^ .^^-^^^ o ■ • t • O • » 1 ♦ 1^ V • t • o O N ^ ^^-"r^ .•J.^ ^*iffl %*. <; ^o. .^ ^^ *««o» .^^ --^ -1^ ^ '©• * A SHORT HISTORY OF ENGLAND FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE PRESENT DAY BY CYRIL RANSOME, M.A. Merton College, Oxford Professor of Modern Literature and History in the Yorkshire College, Leeds With Maps and Plans E. p. BUTTON AND CO. PUBLISHERS AND IMPORTERS 31, WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET MDCCCLXXXVIII ' % % % \Vi% 486568 N. 4, '38 PREFACE The aim of this History of England is to give a short narrative of the growth of the British Empire and Constitution from the earliest times to the pre- sent day, in such a form and within such limits as shall supply the wants of middle and upper forms at schools, candidates for university and civil service examinations, and for the army and navy, pupil and assistant teachers at elementary schools, and students in training colleges, and also shall give a clear and intelligible account of those events and institutions a knowledge of which is so much needed by the student of modern political life. To attain all these ends within the space of 450 pages has been a most difficult task, and a rigid censorship has been needed, both in choosing the subjects and events to be mentioned, and in allotting an appropriate space to each. In deciding what subjects to admit, I have had with great regret to omit all references to the manners and customs of the people, except where they have borne directly upon political events ; on the other hand, greater space has been given to the working of economic causes than has been usual in a book of this size. vi Preface. Again, I have omitted all reference to literature ex- cept where strictly connected with history, partly because I am led to think that the mere facts boys learn on this subject are of little use, and also because the teaching of literature is happily being made a separate department from the teaching of history. In allotting space, I have been guided by the follow- ing considerations. If any event, such as the death of Charles I., or the crusade of Richard I., is certain to have been pathetically or graphically described in the first history put into a child's hands, whatever that may be, I have contented myself with a mere statement of fact ; if an event, and especially a constitutional event, was likely to be new to my readers, I have spared no pains to make it intelligible and vivid. Everywhere I have been guided by what I have learnt, as a practical teacher, of the difficulties which most readers find hardest to surmount, and I have tried to bear in mind that the object of teaching history is not to cram with facts and dates (useful, and indeed necessary, as these, are), but to awaken thought, and especially to teach the habit of thinking intelligently about the political events of our own and other countries. The history is divided into nine books, according to dynasties, and each chapter contains, as a rule, the reign of one king. At the beginning of each book are placed genealogies of the royal families, and pedigrees to illustrate special points are given in the notes. At the head of each reign is a list of the notable characters to whom attention is to be directed. Numerous maps and plans are given, with tables of Preface. vii the chief events, and a complete analysis is provided by the table of contents. The style aims at being simple, but not childish. In spelling, I have in the earlier part of the work followed that given by Dr. Stubbs in his " English Constitutional History." With him I have rejected the use of such forms as Alfred for Alfred, and Eadward for Edward, believing that no good is gained by such accuracy comparable to the injury done by accentuating in a boy's mind the idea that our ancestors were not men like ourselves. In other cases I have followed the modern spelling, and have called men and places by the names by which they have been familiar to many generations of Englishmen. In dealing with the later history I have not attempted to do more than give such connecting links as shall enable the reader to carry on the thread of the narrative to the time when his own memory begins to serve him, carefully keeping clear of party questions by confining myself to simple statements of facts, and throughout I have taken pains not to use expressions which would be likely to wound the feelings of any religious body, or of any of the peoples who are now united with Englishmen in a single kingdom. The Skeleton History of England,* published in 1882, by Mr. A. H. Dyke Acland and myself, may be used as a companion to this book, and teachers will * "A Skeleton Outline of the History of England," being an abridg- ment of " A Handbook in Outline of the Political History of England." By A. H. Dyke Acland, M.P., and Cyril Ransome, M. A. i^. 6^/. viii Preface. find in the larger handbook * summaries of many matters which will be useful for oral instruction. Excluding the tables and maps, the period B.C. 55 to 1837 is comprised in about 400 pages, which will make the work, if used as a text-book, lend itself best to a two years' course, but a private student or a form which can give more than one hour a week will have no difficulty in mastering its contents in a much shorter time. In conclusion, I can only add that I am as conscious as any one can be of the many shortcomings of the book. I have done my best to get rid of mistakes, with the aid of friends who have been so good as to help me, among whom I should specially mention Bishop Stubbs, who was good enough to examine a specially difficult constitutional passage ; Professor Creighton ; Mr. George Nutt, of Rugby ; Rev. A. B. Beaven, of Preston ; and Mr. H. Richardson, of Marl- borough — to all of whom I owe a great debt of thanks. Some errors, however, are likely to survive the most careful revision, and it will be a great kindness in those who use the book if they will supply me with lists of such as they may find. C. R. Leeds, April, 1887. ♦ "A Handbook in Outline of the Political History of England." Chronologically arranged. By A. H. Dyke Acland, M.P., and Cyril Ransome, M.A. 6^. CONTENTS BOOK I. Page DATE * England before the Norman Conquest 1-30 CHAPTER I. Britain under the Romans. The English Race 4 The Aryan Family 4 Primitive Inhabitants of Europe . . , 5 B.C. Pytheas' Voyage 5 65, 54. Caesar's Invasion of Britain 6 Physical Geography of Britain 6 Races of Britain . . . , 7 A.D. British Civilization 8 43-81. Conquest of Britain by the Romans 9 Roman Organization, Towns, and Camps 9 Roman Civilization .... 10 Roman Walls 10 410. Roman Evacuation of Britain 1 1 CHAPTER II. English Settlement in Britain. Facts of the Invasion 12 Chief Battles of the Conquest 14 Early English Kingdoms 14 597. Conversion of the English to Christianity iS Struggle for Supremacy 16 Celtic Missionaries ■ . 17 664. Synod of Whitby 18 668. Organization of the Church by Theodore 18 607. Northumbrian Supremacy begins . . 