) What did Walpole do toward paying the national debt ? (Bright, iii. 950; Morris, Early Hanoverians, 64.) 327. Death of George I. and Accession of George II. Topics. 1. Feeling between the late king and his heir. 2. Influence of the queen. References. — Bright, iii. 966, 967. Queen Caroline : Morley, Walpole, ch. v.; Lecky, i. 503, 504. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 519 328. Growth of Opposition. Topics. 1. Bolingbroke leads the opposing Tories. 2. Leaders among the opposing Whigs. References. — Gardiner, iii. 720-722, 728, 729. Research Questions. — (1.) What financial measure gave Wal- pole's enemies a charge against him ? (Bright, iii. 973.) (2.) How did Walpole attempt to deal with smuggling ? (Bright, iii. 974.). (3.) What is the difference between an excise and a tax? (4.) Why do people dislike an excise more than a custom duty ? (5.) What other class of men opposed the government ? (Bright, iii 978.) 329. The Fall of Walpole. Topics. 1. Attack on his corrupt measures. 2. " The War of Jenkins's Ear." Reference. — Bright, iii. 980-987. 330. The Methodist Revival. Topics. 1. Reforms advocated by Wesley and Whitefield. 2. Effect on the established church. Reference. — Green, 736-740. CHAPTER XXII. EXPANSION OF EMPIRE. George II. 1742-1760. 331. Walpole's First Successors. The government gained nothing in purity from Walpole's removal, to offset the loss of his brain and hand. A ministry was made up which had no real head. Carteret, who became one of the secretaries of state, devoted himself to foreign affairs. His fellow secretary, the Duke of Newcastle, an extremely incapable man, acquired then such power in the government, by reason of nothing but the number of votes in the House of Commons which he and his family, the Pelhams, corruptly controlled, that he practi- cally swayed it for many years. 332. The War of the Austrian Succession. Even before the retirement of Walpole, the war with Spain had been merged in the great European War of the Austrian Succession (see page 480), in which England bore an undistinguished part, mostly with her navy and her money, paying the latter in what were called sub- sidies to Austria and Sardinia, for the support of the armies which they put into the field. In this phase its popularity was soon lost. It was denounced as a war Rise of the carried on in the interest of Hanover, not Eng- eiderPitt. ] anc ] ) an( j William Pitt, then winning the ear of the country as a bold and impassioned orator in Parlia- ment, led the attack. In 1744, Carteret gave up office, and Newcastle and his brother, Henry Pelham, a much more competent man, were in full control. 1743-1746] EXPANSION OF EMPIRE. 521 One army, during the war, was made up in part of British troops, acting in conjunction with Hanoverians, Austrians, and Dutch. Its field was Flanders, and the neighboring part of Germany, where it fought two battles with the French, — the first, successfully, under the personal command of King George, at Det- and Fonte- tingen, in 1743 ; the second, in 1745, with de- noy ' feat, at Fontenoy, where the allies were commanded by the Duke of Cumberland, the king's younger son. 333. The Last Jacobite Rising. The defeat at Fon- tenoy, in May, 1745, was followed in July by an attempt on the part of the Pretender's son, Charles Edward (called "the Young Pretender"), to raise rebellion in Scotland, by entering the country and appealing to the Highland clans. A few thousand clansmen gathered round him and were led to Edinburgh, taking the city with ease. Defeating a small English force at Preston Pans, in September, the prince then ventured, in Novem- ber, to invade England, with his army of about 6000 Highlanders, expecting a great Jacobite rising, which did not take place. The Young Pretender's invasion of England was aban- doned at Derby, from which point he fell back to Scot- land, defeating at Falkirk an English army that had followed his retreat. The inefficiency of the British gov- ernment gave him all his success. It was not until April, 1746, that his faithful Highlanders were broken Battle of and scattered, at Culloden, by the Duke of Cum- Culloden - berland's army of British and Hanoverian troops. The duke then earned the name of " the Butcher " by the barbarity with which he hunted the beaten rebels down. Charles Edward, after perilous adventures more roman- tic than those of Charles Stuart in 165 1 (see section 251), escaped to France, owing his safety in the main to the 522 ARISTOCRATIC GOVERNMENT. [1744-1751 courage and address of Flora Macdonald, a young woman of the Hebrides. The Hanoverian sovereigns of Great Britain had nothing thereafter to fear from the Stuart pretenders ; and the Scottish Highlands became as orderly as any other part of the British Isle. 334. The "War in America. The most important British success in the War of the Austrian Succession (see page 480) had been won in America meantime by the colonists, who sent an expedition, in 1744, against Louisburg, in Cape Breton, and captured that great French fort. In American history this war is often called King George's or the Third Intercolonial War. 335. The Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. In 1748, the war was stopped by treaties negotiated at Aix-la-Cha- pelle, which left nothing to either England or France for all its cost. Each surrendered its conquests from the other. Louisburg was given up to the French, greatly to American disgust ; but disputes concerning boundaries between the French and English possessions in America were left open, to be the cause of another war very soon. The peace was followed, however, by a few years of uneventful prosperity and a rapid increase of wealth. In the home affairs of England, the measure most important in those years was probably Old Style ... . . J . , and New one which corrected the calendar, in 175 1, adding eleven days to that year, and making subsequent years begin on the 1st of January, instead of on the 25th of March. 336. The Clashing of French and English in America. The rival claims and ambitions of the French and English in the New World were now pushing the two peoples into a renewal of war. Both claimed ownership of the interior of the continent, south of the great lakes. The English claimed it as belonging to their colonies on the Atlantic 1753-1756] EXPANSION OF EMPIRE. 523 coast ; the French claimed by right of exploration and occupation, in which they had taken the lead. While the English had given a deep root of permanence to their sea- board settlements in America, establishing communities that were growing with a vigorous life of their own, they had done little towards laying hold in advance of the wilderness beyond. The French, on the contrary, whose oldest settlements were little more than military posts, had swarmed over wide areas of the continent, explor- ing, trading, founding missions, planting flags, building forts, busy in every way with efforts to establish a large territorial claim. There can never have been much uncertainty as to which mode of possession would win America in the end ; but there might easily have been a much longer struggle than that which now occurred. It opened in the upper valley of the Ohio, through which the French were undertaking to establish a chain of strong forts, from Lake Erie to the Mississippi. The governor of Virginia, in 1753, sent George Washington, then an officer of the Virginia militia, to pro- washing- test to the French commander against this ton - invasion of the English domain. The protest had no effect, and when Washington attempted, the next year, with a small force, to build an opposing fort, he was at- tacked by superior numbers and forced to retire. This was the opening of actual hostilities, which went on for some time in America, and extended even to various sea fights, before the state of war was officially declared. 337. The Seven Years' "War. If the King of England had not been likewise Elector of Hanover, this war of England and France over disputed possessions in Amer- ica would not have become mixed up with the great at- tack on Frederick of Prussia which is known in history as the Seven Years' War (see page 481). But fears for 524 ARISTOCRATIC GOVERNMENT. [1755-1757 Hanover led King George and his ministers to form an alliance with Frederick the Great. France was then persuaded to join the foes of Frederick, and so she en- gaged herself in a struggle with that indomitable soldier which terribly crippled her contest in America and pro- foundly affected its immediate result. To the Americans, on their side of it, this seven years' conflict, which raged in many parts of the world, was known simply as The French and Indian War. Until 1757, there was wretched incapacity in the Eng- lish management of the war. The defeat of an expe- dition led by General Braddock against the French in western Pennsylvania (1755), a humiliating Rsvsrscs surrender of the island of Minorca, in 1756, (for which Admiral Byng was barbarously condemned and shot, to appease public rage), and a panic fear of French invasion which shook England that year, were among the humiliations that the nation underwent. 338. The Great Administration of the Elder Pitt. But now came a wondrous change, the work of a great war minister, William Pitt. Pitt had offended the king by his bold protest against measures making England the servant of Hanover, but he had delighted the people, on that and other subjects, by the freedom and eloquence of his speech. Newspapers were becoming numerous by this time, and some reporting of the talk and doings of Parliament had been begun. The public opinion of a great middle class, already supreme in political weight, but feebly represented in Parliament, was being thus called into action and making itself felt as an outside force. Pitt was the first of public men in England to be pushed into power by that force, which acted from beyond the walls of Parliament and against strong opposi- tion at court. 1757] EXPANSION OF EMPIRE. 525 His hour of opportunity was reached in' 1757, when the king had -to consent to a division of authority in the government between Newcastle and Pitt, giving the lat- ter full control of the management of the war, and of public policy at large. The rapidity with which a change was then wrought in the whole spirit of the public ser- vice of the nation is a marvel not easily ex- , . , T , , Animation plained. In some way, the energy, the enthu- oftnepub- siasm, the courage, the ambition, the pride of country that moved the great minister, were electrically carried through every channel of action that he touched. His self- confidence was su- perb. "I know," he said, "that I can save this nation, and that nobody else can." With this feeling he claimed and exercised an au- thority to which all precedents, all practices, and all other wills must bow. His under- takings in the war were not al- WILLIAM PITT, THE ELDER. ways well planned, but the faith and energy with which he inspired it over- came every mistake and added triumph to triumph during three intoxicating years. 526 ARISTOCRATIC GOVERNMENT. t'75S 339. The Conquest of Canada. In 1758, Louisburg and Fort Duquesne (afterwards called Pittsburg) were taken, but General Abercrombie, who attempted the capture of Ticonderoga, suffered a bloody repulse. In the following year, Gen- eral Amherst succeeded where Abercrombie had failed. Then, too, the strong citadel of Que- bec, supposed to be im- pregnable, was taken by the gallant Wolfe, who fell in the moment of victory, while Mont- calm, his noble enemy, died in its defence. Before another year closed, the whole of Canada was submissive to the British arms, and the struggle with France in America was at an end. 340. Conquests in India. The supremacy of the Brit- ish in India was practically established in these same extraordinary years, not by the British government, but by the great mercantile East India Company, first char- tered by Queen Elizabeth, re-chartered by Charles II., and reconstructed in 1702. Until the middle of the eighteenth century, the company had only occupied, by permission of native rulers, a few trading stations, at Madras, Bombay, Calcutta, and some minor points. Then, being seriously threatened by the French, who were get- ting a foothold in southeastern India by intermeddling in native wars, the company began opposing them by simi- lar means. Its undertakings were made successful by a JAMES WOLFE. 1 746-1 760] EXPANSION OF EMPIRE. 527 Clive. remarkable young soldier, Robert Clive, who rose from a clerkship in its offices to military command. French influence was quickly checked and the subjugation of great districts of India to English rule was begun. The first of the Indian princes to be overthrown was Surajah Dowlah, who bore the title of Subahdar of Bengal. He had attacked and taken Calcutta, and had thrust 146 of the English, without air or water, into one small room, where all but 23 perished of suffocation in a single night. Clive was swift in avenging this horror of " the Black Hole of Calcutta." With 900 Europeans and 1500 native troops (sepoys), he scattered an army of 50,000, at Plassey (June, 1757), and Surajah Dowlah reigned in Bengal no more. Three years later the last stand of the French against the English in southeastern India was made at Wandiwash, and they were de- feated by Colonel Coote. There and in Bengal, thereafter, the great company was a sovereign power, though a show of gov- ernment by obedient native rulers was kept up. 341. Death of George II. and End of Pitt's Administration. At sea the British triumphs in these marvellous years were equal to those won upon the land. Admiral Boscawen scattered one fleet of the French in battle off Lagos in Portugal ; Admiral Hawke ROBERT CLIVE. 528 ARISTOCRATIC GOVERNMENT. [1760-1761 shattered another in Ouiberon Bay ; and English mastery of the ocean was subject no longer to any serious dispute. Three years which have no equal in the history of the expansion of British empire and the rise of British mari- time power were rounded out in 1 760, and in October of that year George II. died. He was succeeded by his grandson, George III., whose father, Prince Frederick, died nine years before. The young king, arbitrary and opinionated from the first, had no respect for the public opinion which gave Pitt his strength, and the domination of the latter in the government was lost. In October, 1 76 1, he resigned. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS. 331. Walpole's First Successors. Topic 1. Carteret and Newcastle. Reference. — Gardiner, iii. 730-732. 332. The War of the Austrian Succession. Topics. 1. England's part in the war. 2. Change in the ministry. 3. Dettingen and Fontenoy. Reference. — Bright, iii. 989-999. 333. The Last Jacobite Rising. Topics. 1. The Young Pretender in Scotland and England. 2. Battle of Culloden, and the escape of the prince. Reference. — Bright, iii. 999-1008. Research Questions. — (i.) What poem of Campbell's refers to the field of Culloden? (2.) What novel describes this at- tempt of the Young Pretender ? (3.) What was the last repre- sentative of the Stuart family in Europe? (Gardiner, iii. 743.) TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 529 334. The War in America. Topic. 1. Capture of Louisburg. Reference. — Gardiner, iii. 753. 335. The Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle.- Topics. 1. Terms of the treaty. 2. Correction of the calendar. Reference. — Bright, iii. ion, 1012, 1014, 1015. 336. The Clashing of French and English in America. Topics. 1. Grounds for the claims of each country. 2. Different modes of possession. 3. Outbreak of hostilities. Reference. — Green, 746, 747. Research Questions. — (1.) Name and locate English, French, and Spanish possessions in North America at this time. (2.) What cause for hostilities was sure to arise ? (3.) Was there any other question which might embitter the strife ? (4.) Compare the English settlements with the French in respect to ease of defence. (5.) For what kind of warfare did the French have the advantage ? 337. The Seven Years' War. Topics. 1. War the consequence of the connection with Hanover. 2. The war in America. 3. English losses and defeats. Reference. — Green, 747, 748. Research Questions. — (1.) What name did this war bear in America? (2.) If France engaged in wars in Europe, what part of her domain must she leave unstrengthened and undefended ? (3.) For what nations was it purely a trade war in its effects? (4.) Show that the striving for territory was really -a striving for trade. (5.) What do we consider the proper condition for trade to-day. 53° EXPANSION OF EMPIRE. 338. The Great Administration of the Elder Pitt. Topics. 1. William Pitt. 2. The support behind him. 3. Pitt in the war office. 4. His self-confidence and success. Reference. — Green, 748-755. Research Questions. — (1.) If the king did not like Pitt, how could the latter become minister ? (2.) What is the significance of this? (Gardiner, iii. 743.) 339. The Conquest of Canada. Topics. 1. Early successes of the war. 2. Capture of Quebec. References. — Green, 755-757; Gardiner, 755, 756; Bright, iii. 1029-1031 ; Colby, 247-250; Gibbins, 1 28-131 ; Traill, v. 193- 200. 340. Conquests in India. Topics. 1. East India Company's supremacy under Clive. 2. The Black Hole of Calcutta and the battle of Plassey. 3. Disappearance of French influence. References. — Gardiner, iii. 758-764. Clive: Gardiner, iii. 761- 764,801; Bright, iii. 1113-1124; Guest, 526, 527; Colby, 244- 247 ; Macaulay, Essay on Clive. 341. Death of George II. and End of Pitt's Admin- istration. Topics. 1. Triumphs at sea. 2. English expansion. 3. Death of the king and resignation of Pitt. References. — Green, 757-761. Research Questions. — (1.) What was done to continue Wal- pole's work in reducing the debt ? (Bright, iii. 1013.) (2.) What was the state of religion in England daring the reigns of these two Georges? (Green, 735, 736.) (3.) What was being done for the education of the poor? (Green, 736.) (4.) Were there any signs of philanthropic work? (Green, 740.) (5.) What literary product was begun in this age ? (Gardiner, iii. 746.) CHAPTER XXIII. BACKWARD STEPS AND LOSS OF EMPIRE. George III. 1 760-1 788. 342. The Ideas of George III. The progress of Eng- land toward the perfecting of its ministerial system of government was seriously interrupted by George III., who had been taught, especially by his German mother, to look on that sys- tem as an uncon- stitutional growth, which it was his duty to destroy. As a matter of fact, there was nothing of the lawlessness of the Stuarts in what he undertook to do. Thus far, the minis- terial system had not received any well-marked consti- tutional stamp. It had been substan- tially controlled in its working by a few great Whig families, which held a corrupt influence over Parliament, and the king simply iEORGE III. 532 ARISTOCRATIC GOVERNMENT. [1760-1763 claimed that he had a better right than they to control it by the same means. The good result in the end was its independence of both. According to his lights, King George was a conscien- tious man, and he was ambitious to be " a patriot king ; " but he was narrow in intellect, deficient in education and information, obstinate in opinions and in preiu- The char- acter of dices once formed. But an exemplary life, a Gcortrc II rigid piety, a simple dignity of manner, a thor- oughly English spirit, gave him personal popularity at the outset of his long reign. 343. Government by the "King's Friends." Not many months passed, after the beginning of the new reign, before a controlling number of cabinet ministers were the "king's friends," with Lord Bute, a special favorite of the king and his mother, at their head. This was the beginning of a new Tory party, which drew back into active politics the old Tory classes, and united them with a body of deserting Whigs. 344. The Peace of Paris. The first object of the new government was to bring the war, which gave Pitt so much glory, to a close, and this was done by a treaty signed at Paris, February, 1763. The terms of peace, though immensely favorable to England, were not satis- factory to the great war minister, and public opinion sustained his views. Yet England had received from British France the whole of Canada and Cape Breton, gains. with several islands in the West Indies, while Spain, which had joined France in the last year of the war, yielded Florida in exchange for the city of Havana, taken by an English fleet in 1762, and France ceded Louisiana to Spain. 345. The Grenville Ministry. Bute, already odious, as a king's favorite and a Scotchman, was so violently 1763-1764] BACKWARD STEPS. 533 abused on account of the treaty that he resigned. George Grenville, who took his place, was Pitt's brother-in-law, but had turned against him and broken his connection with the Whigs. He was expected to be a pliant ser- vant of the king, secretly guided by Bute ; but, though he agreed with the arbitrary notions of King George, he and his chief supporter, the Duke of Bedford, took a tone of arrogance that gave his majesty great offence. For two years, however, the king's efforts to rid himself of Grenville and Bedford were vain. 346. Persecution of John Wilkes and the News- paper Press. Meantime, Grenville and his colleagues, with the king's approval, had plunged the country into a sea of troubles, by follies at home and abroad. The folly at home was a malignant attack on the freedom of the press, as represented by one John Wilkes, a member of Parliament, who conducted a newspaper called " The North Briton," with especial hostility to Bute. For some sharp criticism of Bute and the king, .-TheNorth Wilkes and his printers were arrested, on a Briton " general warrant — a warrant, that is, against persons not named — which was issued by one of the secretaries of state. The whole proceeding was declared illegal by the courts ; whereupon the government began a series of persecutions, intended to crush the offending editor and his sheet. He was expelled from Parliament (1764) and criminally prosecuted for an indecent piece of verse that he had written, but which had never appeared in public print. He took refuge in France, and the government seemed to be rid of him ; but it was only for a time. Wilkes was a man of keen wit and many social accom- plishments, but odious in moral character, living a shame- fully profligate life. Under common circumstances he would have been generally disliked ; but the malice with 534 ARISTOCRATIC GOVERNMENT. [1764 which he was pursued, and the hostility to free speech that appeared in his persecution, roused a feeling in his favor winch made him a popular hero and caused danger- ous disturbances at a later day. 347. The Quarrel with American Colonies. The other folly was more serious in the trouble that it brought. It was the opening of a quarrel with the Brit- ish colonies in America, on questions which the wiser English statesmen were most unwilling to have raised. For some years there had been growing discontent in the colonies with the working of the Navigation Act (see section 295), and with other measures that repressed colonial industries and trade. So long as the French had been dangerous neighbors on their border, the colo- nists, needing English help, were naturally more patient of what they regarded as ill-treatment from England than they became after the French were driven out. At the same time, the heavy cost of the war which took Canada from France caused a feeling in England that the colonies ought to bear some share of the burden it left behind. As a matter of fact, the colonies appear to have done even more than their part in the war, having The coio- raised, paid, and clothed, according to the show- war with 8 m & °f Dr. Franklin, no less than 25,000 troops ; France. b u t ^jg was overlooked, and they were thought to owe some payment as English subjects for continued protection and present peace. Colonial governors in the past had often urged the home government to tax the colonies ; but no ministry until Grenville's had been will- ing to make the attempt. Now that attempt was not only made with rudeness, but it was preceded by an irritating act. Hitherto the New Englanders had been prudently allowed to carry on a smuggling traffic with the Spanish West Indies, 1764-1765] BACKWARD STEPS. 535 exchanging timber and fish for molasses and sugar, out of which they made rum, for the slave trade and other com- merce, and they depended largely on this for the means with which to pay for English goods. No attempt had been made to collect impossible duties on the Spanish sugar until Grenville, suddenly, in 1 764, set in motion all the machinery of the law for putting down illicit trade. Then followed, in 1765, the famous Stamp Act, which required all legal and business documents in America, as well as books, and other articles, to bear stamps, The sold officially for the purpose, like postage stam P Act - stamps. It is a mode of taxation as little felt, perhaps, as any ; but a great number of the colonists were unwill- ing to be taxed at all by any other legislature than their own. Taxa- tion without representation they denounced as a constitutional wrong which English subjects had never endured ; and, so long as they had no representatives in the English Parliament, they resolved to pay no tax which it imposed. That resolve was expressed firmly and soberly by a congress of dele- A stamp. gates from the several colonies, and by strong resolutions from other dignified bodies ; but it was also expressed riotously, sometimes in demon- strations that were a shame to the colonial cause. The most impressive proof of American feeling on the sub- ject was given by the great number of people who joined in pledges to use no English goods until the Act was repealed. In their stand against the Stamp Act the Americans had powerful English support. Pitt and Lord Camden 536 ARISTOCRATIC GOVERNMENT. [1765-1766 (a great lawyer) agreed with them in denying the right of Parliament to lay taxes upon them, and gloried in the resistance they made. Edmund Burke, the support of greatest political thinker of his time, while he would not consider it as a question of "right," laid bare the folly of the claim. Behind those eloquent leaders was a great body of English opinion that stoutly opposed the arbitrary dealings of the government with the colonies ; and, though that opinion, with all other popular sentiment, was feebly represented in Parliament, it was strong enough to bring about the repeal of the Stamp Act, in opposition to the king and his "friends." 348. The Rockingham. Ministry. Grenville and Bed- ford had become so hateful to the king, though he liked their American policy, that, in order to be rid -of them, he had (1765) actually taken a ministry from the old Whigs. Newcastle was in it, but Lord Rockingham, a good man, of moderate ability, much influenced by Burke, who was his secretary, was the chosen head. Pitt, stand- ing aloof from all parties, would not join, and without him the government was weak ; but, early in 1766, ofth* the ministers carried the repeal of the Stamp stamp Act. ^ c ^ w .^ a declaration, however, of the right of Parliament to tax the colonies and to command them by its laws. They also dropped the duty on molasses to a point which removed another cause of discontent. 349. Pitt as Earl of Chatham. — The Ministry called by his Name. Rockingham and his colleagues were dis- missed in July (1766), and Pitt was then persuaded to lend the power of his name to a cabinet in which he could do little- work, on account of his failing health. He could not bear the strain of leadership in the House of Commons, and so he unwisely accepted a peerage, as Earl of Chatham, and went into the House of Lords. 1766-1769] BACKWARD STEPS. 537 By this mistake he threw away a nobler title than any king could confer, and the people, who had lovingly called him " the Great Commoner," were surprised and shocked. Chatham's health was soon so completely broken down that he could give no attention to public affairs. Nom- inally the Duke of Grafton was prime minister ; actually the chancellor of the exchequer, Charles Townshend, who believed in ruling the colonies with a high hand, took the ministerial lead. Chatham's ideas, in his ab- sence, were completely thrust aside, and the policy of Grenville was revived. A new measure for raising revenue in America, by port duties on paints, Townshend glass, paper, and tea, was carried through, and duties - rebellious feeling in the colonies was stirred up afresh. Before the effects of it were seen, Townshend died (Sep- tember, 1767), and his place as chancellor of the ex- chequer was filled by Lord North. From that time, for fifteen years, the king was, in reality, his own prime min- ister, though Grafton kept the title for two years longer, and though Chatham's name was still on the cabinet list. But Chatham recovered in 1768, sufficiently to un- derstand the falsity of his situation, and resigned. It is a fact interesting to note, that while the king and his ministers were foolishly preparing to throw away the better part of the dominion of Great Britain in America, they were persuaded, with no foresight of the result, to send out (1769) the exploring expedi- and New tion, commanded by Captain Cook, which took eaan ' possession of Australia and New Zealand, and added to the British Empire that great and important region of the world. 