18 757. Mercian „ „ 19 826. West Saxon „ „ 19 Contents. CHAPTER in. GOVEENMENT OF THE ENGLISH. DATE Page The TownsMp 20 The Hundred 20 The Shire 21 The Fyrd 21 The Witenagemot 21 The King 22 Folkland 22 CHAPTER IV. Invasions op the Nokthmen. The Northmen 23 787. First Period of Invasion begins 23 Ethelwulf, Ethelbald, Ethelbert, Ethelred 1 24 855. Second Period of Invasion begins 24 871. Invasion of Wessex 24 Alfred 24 879. Treaty of Chippenham 25 Effects of the Settlement of the Northmen 25 Alfred's Policy and Reforms 26 901. Edward the Elder 26 910. Conquest of the Dane-law begins 27 Edward's Overlordship , 27 926. Athelstan 27 945. Edmund 28 Dunstan 28 955. Edred and Edwy .' 28 Dunstan's Policy 29 Third Period of Invasion begins 29 980. Ethelred the Unready 29 1016. Edmund Ironside 30 1017. Canute becomes King 31 1036. Harold and Hardicanute 32 CHAPTER V. The Nokman Conquest. 1044. Edward the Confessor 33 Fondness for Normans of 33 1051. Visit of William of Normandy 34 Family of Godwin 34 ConteniSo xi DATE Page 1066. Harold II 35 — William's Pretext for Invasion 35 — Invasion of Tostig and Harold Hardrada 36 — Battle of Hastings, or Senlac 37 — Election of William 37 BOOK II. The Norman Kings 39-62 CHAPTER I. William the Conquekor (1066-1087). William's Policy 42 1067-71. Eevolts of the English 42 1071. Abolition of the Great Earldoms 43 Distribution of Property and Castles 44 Normans in the Church 44 Eolations with the Pope and Clergy 45 1074. Eebellions of the Barons 45 1086. Doomsday Book 46 — Salisbury Oath , 46 Feudalism defined 46 1087. Death and Character of William 47 CHAPTEE II. William II. (1087-1100). Policy of William 48 1088. Eebellion of the Barons 49 1090. Invasion of Normandy 49 Policy towards Scotland and Wales 49, 50 Eanulf Flambard 50 Feudal Dues 50 Exactions from Clergy 51 1097. Quarrel with Anselm 51 1096. First Crusade 51 1100. Death of William 52 CHAPTER III. Henry I. (1100-1135). Charter granted 53 1102. Marriage with Matilda 53 xii Contents, DATE Pa^g^ "War with Robert of Belleme 53 1104:. War with Robert of Normandy 55 1106. Battle of Tenchebrai 55 1107. Quarrel with Anselm ahout Investitures settled 55 Constitutional Reforms 56 Roger of Salisbury 56 Magnum Concilium and Curia Regis 56 Question of Succession 57 1135. Henry's Death and Character 57j 58 CHAPTER IV. Stephen (1135-1154). Unpopularity of Matilda 59 1135. Election and Character of Stephen 59 1138. Invasion of the Scots 60 1139. Quarrel with Roger of Salisbury 60 Matilda's arrival 61 Civil War and State of the Country 61 Henry of Anjou 61 1153. Treaty of Wallingford 62 1154. Death of Stephen 62 BOOK III. Earlier Angevin Kings, sometimes called Plan- tagenets 62-92 CHAPTER I. Henry II. (1154-1189). Character of Henry 11 67 Henry's Reforms 68 1150. War of Toulouse 68 Institution of Scutage 68 1162. Becket made Archbishop of Canterbury 69 Trial of Clergy 69 1164. Constitutions of Clarendon 70 1170. Quarrel with Becket . 70 Murder of Becket 7c Reform of the Shire-Moot 71 Origin of the Grand Jury 71 Origin of the Petty Jury , 71 Contents. xiii DATE Page Origin of the Civil Jury 72 State of Ireland in the Twelfth Century 72 1169. Invasion of Ireland by the Normans 73 1174. Barons' Eising 73 — Treaty of Falaise with Scotland 74 Development of the Curia Kegis 74 1181. Assize of Arms 74 1187. Capture of Jerusalem by Saladia. , 75 1188. The Saladin Tithe 75 CHAPTEE II. EiCHAED I. (1189-1199). 1189. Preparations for a Crusade 76 — Persecutions of the Jews 76 1191. Siege of Acre 77 1193. Eichard's Captivity 77 1195. Eebellion of William Fitz-Osbert 78 1199. Death of Eichard 78 CHAPTEE III. John (1199-1216). 1200. Divorce and re-marriage of John 80 1203. Death of Arthur of Brittany 80 1204. Loss of Maine, Normandy, Anjou, and Touraine 80 1205. Election of an Archbishop 80 1209. John excommunicated 81 1214. War in Poitou and Flanders 82 — Battle of Bouvines 82 1215. Struggle with the Barons 82 — Magna Carta (The Great Charter) 83 — John's attempt to annul Magna Carta 84 — Barons call on Louis of France 84 1216. John's Death 84 CHAPTEE IV. Heney IH. (121G-1272) Henry's Prospects 85 1217. Defeat of Louis at Lincoln and Sandwich 85 Magna Carta republished 86 Turbulent Nobles put down 86 Papal Exactions , . , 86 6 xiv Contents. DATE p^^g 1232. Fall of Hubert de Burgh, the last Justiciar 87 Henry's Government 87 1236. Henry marries Eleanor of Provence 88 Greediness of Foreign Favourites 88 1254. Henry accepts the Crown of Sicily for his Son 88 1242. Useless Expeditions to France go Kise of Simon de Montfort 89 1258. Provisions of Oxford oq 1264. Arbitration of Louis IX 00 — War between the King and the Barons gi 1264. Battle of Lewes 91 1265. De Montfort's Parliament ........* 91 -- Fall of Simon de Montfort \ 02 — Battle of Evesham 02 Eesults of de Montfort's Actions 02 1272. Death of Henry 92 BOOK lY. The Later Angevin Kings, sometimes called Plantagenets o^-i ^ ^ CHAPTER L Edwaed L (1272-1307).. Commercial Treaty with Flanders 05 Great Statutes of the Keign 07 08 Eegulation of the Law Courts 08 The Jews in England pg 1290. Their expulsion qq Attempt to annex Wales and Scotland go 1282. Wales conquered jqq England and Scotland jqq 1291. Scottish Succession Question joq 1294. Difficulty about Guienne , jqj 1295. Model Parliament summoned 102 1296. First Battle of Dunbar ".'.*.*.'.".*.'.'."'.*.'. ". '. '. '. '. * 102 Heavy Taxation jq2 Clergy compelled to contribute to the Revenue 103 1297. Refusal of Barons to invade France by themselves 103 — Rebellion of the Barons jq^ — Confirmatio Cartarum (Confirmation of the Charters) ...*.' 103 1274. Contents. xv DATE Page 1297. Eebellion of Wallace 104 — Battle of Camhuskenneth 104 1298. Battle of Falkirk 104 1299. Comyn's Rebellion 104 1306. Rebellion of Robert Bruce 104 1307. Death of Edward 104 CHAPTER II. Edward II. (1307-1327). Character of Edward II 105 Piers Gaveston 105 Thomas of Lancaster leads the Opposition 106 1310. Barons appoint the Lord Ordainers to govern the Country . 106 1312. Death of Gaveston 107 1314. Invasion of Scotland, defeat at Bannockburu 107 1315. Irish Insurrection helped by the Scots 107 1318. Invasion of England by the Scots 107 Famine of 1314, 1315 108 Rise of the Despensers 108 1323. Defeat of Lancasterat Boroughbridge, and fall of the Barons 108 — ■ Commons gain a Share in Legislation 108 1325, Queen Isabella goes to Guienne and conspires with Mortimer 109 1326. Execution of the Despensers 109 1337. Dethronement and Death of Edward . , 109 CHAPTER III. Edwaed III. (1327-1377). 1338. Invasion of the Scots 1 1 1 — Edward takes the Government m 1333. Attempt of the Barons to make Edward Balliol King of Scotland 112 1333. English Invasion of Scotland 112 — Battle of Halidon Hill 112 1336. Scots receive help from France 112 Question of the French Succession 112 1333. Separation of Parliament into two Houses 113 1337. Edward assumes Title of King of France 113 1339. Failure of the Invasion of France 114 1340. Battle of Sluys 114 1341. Quarrel with Archbishop Stratford 114 1346. Invasion of France by way of the Seine I15 — Passage of the Somme 116 xvi Contents. DATE Pa-ge 1346. Battle of Orecy ii6, 117 — Siege of Calais and Capture (1347) 118 — Invasion of the Scots and Battle of Nevill's Cross 118 1349. The Black Death 119 The Manorial System 119 Else of Copyholders 120 Effect of the Black Death 120 1355. Invasion of France by way of Gascony 120 1356. Battle of Poitiers 120 1360. Peace made at Bretigny 122 Kesults of the War 122 — Treaty with Scotland 122 1367. Expedition to Spain 122 1369. Kenewal of the War 123 1372. Defeat of the English off Kochelle 123 Statutes of Provisors (1351), Praemunire (1353), and Treason (1352) 124 Unpopularity of the Pope and Clergy 125 Rise of the Lollards 125 John of Gaunt 125 1371. John Wycliffe 126 — Clerical Officers dismissed 126 1376. The Good Parliament 126 — Impeachment 126 — Death of the Black Prince 126 1377. Death of Edward III 126 CHAPTER IV. RiCHAED II. (1377-1399). Marriages of Edward Ill's. Family 127 Formation of a Council 128 1381. Rising of the Peasants 128 1388. The Peace and War Parties 129 — Fall of Suffolk and De Vere 129 Richard assumes Power 130 1389. The Lollards 130 1397. Fall of Gloucester and his Friends 130 1398. Parliament of Shrewsbury 131 — Quarrel of Hereford and Norfolk 131 1399. Confiscation of John of Gaunt's Property 131 — Lancaster's Revolt 132 — Richard Dethroned 132 Contents. xvii BOOK Y. DATE Page The York and Lancaster Kings 135-168 CHAPTER I. Heney IY. (1399-1413). 1400. Rebellion in favour of Richard 138 1401. Act De Heretico Comburendo 138 1400. Glendower's Rebellion 139 — War with. Scotland 139 1402. Battles of Nesbit Moor and Homildon Hill 139 1103. Rebellion of the Percies 139 — Battle of Shrewsbury 140 1405. Rebellion of Scrope and Mowbray 140 — Capture of James of Scotland 141 Armagnacs and Orleanists 141 Constitutional Rule of Henry IV 141 Retainers 141 1413. Death of Henry 142 CHAPTER 11. Henry Y. (1413-1423). 1413. Persecution of the Lollards 143 1415. French War renewed 144 — Conspiracy of Cambridge 144 — Siege of Harfleur 144 — March to Calais 145 ' — Battle of Agincourt 146, 147 1419. Murder of the Duke of Burgundy 147 1420. Treaty of Troyes 148 1421. Battle of Beauge 148 1422. Death of Henry Y 148 CHAPTER ni. Henry VI. (1422-1461). Arrangements for the King's Minority , 149 Policy of Bedford 149 1423. Battles of Crevant and Verneuil (1424) 150 1428. Siege of Orleans 150 Jeanne Daro 151 xviii Contents, DATE Page 1435. Death of Bedford 151 Quarrels between Gloucester and Beaufort 152 1445. King's Marriage 153 1447. Death of Gloucester 153 1449. Loss of France 154 1450. Fall of Suffolk 154 — Cade's Eebellion 154 Yorkist Party formed 155 1453. Battle of Chatillon 156 — Illness of Henry and Protectorate of York 156 — Birth of a Prince of Wales 156 1455. Wars of the Eoses begin 156 — First Battle of St. Alban's 156 1459. Battles of Bloreheath and Nortliamptcn (1460) 157 1460. York acknowledged as Heir 158 — Battles of Wakefield, Mortimers Cross (1461) 158 1461. Second Battle of St. Alban's 158 CHAPTER IV. Edwakd IV. (1461-1483). 1461. Battle of Towton 159 1464. Battles of Hedgeley Moor and Hexham 159 The Yorkist and Lancastrian Parties 160 1464. Edward's Marriage 160 1469. Conspiracy of Warwick and Clarence 160 1470. Alliance between Margaret and Warwick 161 — Expulsion and return of EJward 161 1471.- Battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury 161 — Death of Plenry VI 162 1475. Invasion of France 162 1483. Death and Policy of Edward IV 162 CHAPTER V. Edwaed V. (1483); Richard III. (1483-1485). Struggle for Power 163 Character of Richard of Gloucester 164 1483, Deposition of Edward V 165 — Popularity of Richard III 165 — iNlurder of the Princes 165 — Buckingham's Rebellion , . 165 1485. Invasion of Henry of Richmond 166 — Battle of Bosworth 167 Contents^ xix BOOK YI. DATE Pci-ge The House OF Tudor (1485-1 603) 170-219 CHAPTER I. Henry VII. (1485-1509). Policy of Henry VII 172 1487. Rebellions of Simnel and Warbeck (1492-1497) 173, 1 74 1497. Cornish Rebellion 174 1494. Poynings' Rule iu Ireland 174 1487. Court of Star Chamber 174 " Morton's Fork " 175 European Alliances 176 1501. Marriage and Death of Prince Arthur 177 1502. Marriage of Margaret to James IV 177 1492. Discovery of the New World 177 Change from Mediseval to Modern Europe 178 CHAPTER II. Henkt VIII. (1509-1547). Policy of Henry VIII 179 1509. Marriage with Katharine 179 1513. Invasion of France 179 — Battle of Guinegaste 179 — Battle of Flodden 180 1514. Marriage of Mary to Louis XII 180 Thomas Wolsey 181 Foreign Policy 182 Difficulty about Succession 183 1521. Execution of the Duke of Buckingham 183 1529. Pope asked to divorce Katharine 183 — Case called to Rome 184 — Act of Praemunire enforced 184 — Parliament called 184 — Fall of Wolsey .,., 184 Connection of the Church of England with Rome 1 84 1534. Authority of the Pope abolished 185 Election of Bishops 185 — Separation from Rome completed 185 Church Discipline igc 1534. Marriage with Anne Boleyu 186 XX Contejits. DATE Page 1536. Execution of Anne, Marriage with Jane Seymour 187 Thomas Cromwell 187 English Keligious Orders 187 — Dissolution of the Smaller Monasteries 188 — The Pilgrimage of Grace 189 1639. Dissolution of the Greater Monasteries 189 Movement towards Protestantism 190 — The Six Articles 190 1540. Marriages with Anne of Cleves, Katharine Howard (1540), and Katharine Parr (1543) 190, 191 — Execution of Cromwell 191 1541. Countess of Salisbury executed 191 Debasement of the Coinage 191 1536. Union of England and Wales 192 Policy towards Ireland 192 Wars with Scotland and France 192 1547. Execution of Surrey 193 — Death and Character of Henry YIII 193 CHAPTER III. Edward VI. (1547-1553). Arrangements for the Minority 194 Character of Hertford 194 Images and Pictures in Churches defaced 195 Property of the Guilds confiscated 195 1547. Invasion of Scotland and Battle of Pinkie 195 1549. First Prayer-book of Edward VI 196 — Execution of Lord Seymour 196 — Eebellions in Devonshire and Norfolk 197 — Somerset (Hertford) deprived of Power 198 Policy of the Council '. 