350. Wilkes again. The royal hand in government now worked mischief on both sides of the sea. A new 538 ARISTOCRATIC GOVERNMENT. [176S-1774 Parliament was elected in 1768, and filled, by lavish brib- ery, with the "king's friends." But one great constitu- ency, that of Middlesex, where a freer vote prevailed, elected Wilkes, who had returned from France and boldly appealed to the people for support. Parliament expelled him, on the demand of the king, and he was thrown into prison — an act which set London and half the kingdom aflame. Middlesex reelected him, and again Parliament refused him the seat. A third time he was returned by an immense majority, and then the party of the king went so far as to seat the defeated candidate in his place. The excitement and riotous tumult produced in England was even greater than that prevailing in America, and Wilkes triumphed finally, winning his seat in 1774. The most famous of the political writings of this ex- cited time was a series of remarkable letters, signed Letters of " Junius," the authorship of which has never Junius. come to light. 1 They were published at inter- vals from November, 1768, until January, 1772. 351. Lord North and the Beginning of the War of American Independence. Early in 1770, Grafton re- signed ; Lord North was made prime minister in name, but acted under the direction of the king. He was an amiable man, excellent in business and in party manage- ment, but with no force to resist the king's will or the drift of the party to which he belonged. Grafton had succeeded in repealing a part of what were called the Townshend duties, but the duty on tea had been kept, in order to maintain the right which the The tax on colonists denied, and it did all the mischief that tea " a whole tariff system could have done. Harsh measures against Boston, and the quartering of troops 1 The opinion that the Junius Letters were written by Sir Philip Francis is widely accepted, but cannot be said to be proved. 1773-1776] BACKWARD STEPS. 539 in that city, failed to subdue the temper of its people, and when tea ships arrived (1773) their cargoes were thrown overboard by disguised men. From other ports the tea ships were driven away, or not allowed to land their freight. Then came acts of retaliation by Parliament (1774), closing the port of Boston, changing the government of Massachusetts, and forbidding public meetings, while General Gage was sent with troops to put them in force. A " Continental Congress " of the colonies, assembled at Philadelphia, made the cause of Massachusetts the common cause of all, and when, in April, 1775, the king's soldiers at Boston came to blows with the farmers and villagers of Lexington and Concord, the signal was given for a gen- eral revolt. 352. The King and the Nation in the American War. After hostilities were actually begun, and espe- cially after the thirteen colonies had issued a solemn Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776), the fighting temper and the national spirit which armed opposition excites ranged the feeling of a large majority of the Eng- LORD NORTH. 540 ARISTOCRATIC GOVERNMENT. [1776-17S2 lish people, without doubt, in support of what was com- monly called " the King's War." But there was always a strong Whig party that condemned it with no reserve ; and a far larger party began soon to grow urgent for efforts to end it, by every concession except independ- ence, which not many of the colonists had originally desired. There seems to be no doubt that, if English public sentiment could have had its way, Chatham would have been called to the head of the government, at an early stage of the American conflict, to exert his vast influence in both countries for peace. Lord North was urgent for the experiment ; but the king would not con- sent. It was the blind obstinacy of King George, more than any and all states of feeling among his subjects, that car- ried England into conflict with her children in The atti- . . , . . .. , . . . tudeofthe America, and that gave an irreconcilable bitter- ness to the strife. With a Parliament that had sold its votes to him for pensions and profitable offices, and with ministers who had no will of their own, he man- aged the doings of government in his own way. 353. War with France, Spain, and Holland. — Armed Neutrality. In 1778, France entered into alli- ance with the now " United States of America ; " Spain joined the alliance in the following year ; and, in 1780, the Dutch ranged themselves on the same side. In the latter year a league of " Armed Neutrality " was formed among the nations of northern Europe, which crippled the efforts of England to break up the trade of her ene- mies, and they pressed her hard on every side. America was helped to freedom by the combination, but it failed to overthrow the British lordship of the sea. In two great battles, with a Spanish fleet in 1780 and with a French fleet in 1782, Admiral Rodney confirmed the 1767-17S2] BACKWARD STEPS. 541 naval supremacy of England by the victories that he won. 354. King George's Failure. When George III., in the spring of 1782, accepted the resignation of Lord North, gave office to a Whig cabinet, under Rocking- ham, and consented to negotiations for peace, he was not only yielding to the failure of a false colonial policy, and to the loss of a great dominion in the western world, but he was bowing to the defeat of the last attempt of an English king to act his own will in the government of his realm. He had not tried, like the Tudors and the Stuarts, to wrench away the sovereignty of Parliament, but he had bribed that degenerate body to betray to him its powers, and he had made its ministers his tools. It was the last experiment in dictatorial kingship that could be tried, and it had come disastrously to shame. There was yet to be half a century before Parliament would represent the people ; but so much of the national will as it stood for was now sovereign in reality, once more, and the king again became that figure of stately ceremony which English kings and queens must content themselves with being. 355. Home Measures of the Ministry of Lord North. In matters at home, the government had done little of note since the king took control. It had failed in an attempt, made in 1771, to stop the reporting of debates in Parliament ; and, though never formally authorized, the freedom of reporting was never questioned again. The best act of the period was one that repealed a few of the most atrocious anti-Catholic laws ; but it gave rise to fearful riots, by ignorant mobs which found their leader in a Scotch nobleman, Lord George Gordon Gordon, who was incapable of comprehending nots - the wickedness of what he did. For four days, in June, 542 ARISTOCRATIC GOVERNMENT. [1775-1785 1780, London was at the mercy of the mobs, and the pillage and destruction of property was immense. 356. Ireland. The example of America and the struggle in which England was engaged with many enemies had moved the Irish to demand redress for the more grievous of their wrongs. The government had permitted volunteers to be raised in Ireland, to repel French invasion, and soon found itself confronted by no less than 60,000 well organized men, who backed the call for certain measures of relief. In the circumstances there was little thought of refusal, and, in 1780 and 1782, Measures ac ^ s were passed which yielded more freedom of relief. j. Q jj-jg^ commerce, gave independence to the Irish Parliament, abrogated the Poynings Law (see sec- tion 125), and repealed the worst of the acts by which Catholics were oppressed. But Catholics (the majority of the Irish people) were still unrepresented in the Irish Parliament, and that assembly was only corrupted and its partisan bigotry inflamed by the independence it acquired. 357. India under Warren Hastings. The French, by alliance with hostile natives, had made new attempts against the English in India during the war ; but the latter were firm in their footing at its close. They had withstood their most formidable enemy, Hyder Ali, the able chief of Mysore, with all the help that France could give him, and their rule and their influence were advan- cing year by year. By an act of 1775, the political government of this dominion in the east was transferred from the directors of the East India Company to a governor-general and council, approved by the crown. The governor-general from that time until 1785 was Warren Hastings, a man of supreme ability, to whom, after Clive, the English in India owed their astonishing grasp of wealth and power. 1775-1785] BACKWARD STEPS. 543 Neither Clive nor Hastings, nor many among their coun- trymen who sought fortune in India, had scrupled as to the means by which riches were gathered and feeble states were brought under their control. The natives had been plundered and wronged by more methods of oppression than ever came to light. But it is now known that powerful enemies laid more than his just share of ill- fame upon Warren Hastings, for the dark crimes of those days in Hindustan. He came home to face im- peachment and the most famous of trials, in warren Westminster Hall, with the eloquence of Burke, as mgs ' Fox, and Sheridan combined against him, and to wait eight years for the acquittal that came at last. 358. The Shelburne Ministry and the Coalition. Lord Rockingham died before the conclusion of the treaties which (1 782-1 783) acknowledged the independ- ence of the United States and made peace with France, Holland, and Spain. His place was taken by the Earl of Shelburne ; but Shelburne's Whig rival, Charles James Fox, went into alliance against him with the Tory leader, Lord North, and early in 1783 he was forced to resign. The Coalition ministry, as it was called, then formed by Fox and North, was obnoxious to both the people and the king. It controlled a large majority in the House of Commons, but the king's influence defeated it in the House of Lords, on a bill to change the government of India, and then events took a very surprising course. The Coalition ministry was dismissed (December, 1783), and a younger William Pitt, son of Lord Chatham (who died in 1778), was called by the king to the helm of state. 359. The Ministry of the Younger Pitt. William Pitt the younger was but twenty-four years of age when he boldly undertook to lead a ministry and to conduct the government, in the face of a large hostile majority 544 ARISTOCRATIC GOVERNMENT. [1783-1784 in the House of Commons, controlled by its ablest managers and debaters, Fox and North. For weeks he was beaten in every vote ; but the rule that a beaten ministry must resign was not yet fixed in practice, and Pitt held his ground. Public opinion grew fast in his favor and made itself felt. Time-serving members, who suspected that he would win, came over to him, until in March he had broken down the opposing majority, and then Parliament was dissolved. The ensuing elections were carried over- whelmingly in his fa- vor, and Parliament became obedient to the young prime minister, rather than to the king. Pitt, like his fa- ther, made a party of his own. He drew the Tories into it, and came to be classed with them ; but his Toryism was liberal and broad. One of his early undertakings as prime minister was to begin a reform of the representa- tion in Parliament ; another was to give free trade with England to the Irish ; a third was to bring the ftateV villainies of the slave trade under restraint, manship. These were all p i ans f statesmanship too high in principle for the time, and he had to put them aside. WILLIAM PITT, THE YOUNGER. 1784-1788] BACKWARD STEPS. 545 But he had success in simplifying the cumbrous duties and regulations that burdened English trade. He also passed an India bill (1784), which organized the East India Company's government as it remained until 1858. 360. The King's Loss of Mind. In the fall of 1788, a mental disorder which had shown itself slightly in King George, for a short time, in 1765, reappeared more seriously, and he was deranged until the following spring. A bill to give the regency of the kingdom to the Prince of Wales was kept in Parliament so long, by debate over the restrictions that should be put on the powers of the prince, that the king recovered his senses before it came into effect. France at that hour was on the eve of her great Revolution, from which England and all the world would soon be feeling profound effects, and the trying period of Pitt's career was about to begin. 361. The Epoch of Mechanic Invention and Indus- trial Revolution. England, itself, at this time, was en- tering upon a revolution very different from that which impended in France, but the silent effects of which were of even greater moment to mankind. There exists an im- mense difference between the methods and the organiza- tion of industry in the nineteenth century and those that were practised before. It is a difference that has been brought about by mechanical inventions of labor-saving machinery, and by scientific discoveries, which have in- creased the power of man to produce things for the satis- faction of his wants. Such invention began, of course, when civilization began ; but it went forward very creep- ingly through all the centuries until the last third of the eighteenth. Then a sudden, tremendous leap in it nearly broke all connection between the ways in which the work of the world was done before and the ways in which it has since been done. 546 ARISTOCRATIC GOVERNMENT. [1764-1790 It was principally in England that the revolutionary- leap of inventive enterprise was made, and, consequently, England won, then, the industrial as well as the com- The great mercial leadership of the world. Hargreave, in inventors. 1764, Arkwright, in 1769, Crompton, in 1779, invented spinning machinery, and Cartwright, in 17S4, invented a pow- er-loom, which ended the hand- spinning and hand-weaving of the past ; James Watt, in 1 776, made the steam engine a cheap and practicable source of power for moving such machines ; Smea- ton, Cort, and others, between 1760 and 1790, improved and cheapened the watt's steam engine in 17S0. x making of Eng- lish iron, and Brindley began the building of many canals, for internal trade, while Arthur Young, in that period and after, was laboriously teaching better agriculture to the tillers of the soil. While labor was being thus armed with new powers, and better highways were being opened to trade, '•weaitnof a book appeared (1776), entitled "The Wealth Nations- of NationS) " by Adam Smith, which taught the English people to see that when labor is most free to 1789] BACKWARD STEPS. 547 produce, and to exchange what it produces, with least interference from the makers of law, the result of general wealth is greatest and most sure. It was a truth learned slowly, but with extraordinary effect in the end. So England, at the outbreak of the French Revolu- tion, was passing the beginnings of a momentous revo- lution within herself. It was a revolution as much social as economic. It gave rise to the factory system, to huge manufacturing establishments, to powerful com- binations of capital, to new and greater inequalities of wealth. It built up cities, increased their popu- The social lation enormously, and created in them a class revolution - of workingmen easily stirred by ideas, easily combined, and certain to become a power in the state. It made the region of coal and iron, in the north, the most thickly peopled part of the land. It raised up an interest in the country which soon outweighed the landowning interest, that had ruled it before. It worked great and rapid changes in the structure of English society, and in its whole character and tone. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS. 342. The Ideas of George III. Topics. i. The king an obstacle to ministerial government. 2. Character of George. References. — Gardiner, iii. 765, 766; Bright, iii. 1035, 1036; Green, 761, 762; Ransome, 217; Guest, 532, 533; Roseberry, Pitt, 10-14; H. Taylor, ii. 477, 478. Research Questions. — (1.) What doctrine did the Whigs stand for? (2.) How firmly had they established their power? (3.) What would be the natural effect upon an arbitrary king of the exercise of such power? (4.) What advantage over the previous kings of his house did George III. have in achieving popularity ? (5.) Compare his character with that of Charles I. (Gardiner, iii. 765) ; with James II. (Green, 761.) 54 8 BACKWARD STEPS. 343. Government by the "King's Friends." Topic. i. Lord Bute and the new Tory party. Reference. — Gardiner, iii. 766-76S. Research Questions. — (1.) To whom had the Tory party been looking as the rightful king ? (2.) What event had put an end to those hopes ? (3.) Why was it natural for the political ideas of the Tories to be less progressive than those of the Whigs ? (Green, 761, 762.) (4.) What can be said of the condition of Parliament at the time of Bute ? (Gardiner, iii. 767, 768.) 344. The Peace of Paris. Topic. 1. English gains by the treaty. Reference. — Bright, iii. 1040. 345. The Grenville Ministry. Topics. 1. Bute obliged to resign. 2. Grenville's attitude toward the king. Reference. — Bright, iii. 1041, 1042. 346. Persecution of John Wilkes and the Newspaper Press. Topics. 1. Grenville's attack on the freedom of the press. 2. Government persecution of John Wilkes. 3. Wilkes's character and the source of his popularity. References. — Gardiner, iii. 769, 770,774, 77s, 779 5 Green, 767, 768, 773, 774 ; Colby, 253-256 ; Ransome, 222-224, 239, 240 ; Montague, 179-183; Taswell-Langmead, 726, 736-73 8 ; Lecky, vol. iii. chs. x., xi. Research Question. — (1.) What is the objection to general warrants? (Gardiner, iii. 769-770; Montague, 179.) 347. The Quarrel with American Colonies. Topics. 1. Cause of American discontent. 2. English view of the situation. 3. American smuggling and Grenville's action. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 549 4. The Stamp Act and American opposition aroused. 5. English supporters of the Americans. Reference. — Bright, iii. 1045-1048. Research Questions. — (1.) Why would there be a natural ten- dency after the French and Indian War to criticise the mother country? (Green, 760.) (2.) What ground was there on which the colonies could unite? (Bright, iii. 1056, 1057.) (3.) Why did the colonies submit to trade restrictions and object to the Stamp Act? (4.) Compare the raising of "ship money" in the time of Charles I. with the Stamp Act. (5.) Compare the minds of Pitt and Burke. (Gardiner, iii. 773.) 348. The Rockingham Ministry. Topics. 1. The new ministry. 2. Repeal of the Stamp Act. Reference. — Bright, iii. 1050-1052. 349. Pitt as Earl of Chatham. — The Ministry called by his Name. Topics. 1. Pitt accepts a peerage. 2. Townshend duties. 3. Lord North and the king. 4. Explorations of Captain Cook. Reference. — Bright, iii. 1053, 1054. 350. Wilkes again. Topics. 1. The Middlesex election. 2. Contest between Wilkes and the king's party. 3. Letters of Junius. References. — Gardiner, iii. 774-776; Bright, iii. 1057, 1058; Green, 768, 774 ; Colby, 256-258 ; Lecky, iii. 253-277. Research Questions. — (1.) What good came out of the Wilkes struggle ? (Gardiner, iii. 789.) (2.) Compare the agitation about the Middlesex elections to the agitation which brought about the American Revolution. (Gardiner, iii. 794.) 550 BACKWARD STEPS. 351. Lord North and the Beginning of the War of American Independence. Topics. i. North's character. 2. Retention of the tea duty and the action of Boston. 3. Retaliatory measures of Parliament and their consequences. Reference. — Gardiner, iii. 776-783. 352. The King and the Nation in the American War. Topics. 1. Attitude of the English public toward the war. 2. Desire for peace and opposition by the king. Reference. — Green, 781, 782. Research Questions. — (1.) How many years had elapsed since the French and Indian War? (2.) How well fitted financially was England to goto war again? (3.) How did she get an army to- gether ? (4.) What was the effect of the employment of these soldiers upon the colonists ? 353. War with France, Spain, and Holland. — Armed Neutrality. Topics. 1. Formation of the alliance. 2. What it achieved. References. — Green, 782; Bright, iii. 1099. Research Questions. — (1.) Give reasons in each case respec- tively to show why France, Spain, and Holland were ready to fight England. (2.) Show from the terms of the alliance that France's only motive was revenge. (Bright, iii. 1083, 1084.) (3.) What united all Europe against England? (Gardiner, iii. 792.) (4.) What power of Great Britain enabled her against such odds to keep at least a part of her dominions. 354. King George's Failure. Topics. 1. Significance of the king's submission. 2. The real sovereignty from that time. Reference. — Bright, iii. 1 104, 1 1 12. Research Questions. — (1.) What had been the way in which the sovereign attached men to his cause and rewarded their ser- vice ? (2.) What was the significant feature of Burke's reform TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 55 1 bill passed at this time ? (Gardiner, iii. 795.) (3.) What treaty ended the American Revolution? (4.) What disposition was made of Florida by this treaty and was it a boon to the colonies ? 355. Home Measures of the Ministry of Lord North. Topics. 1. Establishment of the freedom of the press. 2. Gordon riots. Reference. — Bright, iii. 1092, 1093. 356. Ireland. Topic. 1. The Irish demands and the concessions made. Reference. — Traill, v. 505 sqq. Research Questions. — (1.) Describe the political condition of Ireland at this time. (Gardiner, iii. 796.) (2.) What did Pitt attempt to do for Ireland ? (Green, 817, 818.) 357. India under Warren Hastings. Topics. 1. Suppression of French attempts upon India. 2. Change in the government; rule of Warren Hastings. 3. Impeachment and trial of Hastings. References. — Gardiner, iii. 801-806 ; Macaulay's Essay on Warren Hastings ; Bright, iii. 1 130-1 140. 358. The Shelburne Ministry and the Coalition. Topics. 1. Lord Rockingham's death and the Shelburne ministry. 2. Coalition ministry of Fox and North, and the appointment of William Pitt the younger. Reference. — Bright, iii. 1 1 1 1, 1 1 12. 359. The Ministry of the Younger Pitt. Topics. 1. Pitt and his first experiences. 2. Growth of his support. 3. His party and his measures. Reference. — Green, 790-795. Research Questions. — (1.) Compare the younger Pitt with his father. (Gardiner, iii. 799.) (2.) What influence contributed to his greatness? (Green, 793.) 552 BACKWARD STEPS. 360. The King's Loss of Mind. Topics. i. The Regency bill. 2. Approach of the French Revolution. 361. The Epoch of Mechanic Invention and Indus- trial Revolution. Topics. i. Industrial progress up to close of eighteenth century. 2. Great inventions at this time. 3. " The Wealth of Nations." 4. Nature of this social and industrial revolution. References. — Gardiner, iii. 810, 813-818; Bright, iii. 1 150, 1228; Green, 791-793 ; Colby, 268-270,278-281; Cunningham & Mc- Arthur, 4, 131, 132, 163, 198, 201,202, 219-225; Gibbins, 143, 181, 189; Traill, v. 305-321, 330-332, 455-474, 4§i ; Lecky, iii. 423, 425, vi. 206-225. Research Questions. — (1.) What process assisted at this time in making an age of manufacture? (Green, 792.) (2.) In what part of England were deposits of coal and iron found close to- gether ? (3.) Where, then, would manufactures naturally arise? (4.) What invention in coal mining assisted manufactures? (5.) What effect would this new departure have on the distribution of population ? (6.) What used to be the most densely popu- lated portion of England ? (7.) Where is the densest population to-day? (8.) What old idea of wealth did the trading classes still hold? (Green, 793.) CHAPTER XXIV. CONFLICT WITH THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. George III. 1789-1800. 362. English Attitude toward the French Revolu- tion. The early movements of the great revolt in France were watched with ardent sympathy by many in England, some hoping for a republic to come from it, and some for a consti- tutional monarchy like their own. Even Pitt seems to have shared the latter hope for a time. Edmund Burke, on the contrary, looked with dark forebodings from the first on the action of the French, and used all his powers to rouse feeling against them. Fox, with a considerable Whig fol- lowing, championed the revolution long af- ter the mad violence began (see page 483), which shocked and frightened most sober-minded men. There was something of a party in the country that applauded the doctrines and the doings of the extreme Jacobins ; but it does not seem to have EDMUND BURKE. 554 ARISTOCRATIC GOVERNMENT. [17S9-1793 been formidable at any time. Generally, from the day that the Jacobins won control of the Revolution, English sympathy with it was repelled. 363. Tory Reaction. The repulsion and alarm ex- cited by the ferocity of the Jacobin spirit, even before its "reign of terror" began, produced an unfortunate revival of extreme Toryism in the temper and sentiment of the classes which ruled England in that day. A liberal disposition toward ideas of political and social improve- ment which had been growing up was suddenly beaten down, and even Pitt, who had been eager for parliamen- tary reform, had no longer any ear for proposals of change. What was worse, he allowed himself to be driven by the Tory panic of 1792-93 into measures of violence against a few English Jacobinical or republican societies, which do not seem to have been strong enough at any time to cause reasonable alarm. 364. The War with Revolutionary France. But Pitt had no wish to interfere with events in France, and he strove to keep England out of the war which the violent master-spirits in that country were forcing upon their neighbors. It was from France, not England, that the declaration of war came, in February, 1 793 ; and the declaration was made because French republicans were mistakenly led to suppose that England was eager for a revolutionary rising like their own. For a year past, France had been at war with Austria and Prussia, and now a coalition of those powers with England, Holland, and Spain was formed. England's part in the war which followed was performed mainly, as usual, by her navy and her money, and nothing but the TheCoaii- great subsidies that she paid them kept the tlon " armies of her allies in the field ; for the French had amazing success. British forces were joined with i79i-i795] CONFLICT WITH THE REVOLUTION. 555 Austrian, Prussian, and Dutch in the defence of Holland, and shared defeat with them ; but where British and French fleets met, as they did on the French coast, in June, 1794, the victory was sure to be on the British side. The French were then nearly powerless at sea. Their distant colonies were at the mercy of the English navy, which seized them, one by one, during the year 1795. The colonies of Holland, then subject to France, — Cape Colony, Ceylon, and the Spice Islands, — suf- fered the same fate. In 1795, Prussia and Spain deserted the Coalition and Holland had been overcome. In the following spring, the Terrorists in France having been overthrown and the government of the Directory set up, proposals of peace were made by England, and refused. They were renewed a few months later, and again they failed. Napoleon Bonaparte had begun his astonishing campaign against the Austrians in Italy (see page 483), and great plans for striking England through Ireland had been formed. 