198 1552. Execution of Somerset 199 Parliament of 1554 , , i^g Condition of the Country 200 Illness of the King 200 Nortliumberland's Plot in favour of Lady Jane Grey 200 1553. Death of Edward 200 CHAPTER IV. Mart (1553-1558). Failure of Lady Jane's attempt 201 Execution of Northumberland 202 Contents. xxi Page DATE ^ Mary's Advisers, Kenard and Gardiner 202 1554. The Spamsk Matcli 203 — Wyatt's Eebellion, and Execution of Lady Jane 203 — EcclesiasticalPolicyofEdwardVI. and Henry YIII. reversed 203 1555. Persecution of the Protestants 204 1557. War with France and Loss of Calais 205 1558. Death of Mary 206 CHAPTER V. Elizabeth (1558-1603). Other Claimants to the Crown 207 Policy towards Philip of Spain 207 1559. Religious Settlement 208 Roman Catholics and Puritans 209 1583. Court of High Commission established 209 Foreign Policy 209 Scotch Alliance proposed 209 The Hugenots and Netherlanders 210 1561. Queen Mary in Scotland 211 1566. Murder of Rizzio and of Darnley 211 1567. Deposition and flight of Mary (1568) 211 1569. Revolt of the North 212 Religious Intolerance 212 Elizabeth's Favourites 212 Plots in favour of Mary 213 The English in the New World 214 1578. Colonization of North America attempted 214 Hostility of the English and Spaniards 214 1587. Execution of Mary Queen of Scots 215 1588. The Spanish Armada 216 — The Earl of Essex 217 State of Ireland 217 1595. O'Neal's Rebellion 217 1601. Essex's Rebellion and Execution 218 Attitude of Parliament 218 — Monopolies 218 Distress among the Poor and the Poor Law 219 1603. Death of Elizabeth • . • 219 xxii Contents. BOOK YI. DATE PO-Se The Stuarts and the Commonwealth (1603- 1714) 222-316 CHAPTER I. James L (1603-1625). James' Character and Policy 224 1603. The Main and Bye Plots 225 — Imprisonment of Raleigh 225 1604. Hampton Court Conference 225 The Authorized Version of the Bible 225 1605. The Gunpowder Plot 226 1604. First Parliament of James 226 — Goodwin's Case 227 — Shirley's Case 227 1608. The Impositions 227 Disputes on General Politics 227 James' Foreign Policy 227 1612. Deaths of Cecil and Prince Henry 228 The Spanish Match 228 1611. Colonization of Ulster 228 1607. Colonization of America begins 229 Virginia and New Plymouth (1620) 229 Trading Companies 229 Carr, Earl of Somerset 229 George Villiers, afterwards Duke of Buckingham 230 1614. The Addled Parliament 230 1615. Dismissal of Coke 230 1617. Raleigh's Expedition and Death (1618) 231 1618. Thirty Years' War begins 231 Parliament of 1621 231 1621. Bacon's Impeachment 232 1623. Charles and Buckingham go to Madrid 232 1624. Quarrel with Spain 232 1625. Death of James 232 CHAPTER II. Charles I. (1625-1649). Character of Charles 1 233 1625. Marriage of Hemietta Maria 234 Contents. xxiii DATE Page 1625. Tonnage and Poundage dropped 234 — Expedition to Cadiz 234 1626. Second Parliament 234 1627. Expedition to Eoclielle 235 1628. Third Parliament 235 — Petition of Eight 235 Policy of Laud 236 Policy of Wentworth 236 1628. Assassination of Buckingham 236 — Tonnage and Poundage collected 236 1629. Parliament Dissolved 237 — Eliot's Imprisonment and Death (1632) 237 Illegal Exactions 237 1633. WentvTorth in Ireland 238 Star Chamber and High Commission 239 1634. Ship-money first levied. 239 1637. Hampden's Trial 240 American Settlements 240 — Scots refuse to receive a Liturgy 240 1640. The Short Parliament 241 — "War with the Scots 241 — Long Parliament meets 241 Composition of the Parliament 242 — Triennial Act 242 1641. Strafford's Trial and Execution 242 — Court of Star Chamber abolished 242 — Court of High Commission abolished 243 — The Boot and Branch Bill 243 — Charles goes to Scotland 243 — Irish Kebellion 244 — The Grand Eemonstrance 244 1642. Charles impeaches the Five Members 245 — Charles leaves London 245 — Preparations for the Irish War 245 — The Militia Bill 245 — Preparations for Civil War 246 Distribution of Parties 246 Aug. King raises his Standard at Nottingham 247 Oct. Battle of Edgehill 248 1643. War in North, West, East, and South 248 — Death of Hampden 248 — Siege of Gloucester 248 — First Battle of Newbury 249 xxvi Contents. DATE P'^Se 1681. Discomfiture of the Whigs 275 1683. Kemodelling of the Boroughs 275 1683. The Eye House Plot 276 — Executions of Russell and Sidney 276 1685. Death of Charles II 277 Law of Settlement 277 CHAPTER V. James II. (1685-1689). James* Character and First Acts 278 1685. Risings of Argyll and Monmouth 279 — Battle of Sedgemoor 279 — The Bloody Assize 280 1686. Catholic Emancipation planned 280 Coui't of Ecclesiastical Commission revived 281 1687. Oxford and Cambridge attacked 281 Overtures to Nonconformists 281 Attempts to secure a Compliant Parliament 282 1687-88. Declarations of Indulgence 283 1688. Birth of James' Son 283 — Trial of the Seven Bishops 283 — Invitation to William of Orange 284 — - James reverses his Policy 285 — Landing of William of Orange 285 — Treachery of Churchill 285 — Flight of James 285 — William and Mary King and Queen 286 1689. The Declaration of Right 287 CHAPTER VI. William (1689-1702); Maet (1689-1694). 1689. Character of William 289 — First Ministry 289 — The Revenue settled 290 — The Nonjurors 290 — The Mutiny Act 290 — The Toleration Act 290 — The Indemnity Bill , 291 — The Revolution in Scotland 291 — Battle of Killiecrankie 292 1692. Massacre of Glencoe 292 Contents. xxvii DATE Page 1689. Events in Ireland 292 — Sieges of Londonderry and Ennisldllen 293 1690. Battle of the Boyne , 293 — Battle of Beacliy Head 293 — Battle of Aughrim and Treaty of Limerick 294 Disaffection at home 204 1689. War with France to 1697 294 1692. Battle of La Hogue 295 War in the Netherlands 295 1697. Peace of Ryswick 296 Party Government 296 1693. The National Debt 296 1694. The Bank of England 297 The Land Bank 297 1696. Coinage renewed 297 1694. Triennial Act 298 1695. Liberty of the Press 298 Plots against the Government 299 1694. Death of Mary 299 1696. Trials for Treason regulated 299 1697. Fenwick's Case 300 Party Struggles 300 1701. The Act of Settlement 301 The Partition Treaties 302 — Louis recognizes the Pretender 303 1702. Death of William 303 CHAPTER VII. Anne (1702-17U). Character of Anne 304 Marlborough's Policy 304 1702. War with France to 1713 305 1704. Battle of Blenheim 306 — Capture of Gibraltar 306 1706. Battle of Ramillies 306 1708. Battle of Oudenarde 307 1709. Battle of Malplaquet 307 Capture of Lille, Tournay, and Mons 308 The War in Spain 308 1710. Capture of Douay 308 Conquest of Acadie 308 Tory Ministers changed for Whigs 309 xxviii Contents. DATE Page 1707. TTnion of England and Scotland 309 1699. Darien Scheme 309 Terms of the Union 310 Eesults of the Union 310 1710. Prosecution of Dr. Sacheverell 311 Tory Eeaction 311 Policy of Harley and St. John 312 1711. Occasional Conformity Act 312 New Peers created 312 1713. Peace of Utrecht 313 Succession Question 313 Fall of St. John 314 Hanoverian Succession secured 314 1714. Death of Anne 314 BOOK YIII. The House of Hanover (17 14- ) 318-453 CHAPTEE I. Geoege I. (1714-1727). Character of George 1 320 The Leading Whigs 321 1715. The Eiot Act 321 — Insurrection of '15 321 ■■ — Battles of Sherriffmuir and Preston 322 Foreign Policy 322 1716. Septennial Act 323 Stanhope becomes Leading Minister 324 1718. Occasional Conformity and Schism Acts repealed 324 1719. The Peerage Bill 324 1720. The South Sea Scheme 325 Title of Prime Minister, or Premier 326 1721. Robert Walpole Premier 327 1722. Atterbury's Plot 328 1724. Quarrel between Walpole and Carteret 328 — Wood's Halfpence 328 — The " Drapier Letters " 329 Pulteney and Bolingbroke's opposition 329 The Craftsman 329 The Prince of Wales 329 1727. Death of George 1 330 Contents, xxix CHAPTER II. Geokgb II. (1727-1760). DATE Page Queen Caroline 332 1730. Lord Townshend retires 333 1733. The Excise Scheme 333 1736. The Porteous Riots 334 1730. The Methodists 334 The Opposition 335 1739. Hostilities between England and Spain to 1T48 336 1742. Fall of Walpole 337 "Wilmington Prime Minister 337 1744. Pelham's Broad-bottomed Ministry 337 1741. War of the Austrian Succession to 1748 338 1743. Battle of Dettingen 338 1744. Anson's Voyage completed 338 1745. Battle of Fontenoy 338 — The Jacobite Rebellion of '45 339 Geography of Scotland 339 — Battle of Preston Pans 340 — The March to Derby 341 1746. Battle of Falkirk 341 — Battle of Culloden 342 Pitt and Fox 343 1748. Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle 343 1750. National Debt Rediiced 344 1752. Change in the Calendar 344 Newcastle Prime Minister 344 1756. The Seven Years' War to 1763 345 English and French in America 345 English and French in India 346 State of India 346 Dupleix's Scheme 346 Robert Clive 346 1757. Battle of Plassey 347 1756. Loss of Minorca 347 1757. Execution of Byng 347 Devonshire Prime Minister 347 Newcastle's Second Ministry 348 Pitt " saves the Country " 348 Victories in Europe 348 1759. Capture of Quebec 349 1760. Battle of Wandewash 350 c XXX Contents, CHAPTER III. Geokge in., First Part (1760-1789). DATE Page Character of George III 352 Power of the Whig Families 353 1761. Fall of Pitt and Newcastle (1763) 353 1763. Bute Prime Minister 354 1763. Peace of Paris 354 George Grenville Prime Minister 355 " The King's Friends " 355 — Prosecution of Wilkes 355 — Attempt to tax the Colonies 356 1765. Stamp Act passed 35^ — Eockingham Prime Minister 357 — Eepeal of the Stamp Act 357 1766. Grafton Prime Minister 357 Chatham's Illness 358 Fresh American Taxation 358 1769. Wilkes elected for Middlesex 358 — The Letters of " Junius " 359 1770. Lord North Prime Minister 359 1771. The Publication of Debates 359 1773. Boston Tea Riots. 360 1774. Boston Port Act 360 1776. Battles of Lexington and Bunker's Hill 361 1776. Declaration of Independence 361 1778. Capitulation at Saratoga 362 — France, Spain, and Holland join the Colonists 362 — Death of Chatham 362 Economical Reform 363 1780. Great Yorkshire Petition 363 Parliamentary Reform , 363 Catholic Emancipation 364 — The Gordon Riots 364 1779. Siege of Gibraltar to 1783 364 1781. Surrender at Yorktown 365 1783. Rockingham's Second Ministry 365 — Burke's Economical Reform 366 State of Ireland 366 The Volunteers 367 — Grattan's Declaration of Right 367 — Shelburne Prime Minister 367 — Resignation of Fox and Burke 367 Contents. xxxi HATE Page 1783. Treaty of Versailles 368 — Coalition of Fox and North 368 India under the East India Company 369 1773. Lord North's Kegulating Act 369 — Warren Hastings to 1785 369 1783. Fox's India Bill 370 — William Pitt Prime Minister 370 Pitt and George III 371 1784. Pitt's Indian Act 371 1786. Impeachment of Warren Hastings 372 1785. Pitt's Scheme of Parliamentary Keform 372 Commercial Policy 372 1786. The Sinking Fund 373 1788. Slave Trade regulated 373 — King becomes Insane 373 — Kegency Question 373 — King's Kecovery 374 Eise of England's Manufacturing Industry 374 Spinning and Weaving 374 The Steam Engine 374 Canals 374 Koads 374 Effect on the Country 375 CHAPTER IV. George III., Second Paet (1789-1820). 1789. The French Eevolution , 376 Condition of France 377 — Meeting of the States-General 378 Progress of the Revolution 379 1793. Execution of Louis XVI 379 1790. Burke's " Reflections on the French Revolution " 380 Pitt desirous of Peace 380 1793. War with France 381 Repressive Measures 381 — First Coalition against France 382 Naval War 382 1794. Battle of the 1st of June 382 1797. Battle of Cape St. Vincent 382 — Battle of Camperdown 382 — Mutiny in the Fleet 382 Annexation of Colonies 383 xxxii Contents. DATE 1794 1801. 1802 1798 1800 1799, 1803 Page Expenses of the War S^S The Keign of Terror in France SM Napoleon Buonaparte SM 1798. Egyptian Expedition 3^4 _ Battle of the Nile 3^5 1799. Siege of Acre 3^5 Battle of Copenhagen 3°^ Peace of Amiens 38? Condition of Ireland 3^7 The Koman Catholics 3^7 The Orangemen 3^7 The United Irishmen 3^7 Irish Rebellion - 388 The Union of England and Ireland 3^8 Terms of the Union 3^8 1801. Catholic Emancipation rejected by George III 389 Addington Prime Minister 389 War in India to 1803 389 Storming of Seringapatam 389 Battles of Assaye and Laswaree 389 Eenewal of the War with France till 1814 390 1804. Pitt's Second Ministry 39° The Camp at Boulogne 391 1805. Battle of Trafalgar 392 — Battle of Austerlitz 39^ 1806. Death of Pitt 392 — Lord Grenville Prime Minister 392 1807. Slave Trade abolished 393 1806. The Berlin Decrees 393 1807. The Orders in Council 393 — Portland's Second Ministry 394 1806. Battle of Maida 394 Naval Operations 394 Causes of the Peninsular War 395 1808. Battle of Vimiero 395 — Convention of Cintra 397 — Sir John Moore's Advance 397 1809. Battle of Corunna 397 Sir Arthur Wellesley 39^ — Battle of Talavera 398 — Walcheren Expedition 398 — Quarrel between Canning and Castlereagh 399 — Perceval Prime Minister 399 Contents, xxxiii DATE Page 1810. Permanent Insanity of George III 399 — Lines of Torres Vedras 399 1811. Battles of Fuentes d'Onoro and Albuera 400 1812. Battle of Salamanca 401 — Napoleon's Invasion of Kussia 401 1813. Battle of Vittoria 402 1814. Invasion of France 402 — Battle of Toulouse 403 — First Treaty of Paris 403 1815. Keturn of Napoleon 403 — Battle of Waterloo 404 — Second Treaty of Paris 405 — The Holy Alliance 406 1813. War with the United States to 1814 407 1815. Condition of the Empire 407 Causes of Depression of Trade 408 Foreign Competition 408 Introduction of Machinery 408 ~ The New Corn Law 409 Discontent in the Country 409 Desire for Parliamentary Reform 410 1819. St. Peter's Field Meeting 411 — The Six Acts 411 1820. Death of George III 412 CHAPTER V. George IV. (1820-1830). 1820. Cato Street Conspiracy 413 Family of George III 413 1817. Death of the Princess Charlotte 413 1820. Bill of Pains and Penalties 413 Symptoms of Progress 415 1822. Death of Castlereagh 415 Canning's Policy 415 The Reform Question 416 Huskisson's Policy 417 Catholic Emancipation 417 Daniel O'Connell 417 1827. Canning Prime Minister 418 Goderich Prime Minister 418 — Battle of Navarino 418 1828. Wellington Prime Minister 419 xxxiv Contents. DATE Pagi 1828. O'Connell elected for Clare 419 1829. Repeal of the Catholic Disahiiities 420 1830. Agitation for Eepeal 420 — Death of George lY 420 CHAPTER VI. William IV. (1830-1837). 