365. Ireland. Ireland had gained nothing by the independence given to its Parliament ; possibly its condi- tion had been made even worse. The Parliament was an odious body, composed mostly of men who bought their seats, or who held them subject to a landlord's commands. It did not represent even the Protestants of Ireland ; the Catholics had no voice in it at all. It executed the will of a small, utterly selfish class. The Presbyterians of Ulster suffered scarcely less than the Catholics of Connaught ; and a movement was started in their ranks to form a Protestant and Catholic combina- tion for accomplishing some reform. This gave rise to an association, called the Society of United Irishmen, founded in 1791 by a Protestant barrister of Belfast, Theobald Wolfe Tone, which sought to obtain a better 556 ARISTOCRATIC GOVERNMENT. [1793-1797 representation of the people in Parliament, by strictly legal means. Pitt saw the need of answering these demands in Ire- land, and he forced its Parliament, in 1 793, to pass an act which allowed Catholics to vote for members of Parlia- ment, but still barred them from seats in it, and from of- fices and places of trust. He had more in contemplation, and attempted it two years later ; but the bigotry of the king and of the Tories who surrounded Pitt was roused, and they tied his hands. Then Wolfe Tone and other Irish political reformers who had worked in lawful ways became conspirators, in sheer despair. The United Irish- men became a secret revolutionary society, and Tone, compelled to fly, made his way to France, and there per- suaded the Directory to send the able General Hoche, with a great fleet and 15,000 or 20,000 men, The French with arms for 40,000 more, to liberate Ireland from English rule. The expedition sailed from Brest in December, 1796, only to be scattered, as the Spanish Armada had been, by a storm, and it returned with nothing done. But a reign of terror had been pro- duced in Ireland by the excitements of the time. Ris- ings and outrages committed by some of the Catholic peasantry were retaliated with a cruelty that nobody can defend, and a state of civil war prevailed, between the Protestant society of "Orangemen," formed in 1795, and similar societies on the Catholic side. Twice in 1797, the French government renewed its undertaking of an invasion of Ireland, or England, or both, with Spanish and Dutch fleets added to its own. The first was frustrated by Admiral Jervis and Commo- dore Nelson, who defeated the Spanish fleet, in Febru- ary, off Cape St. Vincent, and drove it back to Cadiz ; the second, in October, was ended more decisively in a 1797-1798] CONFLICT WITH THE REVOLUTION. 557 great fight at Camperdown, where Admiral Duncan de- stroyed or captured most of the Dutch ships. Hopeless of foreign help, the United Irishmen down sea then planned a general rising on their own part, to take place in May, 1798. The plot was betrayed, the leaders were arrested and executed, and those who took arms were crushed at Vinegar Hill and in some minor fights. 366. Distressed State of England. England was now in a state of great distress. The cost of her own army and navy, the enormous subsidies paid to her allies, the rapid increase of debt, the closing of many markets for her products, combined with several poor harvests, brought a cruel crisis at last. The country was drained of money, and a suspension of payments in coin occurred, in February, 1797, which lasted for twenty- Mutiny in two years. At about the same time a mutiny thefleet - broke out among the sailors of the navy, who held the very life of the nation in their hands. It had been caused by sore grievances, which the government cor- rected promptly, and wise treatment overcame it almost before the enemies of England knew that it had occurred. Bonaparte, flushed with his triumphs in Italy, had now planned to strike England in the east, and had gone to plant the forces of France in Egypt, from which point they might hope to lend aid to the native enemies of the English in Hindustan. He was already in correspond- ence with Tippoo, the son and successor of Hyder Ali in Mysore (see section 357), and his plans promised well when, in May, 1798, he landed an army in Egypt and mastered that country in a single fight. But, unless he could likewise be master of the sea between Egypt and France, he could not hope to make his project succeed, and that mastery was snatched from him by the great 558 ARISTOCRATIC GOVERNMENT. [179S-1800 Englisn sea-captain, Lord Nelson, who attacked and de- Battie of stroyed his fleet (August, 1798), in Aboukir Bay, the Nile. near one f tf\e mouths of the Nile. Bonaparte pushed on into Syria, but was stopped at Acre, where an English fleet, under Sir Sidney Smith, gave such help to the Turkish garrison that it held the town until he gave up the siege (April, 1799). A few weeks later, Tippoo, the ally he intended to aid in India, was slain and his capital taken by an English force. 367. The Irish Union, and the Resignation of Pitt. Pitt had become convinced that the terrible evils and troubles of Ireland could be cured only by uniting that kingdom with Great Britain, in the manner of the union of Scotland with England, under one Parliament and one system of law. He might have accom- plished the cure if he had been able to make his measure complete, by open- ing the greater Par- the union jack. irish flag before li ame nt to Catholics, and by emancipating them generally from the political disabilities under which they were kept ; but he failed in that part of his plan. The Act of Union was carried through the Irish Parlia- ment, in February, 1800, by corruption, it is said, and sanctioned in England the same year. "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland " became the style of the British realm on the 1st day of January, 1801. But when Pitt then attempted to bring forward the bill for " Catholic emancipation," which he had led the people i8oi] CONFLICT WITH THE REVOLUTION. 559 of that faith to expect, he found himself made powerless once more by the immovable bigotry of the king ; where- upon he resigned. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS. 362. English Attitude toward the French Revolution. Topic. i. Representative attitudes of Pitt, Burke, and Fox. References. — Green, 800-803. Prison reform: Green, 740, 741 ; Colby, 261-264; Traill, v. 482-486, vi. 230-233, 433-436 ; Lecky, vi. 255-261. Research Questions. — (1.) Show what the institution of feudal- ism had to do in preparation for the French Revolution. (2.) Draw a parallel between England and France in modifying feu- dalism and in finally casting it off. (Johnson, N. E., 162-164.) (3.) Give some description of the condition of France. (Green, 797: 798, 800.) (4.) How far was Louis XIV. responsible for this ? (5.) What event outside of France quickened the out- break of the Revolution? (Montague, 191.) (6.) What intel- lectual influence within France worked to the same end ? 363. Tory Reaction. Topics. 1. Revival of Toryism due to French Revolution. 2. Pitt's part in the reaction. References. — Gardiner, iii. 825-828; Traill, v. 370-371; Tas- well-Langmead, 765, 766. Suspension of specie payments : Gardiner, iii. 835; Bright, iii. 1191-1193; Gibbins, 172-174; Thursfield, Pitt, ch. viii. ; Bagehot, Lombard Street, 175-178; Gilbart on Banking, i. 46-60; Cunningham, ii. 555-557. Research" Questions. — (1.) What was the "Reign of Terror"? (Guest, 543.) (2.) Why did the English consider the execution of Louis XVI. of France worse than the execution of Charles I. of England ? (3.) What novel of Dickens describes the " Reign of Terror"? (4.) What legislation in England had put a stop to vindictive imprisonment ? (5.) What effect had the Terror on this act? (Traill, v. 490.) 364. The War with Revolutionary France. Topics. 1. Pitt's policy. 560 CONFLICT WITH THE REVOLUTION 2. The Coalition and British success on the sea. 3. Unsuccessful overtures for peace. Reference. — Bright, iii. 11 67-1 187. Research Questions. — (1.) What two reasons had France for making war on other nations? (Gardiner, iii. 824, 825.) (2.) What was the condition of Ireland at this time ? (Gardiner, iii. 831-834; Bright, iii. 1 199-1204.) 365. Ireland. Topics. 1. State of Irish representation. 2. The Society of United Irishmen. 3. Pitt's attempt at relief and its results. 4. Attempted invasion from France and Irish reign of terror. 5. Camperdown sea fight and United Irishmen crushed. References. — Rosebery, Pitt, ch. xi. 366. Distressed State of England. Topics. 1. Distress in England and mutiny in the navy. 2. Bonaparte in Egypt and the battle of the Nile. References. — Gardiner, iii. 835-S38. Nelson : Gardiner, iii. 844, 845, 851-854; Bright, iii. 1 172, 1220, 1 232-1 234, 1 262-1 265; Colby, 281-284; Mahan, Life of Nelson; Southey, Life of Nel- son. Research Questions. — (1.) With what sort of money did Ping- land pay her allies ? (2.) How is the amount of coin in a coun- try affected by foreign payments ? (3.) What is meant by sus- pending payment in coin? (4.) Has this ever occurred in the United States? (5.) When ? (6.) What is the effect on prices of a scarcity of money? (7.) What sort of products become very dear in time of war ? (8.) Who suffer most from this ? (9.) Why did Napoleon attack India rather than Canada? 367. The Irish Union, and the Resignation of Pitt. Topics. 1. Pitt's plans for settling Irish troubles. 2. The Act of Union passed. 3. " Catholic emancipation " bill fails and Pitt resigns. References. — Gardiner, iii. 842; Bright, iii. 1199-1219, 1229, 1230; Green, 81 1-818; Rosebery, Pitt, chs. xi.-xiii. ; Montague, 186-188; H. Taylor, ii. 514, 515; May, ii. ch. xvi.; Lecky, viii. 394 s qq- SURVEY OF GENERAL HISTORY. THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. The Transformation of t/ie World. In the later part of the eighteenth century, a new epoch in history was entered, — an epoch marked by many distinctions, but most strikingly by what may be called the transformation of the world. The generations before that time, whether ancient or modern, had found the world in which they lived much the same, so far as concerns the common conditions of life ; but for us of the present age it has been utterly transformed. Its distances mean nothing that they formerly did ; its dividing seas and mountains have none of their old effect ; its terrifying pesti- lences have been half subdued, by discovery of the germs from which they spring ; its very storms, by being sentinelled, have lost half their power to surprise us in our travels or our work. Netting the earth with steam and electric railways, seaming it with canals, wire-stringing it with telegraphic and telephonic lines ; ferrying its oceans with swift, steam-driven ships ; ploughing, planting, harvesting, spinning, weaving, knit- ting, sewing, writing, printing, doing everything, with cunning machines and with tireless forces borrowed from coal mines and from waterfalls, men are making a new world for them- selves out of that in which they lived at the dawning of the era of mechanism and steam. These, however, are but outward features of the change that is being wrought in the world. Socially, politically, morally, it has been undergoing, in this epoch, a deeper change. The growth of fellow-feeling that began in the last century has been an increasing growth. It has not ended war, nor the passions that cause war, but it is rousing an 562 GENERAL HISTORY. opposition which gathers strength every year, and it is forcing nations to settle their disputes by arbitration, more and more. It has made democratic institutions of government so common that the few arbitrary governments now remaining in civilized countries seem disgraceful to the people who endure them so long. It has broken many of the old yokes of conquest, and revived the independence of many long-subjugated states. It has swept away unnatural boundary lines, which separated peoples of kindred language and race. It is pressing long- neglected questions of right and justice on the attention of all classes of men, everywhere, and requiring that answers shall be found. And, still, even these are but minor effects of the prodigious change that the nineteenth century has brought into the experience of mankind. Far beyond them all in importance are the new conceptions of the universe, the new suggestions and inspirations to all human thought, that science has been giving in these later years. If we live in a world that is different from that which our ancestors knew, it is still more the fact that we think of a different universe, and feel differ- ently in our relations to it. In all views, therefore, it seems to be plain that an extraor- dinary period in human history is being passed through at the present time, under conditions of life, of action, and of thought so utterly changed that the outcome is not to be cal- culated from any experience in the past. The Napoleonic Wars. The first fifteen years of the nine- teenth century were mostly filled with wars fought on all sides against Napoleon, who aspired to make himself master of the European world. In 1804, he dropped the pretence of republicanism, and crowned himself, in France as emperor, in Italy as king. Then he planned a great invasion of England, and when his plan was frustrated, by the naval victory of Lord Nelson at Trafalgar (see section 370), he turned the army he had prepared for it against Austria and Russia, which were allied with England, and vanquished their united forces THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 563 at Austerlitz. From that hour his ambition overleaped every bound. He placed one of his brothers on the throne of Naples and another on the throne of Holland ; his sisters became princesses, his generals became dukes. Southern Germany underwent a reconstruction at his hands. The ancient Holy Roman Empire (see pages 53 and 131) ceased, even as a fiction, to exist, and the reigning emperor, Francis II., resigned the venerable title it gave and took that of Emperor of Austria, instead. The Overthrow and the Reconstruction of Prussia. Germany in general submitted to Napoleon's commands ; but Prussia flamed out in a rash declaration of war (October, 1806), and was crushed under the feet of a conqueror who had no spark of generous feeling in his soul. With all his genius, Napoleon Bonaparte was as coarse in nature as a boor, and seemed to delight in insolent uses of his power. He indulged it in Prussia and in Germany at large with fatal consequences to himself. The German spirit was roused, not broken, by the humiliations it had to endure, and Prussia, especially, was wakened to a new life. A number of great statesmen began a quiet work of national reconstruction which had astonishing results. Serfdom, lingering until that late time, was swept away ; the school system which has educated the Prussians beyond their neighbors was founded ; the military system which has made them a nation of soldiers was organized ; in every way the career that Prussia has realized since was pre- pared for, then and there. 77/,? Fall of Napoleon. Napoleon, meantime, was being led by a mad ambition into undertakings beyond his power. He had begun a futile attempt to suppress all trade and com- munication between England and the continent (see section 372) ; and he had made the more ruinous mistake of endeav- oring to place his brother Joseph on the throne of Spain. The Spaniards resisted ; England sent armies, under the Duke of Wellington, to their help, and the seven years of obstinate war that followed, in the Spanish peninsula (1808- 564 GENERAL HISTORY. 18 14), were fatally weakening to France. For a few years Napoleon seemed to be irresistible, but the end of his power to hector Europe was drawing near. Having quarrelled with the Tsar, who became his ally in 1807, he led a great army to Moscow, in 18 12, and there his downfall began. The Muscovites burned their city, and he was driven to a winter retreat, in which all but a wretched remnant of his host was slaughtered or perished of starvation and cold. Then Ger- many rose against him, joined by Russia and Austria, while Wellington expelled his forces from Spain and crossed the Pyrenees into France. Assailed on all sides and driven to Paris, he gave up his throne (April, 18 14), and the Bourbon monarchy was restored. Napoleon was given the island of Elba as a small principality, and retired to it until the follow- ing spring, when he reappeared suddenly in France. He was welcomed by army and people, and the Bourbon court fled. For a few weeks he was emperor again ; but the powers which had dethroned him were not to be so defied. Their decree against him was made final by his defeat at Waterloo, and he was sent to captivity on the island of St. Helena for life. The Holy Alliance. The sovereigns whose armies had broken Napoleon down assumed authority to rearrange every- thing he had disturbed. In a general congress at Vienna, they and their representatives undertook a new settlement of things, entirely in the interest of ruling families, and without the least regard for the welfare and rights of the people at large. The Bourbons were restored in Spain, Naples, and Sicily, as well as in France. The King of Sardinia recovered his dominions, and all the little Austrian despots of Italy were brought back. In Germany, as nearly as possible, the old bad state of things was patched up anew. A very neat map of reconstructed Europe was made, in fact, at Vienna, and the Tsar of Russia, the Emperor of Austria, and the King of Prussia entered into a " Holy Alliance " for the keeping of the map as they had made it. THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 565 The Revolutions 0/1820-1830. But a spirit stronger than the Holy Alliance had got abroad in the world, and it soon began to shake the Vienna arrangement of things. Spain set the revolutionary example, in 1820, followed by Italy in the same year, and, though both movements were put down by the Alliance, they gave independence to the Spanish colonies in America, which revolted, with encouragement from England and the United States. In 182 1, the Greeks rose against their Turkish oppressors, and won freedom after struggling for eight years. In 1830, there were many outbreaks. France expelled the reigning king, Charles X., and gave his crown to another Bourbon, of the Orle'ans branch, who promised a more constitutional rule. Belgium broke away from Holland, to which it had been tied ; constitutions were extorted from several German princes ; Russian Poland made a brave but vain attempt to burst its bonds ; unsuccessful risings occurred again in some of the Italian states ; and then the English people, happiest of all in political circumstances, won their first great parliamentary reform (see section 388). The Revolutions 0/1848. From that time until 1848 there was general quiet on the surface in Europe, with an increasing heat of rebellious feeling underneath. In 1848, the storm of revolution broke forth, first in Italy, then sweeping into France, and through Germany to Austria and Hungary, even shaking the Swiss republic, where it produced a new consti- tution, after civil war. In France, the Bourbon monarchy was overthrown finally, and a republican government was reestablished, but not to endure. In Italy, the revolt, most promising at first, failed grievously in the end. In Hungary, it was crushed by Russian and Austrian armies combined. In Germany, it resulted in a Prussian constitution, and in a general loosening of the old hard lines of arbitrary govern- ment ; but the greater fruits it might have had were lost for want of practical statesmen, instead of bookish men, in the lead. The Second Empire in France. Louis Napoleon, a nephew 566 GENERAL HISTORY. of the first Napoleon, was elected president of the new re- public of France. In imitation of his uncle, he brought about its overthrow (185 1), and set up a Second Empire, which was a rotten sham. For eighteen years he contrived to make himself a conspicuous figure in affairs. In 1854, he drew England with him into a needless and badly managed war with Russia (the Crimean War, so called), for the defence of the Turks. The Unification of Italy. In 1859, Louis Napoleon found another and better opportunity for war. He led an army to the assistance of Victor Emmanuel, King of Sardinia, who had undertaken to drive the Austrians from those states in northern Italy which they oppressed. In great battles at Magenta and Solferino, Austria was defeated, and Napoleon then closed the war abruptly, by a treaty which gave Lom- bardy to Sardinia, but left Venetia and other Italian states still under the Austrian yoke. Patriotic Italians would not accept that meagre result. Tuscany, Parma, Modena, and Romagna demanded annexation to Sardinia, and obtained it in i860. Garibaldi, a great champion of liberty, raised an army of volunteers and drove the Bourbon king and court from Sicily and Naples in that same year. Both were annexed to the kingdom of Victor Emmanuel, which then became the kingdom of Italy, with a national parliament and a liberal constitution. Six years later, Venetia was added, and in 1870 the papal states were taken, which made the Italian kingdom complete, with its seat of government at Rome. Events in America. Meantime the great conflict of civil war had occurred in the United States (1861-65), and Louis Napoleon, always craving opportunities to play some showy part in the world, desired to interfere in it ; but he failed to persuade England to join him, and did not venture to act alone. In Mexico, however, he saw what seemed to be a safe opening for his intrusive hand, while the United States were busied with troubles of their own. He undertook, accord- ingly, to set up an empire in that country, with an Austrian THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 567 archduke on the throne. The American government pro- tested vainly, until the civil war ended ; but when it began then, in 1867, to move troops towards the Mexican border, the French forces in that country were speedily called home ; after which the Mexican empire lasted two months and a week. The unfortunate Austrian prince, Maximilian, over- come by the Mexicans, was put to death ; a republican govern- ment was restored, and Mexico, after a few disturbed years, settled down to a peaceful and prosperous career. The Unificatio?i of Germa?iy. The liberation and unification of Italy was the first of several great movements of political union which have been the most remarkable facts of the last forty years. The next to occur was in Germany, where it was begun, in 1866, by a sharply fought "seven weeks' war" between Prussia and Austria, which established the leadership of the former in German affairs. The fruits of the Prussian victory were used with surpassing force and skill, by a re- markable statesman, Otto von Bismarck, acting under an able king, William I. The Prussian kingdom was enlarged, absorb- ing Hanover and several duchies, and a North German Con- federation of neighboring states was formed, with the King of Prussia at its head. The Franco-Prussian War. The sudden rise of Prussia to a rank among the great powers woke the jealousy of the French emperor, and he seemed to feel called upon to check her growing influence over the other German states. On the other hand, Bismarck, who knew, as Louis Napoleon did not, the hollowness of the French empire, was more than willing to give him the opportunity for war that he sought. Naturally, under those circumstances, hostilities broke out, in 1870, between Prussia and France, and France was beaten down more completely than Austria had been. In six weeks from the day that he sent his declaration of war, Louis Napoleon was a captive and the imperial government had ceased to exist. In less than seven months from that fatal day, the Prussians were in Paris, dictating hard terms of peace. They 568 GENERAL HISTORY. took back Alsace, which France had wrested from Germany by war two centuries before, and they wrung from the French nation a payment of no less than five thousand millions of francs ($1,000,000,000), as indemnity for the war. The Third Republic in France. On the ruins of the fallen French empire, a republic was once more raised — the Third Republic in France. At the outset it had a fearful struggle for life with the mob of Paris, led by fanatical and violent men. At the cost of much bloodshed, after a siege of nearly two months, the rebellion of the Communists, as they were called, was overcome, and a republican government was established, which has endured to the present time. Creation of the German Empire. In Germany, the result of the Franco-Prussian war was the creation of a new Ger- manic empire, in which the nationalization of the German people was made complete. It is a federal empire, in which three kingdoms (Prussia, Bavaria, and Wurtemburg) and numerous duchies are united, under a written constitution, and the King of Prussia, with the added title of " German Emperor," is president of the whole. The Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Austrian empire had already been made a federal empire, organized in like manner, as one of the consequences of the defeat sustained in 1866, Hungary being placed on an equal footing with Austria, each having its own constitution, under a federal constitution which covers both. Later European Events. Since the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, the peace of Europe has been broken, by hostilities within its own border, but once. In 1875, the Christian pro- vinces of Turkey began a fresh revolt against the dreadful misrule under which they were kept. First, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and then Bulgaria, rose in arms, and their rebellion was atrociously put down by the Turks. Servia and Montenegro declared war in their behalf and were overcome. Then Russia, in 1877, espoused their cause, and a fierce war occurred, which might have ended the Turkish empire in THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 569 Europe if the jealousy of other powers had not interfered. As it was, the Bulgarians, Bosnians, and Herzegovinians were all freed from Turkish rule, the latter two peoples being joined to Austria, the former established in a separate state. In the Asiatic World. The next war of considerable mag- nitude occurred (1894-95) in the farther east, between China and Japan. The former proved helplessly weak, the latter surprisingly strong and highly advanced in the modern arts of war. The opening of Japan to western teaching, and the astonishing progress of its people in a wholly new career, are to be counted, in fact, among the most notable events in recent times. The contrasting decay of the huge Chinese empire, and the rapid advance of Russian development in Central and Siberian Asia, are giving rise to startling ques- tions, that will have their answer in years to come. The Spanish-American War, If the politics of the eastern world become troubled, our own country is now certain to be mixed in their complications, since the results of its success- ful war with Spain (1898) have placed it in possession of one of the great archipelagoes of the east. A new and strange leaf in American history has been turned by that war, opening surely to grave consequences, which no man can foresee. In Africa. Until within a score of years, the vast continent of Africa had been mostly unknown or forgotten in history since the Ptolemies reigned on the Nile. Now, the rivalries of Europe have invaded it, and Africa has suddenly become the conspicuous arena of their ambitious strife for empire and trade. Very nearly the entire continent is occupied or con- trolled by England, France, Germany, Belgium, and Portugal, the claims and possessions of England forming an almost unbroken line of territory from Egypt to the Cape of Good Hope. It is natural and significant that the latest war fought on a great scale in the nineteenth century (the British- Boer war of 1899-1900) should have its theatre in Africa, and that its true cause should be found in the new value attached to possessions in that part of the world. 570 GENERAL HISTORY. The Peace Congress. While Europe has been kept at peace within itself for more than a score of years, its leading powers have been watching each other with jealousy and dread, and their armies and navies have been growing frightfully in mag- nitude and cost. The burden of their maintenance presses so hard that, in August, 1898, the Tsar of Russia asked the nations of the world to consult together and find a common means of avoiding the continual preparation for war. The congress for that purpose which he invited has been held (1899), and, though it did not accomplish the grand aim of the Tsar, it set up a goal towards which civilized men are moving, and it has quickened the steps of their march. CHAPTER XXV. CONFLICT WITH NAPOLEON. George III. 1800-1820. 368. France fallen under Napoleon. When Pitt re- signed office, a new and greater trial of the strength of England was being prepared in France. Bonaparte, returning from Egypt in the fall of 1799, had been able to overthrow the feeble government of the Directory (see section 366), and to make himself, under the title of First Consul, the absolute ruler of the state. He found the country assailed by a new coalition, of Russia and Austria with Great Britain, and its military prestige very seriously impaired. By flattering Paul, the half- mad Russian Tsar, and by a brilliant campaign against the Austrians in Italy, he broke up the coalition, made peace with Austria, at Luneville, and England was left to oppose him alone. No other obstacles in his path, then or afterwards, were dreaded so much by the rising despot of Europe as the money, the navy, and the stubborn pub- lic spirit of the British people ; and the whole force of his genius and will was bent upon the breaking of their power. 369. The Peace of Amiens and the Renewal of War. But England, with the long arm of her navy, was striking blows which warned her enemy to gird himself before he engaged with her in mortal strife. In Sep- capture of tember of 1800, she drove the French from the Malta - great citadel of Malta in the Mediterranean. In the next 572 ARISTOCRATIC GOVERNMENT. [1801-1803 March, she expelled them from Egypt. In April, her irre- sistible Nelson seized the fleet of the Danes, in the harbor of their own capital, and broke up a new league that had been formed by the northern powers, against British at- tempts to stop the carrying of French goods in neutral ships. Napoleon being willing then to gain an interval of peace, in which to make further preparations for war, and the desire for peace in England having become very strong, a treaty was signed at Amiens, in March, 1802, which gave a breathing spell to both. England surren- dered all her conquests beyond the sea except Trinidad and Ceylon, and George III. solemnly gave up the ridicu- lous title of " King of France," which English kings had retained since the days of Edward III. Cape Colony was restored to Holland, but retaken four years later, after war began anew, and has been an English possession ever since. It was only a brief breathing time of peace that the two countries enjoyed. Quarrels over Malta, and over offensive articles in English newspapers, brought war again, in May, 1803. Napoleon opened it dishonorably, by seizing some 10,000 British travellers, men and women, Threat- wn0 na d vi sited France during the peace, keep- sionVf 1 ™ m & them prisoners for years. At the same England, time, he began immense preparations for invad- ing England, with a great army, to be assembled at Boulogne, and to be protected in crossing the Channel by fleets of France and Spain. The vast work of pre- paration went slowly on through many months ; while the English increased their navy and put 300,000 volun- teers under arms. 370. Trafalgar and Austerlitz. — The Death of Pitt. The ministry which had succeeded that of Pitt failed to win public confidence, and its leader, Mr. Addington 1S04-1S05] CONFLICT WITH NAPOLEON. 573 (afterwards Viscount Sidmouth), was forced to give way to the trusted Pitt, who returned to the direction of affairs (May, 1804). Before Napoleon (now bearing the title of Emperor) was ready to strike his blow from Boulogne, Pitt had organized a new coalition against him, in which Russia, Austria, and Sweden were joined. But the great blow was never struck ; the en- ergy of Nelson had paralyzed the arm which threatened it, by a counter blow. In Napo- leon's plan, the French and Span- ish fleets were to draw Nelson away to the West In- dies, by threaten- ing movements in that direction, then double suddenly back to the English Channel and guard the crossing of French troops. The device was tried, in the spring of 1805, with enough success to carry the watchful Nelson away upon a futile chase ; but in every other 1 • r m 1 tm r 1 i Napoleon particular it tailed. Ine master ot the grand at army at Boulogne waited and watched in vain ou ° em for the return of his fleets. They were not in a condi- tion to be kept together, or to make speed. Nelson was back, and the defensive navy of England was concen- trated again, before that of France could be got in readi- LORD NELSON. 574 ARISTOCRATIC GOVERNMENT. [1805 ness to make its attempt. When it did sail for the Channel, it was attacked and almost destroyed, in the famous naval fight off Cape Trafalgar (October 21, 1805), where Nelson died his heroic death. No army or fleet has been assembled since that decisive day to invade the well-guarded British Isle. Even before the fleets came together in battle, Napo- leon had seen the failure of his plans, and, by making a sudden change in them, with that marvellous energy in which he surpassed all other men, he snatched a victory on the Danube out of the defeat that he suf- fered on the English strait. Moving his army with incredible swiftness from the western coast of France to the heart of the Austrian empire, he surrounded 40,000 Austrian troops and took them prisoners, at Ulm, on the 19th of October, entered Vienna on the 14th of November, and defeated the com- bined armies of Austria and Rus- sia, on the 2d of December, in the great battle of Austerlitz. The Third Coalition against him was broken up. Pitt, who was ill in health and worn down with his labors and cares, never rallied from the shock that was 1 CHARLES JAMES FOX. 1S06-1S07] CONFLICT WITH NAPOLEON. 575 given him by the news of Austerlitz. He died on the 23d of January, 1806. 371. The Ministry of all the Talents and its Tory Successor. Circumstances, on the death of Pitt, com- pelled the king to accept a ministry made up from several parties or factions, and styled the " Ministry of all the Talents," with Fox and Lord Grenville at its head. Fox, whom the king hated and had kept from office for years, was a statesman of brilliant talents, large and warm sym- pathies, and many traits that have endeared his memory, though his private life was ill-spent. The opportunity that now came to him for ministerial work was Dea thof very brief, for he died in the same year, after Fox - making vain attempts to arrange peace with Napoleon, — attempts which only revealed to him the perfidy of that terrible man of the sword. Fox lived long enough to feel assured that a bill for the suppression of the slave trade, which he had pressed, would pass Parliament, as it did early in 1807. The question of relief to the Catholics, from some at least of the many disabilities under which they were kept, pressed more arid more sternly on the conscience of honorable men ; but the king shut his ears to it, and demanded of the ministry, at last, a written pledge that the subject should never be touched. They resigned in consequence, and a strongly Tory ministry was change of formed, nominally under the Duke of Portland, mmistr y- but with abler men included, — Canning, Castlereagh, Eldon, Perceval, in the number, — all of whom became notable afterwards in public affairs. 372. British Orders in Council and the Continental System of Napoleon. By this time Napoleon had beaten Prussia to the earth (see page 563), and had defeated and humbled the Russian emperor, 576 ARISTOCRATIC GOVERNMENT. [1806 when he came to her defence. Almost the whole of Europe was subject to his commands, and he felt power- ful enough to attack England, which his armies could not reach, in a mode that might starve her industries, ruin her trade, and destroy her power by a general blight. In striving to stop the use of neutral ships for French commerce, the English had given great offence, as men- tioned heretofore, to some of the European powers, and even more to the Americans, who were getting a rich profit from the trade which the Napoleonic wars threw into their hands. By" what are known as orders in coun- cil, the British government had declared the whole coast of western Europe, from Brest to the Elbe, to of Euro- be in a state of blockade, even where no Brit- pean ports. . . . , n . ish war vessels were present to watch, and it claimed the right to seize, wherever found, any neutral ship that had sailed from or that sought to enter a port on that coast. It further claimed the right to search vessels of all nations, to learn whence they came, whither they were bound, and what cargoes they bore. The English were thus making a very arrogant use of their command of the sea. Napoleon now believed that he was able, with his power on land, to turn this mode of warfare against Eng- land and destroy her whole trade with the European world. Accordingly, in November, 1806, he issued, from Berlin, a decree which declared the British islands to be in a state of blockade, prohibited all commerce with them, and commanded that all merchandise and and Milan manufactures of Great Britain and her colonies, decrees. and ^ British subjects, should be seized wher- ever found. The English government retaliated by new orders in council, which extended the earlier ones to every port from which British ships were shut out. Na- 1807] CONFLICT WITH NAPOLEON. 577 poleon answered by a new decree from Milan, increasing the rigor of that from Berlin ; and thus the battle of belligerent commercial decrees, all striking at the trade of peaceful people, and at that of the Americans most of all, went on for several years. Napoleon's " continental system " of commercial war- fare with England, as it was called, failed entirely to accomplish what he hoped. It injured, but it did not STAGE COACH IN 1804. ruin, English manufactures and trade, for the reason that even the power of Napoleon could not suppress, on any part of the continent, the smuggled commerce with Great Britain that went on. He had absolutely no power at sea. He had expected, in 1807, to seize and make use of the Danish fleet ; but the English government forestalled his design by committing the same outrage themselves. Everywhere in Europe there was suffer- ing from needs which that continent could not supply to 578 ARISTOCRATIC GOVERNMENT. [1807-1808 itself, and nothing in his hard and insolent use of power put more bitterness into the hatred of his yoke than the Berlin and Milan decrees. 373. Beginning of Quarrel with the United States. Equally outraged by the British orders in council and by the decrees of Napoleon, and not feeling strong enough for a war with either or both, the government of the United States made a singular attempt to retaliate, in 1807, by an Embargo Act, which forbade the departure of vessels from any American to any foreign port. This totally deprived all the world of American products, and The Em- the deprivation was sorely felt ; but it caused bargoAct. no su ff erm g abroad, even in England, that was equal to the ruin it wrought at home. In the next year an act of non-intercourse with France and England was adopted, instead of the general embargo ; and, with in- creasing distress from loss of trade, American hostility of feeling, especially toward England, grew more intense. The offence of England was far more than in the mat- ter of interference with neutral trade. The " right of search" which she claimed at sea was not only for goods that she might seize, but also for sailors whom she might The "right claim as English subjects, and impress for ser- of search- v j ce - m h er own s hip S When even American war vessels were insolently searched for that purpose by British ships of greater strength, the feeling excited was too intense to be restrained very long from war. 374. The War in Spain. Intoxicated with power, Napoleon had now entered the frenzied courses which led him to his fall. He was maddening Germany by his grinding oppressions, and was rousing a fierce national pride and a desperate resistance in Spain. England be- came enlisted in the defence, first of Portugal and then of Spain, in 1808, and for the next six years her main 1808-1812] CONFLICT WITH NAPOLEON. 579 struggle with the great enemy was in the field of that " Pen insular War where Sir John Moore, whose death is immor- talized in English verse, fell fight- ing victoriously at Corunna, though fighting in retreat, and where Sir Arthur Wellesley, fresh from con- quests in India, gained a series of great victories — Talavera Busaco Arthur wellesley, duke of Wellington. Salamanca, Vit- toria, Toulouse, and others — which won his peerage, as Duke of Wellington, and gave him his fame. 375. Confirmed Insanity of George III. — Regency of the Prince of Wales. In the midst of these events (November, 1810), the king became insane again, and remained so until the end of his life. The Prince of Wales was made regent by a bill passed in the following February, and reigned as such for ten years before he became king. Canning, Castlereagh, and Portland had resigned from the cabinet, in consequence of quarrels, some months before, and Perceval had be- come the ministerial chief. He remained so tionof until his death by murder, at the hands of a madman, in 1812, when Lord Liverpool took his place. $8o ARISTOCRATIC GOVERNMENT. [1S09-1815 376. The Overthrow of Napoleon. The crumbling of Napoleon's power began with the stubborn resistance he encountered in Spain ; though he was able to crush Austria once more at Aspern and Wagram (1809), and seemed to have the world at his feet. But the life-blood of France had been drained by his merciless wars ; Ger- many was being silently prepared to rise against him with a new spirit and a new strength ; and when, in the last months of 1812, he fled back from his mad invasion of Russia, strewing the northern snows with the dead of a mighty host, his career of bloody triumphs was at an end. Then came the tale of defeats, finished by the great British and Prussian victory at Waterloo. 377. War with the United States. During the last three years of her conflict with Napoleon, England was also at war with the United States. After long and bit- ter controversy over the orders in council and the search- ing of American ships, the orders were withdrawn by the British government, but too late. The exasperated Americans had already declared war (June 18, 1812). In the fighting that ensued, they had more success at sea than on land. Their sailors proved to be better trained, their gunnery more accurate, their ships, as a rule, better built and better handled, and they won a series of naval victories, in battles, for the most part, between single ships, that astonished the English, ac- customed so long, as they were, to unrivalled prowess at sea. But in the campaigns on land there was less glory for the American arms. Canada was defended against them with entire success, and the war wrought no territorial The treaty change. As for the disputes over which it of Ghent. b e g an> concerning neutral trade and rights of search, they were not mentioned in the treaty which 1800-1815] CONFLICT WITH NAPOLEON. 581 ended the war, signed at Ghent on the 24th of December, 1 8 14. But practically they were disposed of, since Great Britain ceased exercising the questionable rights she had claimed. 378. The Breeding of Democratic Discontent. In the period between the ministry of Walpole and the bat- tle of Waterloo, England had experienced half a century of war and barely twenty-five years of peace. The later years of the period had been filled with a struggle that was almost for life. It had not devoured the population of the country to the horrible extent of the suffering in France, but had consumed its wealth. Public debt and taxation had been carried to a height never imagined as possibilities before. The strain could not have been borne if the great inventions which increased production had not been brought to the help of English industries at this time (see section 361). But, while the wealth that supported British wars came largely from those in- dustrial improvements, they were likewise the cause of much disturbance and distress, which deepened the ordi- nary suffering from war ; for the change from hand-labor to machine-labor, and from home-work to factory-work, left great numbers struggling to live by the old methods, and being starved in the hopeless fight. So far as British landowners and farmers were con- cerned, they should naturally and rightly have been los- ers by the peace. During the period of commercial blockading, they had had the feeding of the country in their own hands, and made the price of food to the peo- ple of the towns very high. This had been the chief distress of the war, and it ought to have ended with the war ; but it did not. The landowning interest, being that which controlled mainly the representation in Par- liament, was able to put duties on food from abroad, 582 ARISTOCRATIC GOVERNMENT. . [1800-1820 WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. which "protected" British farming against competi- tion as effectually as the blockades of war time had done. It had imposed such protective duties, in a somewhat moderate way, by what were known as "corn laws" (wheat and The corn all other grain laws. being called "corn") for many years; but now it obtained a corn law which absolutely prohibited the importation of wheat whenever its price fell below 80 shillings (about $20), a quarter (eight bushels) ; and that iniquitous law was kept untouched for thirteen years by the parliamentary power of the landlords, who thus "protected" their high rents. Such oppressive class government, in a time of gen- eral hardship, stirred up democratic feeling in England very fast, and the demand for a better representation of the peo- ple in Parliament took on a more threatening tone. It gathered force from the growth of manufac- turing towns, and was strengthened and embit- tered by stupid measures Demand of the Tory gov- for reform, eminent, which tried to put agitation robert burns. 1775-1820] CONFLICT WITH NAPOLEON. 5§3 down. There were consequently some years of no little disorder, partly political and partly due to riotous out- breaks among the suffering hand-weavers, who tried to destroy the power-looms and factories, to which they attributed their distress. This state of things continued until after the close of the reign of George III., who died in January, Dea thof 1820. The prince regent then became king, as George m George IV. 379. Literature of the Period. All feeling, if not all thought, would seem to have been animated by the revolutionary ex- citements of the last two or three de- cades in the eigh- teenth century, and one of its effects was to give litera- ture a warmer tone. The distinction of the poetry of Burns, Wordsworth, Cole- ridge, Scott, is in its freedom of form and in the frank- ness and freshness of its spirit, as compared with that of Goldsmith, Gray, and Shenstone, in the preceding generation. With a deeper tinge of human passion in it, the same gift of warmth was passed on to the poetry of Byron, Shelley, and Keats. It gave life to the creation of historical romance by Sir Walter Scott. It mellowed the rich SIR WALTER SCOTT. 584 ARISTOCRATIC GOVERNMENT. [1775-182° eloquence of Burke, and even Gibbon's stately narrative of the fall of Rome. It makes the essential difference between the elegant prose of Addison, the pompous prose of Dr. Johnson, and the genial prose of Charles Lamb. By the new feeling that came into it, towards both nature and man, English literature took on, indeed, a remarkably changed character in those late years of the eighteenth century and early years of the nineteenth, which may be called the revolutionary age. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS. 368. France fallen under Napoleon. Topics. 1. Napoleon First Consul and new coalition formed. 2. Coalition broken up and England alone in the opposition. Reference. — Bright, iii. 1 225-1 227. Research Questions. — (1.) What was the Directory ? (2.) Why could England better afford to be alone in the opposition than any other European country ? 369. The Peace of Amiens and the Renewal of War. Topics. 1. English successes and the Peace of Amiens. 2. War again, and preparations to invade England. Reference. — Bright, iii. 1236-1241. 370. Trafalgar and Austerlitz. — The Death of Pitt. Topics. 1. Third coalition against France. 2. Attempt to deceive Nelson and its result. 3. Battle of Trafalgar. 4. Third coalition broken up and Pitt's death. References. — Green, 820-822 ; Rosebery, Pitt, ch. iv. 371. The Ministry of all the Talents and its Tory Successor. Topics. 1. Formation of the new ministry. 2. Fox's character and death. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 585 3. Ministry dissolved. Reference. — Gardiner, iii. S55-S58. 372. British Orders in Council and the Continental System of Napoleon. Topics. 1. Napoleon master of Europe. 2. British orders in council and rights of search. 3. Napoleon's Berlin and Milan decrees. 4. Effect of Napoleon's continental system. Reference. — Green, 822-825. Research Questions. — (1.) Why did Napoleon's wars give the Americans more trade ? (2.) Why does a nation try to stop the commerce of another nation with which she is at war? (3.) How would such action alienate other nations ? (4.) What sort of a trade is a blockade sure to promote? (5.) Why did Eng- land suspect that English sailors might be found on American ships? (Bright, iii. 1326.) 373. Beginning of Quarrel with the United States. Topics. 1. Embargo Act and Non-intercourse Act. 2. Anger at the exercise of the " right to search." Reference. — Gardiner, iii. 872, 873. 374. The War in Spain. Topics. 1. Bonaparte's oppression of Europe. 2. The Peninsular War. Reference. — Bright, iii. 1 286-1 321. Research Questions. — (i.) What great colony had Portugal in the western hemisphere ? (2.) Of what use was it to her after Napoleon invaded the Spanish Peninsula? (Bright, iii. 1288, 1289.) (3.) What change in the territory of the United States was effected under Napoleon ? 375. Confirmed Insanity of George III. — Regency of the Prince of "Wales. Topics. 1. King's illness and the regency. 2. Changes in the cabinet. Reference. — Bright, iii. 1 323-1 325. 586 CONFLICT WITH NAPOLEON. 376. The Overthrow of Napoleon. Topics. i. Exhaustion of Napoleon's resources. 2. Russian campaign and the battle of Waterloo. References. — Green, 830-832, 834-836. Waterloo : Gardiner, iii. 874, Bright, iii. 1339-1346; Guest, 545-548 ; Colby, 296-298 ; Creasy, Fifteen Decisive Battles, 344-407. 377. War with the United States. Topics. 1. American success on the sea, and failure on land. 2. Treaty of Ghent. Reference. — Bright, iii. 1325-1328. Research Questions. — (1.) What unjustifiable act did the Brit- ish commit in this war? (Bright, iii. 1327; Green, 833.) (2.) What sort of places only can, by the rules of war, be bom- barded ? 378. The Breeding of Democratic Discontent. Topics. 1. Taxation in England and distress caused by inventions. 2. High price of food after the war and the corn laws. 3. Effect of this class legislation upon the people. 4. Death of George III. and succession of George IV. Reference. — Bright, iii. 1 350-1354. Research Questions. — (1.) How does machinery confer a bene- fit on the world if it deprives people of employment ? (Cunning- ham and McArthur, 227.) (2.) In what way is it a benefit to employers ? (Cunningham and McArthur, 225.) 379. Literature of the Period. Topics. 1. Great poets and change in the spirit of poetry. 2. Effect of the time on prose works. THE DEMOCRATIC ERA. 1820-1899. CHAPTER XXVI. THE ENDING OF THE RULE OF THE LANDLORDS. George IV. — William IV. — Victoria. 1820-1846. 380. Division among the Tories. The discovery of a desperate plot, called the Cato Street conspiracy, for the murder of the whole cabinet, and a trial of scanda- lous charges which the disreputable king brought against his wife, Queen Caroline, were exciting events that opened the new reign. The Tory ministry was now yielding to the influence of its more open-minded men. They were led by George Canning and William Huskisson, and opposed by Lord Liverpool, Lord Eldon, the " Duke of Wellington (who had lately entered the cabinet), and others of less note. In 1822, Canning obtained the foreign office and totally changed the spirit of the policy which his predecessor, Castlereagh, had pursued. Castlereagh had labored for the most part with Metternich and foreign the Holy Alliance, on the continent, to bind poicy ' the hands of the people and support arbitrary govern- ments in power (see pages 564, 565). Canning at once put England on the popular side, especially in the ques- tion between Spain and her revolting American colonies, and effectively checked the great imperial conspiracy in Europe against popular rights. 588 THE DEMOCRATIC ERA. [1822-1S28 Huskisson. At the same time, Mr. Huskisson, as president of the Board of Trade, began to turn English commercial policy in the direction of greater freedom, according to the doctrines taught by Adam Smith. Can- ning and Huskisson together were able to carry through the Commons a bill which moderated the iniquitous corn laws, but it failed in the House of Lords. 381. Canning's Ministry. In the spring of 1827, on the death of Lord Liverpool, Canning's strength in Parliament caused him to be raised to the head of the min- istry ; but Wellington and other unbending Tories in the cabinet refused to serve with him, and resigned. The seceders included Sir Robert Peel, a rising statesman, who after- wards showed himself more open to liberal convictions than Can- ning himself. To offset the Tory secession, many Whigs came to the support of the new premier ; but Canning's death, only four months after he rose to the lead, threw everything back into its former state. 382. Wellington's Ministry. For a few months after Canning's death the government was carried on by his colleagues and followers, under a weak leader, Lord Gode- rich, who could not keep unity in their ranks. In Jan- uary, 1828, they resigned, and the Duke of Wellington was called to the head of affairs. That signified a return 1S28-1S29] ENDING OF LANDLORD RULE. 589 of extreme Tories to power ; but even extreme Tories, with the stubbornness of Wellington, found it no longer possible to hold their old ground. The real states- man of the cabinet formed by the duke was Sir Robert Peel, who took the lead in the Commons, and whose conservative mind was fast receiving new light. To the confusion and wrath of a large number in their party, the Wellington and Peel ministry took up and carried through two urgent measures of reform which they had been expected to resist, and submitted to the passage of a third. They carried a corn bill, nearly identical with that of Canning and Huskisson, which Wellington had defeated little more than a year before. They resisted, but finally connived at, a partial repeal of those Reform venerably intolerant laws, the Corporation and measures - Test Acts (see sections 268, 276), so far as to open the door of office to Protestants not belonging to the estab- lished church. Lastly — most amazing of all — Welling- ton himself became urgent for " Catholic emancipation," — for the admission, that is, of Roman Catholics to Par- liament and to public offices in general, — as the only means, in his judgment, of saving Ireland from civil war. 383. Catholic Emancipation. A great leader had arisen among the Catholics in Ireland, and had organized them in a formidable association for the pressing of their demands. This was Daniel O'Connell, a man of extraor- dinary power in oratory and in personal influence, who commanded the masses of his countrymen like a king. He had caused himself to be elected to a seat in Parlia- ment, defeating one of the officers of the gov- Danie i ernment, and Parliament was fairly defied to °' Coime11 - exclude him, by requiring the oath which he could not, as a Catholic, take. Wellington, whose courage none could doubt, and Peel, whose cool judgment compelled respect, 59° THE DEMOCRATIC ERA. [1S29-1830 advised their party, and advised the king, that the time for yielding on this great question had come. With the help of Whigs and Canningites they carried the neces- sary bill (April, 1829), though a strong body of the Tories fought it obstinately to the last. 384. Freedom of the Press. Savage attacks by Tory newspapers on the Wellington ministry led to vigorous prosecutions, which worked a conversion of Tory feeling on the subject of freedom for the press, and practically ended attempts in England to restrain public criticism of the conduct of public affairs. But heavy taxes on newspapers and tracts remained to cripple the press, and to limit its power for some years. 385. The First Railways. It was at this time that the first convincing success was reached in the use of railways for carriages drawn by steam power. During several years, George Stephenson, a self-educated engi- neer, had been experimenting in the construction of steam locomotives, and in 1825 he had completed a short line of railway from Stockton to Darlington, in Durham county ; but his invention fully triumphed when Liver- pool and Manchester were joined by a railway, opened with ceremony in September, 1830. The event was saddened by an accident which caused the death of Mr. Huskisson, the able leader of economic reform. The use of steam power in propelling boats had reached steam- success some twenty years before, after long boats. experimenting by many persons, in America, England, and France. 386. Death of George IV. — Accession of William IV. In June, 1830, the king died, and was succeeded by his more reputable brother, William, Duke of Clarence, who had little ability, biit good intentions, and simple and popular ways, The Wellington ministry stayed in 1830] ENDING OF LANDLORD RULE. 591 office until November, when it found itself facing, in a newly elected Parliament, such a resolute demand for parliamentary reform that it felt obliged to give up office to the friends of the reform. A cabinet of Whigs and Canningites was accordingly formed, under Earl Grey, who had been urging action on the subject since 1792. 