1830. Opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway 421 Wellington's Declaration against Eeform 422 — Lord Grey Prime Minister 423 1832. The First Reform Bill passed 424 Struggle over the Bill 424 Features of the Reform Bill 425 The Reformed Parliament 425 1833. Slavery abolished 425 — Education Grant 426 — First Factory Act 426 — Irish Church reformed 426 1834. New Poor Law 426 — Melbourne's First Ministry 427 — Peel's First Ministry 427 1835. Melbourne again Prime Minister 427 — Municipal Reform Act 427 Tithe Question 428 1836. Tax on Newspapers reduced 428 — Division Lists published 428 1837. Death of William IV 428 CHAPTER VIL ViCTOEIA (1837-). — Separation from Hanover 429 Canada Question 430 1838. The Chartists 431 The Anti-Corn-Law League 432 1839. Bedchamber Question 433 — Penny Post 433 Progress of the Colonies 433 1841. Sir R. Peel again Prime Minister 433 Indian Affairs 434 First Afghan War, 1839-1841 434 1843. Scinde annexed 4'^i; Contents. xxxv DATE Pa-ge 1846. First Sikh War 435 1843. Free Church in Scotland 435 1844. Maynooth Grant 435 1846. Repeal of the Corn Laws 436 Lord George Bentinck and Mr. Disraeli 437 — Lord John Kussell Prime Minister 437 1848. The Year of Revolutions 437 — O'Connell and Eepeal 438 — Chartist Meeting and Petition 438 Parliamentary Reform 438 1849. Parliamentary Institutions in Australia 439 — Navigation Laws repealed 439 1851. Great Exhibition 439 Louis Napoleon Emperor of the French 439 1852. Lord Derby Prime Minister 439 — Lord Aberdeen Prime Minister 440 1854. The Russian War 440 Lord Palmerston Prime Minister 441 1857. The Indian Mutiny 442 1858. Conspiracy to Murder Bill 443 — Lord Derby again Prime Minister 443 1859. Lord Palmerston again Prime Minister /\^/\ 1860. Kingdom of Italy formed 444 Civil War in United States, 1861-1865 444 Union of Germany , 445 1861. Death of the Prince Consort 44c 1865. Death of Lord Palmerston 446 Earl Russell Prime Minister 446 1866. The Cave of Adullam 446 Lord Derby Prime Minister 446 1867. The Second Reform Bill passed 447 1868. Mr. Disraeli Prime Minister 447 Fenianism in Ireland 447 Mr. Gladstone attacks the Irish Church 447 1868. Mr. Gladstone becomes Prime Minister 447 1869. Irish Church disestablished 447 1870. Irish Land Act 447 — Education Act 447 Other Reforms 443 Franco-German War, 1870, 1871 448 1874, General Election 44^ — Mr. Disraeli Prime Minister 448 1877. Russo-Turkish War 449 XXX vi Contents. DATE PcLge 1878. The Second Afghan War 449 1879. Irish Land League formed 449 1880. General Election 450 — Mr. Gladstone's Second Administration 450 1885. The Third Reform Bill passed 450 — Lord Salisbury Prime Minister 451 — General Election 45 1 — Mr. Gladstone Prime Minister 451 1886. Mr. Gladstone's Home Kule Bill 452 — General Election of 1886 452 Conclusion 453 Appendix 455 Index 458 TABLE OF THE KINGS AND QUEENS OF ENGLAND SINCE EGBERT Page Egbert, 802-839 19 Ethelwulf, 839-858 24 Ethelbald, 858-860 24 Ethelbert, 860-866 24 Ethelred I., 866-871 24 Alfred, 871-901 24 Edward the Elder, 901-925 26 Athelstan, 925-940 27 Edmund I., 940-946 28 Edred, 946-955 28 Edwy, 955-959 28 Edgar, 959-975 28 Edward the Martyr, 975-979 29 Ethelred the Unready, 979-1016 29 Edmund Ironside, 1016 30 Canute, 1016-1035 30 Harold I., 1035-1040 31 Hardicanute, 1040-1042 32 Edward the Confessor, 1042-1066 32 Harold H., 1066 35 William I., 1066-1087 42 William H., 1087-1100 48 Henry I., 1100-1135 53 Stephen, 1135-1154 59 Henry H., 1154-1189 67 Kichard I., 1189-1199 76 John, 1199-1216 79 Henry HI., 1216-1272 85 Edward I., 1272-1307 96 Edward IL. 1307-1327 105 xxxviii Kings and Queens of England since Egbert. Page Edward III, 1327-1B77 , in Kicliard II., 1377-1399 127 Henry IV., 1399-1413 138 Henry V., 1413-1422 143 Henry VI., 1422-1461 149 Edward IV., 1461-1483 159 Edward V., 1483 163 Kichard III., 1483-1485 165 Henry VII., 1485-1509 172 Henry VIII., 1509-1547 179 Edward VI., 1547-1553 194 Mary, 1553-1558 201 Elizabeth, 1558-1603 207 James I., 1603-1625 224 Charles I., 1625-1649 233 Commonwealth and Protectorate, 1649-1660 255 Charles 11., 1660-1685 264 James IL, 1685-1688 278 William and Mary, 1688-1694 1 William, 1694-1702 \ "^ Anne, 1702-1714 304 George L, 1714-1727 320 George II., 1727-1760 332 George III., 1760-1820 352 George IV., 1820-1830 413 William IV., 1830-1837 421 Victoria, 1837- 429 PRIME MINISTERS SINCE SIR ROBERT WALPOLE Page Walpole, 1720-1742 327 Wilmington, 1742-1743 337 Henry Pelham, 1743-1754 337 Duke of Newcastle, 1754-1756 '. 344 Duke of Devonshire, 1756-1757 347 Newcastle (again), 1757-1762 348 Lord Bute, 1762-1763 354 George Grenville, 1763-1765 355 Lord Kockingham, 1765-1766 357 Duke of Grafton, 1766-1770 358 Lord North, 1770-1782 359 Kockingham (again), 1782 365 Lord Shelburne, 1782-1783 367 Duke of Portland, 1783 368 William Pitt, 1783-1801 370 Addington, 1801-1804 389 Pitt (again), 1804-1806 390 Lord Grenville, 1806-1807 392 Portland (again), 1807-1809 394 Perceval, 1809-1812 399 Lord Liverpool, 1812-1827 401 Canning, 1827 418 Lord Goderich, 1827-1828 419 Duke of Wellington, 1828-1830 419 Lord Grey, 1830-1834 422 Lord Melbourne, 1834 427 Sir R. Peel, 1834-1835 427 Melbourne (again), 1835-1841 427 Peel (again), 1841-1846 434 Lord John Eussell, 1846-1852 437 Lord Derby, 1852 439 xl Prime Ministers since Sir Robert Walpole. Page Lord Aberdeen, 1852-1855 440 Lord Palmerston, 1855-1858 441 Derby (again), 1858-1859 443 Palmerston (again), 1859-1865 444 Earl Kussell (again), 1865-1866 446 Derby (again), 1866-1868 446 Disraeli, 1868 447 Gladstone, 1868-1874 447 Disraeli (again), 1874-1880 448 Gladstone (again), 1880-1885 450 Lord Salisbury, 1885-1886 451 Gladstone (again), 1886 451 Salisbury (again), 1886- 452 TABLES OF GENEALOGIES BOOK I. Page NO. I. Kings of the House of Egbert, 802-1066 3 II. Danish Kings of England 3 BOOK II. III. The Norman Kings of England 4i IV. Kings of Scotland, 1066-1214 4i BOOK III. V. The Earlier Angevin or Plantagenet Kings, 1154-1272. 64 VI. Kings of Scotland, 1153-1286 64 VII. Kings of France, 987-1285 65 BOOK IV. VIII. Later Angevin or Plantagenet Kings, 1272-1399 94 IX. Kings of Scotland, 1165-1406 95 X. Kings of France, 1270-1422, and Edward III.'s claim to France " " 95 Koger Mortimer's claim to succeed Kichard II 129 BOOK V. XL The Houses of York and Lancaster, 1399-1485 136 XIL Kings of Scotland, 1306-1488 I37 XIIL Kings of France, 1350-1515 I37 The Beauforts ^52 The Staffords 163 The De la Poles Appendix xlii Tables of Genealogies, BOOK VI. NO. Piige XIV. The House of Tudor, 1485-1603 170 XV. Kings of Scotland, 1460-1603 170 XVI. Kings of France, 1485-1603 171 Charles V. of Spain 176 The Howards 186 The Poles 191 The Dudleys and Sydneys (later Sidney) 198 The Courtenays 202 Darnley 211 BOOK VII. XVII. The Stuarts, 1603-1714 223 XVIII. Kings of France, 1589-1715 223 William of Orange 27 1 The House of Spain, to illustrate the disputed Spanish Succession 302 BOOK VII r. XIX. The House of Hanover, 1714 to present day 310 XX. Kings of France, 1714-1848 318 The exiled House of Stuart 318 The Fox Family 345 The Pitts and the Grenvilles 355 TABLES OF CHIEF GENERAL EVENTS Pa-ge 55 B.O.-1066 A.D 38 1066-1154 62 1154-1399. 132 1399-1485 167 1485-1603 21C 1603-1714 316 1714-1760 350 1760-1789 375 1789-1820 412 1820-1837 420 1887-1887 452 TABLES OF CHIEF BATTLES, SIEGES, AND TREATIES 55 B.C.-1066 A.D 38 1066-1154 62 1154-1399 133 1399-1485 168 1485-1603 220 Civil War 263 1603-1714 315 1714-1760 330 1760-1789 375 1789-1820 412 1820-1887 453 LIST OF MAPS AND PLANS Page England and Southern Scotland, to illustrate History from 55 B.C. to A.D. 1154 2 France, to illustrate English Affairs in that Country, 1066-1815. 40 England and Southern Scotland, to illustrate History from 1154- 1603 64 Plan of Crecy 116 Field of Poitiers. (Adapted from Spruner.) 121 North of France, to illustrate the Campaigns of Crecy and Agincourt I45 Field of Agincourt. (Adapted from Spruner.) 146 Map of the Flodden District 180 British Isles, to illustrate History since 1603 222 Operations connected with Edgehill .