387. The First Reform Bill. Agitation for a true re- presentation of the people in Parliament had been freshly Stephenson's locomotive, " rocket." Adopted for use on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, 1829. stimulated by the Revolution of 1830, in France (see page 565). In the great manufacturing cities, like Leeds, Birmingham, and Manchester, that were growing up with no voice in Parliament, and in the numerous lesser towns that had risen since seats in Parliament were assigned, there had come to be a population too strong in numbers, 592 THE DEMOCRATIC ERA. [1S30 in intelligence, and in wealth, to be submissive any longer to the mere landlords' rule, which a pretence of repre- sentation for the "commons " of England served only to maintain. As we have seen (see section 65), the making up of the House of Commons was begun by the election of two or four knights from each county or shire. Then certain boroughs or towns were called upon to send representatives ; but such boroughs were never named in any law. Either the king or his sheriffs selected them as they saw fit. In many instances, moreover, towns of some importance were stricken from the sheriffs' lists on their own petition, because of the ex- pense involved. Thus the borough representation in Parliament was originally distributed in a very haphazard way ; and after a time, by mere custom, that chance arrangement became fixed. Certain boroughs were sup- posed to have acquired the right to seats in representa- Parliament, and the right belonged nowhere else. Many of them remained as they were in the fifteenth century, mere villages, while new towns grew up around them ; some disappeared, — Old Sarum, for example, from which the moving of Salisbury Cathe- dral to a new site carried all the population away, six centuries before. But the old boroughs, or, rather, the owners of the ground on which the old boroughs stood, were still sending members to the House of Commons, and the populous new cities and towns of England were allowed to send none. As a consequence, facts gathered in 1793 showed then that 307 members, being a clear majority of the House of Commons, were actually chosen by 154 persons, of whom 40 were peers. The state of facts in 1830 had been changed somewhat for the better, but not much. 1831-1832] ENDING OF LANDLORD RULE. 593 Even where towns of respectable population were repre- sented, the election of members had fallen into i ne q U aii- the hands of corporation councils (see page f e e p r °s enta 230), which acted under influences opposed to tion - the interests of the people at large. In the counties, the suffrage was very limited, and landlord influence pre- vailed. Such, in brief, was the outrageous constitution of Par- liament, which England would endure no longer, and which the king had appointed ministers to reform. Their reform bill was brought into the House of Commons on the first clay of March, 1831, but the support it received did not promise success, and the king was persuaded to dissolve Parliament, giving the voters an opportunity in a new election to manifest their wish. The voters were very far from representing the nation, but its feeling acted on them so strongly that they sent up to the Com- mons an overwhelming majority for the bill. It was car- ried through the Commons in September, but rejected by the Tory House of Lords ; and alarming excitement and riot ensued in London and other towns. The Re- Parliament was prorogued until winter, when a formBilL new reform bill which passed the Commons was man- gled with destructive amendments by the Lords. The king was then asked to overcome the hostile majority in the upper House by a creation of new peers ; but he refused, and the ministers resigned. This raised public excitement to so dangerous a pitch that the king yielded, recalled Lord Grey, and promised the needed crea- tion of peers. His promise sufficed. Rather than be swamped in their House the Lords gave way and passed the bill (June 7, 1832). 388. The Beginning of a Democratic Constitution. Fifty-six of what were known as the " rotten boroughs " 594 THE DEMOCRATIC ERA. [1832-1833 of the past were swept away by the act, and many small boroughs which had been sending two members to Par- liament lost one. The seats thus emptied were given partly to the large counties, but mostly to the greater towns. The suffrage, or right of voting for members of Parliament, was largely extended ; but still the great mass of the poorer population, and the large class of young men who«were not householders, remained with- out votes. The widening of the franchise, however, was great enough to give a democratic character to the constitu- tion of England which it had never possessed before. Until this time the government had been that of an aris- tocratic class. The so-called commons represented in Parliament could be looked at as nothing else. They had been about half a million in number, hold- The demo- . ...... ... .... cratic ing political rights which twenty millions or more of their fellow-citizens did not share. It was a very broad-based aristocracy, but it was an aristo- cracy, nevertheless. Now the base was broadened enough to take in a real part of the English common people, and the making of a democratic constitution was begun. 389. Work of the Reformed Parliament. The new electors were given an immediate opportunity to choose a new Parliament, and when it came together there seemed to be nothing in the way of wrongs that the Commons were not ready to reform. The same spirit prevailed in the ministry, and remarkable work was done during the following year. Slavery in the British colo- nies was abolished (August 30, 1833), ^20,000,000 being paid in compensation to the owners of the emancipated Abolition blacks. Some steps were taken to make the of slavery, established Protestant church in Ireland a little less oppressive to the Catholics, who were tithed and «833] ENDING OF LANDLORD RULE. 595 otherwise taxed for its support. The first of a series of humane laws, to limit and regulate the employment of children in factories, was passed. The first national appropriation of money in aid of common schools was made ; but it was only ,£20,000. The commercial mo- nopoly of the East India Company was taken away and the Indian trade thrown open to all. The poor law was amended ; the corrupting evil of sinecure offices was at- tacked, and the brutality of army floggings was checked. 390. New Party Names. The reforming majority in Parliament included a number of democratic politicians, brought in by the new voters, who wanted radical changes that were alarming to the ^lder school of Whigs. A.s it also included a number of Irish mem- bers, whose sole in- terest was in Irish questions, it was a party not very solidly made up. On the other side, among the Tories, a new split, like that in Canning's time, was beginning to appear, one divi- sion, under Peel, moving forward, to accept the altered state of things ; the other holding back. Party ties, in fact, were greatly loosened, and Tories who inclined to liberality were soon beginning to exchange places with Whigs of a conservative state of mind. Thus the two great parties of later English history, the Conservative SIR ROBERT PEEL. 596 THE DEMOCRATIC ERA. [1834-1827 and the Liberal, were having their birth, and it was at this time, or soon after, that they took to themselves those better names. 391. The Last Years of the Reign of William IV. Disagreements among his colleagues caused the resigna- tion of Earl Grey, in the summer of 1834, and the reform ministry was led for a time by Lord Melbourne ; but in November the king, who had no love for the reformers, found excuses for dismissing them, and for calling back Wellington and Peel. This was the last English ministry ever put out of office by royal command. From that day to this, no such change has been made without a vote in the House of Commons which signified its wish. And thus the ministerial government of England became fully a responsible government, — responsible to Parliament alone. The experience of the Wellington-Peel ministry soon established this fact. They could do nothing with the majority against them in the popular House, and they failed to change it in their favor by a new election. Peel Ministerial ma de a bold announcement of his readiness to bfnty^s 1 -' ta ^ e ll P '"^forming work, but the majority was tabiished. st i]i against him in the new House. In the spring of 1835 he gave way, and the Melbourne ministry was recalled. Lord Melbourne was an indolent man, and little of importance was done while he held the reins. In June, 1837, King William died, and was succeeded by Victoria, daughter of his younger brother, the Duke of Kent. The young queen was at that time eighteen years of age. This separated the English crown Accession of Queen from that of Hanover. The latter passed to the Duke of Cumberland, fifth son of George III., as the nearest male heir. 392. Early Years of the Victorian Reign. " The 1837-1839] ENDING OF LANDLORD RULE. 597 age of electricity," as we often call the present time, may be said to have had its beginning at the beginning of the reign of Queen Victoria, since experiments in electric telegraphy — the first practical use of electricity that was made — reached positive success in the year that she was crowned ; but the first working line of electric telegraph, between Washington and Baltimore, in the United States, was not constructed until 1844. At the outset of her reign, the government of the young queen had to deal with a rebellion in Canada, arising mainly from a demand by the colonial people for more control of their legislatures, but aggravated in the province of Lower Canada by bad feeling between the few English settlers and officials and the far Canadian greater numbers of the Canadian French. The rebelllon - rebellion (known in America as " the Patriot War ") was suppressed with needless severity ; but the chief causes of discontent were afterwards removed, by changes in the colonial government, under which the two provinces of Upper and Lower Canada were united in one. An appalling disaster to the British arms was brought about, in 1839, by the worse than folly of the governor- general of India, Lord Auckland, who had sent Disaster 111 forces into Afghanistan to meddle in a dispute Afghanis- between two rivals for its throne. The incom- petent commander of the army allowed it to be surprised and helplessly besieged in Cabul.; then sought and ob- tained permission to retreat, but was treacherously at- tacked in the mountain passes, where little resistance could be made. One man alone, of more than 1 5,000, escaped by chance, to tell the awful tale. With prompt energy the Afghans were chastised, but the horrible dis- aster was beyond repair. Another dark event that occurred in these years — 598 THE DEMOCRATIC ERA. [1840-1841 not disastrous to England, but more shameful than the The Opium tragedy in Afghanistan — was an attack upon War - China which is known as "the Opium War." For the good of its people, the Chinese government was endeavoring to stop the bringing of opium into the coun- try, and took rough measures against a systematic smug- gling of the drug from India which was carried on, by English traders, on an enormous scale. The Chinese officials were insulting in some things that they did ; but there was little excuse for the action of the British gov- ernment, in 1 840, when it took up the cause of the opium smugglers, and forced China to open her ports to their trade. The better feeling of the English people was sternly roused on the subject by Bright, Cobden, and others, who denounced the war. Government remained in the hands of the Melbourne ministry until 1841 ; but it gradually lost support in the House of Commons, and was harassed by opposition from the Lords. Its most vigorous but least scrupulous administration was in foreign affairs, conducted by Lord Penny Palmerston, who had been a disciple of Can- postage. n j n g an j na j p asS ed over to the Whigs. Its most notable achievement in domestic measures was the great postal reform, brought about by Rowland Hill (1840-41), which reduced letter postage in Great Britain and Ireland to a penny, and provided for its payment by stamps. In 1840 Queen Victoria's marriage to her cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg, occurred, and of a the age proved to be a singularly happy union, as for- tunate for England as for the queen. 393. The Chartist Agitation. These early years of the reign were disturbed by an agitation that arose in that great hard-working body of the English people who 1838-1841] ENDING OF LANDLORD RULE. 599 were still excluded from political rights. In 1838 it took the form of a demand for what was called "The People's Charter," that being a document which embodied six democratic claims, namely : Universal suffrage for men ; apportionment of representation in Parliament by equal districts ; vote by ballot ; annual parliaments ; pay to members of Parliament, and no property qualification for such members. The reformed Parliament was not yet democratic enough to give even respectful treatment to a monster petition in behalf of the Charter, which came to it in 1839. This excited a righteous anger among the Chartists, as they called themselves ; their demonstra- tions became threatening and riotous, and were harshly suppressed. 394. Peel and the Abolition of the Corn Laws. While the Liberals had been losing ground, Peel and his party had been gaining, and the government passed to them, in 1841, with a strong majority in a newly elected House. Then began a new period of reforming work, quite as remarkable as that of 1833-34, an d pos- sibly more important in effect. 'Peel had shed the old Toryism, far more than his party had done, and he soon left the bulk of the party behind him, as he went for- ward in measures which ■ needed help from the Liberals to carry them through. The oppression of the corn laws had been lessened by several amendments since 1815, but they still taxed the food of the people very grievously, for the benefit of the landlords, to whom they gave " protected " high rents. Since 1838, a powerful agitation for their total repeal had been carried on, by an Anti-Corn-Law League, the ablest and most energetic workers in which were Richard Cobden, Charles Villiers, and John Bright. Peel first attempted to meet the demands of the League by 6oo THE DEMOCRATIC ERA. [1841-1S46 another lowering of the duties on wheat and other corn, in a sliding scale ; but the nation, stirred to its depths by the League, was not content. The terrible famine Famine in °f l %45~47> m Ireland, produced by a disease Ireland. which destroyed the potato crop, on which half the people lived, brought an argument that nothing could refute, to enforce the demand for free food. Peel sur- rendered to it, parted with many of his colleagues and political friends, and carried a bill (July, 1846) for the abolition of the corn laws, by the help of the Liberal vote. 395. Further Progress towards Free Trade. The whole theory of protective duties was falling with the fall of the protective corn duties, so far as English opinion was concerned. Already, in 1842, and again in 1845, Peel had carried forward Huskis- son's work of lowering or abolishing duties on many imports, especially on raw materials, and the same work went steadily on, under Peel's successors, until no ves- tige of protective duties remained to limit the freedom of British trade. The last of the restrictive navigation laws went with them in 1849. 396. Ireland. When Catholic emancipation had been attained, O'Connell became an agitator for the repeal of the union of Ireland with England, and for an independ- ent Parliament to be restored to the former kingdom. DANIEL O'CONNELL. 1S41-1S46] ENDING OF LANDLORD RULE. 6oi The movement he stirred up became so threatening in 1 84 1 that he was arrested and sentenced by a Dublin court to imprisonment for two years. On appeal, how- ever, to the House of Lords, the sentence was annulled and he was released; but age and its infirmities had prac- tically ended his career. He was succeeded by .. Yo ung a "Young Ireland" party, which aimed at ac- Ireland " tual rebellion, and which worked for some years to that end. Previously, church questions had been foremost in the grievances of Ireland ; but now the -"land question " — the question of wrongs suffered by a helpless peasant tenantry under landlords who rarely land lived on their estates — was coming to the ques 10n ' front. It was the most serious of Irish questions in the end. 397. Boundary Treaties with the United States. In foreign affairs, the administration of Peel was most dis- tinguished by the successful closing of two threatening boundary disputes between Canada and the United States. By what is known as the Ashburton treaty, in 1842, the northeastern boundary of the latter was determined, and by another treaty concluded in 1846 the more troublesome Oregon boundary was defined. 398. The Close of Peel's Ministry. Peel's opponents in his own party, who accused him of betraying them, found an opportunity to defeat one of his bills, on the very day of the passage of his free-corn bill, and he re- signed. A Liberal ministry, under Lord John Russell, was then formed. 602 ENDING OF LANDLORD RULE. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS. 380. Division among the Tories. Topics. i. The Cato Street conspiracy. 2. The new Tory influence and Canning's foreign policy. 3. Work of Huskisson. Reference. — Bright, Hi. 1364-1370, 1376-1381. 381. Canning's Ministry. Topic 1. Change in the cabinet and Canning's death. Reference. — Gardiner, iii. 882-885. 382. Wellington's Ministry. Topics. 1. Circumstances bringing Wellington to power. 2. Reform measures carried by Wellington and Peel. Reference. — Bright, iii. 1395-1402. 383. Catholic Emancipation. Topics. 1. Daniel O'Connell. 2. The bill for Catholic emancipation. References. — Bright, iii. 1402-1409; Gardiner, iii. 895, 896; Montague, 195-198 ; Colby, 303-306; Thursfield, Peel, ch. iv. ; Taswell-Langmead, 753 ; May, ii. chs. xii. and xiii. 384. Freedom of the Press. Topic. 1. Persecution of newspapers and its results. Reference. — Taswell-Langmead, 756-766. 385. The First Railways. Topics. 1. The Stockton and Darlington line. 2. The Liverpool and Manchester line. 3. Steam power in boats. Reference. — Gardiner, iii. 906-909. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 603 386. Death of George IV. — Accession of William IV. Topic. 1. William's character and the new cabinet. Reference. — Gardiner, 898-902. 387. The First Reform Bill. Topics. 1. The demands from towns^ and cities for representation. 2. Condition of borough and county representation. 3. Opposition of the Lords to a reform bill. 4. Overcoming of this opposition and passage of a bill. References. — Bright, iii. 1423-1434; Gardiner, iii. 902-905; Green, 839 ; Thursfield, Peel, ch. v. ; Colby, 306-308 ; Montague, 206-208 ; Ransome, 247-249; Traill, vi. 9-1 1 ; H. Taylor, ii. 527- 530; May, i-333-341- Research Questions. — (1.) What is a parliamentary bill? (2.) What is the process of getting it passed? (Gardiner, iii. 903, footnote.) (3.) What was the condition of the franchise up to this time? (Ransome, 239, 243, 244.) (4.) In what way did the American Revolution and the Wilkes struggle affect the ques- tion of reform ? (Ransome, 239.) (5.) What effect did the French • Revolution have? (Ransome, 241.) (6.) Describe the difficulties of passing the Reform Bill. (Ransome, 245-248.) (7.) Sum up the results of the bill. (Ransome, 248, 249.) 388. The Beginning of a Democratic Constitution. Topics. .1. Revision of the boroughs and widening of the franchise. 2. Change begun in the character of the constitution. Reference. — Bright, iii. 1434-1456. 389. Work of the Reformed Parliament. Topics. 1. Spirit of the new Parliament. 2. Reforms that it accomplished. References. — Bright, iii. 1434-1456. Trades unions: Bright, iv. 38, 39,402-404, 502-506, 574; Gibbins, 190, 191, 207, 220- 222; Cunningham and McArthur, 108, 109, 234; Howell's Con- flict of Capital and Labor; McCarthy, ii. 346, 347, 391-41 1; Cunningham, ii. 588, 589, 614-616, 644-650 ; Traill, v. 341-345, 491-493, 616, 617, and vi. 92, 93, 221-224, 423-425, 610-614. 604 ENDING OF LANDLORD RULE. Research Questions — (i.) Discuss the justice of public taxa- tion to support the church. (2.) In what countries are churches given such support to-day? (3.) What is our practice as to the relation of church and state ? (4.) What made parents send their children to work in factories? (Gibbins, 178.) (5.) Describe the condition of children in these factories. (Gibbins, 179, 180.) (6.) Were they any better off if employed at home ? (Cunning- ham and McArthur, 215.) (7.) In what other employments did they suffer? (Cunningham and McArthur, 215, 219.) (8.) What was the effect of this upon domestic life? (Gibbins, 178, 182.) (9.) What would be the effect of this treatment of children upon the next generation of laborers? (10.) What was the first mea- sure for the relief of children ? (Cunningham and McArthur, 215, 216.) (11.) What other measures were enforced? (Cunning- ham and McArthur, 218.) (12.) What laws have we in this country with reference to employment of children? (13.) Con- trast the public school systems of England and the United States at the present time. 390. New Party Names. Topics. 1. Split among Whigs and Tories. 2. Reorganization and change in names of political parties. References. — Gardiner, iii. 909. Abolition of slavery : Gardi- ner, iii. 910 ; Bright iii. 1142, 1271, 1272, 1381-1383, I44 2 -I445- Poor laws: Gardiner, iii. 911; Bright, iii. 1228, 1333, 1361, 1451-1453; Gibbins, 187; Cunningham and McArthur, 94, 103, 249; Montague, 224; Taswell-Langmead, 477-480. 391. The Last Years of the Reign of William IV. Topics. 1. Last dismissal of a ministry by the king. 2. Failure of its successor and Melbourne ministry recalled. 3. King's death and succession of Victoria. Reference. — Bright, iv. 1-4. 392. Early Years of the Victorian Reign. Topics. 1. Beginning of the age of electricity. 2. Canadian rebellion and disaster in Afghanistan. 3. The Opium War and postal reform. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 605 4. The queen's marriage. References. — Gardiner, iii. 914-922; Bright, iv. 5-71. Opium War: Bright, iv. 71-76; Guest, 559 ; McCarthy, History of Our Own Times, i. ch. viii. 393. The Chartist Agitation. Topics. 1. The six claims of the People's Charter. 2. Chartist demonstration and suppression. References. — Gardiner, iii. 922-924. The factory system and Factory Acts: Gardiner, iii. 876, 911, 927; Bright, iv. 39, 40, 97, 98, 170, 171 ; Gibbins, 160, 175-186; Traill, v. 591-604, vi. 217-219,368-372, 423,615; Cunningham and McArthur, 215- 235; McCarthy, i. 203-207 : Cunningham, ii. 590, 61 1-643. Research Question. — (1.) The chartist agitation arose from what condition of the poor? (Gardiner, iii. 922, 923.) 394. Peel and the Abolition of the Corn Laws. Topics. 1. The new ministry and the agitation against the corn laws. 2. Famine in Ireland and repeal of corn laws. References. — Thursfield, Peel, ch. x. ; Gardiner, iii. 931-933; Bright, iv. 128-133, 135-138, 1 56-161 ; McCarthy, i. ch. xvii. ; Cunningham and McArthur, 84-89, 164; Gibbins, 199, 202; Cunningham, ii. 679-682. Research Questions. — (1.) Were other food products scarce in Ireland at the time of the famine? (Traill, vi. 247.) (2.) Who introduced the potato into Ireland ? (Encyclopaedia Britannica, " Ireland.") (3.) What connection is there between the political conditions of Ireland and the cultivation of the potato ? (Same reference.) 395. Further Progress toward Free Trade. Topic. 1. Gradual repeal of all protective duties and taxes. References. — Gardiner, iii. 924,926,929-931, 938; Bright, iv. 50-52, 79-87, 116, 123, 124, 130-138, 219, 222, 226-228; Guest, 560 ; McCarthy, i. chs. xiv. and xv. 396. Ireland. Topics. 1. O'Connell's renewed efforts for Irish independence. 606 ENDING OF LANDLORD RULE. 2. Young Ireland party and the land question. Reference. — Bright, iv. 128-130. 397. Boundary Treaties with the United States. Topic. 1. The Ashburton treaty. Reference. — Bright, iv. 144-146. Research Question. — (1.) What were the respective claims of England and the United States which this treaty settled. 398. The Close of Peel's Ministry. Topic. 1. Cause of his resignation. Reference. — Bright, iv. 139, 140. LINEAGE OF THE HANOVERIAN SOVEREIGNS OF ENGLAND, FROM JAMES I., OF ENGLAND. 1st Generation. 2d. 3d. 4th. 5th. f Elizabeth, [ Sophia, James I. , married J ™ r " ea ( George I., | George II., 0/ England. \ Frederick V., ] E i ector ' f\ '714-1727- ) 1727-176°- { Elector Palatine. [ Hanov / r 5th. * 6th. 7th. 8th. 9th. George IV., 1 820-1 830. George II., ( Frederick, | George III., 1830-1837. ' 1727-1760. 1 died 1751. I 1760-1820. n F w /£' , (Victoria, Duke of Kent, \ ~_ ' diecfiSao. ' l837_ - CHAPTER XXVII. growth of democracy. Queen Victoria. 1846- 1899. 399. The Russell Ministry. Peel, and a number of followers, called Peelites, now held an independent place in Parliament, between the Conservatives and the Lib- erals, but acted generally with the latter. Next to their chief, the ablest of the Peelites was William E. Gladstone, fast rising to fame. The Conservatives had found their leader in Benjamin Disraeli, a man of showy talents and shallow convictions, who entered Parliament as a Radical at the beginning of Queen Victoria's reign. The Russell ministry held a difficult position and dealt with many troubles for six years. It had to give relief to starving Ireland, and it made a beginning in attempts to give the Irish peasants some rights which their land- lords would have to respect. It had to over- Yo ung come disorders in both England and Ireland, anduie excited by revolutionary movements on the con- chartists, tinent, in 1848 (see page 565). In England, the Char- tists revived their agitation, and threatened to go in a body, 200,000 strong, with their petition, to Westminster Hall. In Ireland, the Young Ireland party made a weak attempt at rebellion, and its leaders, Mitchell, Meagher, O'Brien, and others, were transported for long terms or for life. By founding a few schools for the training of ele- mentary teachers, this ministry did a little to cultivate 608 THE DEMOCRATIC ERA. [1850-1854 the idea, which grew very slowly in England, that gov- ernment had some duty to perform in the mat- ter of the education of the common people. The glory of the most notable event in this period belongs to Prince Albert, the uncrowned hus- The first world's band of the queen, who conceived and planned an International Exhibition of Industries, at London, in 185 1, — the first of the great World's Fairs. When Louis Napoleon, in that peaceful year, overthrew the French republic by a murderous surprise and made Palmer- himself emperor, Lord Palmerston, the English stonand foreign secretary, approved the foul deed in a Napoleon, dispatch which caused him to be dismissed ; but next year he revenged himself on his late associates by carrying a vote against them, and they resigned. The Conservatives then undertook the government, with Lord Derby at its head and Disraeli for leader in the House. They dissolved Parliament, declared their intention to revive the protective policy, and were beaten on that issue so decisively that it has never since ap- peared in English politics. The short-lived Disraeli Derby-Disraeli ministry was followed by a coa- mims ry. j^ on f Lhb er al s and Peelites, under the Earl of Aberdeen. Peel had died in 1850, killed by a fall from his horse, and Mr. Gladstone may be said to have taken his place. As chancellor of the exchequer, the latter entered now on a brilliant career. 400. The Crimean War. More by the arts of Louis Napoleon than by any wish of its own, the Aberdeen government was drawn into an alliance with that poor imitator of his uncle, against Russia, in defence of the Turks. The Crimean War which followed (1854-56) had no reasonable cause, and nothing came, in the con- duct of it or out of the results, which Englishmen can 1854-1857] GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY. 609 look back upon without regret. In battles on the Alma, at Balaclava, at Inkerman, and in a long siege of Sebastopol, the British soldiers did splendid Sebas- fighting, as they always do ; but they were ° P ° wretchedly commanded, and so incapably cared for that thousands perished needlessly from hardships and dis- ease. Public anger over the mismanagement of the war swept the Aberdeen ministry from office, early in 1855, an d gave the lead in government to Lord Palmerston, Palmer . who had the bold, self-confident energy needed ston - for such affairs. Things were bettered in the Crimea by the new administration, but no glory was won. An end to the war came in the winter of 1856, and terms of peace were settled by a congress at Paris, in March of that year. 401. Civil Service Reform. In the midst of the Crimean War, a memorable and most important re- form was introduced. By a simple order of the queen in council (May, 1855), a system of competitive ex- aminations was put in force, for the selection of persons to be employed in the public service, and the filling of such employments from one class, through social and political influence, was brought to an end. 402. Palmerston and the British War Spirit. Quickly following the close of the Crimean War came another inexcusable war with China, concerning which the action of government was condemned by a vote of the Commons (March, 1857) ; whereupon the pugna- THE VICTORIA CROSS. Instituted in 1856, as a deco> ration awarded for notable deeds of valor. 