- 247 Operations of Marston Moor 250 The Netherlands 288 Battle of Blenheim 305 Battle of Eamillies 307 India, to illustrate the English Conquest 331 Wolfe's Operations at Quebec 349 Part of North America, to illustrate its settlement by the English and French, the Conquest of Canada, and the "War of Independence 351 Spain, to illustrate the War in the Peninsula, 1808-1814 396 Operations of Waterloo 404 Waterloo at noon 405 Waterloo at seven p.m 406 The Operations in the East, 1854-1856 440 Population Map 456, 457 BOOK I ENGLAND BEFORE TEE NOBMAN CONQUEST 1 I.-KmGS OF THE HOUSE OF EGBERT. 802-1066. Egbert, 802-839. Ethelwulf, 839-868. Etheibald, Ethelbert, Ethelred I.. Alfrpd 858-860. 860-866. 866-871. ' 871-9?L Ethelwald. Edward the Elder, 901-925. Athelstan, 925-940. Edmund I., 940-946. Edred, 946-955. Edwy, 955-959. Edgar, 959-975. Edward the Martyr, Ethelred the Unready, = (1) El^iva • ^'^-9^^- 979-1016. •" I (2) Emma of . I Normandy. (1) Edmund Ironside, (2) Edward the Confessor, 1016. 1042-1066. Edmund, d. 1050. Edward, d. 1057. Edgar Atheling, d. 1120. Margaret, d. 1093 = Malcolm Canmore, d. 1096. Matilda, d. 1118 = Henry I., d. 1135. II.— THE DANISH KINGS OF ENGLAND. Harold Blatand or Bluetooth. Sweyn, d. 1014. Great-granddaughter of Can'ute, 1016-1035. ^"'"'^ ""'^''"^ = ^^^^^^• Harold I., 1035-1040. Hardicanute (Emma's son). 1040-1042. Harold II., Edith, = Edward Tostig, d. 1066. d. 1075. the d. 1066. Confessor. Reigning sovereigns in large type. (2) signifies by second wife or husband. CHAPTER I. BEITATN UmDEE THE KOMANS. Men of pure English blood belong to the Low German group of the Teutonic branch of the Aryan family of nations. Few or none The Eneiish ^^ ^^' howevcr, are of pure descent, and some of the race. ^ggt qualities of modem Englishmen are due to the mixture of the English blood with that of other races. The modern English race is also descended from the primitive inhabitanta of these islands, from the Celts or ancient Britons, from the North- men, or Danes, from the Normans, and from French and Flemish settlers, who have at one time or another settled in these islands. With the exception, however, of the primitive inhabitants, all these nations are members of one family, the Aryan, which origi- The Aryan nally dwelt in the highlands of Central Asia, and has family. since emigrated and established colonies in all parts of the world. One branch of this family is that of the Hindoos, who are now, with us, subjects of the Queen ; to the same family belonged the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, and most of the nations of modern Europe. The first Aryans who are known to have settled in Europe were the Celts, the Greeks, and the Italians, who, driving out before them _ . or conquering the primitive inhabitants, exactly as the Early migra- . ^ . . . tionsofthe English have done in modern times in America and Australia, made homes for themselves in Greece, Italy, Gaul, Spain, and the British Isles. After them came the Teutons. One branch of these, the Germans, occupied the plain of Central Europe, the greater part of which is still known by their name ; another, the Goths, settled for the most part along the Danube ; and the third, the Scandinavians, seized Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. The last branch, of any size, to settle in Europe were the Slavs, The Races of Europe. 5 whom we find living in Russia and Poland, and in many of the lands by the Danube, where they took the place of the Goths. Meanwhile the former inhabitants of Europe, who were not Aryans but Turanians, had either been absorbed in the ranks of their Aryan conquerors, or been forced to take refuare •> >■ ^ o Primitive in- in out-of-the-way places where the Aryans did not iiabitantsof care to follow them ; and a few of their descendants, ^^ope. whom we can recognize by their language, may be found there at the present day, such as the Basques of the Pyrenees, and the Laps and Fins of the north of Europe. At a much later time, two more Turanian races came from Asia and settled in Europe,' Later Tura- driving out or conquering the Aryan inhabitants, nian settlers. These are the Hungarians, who call themselves Magyars, and the Ottoman Turks, who still hold Constantinople ; but this happened in comparatively modern times. At the beginning of the Christian era, the Aryans were in possession of almost the whole of Europe, but even at the present day their migrations have not ceased ; for since the ^ ^ •' ° ^ ' Later migra- discovery of America and Australia thousands of tionsoftiie Aryans — ^English, Dutch, Germans, Spaniards, Portu- guese, and French — ^have left Europe and settled in those countries. Aryans, also, have dispossessed Negroes, Arabs, and Chinese in various parts of Africa and Asia ; indeed, not a year passes without the Aryan race making itself master of some district hitherto held by one of the other races of mankind. These migrations took hundreds of years — ^it is impossible to say how long — but the Aryans of Southern Europe had become settled and civilized, while those of the north were savage Early Aryan and barbarous. Thus the Greeks and Romans were civilization, cultivated and learned nations, and had produced some of the master-pieces of literature and art, while the Britons and Germans were little better than savages. The first civilized man who is recorded to have visited our islands was Pytheas, who in the fourth century before Christ was sent by the merchants of the Greek colony of Marseilles to Ps^theas' try and open up a trade with the people of the north. voyage. He sailed through the Straits of Gibraltar to Britain, and after visiting Kent, he again set sail to the east and made his way to the mouth 6 Britain under the Romans. [ss b.c. of the Vistula. Thence he returned to Jutland, and after coasting along the shores of Norway as far as the Arctic circle, returned to Britain. He then sailed to Gaul, and returned to Marseilles by- land. The result of his discoveries was the opening up of trade between Marseilles and Britain. After a time Marseilles fell into the hands of the Romans, who, after defeating the Carthaginians, made themselves masters of the whole coast of the Mediterranean ; and their general, Julius Csesar. after conquering the Gauls, determined to explore the island of Britain, which he knew to be inhabited by a kindred race, from whom the Gauls of the continent had received assistance in the struggle with the Roman armies. With this view he made two expeditions in the years 55 and 54 B.C., but finding that the warlike inhabitants made a vigorous resistance, he made no serious attempt to conquer the island, but contented himself with making a treaty with the inhabitants, of whom he gives us a valuable account. A glance at the map shows that Britain is divided by nature into two well-marked portions. The nortli and west are rugged and _, . , mountainous : the south and east undulating and fertile. Pliysical greo- ' _ ° eraphyof Again, in consequence of the