6lO THE DEMOCRATIC ERA. [1857 cious prime minister, instead of resigning, dissolved Par- liament and appealed in a general election to the peo- ple. A majority took the fighting side of the question, regardless of right or wrong ; Bright, Cobden, and most of the scrupulous members who had called Palmerston to account, were defeated, and he was given a stronger majority in Parliament than he had before. 403. The Sepoy Mutiny in India. -The new Parlia- ment had just assembled, when news came from India which drove all thought of other things from every Eng- lish mind. The Sepoys, the native troops employed by the East Indian government, were rising in a wild revolt, which threatened ruin to British rule in the east, and horrors unspeakable, of outrage and death, to the thou- sands of English men, women, and children in that dis- tant land. The Sepoys were 300,000 in number ; the native population behind them more than two hundred millions ; the British soldiers a mere handful of men. Since the days of Clive and Hastings, the East India Company, partly directed and supported by the British government, had gone steadily forward in the subjugation of the numerous Indian states, sometimes by complete The rule of conquest and annexation, sometimes by mere the.East reduction of native princes to obedience, until India Com- L pany. nearly the whole of the great peninsula of Hin- dustan was under its rule, and held so, in the main, by an army drawn from the subject races, with British offi- cers in command. A passionate mutiny in that army was an awful event for England to face. For a generation past, there had been few political grievances in India that were deeply felt. The people had been used to subjugation, knowing no other condi- tion, and they had had more peace and comfort under the rule of the English during late years than they ever i8 5 7] GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY. 6l I knew before. But the religious jealousy of both Hindus and Mohammedans was constantly awake, and it was that which set the mutiny on foot. The of the Sepoys were led to believe that their cartridges mu my ' had been greased with the fat of pigs, which both reli- gions abhor as unclean, and this seemed to them a wan- ton defilement that called for revenge. Once started, the revolt was helped on by many feelings ; but it failed entirely to become a rebellion of the people at large. The apathetic masses looked on with almost indifferent eyes. Some of the officers first surprised by the outbreak dealt weakly with it, and the mutineers were allowed to take Delhi and Cawnpore, with horrible massacres there and elsewhere ; but instantly, almost, there sprang to the front of the English such a body of heroic men as have rarely been found ready to meet that desperate kind of need. John Lawrence, Henry Lawrence, John The British Nicholson, Henry Havelock, Colin Campbell, leaders - Lord Canning (the governor-general), are names that shine lustrously among the hundreds of those who showed then the stuff of character in the Anglo-Saxon race which gives it rule. Within little more than four months from the outbreak of the mutiny (May, 1857), its spirit was broken, by the storming of Delhi and the relief of Lucknow, the two centres of its strength, and early summer in the following year found India restored to order and peace. Its government was then taken entirely from the East India Company and vested in the English crown. 404. Changes of Ministry. Lord Palmerston was out of office before the ending of the Sepoy revolt. There had been an attempt to assassinate the French emperor, followed by angry complaints that England was a breed- 6l2 THE DEMOCRATIC ERA. [1858-1861 ing-place for such plots. Palmerston thought the com- plaints were justified, and proposed an amendment of the conspiracy laws ; but Parliament voted him down, and he resigned (February, 1858). Another brief term Disraeli of Derby-Disraeli government then followed, in which Disraeli made a bid for popular support by proposing a new scheme of parliamentary reform ; but his bill was pronounced fanciful by the friends of Palmer- reform, and met with defeat. Palmerston be- ston again. came premier again, with Russell for foreign secretary, and Mr. Gladstone, now fully united with the Liberal party, for minister of finance. The early work of this ministry was most notable in the department of Mr. Gladstone, who handled the Gladstone's sources of public revenue with remarkably fine "budget.- j-esuits His "budget" (as the financial esti- mates of the government are called in England) of i860 swept from the British tariff the last protective duties on manufactured goods. Measures of reform Post-office . , . , . .. . savings or social experiment had little encouragement bunks from Palmerston ; but one, which created post- office savings banks, for small deposits, was adopted in 1 86 1, with great success. The death of Prince Death of . , , m . . Prince Albert, in that year, was a cruel affliction to Albert the queen, and took .from England an influence that had always been wisely and quietly used for its good, in many refining ways. 405. The Civil War in America. The outbreak, in 1 86 1, of civil war in America, caused by the attempted secession of slaveholding States, brought to light a very sharp opposition of feeling in different classes of the English people towards the republic of the United States. The mass of the common people showed warm friendliness to the cause of the Union, but the wealthier 1861-1865] GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY. 613 HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT, OPENED IN iSj: classes were hostile to it, with few exceptions and little disguise. The disposition of the latter was represented in the government, and would probably have carried England into some course openly helpful to the seceding States, if it had not been held in check by that powerful under-force in public opinion which English statesmen had learned not to defy. Confederate privateers (notably the Alabama), built, equipped, and manned in British ports, escaped deten- tion, by what seemed to the American government and its friends to be wilful neglect or connivance on the part of English officials, and almost swept American com- merce from the sea. But, on the other hand, The cotton to half appease the bitter feeling which this famine - caused in America, was the pathetic fact that thousands of British workingmen, whose spindles and looms were idle for the want of American cotton, and who suffered years of hardship not easily described, would join in no 614 THE DEMOCRATIC ERA. [1861-1866 cry against the struggle for the life of the great republic, which had brought that calamity to their doors. Nor was friendship to the American Union confined to the working class. It enlisted some of the best and highest in English society, and it spoke in Parliament with the most eloquent of all English tongues — the tongue of John Bright. The responsibility of the British government for the destructive work of the Alabama and other Alabama Confederate privateers became a serious ques- ques ion. ^^ between England and the United States, remaining in dispute for several years after the close of the civil war. 406. Russell's Second Ministry. Lord Palmerston died in the autumn of 1865, and Lord John Russell took his place. A trifling insurrection among the blacks in Jamaica, suppressed with brutality by the governor of the island, named Eyre, and the outbreak of Fenianism in Ireland and America, were the exciting events of that year and the next. Russell wished to take some step further in popularizing the representation in Parlia- ment, by a new reform bill, but met opposition in his own party, and resigned (June, 1866). 407. The Fenian Movement. The leaders of disaffec- tion in Ireland had now organized a secret society, called the Fenian Brotherhood, which plotted armed rebellion, and which embraced a multitude of the Irish in the United States. A prodigious movement of emigration since the famine had carried a vast number from Ireland to America. The emigrants had fairly prospered ; many had served in the American civil war ; they were eager to furnish money, men, and captains to the undertaking which the Fenian Brotherhood proposed. But weak or dishonest leadership made the whole movement futile in i866-iS68] GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY. 615 the last degree. Some reckless raids into Canada from the American border were made without any rational object or plan, and a rising attempted in Ireland, in 1867, was easily put down. 408. The Second Reform of Parliament. Disraeli and Derby, who took the government in hand when Rus- sell resigned, brought forward proposals for an increase of the voters in parliamentary elections which, after much amendment, were embodied in a reform bill and passed (August, 1867). This second reform went farther to- wards a democratic constitution of Parliament than even the broader Liberals had dared to suggest. In the boroughs, it made voters of all male householders who paid rates for the relief of the poor, and of all lodgers who paid rent to the amount of ten pounds ($50) a year. In county elections, every tenant who paid twelve pounds in annual rent, and every owner of property valued at five pounds per year, was given a vote. 409. The Dominion of Canada. It was the good fortune of the Derby-Disraeli government to bring a long-considered project of great importance to comple- tion, by the passing of an act (March, 1867) which con- federated the British provinces of North America (with the exception of Newfoundland) in the union that bears the name of the Dominion of Canada, with the constitu- tion of a substantially independent state. 410. A New Period of Reforms. The Liberals in general had been brought by this time to see that radical measures must be taken to remove the grievances of the Catholic Irish people, beginning with an act to release them from the support of that established Protestant church which had tithed and taxed them for three hun- dred years. Resolutions to this effect were carried by Mr. Gladstone (April, 1868), in opposition to the minis- 616 THE DEMOCRATIC ERA. [1S6S-1S74 ters, who then dissolved Parliament and were overwhelm- ingly beaten at the polls. This made Mr. Glad- Gladstone's . . . first minis- stone prime minister, and, during the next five years, an extraordinary number of important measures was carried into effect. The Irish church was disestablished, and an attempt was made so to amend the Irish land laws that tenants might no longer be "evicted " (expelled) from their little holdings at the will of the landlord, and robbed of all the improvements they had made. A national system of common schools (partly " church schools," however, controlled by the established church) was founded ; dissenters, for the first time, were admitted to the great universities, by abolition of the test oath ; the sale of commissions in the army was abolished ; use of the ballot in voting was introduced. Finally, questions in dispute with the United States were arranged by the treaty of Washing- ton (May, 1 871), and the so-called "Alabama Claims" were settled in the following year by a tribunal of arbi- tration at Geneva, which awarded $15,000,000 in dam- ages to the United States. Every one of these measures made enemies, and the government was gradually weakened, until Mr. Glad- Return of stone, in 1874, thought it best to dissolve Par- Disraeu. Hament and have the national will expressed. The election went against him, and Mr. Disraeli was again called to the head of affairs. 411. The "Imperial Policy" of Disraeli. Not long after becoming prime minister Mr. Disraeli was raised to the peerage, as Earl of Beaconsfield, and it is by that title that he is now better known. The six years of his ministry were a period of drum-and-trumpet displays, in what was called by his admirers an "imperial policy," but which got the now familiar name of "jingoism," I874-IS80] GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY. 617 from the refrain of a song that seemed to exactly ex- press the spirit in which the government was being car- ried on: "We don't want to fight," said the «ji ng0 . popular ditty, " but, by Jingo, if we do, We 've lsm- " got the ships, we 've got the men, and we 've got the money, too." As the result of Lord Beaconsfield's "im- perial policy," England was very nearly carried into another war with Russia, to defend the abominable government of the Turks ; a second meddlesome and disastrous invasion of Af- ghanistan was undertaken ; a bloody and inglorious war with the Dutch or Boer republic of the Transvaal, in South Africa, and a worse war with the neigh- boring Zulus, were pro- voked ; and England was involved in undertakings in Egypt that led on to a succession of costly wars. The "imperial policy " was crowned, so to speak, in 1877, when the queen, by formal proclamation, assumed the title of Empress of India. When the time came, Gladstone in 1880, for the election of a new Parliament, a ^ ain - the country was found to have tired of "jingoism," and a great Liberal majority threw Beaconsfield out, to bring Gladstone in. 412. The Land League and the Home Rule Party in Ireland. Since the Liberals went out of office, in 1874, the state of Ireland had grown worse. Mr. Gladstone's land bill had not worked with success. Means of evasion BENJAMIN DISRAELI, EARL OF BEA- CONSFIELD. 6i8 THE DEMOCRATIC ERA. [1SS0-1SS4 had been found, and evictions had increased. Hatred of landlords had risen to a passionate heat. A widespread "Land League" had been organized throughout the country, for warfare against the whole system under which most of the soil of Ireland is held ; while a com- pact party, demanding " Home Rule " for Ireland, by a separate legislature, had risen among the Irish and the members of Parliament, under a resolute leader, govern- Mr. Charles Stuart Parnell. Mr. Gladstone formed a ministry that agreed in wishing to deal rightly with Ireland, but its failure to satisfy the Irish Home Rule Party was complete. By causes not readily explained, a state of fierce hostility between the government and the party of Mr. Parnell was brought about, which stopped all good work in Parliament, pro- voked violent acts of au thority, and excited mur derous crimes. 413. The Third Re- form of Parliament. After two years of this lamentable conflict of the government with the Irish Home Rulers, a truce was arranged which allowed some measures of importance to be taken up. Foremost among them was a bill to enlarge and improve still further, and very greatly, the representation of the people in Par- liament. This passed the Commons in July, 1884. It was rejected by the Lords ; but their action stirred the country to a wrath which had, once more, its warning WILLIAM EWART GLAUS TONE. 1884-1886] GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY. 619 effect. Their prudent lordships passed the bill when it came to them, in November, a second time. By this third of the great parliamentary reforms, about two mil- lions of voters were added to the electors of Parliament, making the suffrage very nearly universal, and the Eng- lish constitution scarcely less democratic than that of the United States. Another act, which followed immedi- ately, made a new distribution of parliamentary seats, by districts nearly equal in population and fairly apportioned to country and town. 414. Mr. Gladstone's First Irish Home Rule Bill. Mr. Gladstone had inherited troubles from his predeces- sor which drove him from office for a few months in 1885. The failure of his government to rescue General General Gordon from the Mahdi, at Khartoum, led to a 6ordon vote against it and to its resignation, in June. The Con- servatives formed a ministry then, under the Marquis of Salisbury 1 (Lord Beaconsfield had died in 1 881), but failed to win the majority of votes at a new Salisbury election of Parliament, and retired early in the next year. Mr. Gladstone returned to office with a de- termination to yield to the Irish demand for home rule ; but one large section of the Liberal party re- . b ^ / Third fused in this matter to follow his lead. A bill Gladstone which he introduced (April, 1886), giving Ire- land a separate legislature, was defeated in the House of Commons, and, when he dissolved Parliament for a new election, the verdict of the House was sustained by the popular vote. 415. Conservatives and Liberal Unionists in Power. Mr. Gladstone's place was again taken by Lord Salis- 1 Lord Robert Cecil, third Marquis of Salisbury, is directly descended from the famous minister of Queen Elizabeth, William Cecil, Lord Burleigh, whose son, Robert Cecil, was created Earl of Salisbury by James I. 620 THE DEMOCRATIC ERA. [1886-1893 bury, who headed a coalition ministry, in which the Con- servatives were joined by seceding Liberals, or Second . J J ° ' Salisbury Liberal Unionists, as they now chose to be called. This ministry conducted the govern- ment during six years, in which Ireland continued to be disturbed, but the empire was generally at peace. Some difficult disputes with the United States arose, over fishery and seal-killing rights, which were settled in the latter case by arbitration ; but a treaty for the settlement of the former was rejected by the American Partition Senate. During this period, vast regions of of Africa. Central Africa were partitioned, by occupation and agreement, between Great Britain, Germany, France, Portugal, and the Congo Free State (founded by the King of Belgium), Great Britain securing the larger share. In affairs at home, the most important measure county was one creating county councils, which simpli- and n free ne d anc l consolidated local government in Eng- schoois. j anc j an( j mac j e jt democratic in a marked de- gree. By another notable act, an increased public grant to the elementary schools abolished fees from pupils in most of them, and made them entirely free. 416. Mr. Gladstone's Last Effort for Ireland. The term of Parliament expired in 1892, and Mr. Gladstone was then recalled to power by a majority elected Gladstone to the new House of Commons, distinctly in ministry. J favor of the concession to Ireland of home rule. It was a majority obtained in Ireland and Scotland, how- ever, whereby an opposing majority in England was over- a come. With this support, Mr. Gladstone, in The second rir Home Rule February, 1893, brought forward a second Home Rule bill, much altered from the first, and car- ried it through the House, after months of debate ; but when it was overwhelmingly defeated by the Lords he 1S94-1S9S] GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY. 62 1 put it aside, and turned for a few months to other work, which finished his political career. In April, 1894, he resigned, having passed the age of eighty-four. On the retirement of Mr. Gladstone, the Earl of Rose- bery was advanced to his place, at the head of the Lib- eral cabinet, which retained office until the following year. It carried through an important bill, making a further improvement in local government, by p arish creating parish councils, elected by universal councils - suffrage, women voting, as well as men. The Rosebery ministry lost the support of the Irish party and resigned in June, 1895. 417. The Third Salisbury Ministry. Again in coali- tion with Liberal Unionists, Mr. Joseph Chamberlain at their head, Lord Salisbury became prime minister, with an immense majority given to him, on the election of a new House. At the time when this narrative closes (June, 1900), his ministry is still in power. The first four years of his government were mostly years of rest for England in political affairs, both at home Q Uie tin and abroad. So quiet a state in Ireland was Ireland - never before known. A new land bill, passed in 1896, and a "local self-government bill," passed in 1898, which creates county and district councils in Ireland, like those given to England in 1888, appear to have greatly les- sened the discontent. In 1895, the friendly relations between England and the United States were gravely disturbed by a question relating to Venezuela boundaries, but it was The happily smoothed away, by an acceptance of Venezuela arbitration on the part of the British govern- ment. Three years later, on the occasion of war between the United States and Spain, there were demonstrations of good feeling on the part of Great Britain toward the 622 THE DEMOCRATIC ERA. [1834-1900 former, which powerfully strengthened the sense of kin- ship that ought to bind the two nations together. 418. The " Diamond Jubilee " of Queen Victoria. In 1897, the sixtieth anniversary, called the " Diamond Jubilee," of Queen Victoria, was celebrated with great pomp, and with feelings deeply moved, by her subjects in every part of the great empire, far and near. No other reign in English history has been so long; no other has covered changes so great — an advance so wonderful in the conditions of human life, material and moral, political and social, for England and for the world. 419. The British-Boer War. The most serious of recent British wars has been in progress since October, 1899, but seems, at this writing, to be near its end. The origin of the war may be traced as far back as to the con- quest of Cape Colony, in South Africa, from the Dutch (see section 369). The Dutch colonists were never re- conciled to English rule. In 1834, being especially dis- satisfied with the terms on which slavery in British colonies was abolished, a large body of them migrated, The great or "trekked," as their own language expressed trek - it, to a region in the South African wilderness, outside, as they supposed, of the jurisdiction of the British Parliament and Crown. There, in Natal, — so named by Vasco da Gama, — they undertook to set up a republican government of their own. But England claimed sover- eignty over them and their land, and, in 1843, a large part of the colony " trekked " again, to the district since known as the Orange Free State. There, too, British sovereignty was asserted, and, once more, in 1848, the more obstinate of these Dutch farmers (called " boers " in their own language) moved farther into the wilderness, across the Vaal river, and took possession of the territory 624 THE DEMOCRATIC ERA. [iS 5 4-, 9 oo on which the Transvaal or South African republic has grown up. The British government not only did not pursue the seceding Boers to this last retreat, but, in 1854, it conceded independence to those who had re- mained in the Orange Free State. From that time until 1877 there was peace, if not friendliness, in South Africa, between English and Dutch. But the Transvaal Boers were fighting fierce wars with the natives, and some of them, who seemed to have grown fearful of the result, looked towards England at last for help. Their talk encouraged the Disraeli govern- ment of those days (the "Jingo " days described in sec- tion 411) to plant the British flag in the Transvaal and declare that country to be part of the dominions of the queen. After remonstrating for three years, the Boers Majuba took arms (1880), and showed great fighting qualities in several battles, especially at Majuba Hill (February 27, 188 1), where the British experienced a terrible defeat. Mr. Gladstone, who had then come into power, believed the Boers to have been wronged, and he made peace with them on terms which reestab- lished their republic, with independence except in foreign affairs. This settlement was disappointing to many on the Eng- lish side, who were hoping for a strong confederation of South African colonies, to consolidate the British empire in that part of the world. On the other hand, the Dutch of South Africa, who outnumbered the Eng- lish colonists, were aspiring to become the dominant race ; and thus there were seeds of strife in the situation which could not easily be kept from some kind of growth. Their growth was hastened by discoveries of a rich gold field in the Transvaal, and by a general excitement of desire in Europe for colonial possessions in the wild i. SS i -1900] GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY. 625 African domain. Foreign miners and traders (called " Uitlanders " or " Outlanders " by the Dutch), swarming into the gold field of Witwatersrand, or " the Rand," as the district was commonly known, soon outnumbered the Boer population of the Transvaal, and built up, at Johannesburg, the largest of South African cities. The Boers regarded the new-comers with jealous distrust, BRITISH-BOER WAR, SOUTH AFRICA, 1899-1900. taxed them heavily, and refused to give them political rights. As the Outlanders increased in number, their complaint of oppressive government and their demands for citizenship and equal rights in the republic became loud. At the same time, there was rising, by the side of the Boer republic, a new power in South Africa, which seems to have encouraged the Outlander demands. This was 626 THE DEMOCRATIC ERA. [1899-1900 CHARLES DICKENS. the British South Africa Company, organized by a man of bold ambi- tions, Mr. Cecil Rhodes. Under a royal charter granted in 1889, the company had acquired control of a vast region, now called Rhodesia, which stretches north- ward from the Trans- vaal. Either some of the chiefs or some of the servants of this im- perial corporation (the real facts have not yet been ascertained) conspired, in 1895, with certain of the Outlanders at Johannesburg, to assist the latter in a rising against the Boer TheJame . government. In December of that year the at- son raid - tempt was made and ignominiously failed. Five hundred armed men from Rhodesia, commanded by the com- pany's administrator, Dr. Jameson, invaded the Transvaal, but were speed- ily surrounded, captured, and disarmed. The British government claimed them, and punished them for the lawless deed ; but naturally a new bitterness entered the feeling of the Boers. They hastened prepara- tions for war which they LORD TENNY! IS99-I9 00 ] GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY. 627 had begun long before. The large revenue they were deriving from the taxation of the mines and miners was mostly expended 'upon arms, equipments, and military works. They made no concession to the Outlanders, while the latter were rousing England to indignation by their complaints. The British government at length, in October, 1899, attempted pressure upon that of the Transvaal, which the latter met by a sudden declaration of war. It was joined in the declaration by the Orange Free State. At the beginning of hostilities, the Boers, being fully prepared, as the British were not, had remarkable success ; but their num- bers were small, while the power arrayed against them was overwhelmingly great. Assisted from Canada, Australia, and New Zealand (her colo- nies volunteering to take part in the defence of the empire), England has sent to South Africa a larger army than she ever put into the field in any former war. The Boers, a mere handful against it, have given way, until their capital is in the hands of their enemies ; but they have made a fight which all the world must admire, and none perhaps more than the English themselves. 420. Literature and Science in the Victorian Age. It is a fact that seems strange, but which probably has no especial meaning, that the three important reigns of English queens — those of Elizabeth, Anne, and LORD MACAULAY. 628 THE DEMOCRATIC ERA. [1837-1900 Victoria — have been periods of remarkable brilliancy in literature. Shakespeare gives a glory beyond compare to the Elizabethan Age, but otherwise the Victorian is hardly outshone by it, even in the domain of the poets, where Tennyson, Browning, Arnold, Swinburne, Morris illustrate the genius of their generation ; while nothing nearly equal to the varied richness of the Victorian prose is found in any former time. The English novel, as per- fected by Thackeray, Dickens, George Eliot, Charlotte Bronte, Mrs. Gaskell, Reade, Kingsley, and their succes- sors, is a work of imaginative literary art that can claim equality at least with the Elizabethan drama, when Shake- speare's great plays are taken out. In discursive and descriptive English prose, new powers of expression have been found by Ruskin and Carlyle, new beauties by Stevenson, new effects by Macaulay, and a newly lighted clearness in it for deep matters of thought and know- ledge by Huxley and his fellow teachers in the scientific realm. In that wonderful realm comparison is stopped. The age of Darwin, and of the new turn and impulse that Darwin gave to all thought ; the age of the discovery of the germ-origin of most diseases ; the age of electricity, superseding steam ; of steel, superseding iron ; of the railway, the telegraph, the telephone, the phonograph ; of photography, and of a thousand chemical arts ; the age of marvels unnumbered in discovery, and of greater marvels in the spreading of the knowledge they bring through all ranks of the people, — this Victorian age of Science and of democracy in knowledge has a grandeur that surpasses all. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 629 TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS. 399. The Russell Ministry. Topics. 1. Peel, Gladstone, and Disraeli. 2. Reforms in Ireland and Chartist agitation. 3. Assistance to education and work of Prince Albert. 4. France and Lord Palmerston. 5. Changes in the ministry. Reference. — Gardiner, iii. 932-938. 400. The Crimean War. Topics. 1. Reason for war. 2. Balaclava, Inkerman, and the siege of Sevastopol. 3. Fall of ministry and end of the war. References. — Gardiner, iii. 943-948 ; Bright, iv. 229-285 ; Guest, 563; Traill, vi. 125, 254-256, 262-269; McCarthy, i. chs. xxv- xxviii. Research Questions. — (1.) What were the underlying reasons for the Crimean War? (Guest, 562, 563.) (2.) What famous poem did Tennyson write on one of its incidents? (3.) This war shows the beginning of what service for the army? (4.) Of what modern method of obtaining the news? (5.) What portion of the Turkish province is it Russia's ambition to seize? (6.) Does England wish to prevent the breaking up of the Turkish empire? (Bright, iii. 1465.) 401. Civil Service Reform. Topic. 1. Competitive examinations. References. — Bright, iv. 2S6, 339, 501 ; Eaton, Civil Service in Great Britain. 402. Palmerston and the British War Spirit. Topic. 1. War with China and Palmerston's appeal to the country. Reference. — Bright, iv. 274, 289-291. 403. The Sepoy Mutiny in India. Topics. 1. Conditions of English control in India. 2. Causes of the mutiny and attitude of the Indian people. 630 GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY. 3. First successes of the Sepoys. 4. English heroism and end of the mutiny. References. — Gardiner, iii. 952-955 ; Bright, iv. 292-328 ; Traill, vi. 258, 259, 269, 270 ; McCarthy, ii. chs. xxxii-xxxv. 404. Change of Ministry. Topics. 1. Palmerston defeated. 2. Derby-Disraeli ministry and Palmerston again. 3. Gladstone's budget. 4. Post-office savings banks 5. Death of Prince Albert. References. — Gardiner, iii. 955, 956 ; Bright, iv. 385-394, 408. 405. The Civil War in America. Topics. 1. Opposing English opinions as to the war. 2. Confederate privateers. 3. The steadfastness of the friends of the American Union. 4. America's claims against England. References. — Bright, iv. 372-385. The Alabama : Gardiner, iii. 958, 965, 966; Bright, iv. 377, 378, 489-491 ; McCarthy, ii. 206- 228, 481, 511-520. Cotton famine : Traill, vi. 432. Research Questions. — (1.) How does cotton rank in importance among manufacturing fibres? (2.) What country furnishes the greatest supply of raw cotton ? (3.) What other countries produce it in marketable quantities ? 406. Russell's Second Ministry. Topics. 1. Insurrections. 2. New reform bill and resignation. Reference. — Bright, iv. 413-415, 419, 420. 407. The Fenian Movement. Topics. 1. Plot of Irishmen. 2. Help from America. Reference. — Bright, iv. 415-419. 408. The Second Reform of Parliament. Topic. 1. Extension of the franchise. TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 63 1 References, — Bright, iv. 421-429 ; Gardiner, iii. 961 ; Montague, 208-210; H.Taylor, ii. 533-536;. Tasvvell-Langmead, 729-731: May, ii. 584-590; McCarthy, ii. ch. Iii. 409. The Dominion of Canada. Topic. 1. Act of confederation. Reference. — Bright, iv. 433-435. 410. A New Period of Reform. Topics. 1. Gladstone elected to redress Irish grievances. 2. Reform accomplished by Gladstone's ministry. 3. Defeat of Gladstone. References. — Gardiner, iii. 962-966. Education Act of 1870: Bright, iv. 462-466; H. Taylor, ii. 580-582; May, ii. 568-571, 600, 601 ; McCarthy, ii. 481-486. Land Act of 1870: Bright, iv. 454-461; McCarthy, ii. 471-479. 411. The " Imperial Policy " of Disraeli. Topics. 1. Character of this policy and the result of it. 2. Defeat of Disraeli. References. — McCarthy, England under Gladstone, ch. i. ; Bright, iv. 507-567. 412. The Land League and the Home Rule Party in Ireland. Topics. 1. Condition of Irelannd. 2. Opposition of Parnell to the Liberals. References. — Gardiner, iii. 970-972: McCarthy, England un- der Gladstone, ch. vi. 413. The Third Reform of Parliament. Topic. 1. Increased representation of the people and its results. References. — Gardiner, iii. 972 ; McCarthy, England under Gladstone, ch. xvi. 414. Mr. Gladstone's First Irish Home Rule Bill. Topics. 1. General Gordon. 632 GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY. 2. Gladstone's defeat and return to power. 3. First Home Rule bill. Reference. — McCarthy, England under Gladstone, ch. xv. 415. Conservatives and Liberal Unionists in Power. Topics. 1. The coalition ministry. 2. Dispute with the United States and partition of Africa. 3. County councils.- References. — Local Government Acts: Montague, 227, 228 : H. Taylor, ii. S77S79- 416. Mr. Gladstone's Last Effort for Ireland. Topics. 1. Gladstone's support. 2. Second Home Rule bill. 3. Gladstone's resignation. 4. Parish councils. 417. The Third Salisbury Ministry. Tones. 1. Chamberlain and Salisbury. 2. Quiet in Ireland. 3. Venezuela boundary question. 4. Trouble with the Boers. References. — Bagehot, English Constitution, chs. i.. iii., iv., and v. : H. Taylor, ii. 544 sqq. Research Questions. — (1.) What is meant by a cabinet govern- ment? (2.) How long has it been in force in England? (3.) Was Walpole's government that of a cabinet ? (4.) How could it be characterized ? (5.) What sort of government preceded Walpole's time ? (6.) What again preceded that ? (7.) Who are members of the English cabinet? (Montague, 215, 222.) (8.) What is the difference between the cabinet and the ministry ? (9.) What is the difference between the cabinet ministers of Eng- land and the members of the cabinet of the United States? (Ransome, 254, 255.) (10.) In what ways is the English the bet- ter system? (Ransome, 255, 256.) (11.) What are the three nat- ural divisions of any government? (12.) Should the depart- ments be entirely separate? (13.) Which one is represented by the English Parliament? (14.) Who represent the executive in TOPICS, REFERENCES, AND QUESTIONS. 633 England? (15.) Are the powers of the Queen and Parliament entirely separate? (Ransome, 251.) (16.) How did this come about? (Ransome, 251.) (17.) What are the sovereign's duties? (Ransome, 253.) (18.) What provisions are made for the crown's expenditures? (Tasvvell-Langmead, 709.) (19.) How are the judges appointed in England ? (Ransome, 25S.) 418. " The Diamond Jubilee" of Queen Victoria. Topic. 1. Victoria's sixtieth anniversary. 419. The British-Boer War. Topics. 1. Early migrations of Dutch colonists. 2. Concession of independence by Great Britain in 1854. 3. Cause and result of British-Boer war of 1880. 4. Seeds of strife which led to the second war. 5. Jameson's raid and the Outlanders' grievances. 6. The second British-Boer war. Research Question. — (1.) What is the significance of the colo- nies volunteering aid in the defence of the Empire? 420. Literature and Science in the Victorian Age. Topics. 1. Three great periods in literature. 2. Great names in poetry of Victorian period. 3. In fiction and descriptive prose. 4. Wonderful advance in the scientific realm. References. — Gardiner, iii. 887-890,940-943; Guest, 574-587; Traill, vi. 25-35, 1 51—167, 275-284, 510-520; McCarthy; i. ch. xxix., ii. ch. lxvii. APPENDIX. THE BRITISH EMPIRE IN 1899. 1 (See map on back lining.) Area. Population. Sq. M. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland .... 120,979 4°*559>954 Colonies, Dependencies, and Military Possessions. In Europe : Gibraltar, Malta, and Gozo . 119 204,421 In Asia : India (British) 1,068,314 221,172,952 India (Feudatory) .... 73^944 66,050,479 Ceylon, Straits Settlements (Singapore, etc.), Hong Kong, Labuan, Aden, Perim . . . 27,321 4,3 6 3> 2 57 In Africa : Cape Colony, Natal, Basuto- land, Zululand, Gambia, Gold Coast, Lagos, Sierra Leone, Ascension, Mauritius, St. Hel- ena 3 6 7>9 28 ^S 1 ^ 80 In America and the West In dies : Canada, Newfoundland, Lab- rador, British Guiana, British Honduras, Jamaica, Bermu- 1 Statesman'' s Year Book, /goo. APPENDIX. 635 das, Bahamas, Barbados, Trin- idad, Turks' Island, Tobago, Leeward Islands, Windward Islands, Falkland Islands, South Georgia 3>95 2 >57 2 7,260,169 In Australasia : Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia, West Aus- tralia, Queensland, New Zea- land, New Guinea, Tasmania, Fiji 3,175,840 5,009,281 Total of United Kingdom with Colonies, Depend- encies, and Military Pos- sessions 9,445,017 349>55 2 > 2 93 Protectorates and " Spheres of Influence." In Asia 120,400 1,200,000 In Africa 2,160,000 35,000,000 In the Pacific 800 30,000 Total of Protectorates, etc. 2,281,200 36,230,000 Total Empire 11,726,217 385,782,293 A WORKING LIBRARY. The following books are referred to in Larned's His- tory of England, either in the text or in the topics and questions. They are arranged in the numerical order of reference, the first being referred to over 200 times, the last 10 times : — 1. Gardiner, S. R. A Student's History of England. 3 vols. Longmans, New York. $3.00 net. 2. Bright, James F. History of England. 4 vols. Longmans, New York. #6.75. 3. Green, J. R. A Short History of the English People. Harpers, New York. $1.20. 4. Traill, H. D. Social England. 6 vols. Putnams, New York. $21.00. 5. Guest, M. J., and Underwood, F. H. A Handbook of Eng- lish History. Macmillan, New York. $0.75. 6. Colby, C. W. Selections from the Sources of English His- tory. Longmans, New York. $1.50. 7. Montague, F. C. Elements of English Constitutional His- tory. Longmans, New York. #1.25. 8. Ransome, Cyril. Rise of Constitutional Government in England. Longmans, New York. $2.00. 9. Taswell-Langmead. English Constitutional History. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston. $6.00. 10. Taylor, H. The English Constitution. 2 vols. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston. $9.00. 11. Gibbins, Henry de Beltgens. Industrial History of Eng- land. Scribners, New York. $1.20. 12. Cunningham and McArthur. Outlines of English Indus- trial History. Macmillan, New York. $1.50. 13. Moberly, C. E. The Early Tudors. Longmans, New York. $1.00. 14. Stubhs, W. The Early Plantagenets. Epoch Series. Long- mans, New York. $1.00. V APPENDIX. 637 v 15. Stubbs, William. Constitutional History. 3 vols. Clar- endon Press, New York. $2.60 each. [^ 16. Gairdner, J. Houses of Lancaster and York. Longmans, New York. #1.00. 17. Creighton, Bishop M. The Age of Elizabeth. Epoch Series. Longmans, New York. $1.00. 18. Hale, E. The Fall of the Stuarts. Epoch Series. Long- mans, New York. $1.00. Z' 19. Harrison, F. Oliver Cromwell. Twelve English States- men Series. Macmillan, New York. #0.75. 20. Gardiner, S. R. The Puritan Revolution. Epoch Series. Longmans, New York. #1.00. Gardiner, S. R. Atlas of English History. Longmans, New York. #1.50 net. V^ 21. Rogers, J. E. T. Six Centuries of Work and Wages. Sonnenschein & Co., London. 10s. 6d. V 22. Green, J. R. History of the English People. 8 vols. Mac- millan, New York. #1.25 per vol. \/ 23. Macaulay, Lord. History of England. 4 vols. Hough- ton, Mifflin & Co., Boston. $5.00. 24. McCarthy, Justin. History of Our Own Times. 2 vols. Harpers, New York. #2.50. 25. Beesly, Edward S. Queen Elizabeth. Twelve English Statesmen Series. Macmillan, New York. $0.75. AN ADDITIONAL LIST OF BOOKS VALUABLE IN THE FORMATION OF A LIBRARY OF ENGLISH HISTORY. This list is arranged alphabetically. Nearly all of the books are referred to in Larned's History, but a few have been added to give a greater comprehensiveness to the list : — Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. See Bede. Ashley, William J. Introduction to English Economic His- tory and Theory. 2 parts. Longmans, New York. Part I. $1.25; Part II. $2.60. Bagehot, Walter. English Constitution. Appleton, New York. $2.00. 638 APPENDIX. •^ Bagehot, Walter. Lombard Street. Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner & Co., London. 3s. 6d. *J Bede, Venerable. Ecclesiastical History with Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (Bohn). Macmillan, New York. #1.50. Brewer, John S. Reign of Henry VIII. to Death of Wolsey. 2 vols. J. Murray, London. V Bulfinch, Thomas. Age of Chivalry. Lee & Shepard, Boston. $2.50. ^/ Bulwer, Edward G. (Lord Lytton). Harold. George Rout- ledge & Sons, New York. #0.60. Busch, Wilhelm. England under the Tudors. Innes & Co., London. Vol. i. 16s. net. v~/ Caesar, Julius. Commentaries (Classical Library). Harpers, New York. $0.75. Church, Alfred John. Heroes of Chivalry and Romance. Macmillan, New York. $1.75. Church, R. W. Beginnings of the Middle Ages. Longmans, New York. $1.00. Clark, George T. Mediaeval Military Architecture in Eng- land. 2 vols. Wyman & Sons, London. Creasy, Sir Edward S. Fifteen Decisive Battles. Harpers, New York. $1.00. Creighton, <£. Cardinal Wolsey. Twelve English Statesmen Series. Macmillan, New York. $0.75. Creighton, Bishop M. Simon de Montfort. Longmans, New York. #1.00. Cunningham, W. Growth of English Industry and Commerce. 2 vols. Macmillan, New York. Early and Middle Ages, $4.00 ; Modern Times, $4.50. Dixon, Canon. History of the Church of England. 4 vols. Geo. Routledge & Sons, New York. $4.00 per vol. Encyclopaedia Britannica. 24 vols. Adam & Chas. Black, London. Freeman, E. A. Growth of the English Constitution. Mac- millan, New York. #1.75. Freeman, E. A. Old English History. Macmillan, New York. $1.50. Freeman, E. A. History of the Norman Conquest. 6 vols. Clarendon Press, Oxford. $5.25 each. Vol. vi., Index. $2.75. Freeman, E. A. Short History of the Norman Conquest. Clarendon Press, New York. $0.60. APPENDIX. 639 Freeman, E. A. William the Conqueror. Twelve English '" Statesmen Series. Macmillan, New York. $0.75- Friedmann, Paul. AnneBoleyn. Macmillan, New York. 2 vols. $7.00. Froude, James A. History of England. 12 vols. Scnbners, New York. $18.00. , / Gairdner,J. Henry VII. Twelve English Statesmen Series. Macmillan, New York. $0.75. V Gardiner, S. R. History of England, 1603-1642. 10 vols. Longmans, New York. $20.00. Gardiner, S. R. Great Civil War, 1642-1649- 4 vols. Long- mans, New York. $2.00 each. X Gardiner, S. R. Commonwealth and Protectorate. 2 vols. Longmans, New York. $7-°° each. V Gilbart, J. W. von. On Banking. 2 vols. Bohn. Geo. Bell & Sons, London. 10s. Gneist, Dr. Rudolf. History of the English Constitution. Wm. Clowes & Sons, London. 7s. 6d. ^/ Green, J. R. Making of England. 2 vols. Macmillan, New York. $2.50. V Green, Mrs. J. R. Henry II. Twelve English Statesmen Series. Macmillan, New York. $0.75. Hallam, Henry. Constitutional History of England. Mr. Murray, London. Student's Edition, 7s. 6d. v/ Howell, George. Conflict of Capital and Labor. Macmillan, New York. $1.85. Hughes, T. Life of Alfred the Great. Macmillan, New York. $1.00. . V Johnson, A. H. Normans in Europe. Longmans, New York. $1.00. ., >T Lanier, Sidney. The Boys' King Arthur. Scnbners, New York. $2.00. Lappenberg, Johann Martin. A History of England under the Saxon Kings. Bohn. 2 vols. Geo. Bell & Sons, London. 3s. 6d. per vol. Larned, J. N. History for Ready Reference. 5 vols. Nichols, Springfield, Mass. $25.00. Lecky, W. E. H. History of England in the Eighteenth Cen- tury. 8 vols. Appleton, New York. $20.00. Lingard, Rev. John. History of England. 10 vols. Cum- miskey, Philadelphia. 640 APPENDIX. Macaulay, Lord. Essays (Clive and Warren Hastings). Long- mans, New York. Clive #0.75 ; Hastings $0.50. V* Macaulay, Lord. Essay on Milton. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston. $0.25. » Mahan, A. T. Life of Nelson. 2 vols. Little, Brown & Co., Boston. $8.00. Mahan, A. T. Influence of Sea Power on the French Revolu- tion and Empire. 2 vols. Little, Brown & Co. $6.00. Mahon, Earl Stanhope. History of England 1701-1-783. 9 vols. Mr. Murray, London. 5s. per vol. \s Maitland, F. W. Domesday Book and Beyond. Little, Brown & Co., Boston. $4.50 net. May, Sir T. E. Constitutional History of England. 3 vols. Longmans, New York. #4.50. McCarthy, Justin. England under Gladstone. Chatto & Windus, London. 6s. Morley, John. Walpole. Twelve English Statesmen Series. Macmillan, New York. $0.75. V Morris, E. E. Age of Anne. Longmans, New York. $1.00. Morris, E. E. Early Hanoverians. Longmans, New York. $1.00. Motley, J. L. History of the United Netherlands. 4 vols. Mr. Murray, London. 6s. per vol. v Pattison, Mark. Life of Milton. Harpers, New York. #0.75. Pauli, Dr. R. Alfred the Great (Bohn). Macmillan, New York. $1.50. V Pearson, C. H. History of England during the Early and Middle Ages. 2 vols. Bell & Daldy, London. Pollock, Sir F., and Maitland, F. W. History of English Law before the Time of Edward I. 2 vols. Little, Brown & Co., Boston. $9.00 net. Ranke, L. vox. History of England. 6 vols. Clarendon Press, New York. #16.00. Is Rhys, Prof. John. Celtic Britain. E. and J. B. Young & Co., New York. $0.75. Ripley, William Z. Races of Europe. 2 vols. Appleton, New York. $6.00. Rogers. J. E. T. History of Agriculture and Prices in England. 8 vols. Clarendon Press, New York. Vols. i. and ii. (1 259-1400) $10.50 ; vols. iii. and iv. (1401-1582) #12.50 ; vols. v. and vi. (1583- 1702) $12.50; vols. vii. and viii. (in press). APPENDIX. 641 P Rosebery, Lord. Pitt. Twelve English Statesmen Series. Macmillan, New York. $0.75. Seeley, Sir John R. Expansion of England. Little, Brown & Co., Boston. $1.75. Seeley, Sir John R. Growth of British Policy. 2 vols. Mac- millan, New York. $3.50. v/! Southey, Robert. Life of Nelson. Macmillan, New York. $0.50. v/ Stubbs, William, Editor. Select Charters, etc., of English Constitutional History. Clarendon Press, New York.. $2.10. ^y Tacitus. Agricola and Germania. Macmillan, New York. $0.90. \S Tennyson, Alfred, Lord. Harold. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston. Tennyson, Cambridge Edition. $2.00. • Thursfield, J. R. Peel. Twelve English Statesmen Series. Macmillan, New York. $0.75. Tout, T. F. Edward I. Twelve English Statesmen Series. Macmillan, New York. $0.75. Traill, H. D. William III. Twelve English Statesmen Series. Macmillan, New York. $0.75. Turner, Sharon. History of the Anglo-Saxons. 2 vols. a- Vinogrado^f, Paul. Villanage in England. Clarendon Press, Oxford. $4.00. Walpole, Spencer. History of England from 1815. 6 vols. Longmans, New York. $2.00 per vol. Warburton, W. Edward III. Longmans, New York. $1.00. L Wylie, J. H. History of England under Henry IV. 4 vols, Longmans, New York. $20.50. ILLUSTRATIVE FICTION IN POETRY AND PROSE. The following is a selection of the more notable dramas, romances, and poems which have been founded on historical events, or on legends growing out of historical events, or written to illustrate the state of the country and the life of the people in different periods of English history. Celtic and Roman Britain. Drama : the Cymbeline of Shakespeare. Poem : the Boadicea of Tennyson. Romance : The Count of the Saxon Shore, by A. J. Church ; The Villa oj Claudius, by E. L. Cutts. Legendary King Arthur and his Knights. Malory's Morte d' Arthur, ed. by Wright; The Mabinogion, translated by Lady Guest ; Ellis's Specimens of Early English Romances ; Tennyson's Idyls of the King and The Holy Grail; Matthew Arnold's Tristram and Iscult ; Swinburne's Tristram of Lyonesse ; Wagner's Tristan and Isolde and Parsifal; Lanier's Boy's King Arthur and Boy's Mabinogion ; Bulfinch's Age of Chivalry. Early England. Edwin of Deira, a poem, by Alexander Smith ; Old English Song of the Eight at Maldon (translated by Prof. Freeman in Old English History for Children ; also, in part, by Lanier, in the Atlantic Monthly for August, 1898). Early Scotland. Shakespeare's Macbeth. Alfred the Great and the Danes. Alfred the Great, at Athelnay, a drama, by Stratford Canning ; Scouring the White Horse (relating to King Alfred), by Thomas Hughes; Edwin the Fair, a drama, by Henry Taylor ; The Duke of Mercia, a drama (of the time of Edmund Ironside), by Aubrey de Vere ; Canute the Great, a drama, by Michael Field, pseud. ; King Canute, a ballad, by Thackeray. APPENDIX. 643 The Norman Conquest. Tennyson's Harold (a drama) ; Bulwer-Lytton's Harold, tin: Last of the Saxon Kings ; Charles Kingsley's Hereward the Wake, Last of the English (a tale). William Rufus. Landor's Walter Tyrrel and William Rufus (in Aets and Scenes) ; William Rufus, a drama, by Michael Field, pseud. Henry II. and Thomas a Becket. Dramas : Becket, by Tennyson; St. Thomas of Canterbury, by Aubrey de Vere ; Henry II., by Arthur Helps ; Thomas a Becket, by Douglas Jerrold. Robin Hood and the time of Richard Cceur de Lion. English and Scottish Popular Ballads, ed. by Prof. Child, part 5 ; Ritson's collection of the ballads of Robin Hood ; Tennyson's The Foresters (a drama of Robin Hood) ; Scott's Ivanhoe ; Landor's Richard I. and the Abbot of Boxley (in Imaginary Conversations) ; Pyle's Merry Adventures of Robin Hood. Magna Carta and the Beginnings of the English House of Commons. Shakespeare's King John ; The Constable of the Tower (a tale of the time of John), by Miss Yonge ; Palgrave's The Merchant and the Friar (reign of Edward I.) ; Peard's Prentice Hugh. The Reigns of Edward II. and III. and Richard II. Edward the Second, a tragedy, by Marlowe ; Edward the Third, a drama sometimes ascribed, in whole or part, to Shakespeare ; Shakespeare's King Richard the Second ; Y,zx\- dor's John of Gaunt and Joanna of Kent (in Imaginary Conver- sations) • Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, and Langland's Vision and Creed of Piers Plow?nan (contemporary poems repre- sentative of the time) ; Child's English and Scottish Popular Ballads, part 5 ; Miss Yonge's Lances of Lynwood (a tale). The Lollards. A Dream of f ohn Ball, by William Morris ; fack of the Mill, by William Howitt. The Lancastrian Kings. Shakespeare's King Henry the Fourth, King Henry the Fifth, and King Henry the Sixth ; Henry IV. and Sir Arnold Savage, by Landor (in Imaginary 644 APPENDIX. Conversations) ; Tlie Caged Lion (romance of the captivity of James I. of Scotland), by Miss Yonge ; A Noble Purpose, by Anne Manning. Joan of Arc. The Maid of Orleans, a drama, from the German of Schiller ; Jeanne Dare, a drama, by Tom Taylor. The Wars of the Roses, and the Yorkist Kings. The Last of the Barons, by Bulwer-Lytton ; The Black Arrow, by Robert Louis Stevenson ; The Chantry Priest of Barnet, by A. J. Church ; The York and Lancaster Rose, by Annie Keary ; Shakespeare's King Richard the Third. The Reign of Henry VII. The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck, by Mrs. Shelley. Henry VIII. and his Times. Shakespeare's King LLetiry the Eighth ; dramas relating to Anne Boleyn, by Dean Mrlman, Tom Taylor, and George H. Boker ; Scott's poems of Marmion, a tale of Flodden Field, and The Lady of the Lake (James V.) ; Henry VJLL. and Anne Boleyn, by Landor (in Acts and Scenes and in Jmaginary Conversations) ; The Household of Sir Thomas More and The Lincolnshire Tragedy, by Anne Manning ; The Armourer 's Prentices, by Miss Yonge ; When Knighthood was in Flower (a love story of the second mar- riage of Mary Tudor), by Charles Major. The Reign of Edward VI. and Lady Jane Grey. Colloquies of Edward Osborne, a tale, by Anne Manning ; The Tragedy of Lady fane Grey, by Nicholas Rowe ; Roger Ascham and Lady fane Grey, by Landor (in Lmaginary Con- versations). Queen Mary Tudor and her Reign. The Famous His- tory of Sir Thomas IVyatt, a drama, by Dekker and Webster ; Queen Mary, a drama, by Tennyson ; Mary Tudor, a drama, by Aubrey de Vere ; Tioixt Axe and Crown, or the Lady Elizabeth, a drama, by Tom Taylor ; The Story of Francis Cludde, by Stanley J. Weyman ; Princess Mary and Princess Elizabeth, by Landor (in Lmaginary Conversations). Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots. Mary Stuart, a tragedy, by Schiller ; Bothwell, Chastelard, Mary Stuart, three dramas, APPENDIX. 645 by Swinburne ; Mary and Bothwell, by Landor (in Imaginary Conversations) ; Unknown to History, a tale, by Miss Yonge ; The Queens Maries, by Whyte-Melville. Shakespeare. Citation and Examination of William Shakespeare before the Worshipful Sir Thomas Lucy, Knight, touching Deer-stealing, by Landor ; The Youth of Shakespeare and Shakespeare and his Friends, novels by R. F. Williams ; Judith Shakespeare, a novel by Black. The . Elizabethan Sea-Rovers, and the Spanish Armada. Westward Ho, by Charles Kingsley ; In the Days of Drake, by J. S. Fletcher; The Armada, a poem, by Ma- caulay. Other Events and Persons in the Time of Queen Elizabeth. The Beggar of Bethnal Green, a drama, by Sheridan Knowles ; The White Doe of Rylstone, a poem, by Wordsworth ; Kenilworth, by Scott ; Queen Elizabeth and Cecil, and Queen Elizabeth, Cecil, the Duke of Anjou, and Fenelon, by Landor (in Imaginary Conversations) ; Maelcho and With Essex in Ireland, by Emily Lawless. The Reign of James I. The Fortunes of Nigel, by Scott ; James I and Isaac Casaubon, by Landor (in Imagi- nary Conversations). Charles I. and the Civil War. Charles the First, a drama, by Shelley ; Strafford, an Historical Tragedy, by Rob- ert Browning (published, with an introduction, by Prof. S. R. Gardiner, and notes by Emily H. Hickey) ; Charles the First, an Historical Tragedy, by Miss Mitford ; Rokeby, a poem, by Scott ; Legend of Montrose, by Scott ; Memoirs of a Cavalier, by Defoe ; The Splendid Spur, a romance, by Arthur T. Quiller Couch ; The Draytons and the Davenants, by Mrs. Charles ; John Inglesant, by J. N. Short house ; Under the Storm, by Miss Yonge ; With the King at Oxford, by A. J. Church ; Admiral Blake and Humphrey Blake, by Landor (in Imaginary Conversations). The Commonwealth. The satirical poem, Hudibras, by Samuel Butler; Scott's romance, Woodstock; On Both 646 APPENDIX. Sides of the Sea (a sequel to The Draytons and the Dave- nauts), by Mrs. Charles ; Pigeon J'ic, a tale of Roundhead Times, by Miss Yonge ; Scapegrace Dick, by Frances M. Peard ; Saxby, a tale of Old and New England, by Emma Leslie. Cromwell and the Protectorate. Cromwell, a poem, by Matthew Arnold ; Cromwell, a drama, from the French of Victor Hugo ; Oliver Cromwell and Walter Noble, Oliver Cromwell and Sir Oliver Cromwell, and Milton and Andrew Marvel, by Landor (in Imaginary Conversations) ; Deborah's Diary (Deborah being Milton's daughter) and The Maiden and Married Life of Mary Powell, afterwards Mistress Mil- ton, by Anne Manning ; John Milton and his Times, a histori- cal novel, from the German of Max Ring ; Cromwell's Own, by Arthur Paterson. Restoration Times and Persons. Peveril of the Peak, by Scott ; History of the Great Plague in London, by De Foe ; Cherry and Violet, a tale of the great plague, by Anne Man- ning; In the East Country with Sir Thomas Browne, and Ln the Service of Pad/el, Lady Russell, by Mrs. Emma Marshall; Caleb Pield, by Mrs. Oliphant ; Lorna Doone, a romance of Exmoor, by R. D. Blackmore. Dryden's Political Poems. Annus Mirabilis, the Year of Wonders, 1666 (relating to the naval war with the Dutch and the great fire) ; Absalom and Achitophcl (relating to the intrigues of Shaftesbury with the Duke of Monmouth) ; The Hind and the Panther (in sympathy with the Roman Church, as against the persecuting Church of England). Monmouth's Rebellion. For Faith and Freedom, a tale, by Walter Besant ; Mieah Clarke, by A. Conan Doyle ; The Danvers Papers, by Miss Yonge ; The Duke of Monmouth, by Gerald Griffin. The Times of William and Mary, and of Anne. Sir Roger de Coverley (papers from The Spectator), by Addi- son ; The History of Henry Esmond, by Thackeray ; Shrews- bury, by Stanley J. Weyman ; The Tale of a Tub (a satire on APPENDIX. 647 the contentions of the Roman, English, and Presbyterian churches) and Gulliver 's Travels (a satire on English parties and politics and on society in general), by Dean Swift ; His- tory of John Bull, by Arbuthnot. Life and Society in the Time of the First Georges. The Dunciad (a satire on the writers of the time), by Pope ; The History of Clarissa Harlowe, Pamela, and The History of Sir Charles Grandison (contemporary tales), by Richard- son ; The Virginians, by Thackeray ; The Diary of Mrs. Kitty Trevylyan, a story oj the times of Whitefield and the Wesleys, by Mrs. Charles ; The Chaplain of the Fleet, by Besant and Rice ; The World went very well then, by Besant. The Jacobites and the Rebellions of 1715 and 1745. Rob Roy, Red Gauntlet, and Waverley, by Scott ; Kidnapped and David Balfour, by Stevenson ; Spanish fohn, by William McLennan ; Cerise, by Whyte-Melville ; Dorothy Forster, by Besant. Life and Society in the Reign of George III. The Citizen of the World (letters purporting to be written by a Chinese philosopher, from London), by Oliver Goldsmith ; the novels of Jane Austen ; Brcicebridge Hall, by Washington Irving ; Vanity Fair, by Thackeray ; Saint Ronan's Well, by Scott ; Adam Bede and Silas Marner, by George Eliot. The Gordon Riots. Barnaby Rudge, by Dickens. The Reform Agitations and Chartism. Felix Holt, the Radical, by George Eliot ; Alton Locke and Yeast, by Charles Kingsley ; Sybil, or the Two Nations, by Disraeli. The Famine in Ireland. The Black Prophet, by Carle- ton ; Mike, by E. N. Hoare ; Castle Richmond, by Anthony Trollope ; Castle Daly, by Annie Keary. INDEX In this Index the pronunciation of difficult words is shown in parentheses ; the geographical location of places mentioned in the text is indicated by the word map, fol- lowed by the page number and the key letters showing position upon the map. Aberdeen (aberdeen') Ministry, the, 608- 9. Aboukir (aboo'kir) Bay, 558 ; map, 574. Fc. Absolutism, the growth of, in the lGth century, 248. Academy, the French, 343. Acre (a'ker or a'ker), siege of, 558 ; map, 574, Fc. Act of Settlement, the, 485. Addington, Henry, 572-3. Addison, Joseph, 498, 584. Addled Parliament, the. 361. Adela (ad'ela) daughter of William I., 98. Acadia (aca'dia), 501 ; map (Nova Scotia), end lining, Gc. Afghanistan (afgamstan'), disaster in, (1839), 597 ; (1879), 017 ; map, 520, Aa. Africa, European partition of, British- Boer War, 509, 017, G20, 022-7 ; map, end lining, Le. Agincourt (azhankoor'), battle of, 214; map, 110, Dc. Agitators of the army, 415. Agreement of the People, the, 417. Aidan, St., his mission to England, 29. Aix-la-Chapelle (akslashapeT'), the treaty of, 522 ; map, 574, Ca. •' Alabama claims,'' the, 013-14, 016. Alban, the kingdom of, 45 ; map (Scots), 19. Alberoni (albaro'ne) 479-80. Albert, Prince, 598, 008, 012. Alcuin (Sl'kwTn), 31. Aldhelm, or Ealdhelm, 32, 44. Alexandria, 254 ; mop, 574, Ec. Alexander VI., pope, 206. Alford (awl'ford), map, 313. Alfred the Great, his life and work (with map and portrait), 39-42. Alma (al'ma), battle of the, 609 ; map, 57 1. Fb. Alsace (alsas'), acquisition and loss by France, 494, 508 ; map, 574. Cb. America : The gifts of Engianu to, v ; the discovery of, and its effects, 202. 205; discoveries by the Cabots, 201 ; colonial settlement, 348, 357-8, 470, 522-3. See, also, United States. American history, its connection with Eng- lish, v. Amiens (ii'mian), peace of, 571 ; map, 110, Dc. Amsterdam, 254 ; map, 574, Ca. Angeln (ang'eln), the old English home, 15; map, 16. Angevin (an'gevTns) empire, the, 109 ; its loss by the English kings, 136. Anglo-Saxon arts and conditions of life, 43-5. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the, 15, 17, 42, 94, 100. Anglo-Saxon society and institutions, 21-6, 43. Anjou (onzhoo'), in the dominion of Henry II. and his sons, 109 ; its loss, 130 ; Eng- lish kings of the Angevin House, 130; map, 110, Cd. Anne, as princess, 458, 407, 495 ; as queen (witli portrait), 490-503. Anne of Bohemia, 182, 210. Anne of Cleves, 270-7. Anne of Denmark, 351. Anselm, Archbishop, 84, 88. Anti-Corn-Law League, 599. Antwerp, 254 ; map, 574, Ca. Aquitaine (akwetan'), a fief of the French crown, 54; its acquisition by Henry II., 101 ; oppressed by Richard Coeur de Lion, 117 ; under the Black Prince, 175 ; ceded in full sovereignty to Edward III., 175; lost by Henry VI., 221 ; map, 110, Dd. Arab (Sr'ab) conquests, 54-5. Aragon (ar'agou), early popular institutions in, 133, 150 ; map, 574, Bb. Arbitration, Geneva, the, GIG. Arbuthnot (ar'buthnot), John, 498. Archer, mediaeval, picture of, 170. Architecture, mediaeval development of, 57-8, 134. Argyle (argyle') rebellion, the, 462. Aristocracy, early growth of, 24-6. Arkwriglit's invention, 540. Arlette (ar'lgtte), or Herleva, 59. Armada, the Invincible (with picture), 325-7. Armagnacs (armanyak'), 1G2, 213-15. Army : Mutiny Act, 487 ; sale of commis- sions abolished, 010. Arnold, Matthew, 628. 650 INDEX. Art : the 13th century revival in Italy, 134, 164 ; of the 15th century in Italy, 203 ; in the 10th century, 254. See, also, Archi- tecture, and Music. Arthur, King, the legends of, 21, 57, ( J5, 102, 120. Arthur, of Brittany, 135. Arts, Anglo-Saxon, 43-5. Ashburton treaty, the, 601. Asperu, battle of, 580 ; map, 574, Db. Assize (assize') of Arms, the, 120. Assize of Clarendon, the, etc., 119. Athelings, 24. Athelney (ath'elney), King Alfred at, 40 ; map, 42, Bd. Attainder of Thomas Cromwell, 277 ; of Strafford, 389-90; of Laud, 411. Augsburg (augs'bfirg), Religious Peace of, 251 : map, 574, Db. Augustine, St., his mission to the English, 28. Austerlitz (as'terlitz), battle of, 574 ; maj/, 574, Db. " Australia added to the British Empire, 537 ; participation in Boer War, 627 ; map, end lining, Qg. Austria : rise of the House of, 132, 163, 205 ; the Thirty Years' War, 343-4 ; War of the Austrian Succession, 480-81, 520-22; the Seven Weeks' War with Prussia, 507 ; formation of the Austro-Hungarian Em- pire, 568 ; map, 574, Db. Austrian-Spanish family power, the, 248-52, 345. Avignon (avenyon'), Babylonian Captivity at, 161 ; map, 110, Ee. Babington Plot, the, 321-2. Babylonian Captivity of the popes, the, 161. Bacon, Francis (with portrait), 330-1, 342, 353, 300. 365. Bacon, Roger, 156, 108. Balaclava (baTaclii'va), battle of, 600 ; map, 574, Fb. Ball, John (with picture), 180. Balliol (bSl'liol), King John I., 152; II., 168, 171. Ballot, introduction of the, 616. Banbury); n)ap, 404, Cb. Bank of England, the, 496. Bannockburn (bainiockbfini'), battle of, 166 ; map, 313. Barbour (biir'ber), John, Scottish poet, 1S5. Barebones Parliament, the, 433-4. Bamet, battle of, 238; map, 110, Cc. Baron's War, the, 145-7. Basing House, the storming of, 41:'. ; map, 404, Cc. Bath, the Roman city, 10 ; picture of remains of Roman bath, ; map, 8. Battle Abbey, 02. Bavaria. 4N-J. .-,711 ; map, 574, Db. Baxter, Richard, 442. Bayeux (bayu') tapestry (with pictures), 47, 60, 61, 63. Bayonne (bayon'), 176; map, 110. Ce. Beachy Head, naval battle of, 402 ; maji, 404, Dc. Beaconsfield, Earl of. See Disraeli. Ben- jamin. Beaton, Cardinal, 278, 288. Beaufort (bu'fort), bishop and cardinal, 217-22. Beauforts, the, 221-2, 227. Becket, Thomas a (with two pictures), 111— 14. Bede, the Venerable, 31-2, 27-8. Bedford, John, Duke of, Protector (with portrait), 217-21. Bedford, John Russell, fourth Duke of. 533-6. Belfast, map, 358, Da. Benevolences, 238. Beowulf (ba'owulf or be'owulf ), the epic of, 30. Berkeley Castle, 107 ; map, 110, Cc. Berlin (ber'ltn) decree, the, 576 ; map, 574, Da. Bernicia, the kingdom of, 18, 27 ; map, 42, Cb. Bertha, Queen of Kent, 28. Berwick, the storming of, by Edward I., 152 ; map, 110, Cb. Beverages, mediaeval, 105. Bible, Wiclif's translation, 181, 185; Tyn- dale's translation and its early revisions, 279 ; Luther's translation, 254 ; " author- ized version " of King James, 343. Bill of Rights, the, 485. Bishops' Wars, the first and second, 388-9. Bismarck, Otto von, 507. Black Death, the, 101 ; its effects in Eng- land, 171-2. Black Friars, 198. Black Hole of Calcutta, the, 527. Black Prince, the, 170, 173-5, 178; view of his tomb, 179. Blake, Admiral Robert (with portrait), 429- 31. Blenheim (blen'im), battle of, 500; map, 574, Db. Blois (blwii), 98. Bloody Assize, the, 463. Boccaccio (bokkat'cho), 164. Boer (boor) wars, 569, 617, 622-7 ; map. 025. Bohemia, religious reformers of, 206 : in the Thirty Years' War, 343-4, 363-4 ; laaji, 574, Db. Boleyn (bool'Tn), Anne (with portrait), 208- 73. Bolingbroke, Henry St. John, Viscount, 501, 503,515. Bombay (bombay'), 528 ; map, 526, Be. Boniface, 101. Bonner, Bishop, 296. Bordarii (bc>r-da'iTe), borders, 72, 73. Bordeaux (bordo'), 173-4, 176, 201 : map, 110, Cd. Borgia (bSr'ja) (Alexander VI.), 195. Boroughs. See Towns. " Boroughs, Rotten," 592-4. Boscobel, King Charles's oak at, 428. Boston : the founding of, 384 ; in the be- ginnings of the American Revolution, 538-9. INDEX. 6 5 I Bosworth, battle of, 242 ; map, 110, Cb. Bothwell, James Hepburn, Earl of, 315-16. Bothwell, Bridge, battle of, 461 ; mop, 313. Boulogne (boblon'), 575; map, 110, Dc. Bouvines (booven'), the battle of, 1138 ; map, 110, Dc. Boyne, battle of the, 491 ; map (Drog- heda), 358, Cb. Braddoek's defeat. 524. Brandenburg (bran'denboorg), the electo- rate of, 344. See, also, Prussia ; map, 574, Da. Breda (brada'), 426 ; map, 574, Ca. Brentford, 404; map, 404, Cc. Brest, 17(1 ; map, 110, Be. Bretigny (bre-ten-ye'), treaty of, 174-5. Bretvvalda (bret'walda), the title. 28. Brewster, William, picture of residence at Scrooby, 3GG. Brickmaking, 44, 243. Bright, John, 508-0, 010,014. Brindley's canal building, 540. Bristol : mediaeval slave trade, 114 ; stormed by Prince Rupert, 4115; surrendered by Rupert, 413; map, 110, Cc. Britain : prehistoric inhabitants, 3 ; from whom named, 4 ; ancient knowledge of, 5 ; Cesar's invasion, 5 ; Roman Britain (with map), 7-11 ; the English conquest (with map), 15-20. See, also, Great Brit- ain. British-Boer Wars, the, 017, 022-7 ; maj>. G25. British Empire in 1800 ; area and popula- tion, 034-5 ; map, end lining. British South Africa Company, 026. Britons, the : early civilization, ; under the Romans, 7-12 ; conquest or expulsion by the English, 15-20. Brittany, the flight of Britons to, 20 ; map, 110, Cc. Bronte (brSn'te), Charlotte, 628. Browne, Sir Thomas, 442. Browning, Robert, 628. Brownists, 332. Bruce, Robert, claimant of the Scottish crown, 152. Bruce, Robert, King of Scotland, 153, 108. Bruges (brli'jez), 133 ; »/. John of Gaunt : command in France, — portrait, — political aims, 176-178 ; his descendants, 227. Jousou, Ben. 330, 343. Junius, Letters of, 538. Junto, the, 494. Jury trial, 119. Justiciar (jiistish'iar), the office of, 91. Jutes : their old home (with map), 15-10 ; their conquests, 17, 19; map, 111. Jutish " long-ship," picture of, 17. Kant, Immanuel, 478. Katharine of Aragon, portrait, 259 ; mar- riage to Prince Arthur, 200 ; marriage to Henry VIII., 203; divorce, 209-70; death, 273; her daughter Mary, 279, 293-301. Keats, John, 5S3. Kelts. See Celts. Kenihvorth, 107 ; map, 110, Cb. Kent, the kingdom of, 17, 28, 29, 33 ; map, 42, Dd. Kepler, 342. Ket's rebellion, 291. Khartum (kartoom'), 019 ; map, end lin- ing, Le. Killiecrankie (kTlTkrah'kT), battle of, 488-9 ; map, 313. Kilsyth (kilsyth'). battle of, 412 ; map, 313. King's Bench, Court of, 357. King's Court, its origin, 92 ; development by Henry II., 118. King's deathbed, picture of a Norman, 83. Kingship, original character of, among the English, 22. See Monarchy. Kingsley, Charles, 028. Knighthood, 55. Knox, John, 311-12. Kymry (kym'ry), the, 4. Lagos (la'gos), naval battle of, 527 ; map, 574, Be. La Hogue (la hog'), naval battle of, 493 ; map, 574, Ca. Limb, Charles, 584. Lancashire, 258 ; map, front lining, Gd. Lancaster, Earl Thomas of, 105-6. Lancaster, the House of, its lineage, 227 ; its attainment of the crown, 183; its rivals, 221 ; its younger brandies, 221-2 ; its conflict with the House of York. 223. 231-8. Land League, the Irish, 018. Laud-lords and land-less men, 23. Landowning interest, oppressive domina- tion of, 5S1-3 ; ending of the domination, 591-4, 599-01 It I. Laud question, the Irish, 001, 010, 017-18, 021. Laufranc, Archbishop, 75, 83. Laugland, William, the poet, 178, 185. Laugside, battle of, 310 ; maji, 313. Langton, Stephen, archbishop, 137, 139. Language, the English : Norman banish- ment from court, 95 ; restored to literary use, 184 ; required in the courts, 185. Languedoc (longedok'), 174; map, 110, De. La Rochelle (Hi roshell'), revolt of, 370-7, 378-9: map, 574, Bb. Latimer, persecution of, 299. Latten, 193. Laud (lawd), William, influence with Charles I. (with portrait), 380 ; tyranny as primate, 384-5 ; measures in Scotland, 380-7 ; arrest for high treason, 391 ; at- tainder and execution, 411. Lauderdale (law'derdal), Earl of, 453, 461. Law, common. See Common law. Law, English, the upbuilding of, by Henry II., 118-20. Law, first treatise on English, 120. Law, St. Edward's, 118. Lawrence, Henry, 011. Lawrence, John, 611. Learning: in the dark ages (Europe). 50- 7, (Ireland), 20-7, (northern England), 30- 31; extinction by the Danes, 38-9,114; in the 13th century (Europe), 134, (Eng- land), 156 : 15th century revival in Europe, 192 ; backwardness in England, 229 ; the new learning in England, 279. Leibnitz (lipnits'), Gottfried Wilhelm. 342. Leicester (lgs'ter), Robert Dudley, Earl of, 309, 314, 325. Leinster (lin'ster or len'ster), the kingdom of, 114-15; map, 110, Bb. Leslie (les'lte), David, 427. Lessing, Gotthold E.. 478. Levellers, the, 410. Leven, Alexander Leslie, Earl of, 408. Lewes (lu'Ts), battle of, 145 ; map, 110, Cc. Lexington, battle of, 539. Leyden (li'den). 300 ; map, 318. Liberal Unionists, the, 020-21. Life in early England, 43-5 : in mediaeval England. 190-205. Limerick (lim'erick), treaty of, 491-2 ; map, 358, Bb. Limoges (lemozh'), 124, 175; map, 110, Dd. Lincoln, the Roman city, 9 ; map, 42, Cc. Lincolnshire, 400 : aiap, front lining, Hd. Lineage. See Genealogy. Lingard, John, quoted, 299. Lionel (H'onel), Duke of Clarence, 201,207, 221, 227. Liquors, spirituous, in mediaeval times, 195. Literature, English : the earliest, 30-33, 39, 42 ; disappearance from the 11th un- 662 INDEX. til the 14th century, '.14-5 ; in Chaucer's time, 184-5; in the 15th century. 229, 'J 44; hi the age of Elizabeth ami James I.. 330-31 : in the Restoration period, 468-9, 477-8 ; in the reign of Anne, 498 ; in the reign of George III., 583-4 ; in the Victorian age. 627-8. Literature of Western Europe : mediaeval, 57 ; the Italian renaissance, 104, 203 : the 16th century, 254 ; the golden age, 343 ; the 18th century. 477-s._ Liverpool Ministry, the, 570. Liverpool Railway, 590 ; map, 404, Bb. Livery and maintenance, 228-9, 257. Llywelyn (looel'Tn), Prince of Wales, 'JOS. Lochleven (lochle'ven) Castle, 310 ; imi/i. 313. Locke, John, 342. 468, (with portrait) 469. Locomotive " Rocket," Stephenson's, pic- ture , 5: 1 1 . Lollards, the, 181, 209-10, 212-13, 220. Lombards, 52 : map, 574, Cb. London: the Roman city, 9; in the 13th century (drawing by Matthew Paris), 142; the Great Fire. 453 : map, 42. Dc. Londonderry, siege of, 490-91 ; map, 358, Ca. Long Parliament, the. 389-418. Lord, origin of the word, 23. Lord of the Manor, 24. Louis Napoleon, 565-8, 008, Oil. Louis, Prince, of France, invasion of Eng- land by, 141-2. Louisburg, capture and relinquishment of, 522 ; recapture, 526. Louisiana, transferred from France to Spain. 532. Lucknow, rehef of, 011 : nin/i. 520, Cb. Luneville (lunavel'). peace at. 571 : map, 574. Cb. Lords, House of. See Parliament. Lords of the Congregation. 311-12, 314. Lostwithiel, the surrender at. 409; mup. 4(14. Ac. Lothian ceded to the Scots. 45. Louis IX. of France (St. Louis). 133, 145. Louis XI. of France, 204. Louis XII. of France. 250. 265. Louis XIII., 345. Louis XIV. of France, character and reign. 345-6 : dealings with Charles II. of Eng- land, 451, 453-4; last years, 478-9, 400. 402-0,. Luther, Martin. 240-51. 254, 267. Lutzen (loot'sen), battle of, 314 ; ukiji, 574, Da. Lyme Regis (lyme re'gis). 402 ; map, 404, Be. Macaulay (makaw'lt). Lord (with portrait), 0,27. 628. Macdonald, Flora. 522. Madras (madras'), 522 ; map, 520. Cc. Madrid (rnadrTd'), Prince Charles at, 367 ; mil)), 574. Bb. Magenta (magen'ta), battle of, 566; <»"/'• 574, Db. Magna Carta (mag'na car'ta) : the winning of (with facsimile extract), 137-41 : con- firmation by Edward I., 151 -•_'. Maid of Orleans, the (with picture of statue), 217-20. Mail, hood of chain, 12th century (picture), 122. Maine, in the dominion of Henry II.. 100 ; its loss by John, 130 ; map, 110, Cc. Maintenance. 228-9. Maitland, F. W., quoted, 110. Majuba Hill, battle of, 624 ; map, 025. Malcolm, King of Scotland. 67, SO. Malebranche (rna)bronsh'), Nicolas, 342. Malta (inal'ta), taken from the French, 571 ; map, 574, Dc. Maltolt, or Maltote, 155. Man, Isle of, the inhabitants, 4 ; mn p. 404, Aa. Manchester, Edward Montagu, second Earl of. 400. 409, 411. Manchester, railway at. 590 ; /»»/'• 404, Bb. Manor-house, the mediaeval (with picture), loi-:;. Manors, 24, 70-72 ; plan of the divisions of an old English manor, 71. Mantes (mont), 77 ; map, 110, Dc. Manufactures, English: medieval. 45. '.),;, 155. 173, 243; in Elizabeth's reign, 329 ; improvement by Huguenot refugees, 400 ; industrial revolution, 545-7, 581. Map, Walter. 120. March, Edmund Mortimer, Earl of, 201, 207, 212, 221. Margaret of Anjou (with a picture), 220-1, 231-8. Margaret of Burgundy, 258. Margaret, Scottish queen and saint, 67, 86, 89. Margaret Tudor. 200. Maria Theresa, 480-81. Marie Antoinette (rnaree' ontwanSt'). 483. Markets, mediaeval, 93. Marlborough (mawl'bro), the Duchess of, 499-500. Marlborough, John Churchill, Duke of, 470. (with portrait) 403, 499-500. Marstou Moor, battle of, 408 ; »<"/<, 104, Cb. Martyrdom. See Persecution, religious. Mary I. (Mary Tudor) (with portrait), 279, 293-301. Mary II., Queen : as heiress to the crown, — marriage to the Prince of Orange, 458 ; accession jointly with her husband. 4*4 : death. 404'. s Mary, Duchess of Burgundy, 204-5, 24*. Mary of Guise, queen-regent of Scotland, 278, 311-12. Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, birth. 278; English wooing. 278. 288 ; in France, 288, 310-12 : claims to the English crown, 309-10; character (with portrait), 310- 11: in Scotland, 312-10; imprisonment in England, and execution. 316-22 : ef- fects of her execution. 322-3, 325. Mary Tudor (daughter of Henry VII.), 205, 293. INDEX. 663 Maryland, granted to Lord Baltimore, 470. Mashain, Mrs.. 500. Massachusetts Bay, charter of the Governor and Company of, 384-5. Matilda (or Maud), queen of William I.. 47, 77. Matilda, queen of Henry I., 80. Matilda (the empress), daughter of Henry I., 1)7-101. Maximilian, the emperor, 205, 24s, 207. Mayflower, the voyage of the, 366. Mazarin (mazareu'), Cardinal, 545-0. Mead, 195. Meagher (ma'er). Thomas Francis, 607. Mechanic invention, the epoch of, 545-7. Mediaeval author at work (picture from an old MS.), 121. Mediaeval epoch, ending of, 202-3. Mediaeval friars, 03. Mediaeval life in England, 100-100. Mediaeval roads, 105. Mediaeval schools, learning, and literature. See Learning, and Literature. Mediaeval towns and their trade, 74, 92-3, 125-6. See, also, Hanse Towns. Medicis (med'echees), the, 203. Medway, burning ships in, 452; hhiji, 404, Dc. Melbourne (mel'bGrn), Lord, 506-8. Mellichope, manor-house at (picture), 192. Mendicant friars, 197-0. Merchant Adventurers, 173. Merchant companies, 230. Merchant gilds, 126. 230. Mercia (mer'shla), the kingdom of, IS, 20, 33 ; map, 42, Cc. Merton College, Oxford, view of, 155. Methodism, the rise of, 516. Middle Saxons. 17-18. Middlesex, origin of the name of, IS ; map, 42, Cd. Milan (ml'lan) decree, the, 577 ; niaii, 574, Cb. Milton, Jolin, 330, 343, 409, 424, 43S, (with portrait) 442, 41 .8. Ministerial government : the Cabal, — first semblance of a cabinet of ministers. 453 ; actual beginning of party ministerial gov- ernment, — the Junto, 403-4 ; insignifi- cance of Queen Anne, 496-7 ; epoch of political parties, 497-8 ; Walpole's prac- tical creation of prime ministry and Cabi- net, 512-13; helplessness of George I. in the hands of his ministers, 509-10 ; ris- ing influence of public opinion, 524 ; pro- gress of ministerial government checked by George III.. 531-2 ; the king as his own prime minister. 537-40 ; his failure, — the last attempt at royal government, 541 ; the last dismissal of a ministry by royal command, in opposition to the will of Parliament, 500. Ministry of all the Talents, the, 575. Minorca (urinor'ca), 470. 501. 524; map, 574, Cc. Minorites, 19S. Minstrelsy, mediaeval, 57, 101, 106. Miracle plays, beginning of, 102. Mississippi Scheme, the, 511. Mitchell, John, 607. Modern era, its beginnings in Europe, 205, 248 ; in England, 255. Mohammedan conquests, 54-5. Moliere (molear'), Jean Baptiste, 343. Monarchy, the English : origin, limited heredity and elective character from the beginning, 22 ; monarchical creation of orders of nobility, 24-5 ; rise to supremacy of the West Saxon kings, 33 ; transient Danish conquestof the crown, 46 ; election (of Harold) to the kingship from outside the royal family. 48 ; invalid claim of the Duke of Normandy to the crown. 48, 59- 60 ; his attainment of it by conquest, 60- 64 ; English adoption of the Norman kings, 82, 88; charter of Henry I., 89- 90 ; the question of succession to the crown on the death of Henry I., — Ste- phen's election, 98-99 ; election of Henry II.. 101 ; election of John, 135; the Great Charter extorted from King John. 157- 41 ; restraints put on Henry III., 144-7 ; beginnings of a representative Parlia- ment, 146-51 : Confirmatio Cartarum of Edward I., 151-2 ; deposition of Edward II. and parliamentary bestowal of the crown on Edward III., 167 ; forced abdi- cation of Richard II.. and parliamentary bestowal of the crown on Henry IV., 183, 207 ; deference of King Henry IV. to Parliament, 210-11 ; period of factious king-making, — decline of the popular spirit, — Wars of the Roses, 221-3, 228- 38; usurpation of Richard III., 239-42; overthrow and death of Richard, — ac- cession of Henry VII., 242 ; weakness of the hereditary claim of Henry VII. to the throne, 241 ; readiness of the country for a revival of arbitrary kingship, 242-3, 255- 7 ; hardening of despotism under Henry VIII.. — subjugation of the church to the king. 260-70 ; assumption of the title of king of Ireland by Henry VIII. , 277 ; suc- cession to the crown fixeu uy the king's will, authorized by Parliament, 287, 293 ; accession of Mary Tudor, the first female sovereign, 294-5 ; monarchical dictator- ship in religion under the Tudors, 275-6, 305 ; question of right to the crown be- tween Elizabeth and Mary Stuart, 309- 10 ; union of the crowns of England and Scotland by James I., and his weakening of English reverence for royalty, 340-50 ; his conflicts with Parliament, 352-:.. :;:, 313. Sherwood Forest, Robin Hood in, 121 ; map, 110 Cb. Shetland Islands, 37 ; map, 38. Ship of war. English, time of Henry VIII. (picture). 266. Ship-money, 385-6, 391. Shire, the, 22. Shire-moots, 22, 68, 83, 92. Short Parliament, the, 388. Shrewsbury (shrooz'bert), battle of. 209, map, 110 Cb. Sidney, Algernon. 456, 459-60. Sidney, Sir Philip, 325, 330. Silchester, the Roman city, 9 ; map, 42 Cd. Silesia (slle'shia), 481 j map, 574 Da. Simnel, Lambert, 257-8. Six Articles, the, 275. 290. Sixteenth century, general survey of. 248 54. Slave trade, medieval. 27, 114; suppression of African, 575. Slavery : in early England, 21, 72-3 ; aboli- tion in British colonies, 594. 670 INDEX. Sluys(slois), naval fight off, 170: map, 110. Dc Smith, Adam, " The Wealth of Nations, 546. _ Sobieski (sobees'kee). •>*'. ,.,.., Social conditions in early England, 21-6, 43-5 ; mediaeval, 190-9. Social effects of the Black Death, 172. Solemn League and Covenant, the. 40,, Solferino_ (solfere'no). battle of, 500 ; Solwav Moss, battle of, 278 ; map, 404 Ba. Somerset (sum'erset), the British inhabit- ants of 19 I map, front lining, Ge. Somerset, Edward Seymour, Duke of. Lord Protector, -*S-'.i-'. ,.,, n „ Somme(somm), River 'Jll: map, 110, Dc. Song of the Traveller. 30. Sophia (sSfi'a), Electress of Hanover, 495, South African Republic, the, 017, (with map) 0-JJ-7 : map, 625. Southampton (suthhamp'tonU 216; map, lio, Cc. South Saxon kingdom, the, 1., *J : /»"/'- 42 Cd. South Sea Bubble, the, .»lli- Spain : the struggle of Christians with Moors, 54, 57, 133: early popular insti- tutions, 133 ; union of Castile and Aragon and final conquest of the Moors 205; under the emperor, Charles V, 249 -; , under Philip H-, 252; conflict with Dutch and English, 322-5; the Great Armada, 325-7; in the 17th century. Ml ■ wars of the 17th century, 367, 373- fi 385 ; wars of the 18th century. 478-81, 496-502, 511, 515-16, 520-22, 532; alli- ance with the United States, 540 con- flict with Napoleon, 563-4 : loss of Span- ish colonics. 565; war with the United States, 569, 621 ; map, 574, Bb. Spanish marriage question (reign ot James I J 356, 361-2, 364 5, 367. Spenser, Edmund (with portrait), 330. Spice Islands. 555; map, back lining Qe. Spinning and weaving m Anglo-Saxon times, 45. Sports, mediaeval, 199. Squires, the, 498. . , Stadtholder of the United Provinces. ..4, Stage coach in 1804 (picture), 577. Stamford Bridge, battle of, 62 ; map, 42, Stamp Act, the (with picture), 535-6. Standard, battle of (with picture!, 00-100; map, (Cow ton Moor) 110. Cb. Staple, the, 154-5, 173. . Star Chamber court. 251 : revival DJ Charles I., 3834 ; abolition by the Long Parliament. 391. States-General of France. 162. _ States-General of France : meeting in 1 . 8J, 483. Steamboats, the first, 590. Steam engine, invention of, o4o. Steele, Richard, 408. Steelyard, the, ill London (with an early picture). 154. Stephen (of Blois), King (with portrait), Stephenson I ste'venson), George, 590-91. Stevenson, Robert Louis, 628. Stewart family. See Stuart. Stirling Bridge, battle of, 153 ; map, 110, Ca Stockton, first railway, 590; map, 404, Ca Stoke, capture of gunnel at, 258 ; map, 404 • Bb - » - 10 nA Stoneheuge(with picture), i i »Mip,42,Cd. Stour (stt76r), River Is : map, 42, Dd. Stourbridge (stur'brlj) fair, 93 ; map, 110, Strafford, Sir Thomas Weutworth, Earl of, resistance to forced loan, 370 : in Parlia- ment 377 : counsellor of the king, 383 : lord lieutenant of Ireland, 386; activity in the Second Bishops' War, 389 ; at- tainder and execution (with portrait), 389-91. Strathclyde, 10: map, 42, Bb. Straw, Jack, 180. . . Stnmgbow (Richard de Clare), in Ireland, Stuart family, origin, 209 i lineage, 341 ; reigns in England, 349. Stuart sovereigns of Scotland and Eng- land, lineage of the, 470. Stubbs, Bishop, on Hubert Walter, 1-'. on Magna Carta, 140-1 ; on purveyance, 107 : 011 Henry IV.. 210. Subsidies. 352. Succession to the English crown. See Monarchy. >IW Suffolk, Charles Brandon, Duke of, 293, 'JOT. Suffolk, origin of the name of, 18 ; map, 4 -- Dc - Supremacy, Acts of, 271, 290, 308. Surrey, Earl of, the poet, 278-9. ' Sussex, origin of the name of, 18 ; map, 12, Cd. Suzerain, 53. Swift, Jonathan, 40S. Swinburne, Algernon C, 628. Swiss, in the 14th and 15 centuries, H.4. 206. , ... Swevn's (swan) conquest of England. 40. Syria, 558 ; map, 574, Pc. Tables, the Scottish. 387. Talavera (falava'ra), battle of, 5(9 ; map, 574, Be. Taylor. Jeremy, 44'-'. Telegraph, electric, the first, 0J1 . Ten articles, the. -,•">• Tennyson, Alfred, Lord (with portrait). 626, 628. Test Act. the, 455, 589. Teutonic. See Germanic. Tewkesbury, battle of, 238; map, 110, Cb Texei, the, naval battle in, 431 : map, \ 574, Ca. I Thackeray. W. M.. 628. INDEX. 671 Thanes, 24. Thane's house, picture of, 25. Thanet (tha'net). Isle of, 17 ; map, 4'.', Dd. Theodore of Tarsus, 33. Theows (the'oz) (slaves) of the early Eng- lish, 21. Third Estate, the, 133, 150-51, 162, 483. Thirteenth century, survey of general his- tory, 131-4. Thirty Years' War, 343-4, 363-4. " Thorough," the policy of Weutwortli and Laud, 385. Ticonderoga (tlcondero'ga), Fort, 526. Tinchebrai (tinche'brai), battle of, 88; map, 111), Cc. Tintern Abbey, 06. Tin trade, ancient, 5. Tippoo (tTppob'), 557-8. Toleration Act, the, 487-8. Toleration, religious, growth of, 400-10. Tone, Theobald Wolfe, 555-6. Tonnage and poundage question. 373-4, 378-0, 301. Torbay, 467 ; map, 404, Be. Torture, judicial use of, 320. Tory party, the. rise and origin of name, 458-0 ; in the Revolution, 484 ; Jacobite reaction, 486-7 ; passage of the Act of Settlement, 405 ; party division under Anne, 408 ; support from the church, 500-501 ; powerlessness and discontent under the first Georges, 510: the new- party under George III., 532 ; under the younger Pitt, 544 ; Canning's division of the party, 587-0 ; Peel's division of the party, 505. Tostig, Earl, 61-2. Toulouse (toblooz'), 54, 111 : maji, 574, Cb. Toulouse, battle of, 579. Touraine (tooran'), in the dominion of Henry II., 100; map, 110, Dd. Tower of London : {with picture from the earliest drawing), 65 ; murder of the princes in the, 240—41. Town dwellings, mediaeval. 104. Town meeting, the old English and the American, 22-3. •Towns, English : the rise, 74. 02-3, 125 : in the 15th century, 220-30; representation in Parliament, 146. 140-5(1, 230-31. Townshend (town'zend), duties, the, 537-8. Township, the early English, 22. Towton, battle of, 234 ; map, 110, Cb. Trade. See Commerce. Trafalgar (trafal'gar), battle of, 572-4 ; mn/i, 574, Be. Transformation of the world, the, 561-2. Transvaal (transval'), Republic of the, 617, (with map) 622-7 : map, 625. Travel, medieval, 105. Tredah (tre'da). See Drogheda. Trek, the great. 622. Trencher, the. 191. Trent, Council of. 251 ; /» Co. Cambridge, Mass, U. S. A. 6 910 ffiHflgfl uniinM ■__ IB Br HI SfiBifilffiSmnti JBSBIi fflSMffl wSBUmBBm B11I1 # m n ■■■'■■•• i '■■■■■■• ' Blilll I