position of the hills, most of the rain falls in the north and west ; the south and east are comparatively dry. In the north and west the rivers are for the most part short and rapid ; in the south and east they are long, deep, and navigable. The result is that the east and south are districts which are fertile and easily cultivated, while those in the north and west are, for the most part, best suited for pasturage or mining. It is only within the last hundred and fifty years, since coal has been used instead of wood for the purpose of smelting iron and also for driving machinery, that the coal and iron of the north and west has been turned to much account, so that during by far the greater part of our history the south and east have been rich, the north and west poor. These circumstances have had the greatest effect upon our history. The strongest race has always kept the fertile lands, while Influence of tiie ^^^ weaker races have had to be content with the. physical geo- mountainous districts and poorer soils. The south, island on the too, GouId most easily trade with Europe, and that bistory. increased the civilization of its inhabitants. Nowadays 5S B.C.] The Races of Briiain. 7 all this is changed. Manufactures and not agriculture are the chief sources of our wealth ; our trade with America and the colonies is at least equal to our trade with Europe, and consequently the north and west have now attained a prosperity and importance which is the very reverse of their old condition. These facts must be borne in mind while reading the history of England, because we always want to know which districts are the most wealthy and the most civilized, as it is always those districts which are first seized b}'- any powerful conqueror, and which have always the most weight in the politics of the country. In Ceesar's time Great Britain and Ireland ;7ere inhabited by three races, of whom two were Aryans of the Celtic branch, and the third was Turanian. The names of the two first were Races of the Goidels and the Brythons, from which we get the Britain, names Gael and Briton ; the latter are generally called the Ivernians, or Hibernians, which is the same word whose root we find in Erin and Erse. The Ivernians must at some time have occupied the whole of the islands, but long before this period they had been driven westward by the conquering Goidels, and it is doubtful whether they lived as a separate race anywhere except in Ireland and the Highlands of Scotland. The Goidels, who had driven the Ivernians from the east of the island, had in their turn been driven westward by the Brythons. Accordingly we find the Goidels occupying the east of Ireland, North and South Wales, Cornwall and Devonshire, the lake district between Morecambe Bay and the Solway Firth, Galloway, and possibly other districts in the west of Scotland. In these districts their language was spoken, but it is believed that both in blood and speech they had been much affected by the Ivernians with whom they had been driven to associate by the conquests of the Brythons. The last comers, the Brythons, held all the best lands. In their hands was all modern England, except the Goidelic districts men- tioned above : and they had made their way to the _. . Brythons. shores of Cardigan Bay, so that the Goidels of North and South Wales were divided from one another by the Brythonic territory of Powys. In modern Scotland they held all the lowlands except Galloway, and had even made their way north of the river 8 Britain under the Romans. r54B.c.- Tay. The rest of the country was divided between the Goidels of the west and the Ivernians of the north. The Ivernians, Goidels, and Brythons represent three degrees of civilization, the Ivernians being the lowest. Caesar found the British. Brythons of the south as civilized as their kinsmen civilization, ^f q^^j^ jj^ mentions that the Brythons grew large quantities of corn, but he names other tribes who sowed no corn, lived only upon flesh and milk, and were clothed in skins. In- deed, the word Brython, which means clothed, was used by that race to distinguish themselves from their more backward neighbours. The religion of the Brythons was the same as that of the Gauls and other Aryan races of the Continent, and consisted in a worship of many gods and of the powers of nature ; but the Goidels had partly adopted from the Ivernians the religion of Druidism, and the Ivernians were wholly under its influence. Druidism as practised by the Ivernians was a most barbarous religion, but among the Goidels the Druids seem to have been a kind of sooth- sayer^ or magicians. In government the Brythons were in advance of their neighbours. Among them the great men of the tribe had much influence ; but among the Goidels the kings appear to have had absolute power over their subjects. The Brythons had a system of coinage imitated from the merchants of the continent, and many of their coins have been found and preserved. All the three races were great warriors, and much fighting went on, not only among the races themselves, but among different tribes of the same race. Of these wars we have many remains in the shape of huge earthworks and camps. The people of the south-east were in Csesar's time remarkable for the skill with which they managed their war-chariots. They were armed with swords, spears, bows and arrows, while they protected themselves with shields, and wore armour on their throats and right arms. Their weapons were made of bronze, for iron was as yet little used. Even the Brythons still tattooed themselves and painted their bodies for battle, and it is certain that the Goidels and Ivernians of the west and north were much ruder than those tribes with whom Csesar was acquainted. From 54 B.C. to a.d. 43 the Britons were unmolested by the Bomans ; but in that year Aulus Plautius, the general of the A.D. 81.] Roman Conquest of Britain. g- Emperor Claudius, invaded the country, and, after a great deal of very severe fiffhtin^, the Eomans succeeded in .,'.., Conquest of storming the prmcipal British camps, and made Britain by tiie themselves masters of the country. The chief battles omans. were the storming of Camulodunum, the capital of the Trino- bantes, where Colchester now stands, and that against the SUures of South Wales, led by Caractacus, which was fought near the river Severn. From 47 to 78 the Romans were continually fighting against the British tribes, one of whose leaders was the celebrated Boadicea ; but in 69 there arrived in Britain a Roman general and statesman named Julius Agricola, who completed the conquest of all that part of the island which was afterwards held by the Romans. Agricola was the father-in-law of the Roman historian Tacitus, from whose pen we get the best account of the conquest. His greatest triumph was the battle of Mons Graupius, won near the Tay. By the close of the year 81, Agricola had thoroughly subdued the country, and he had also set about the task of putting the Roman rule on a permanent footing. Agricola decided not to attempt to hold the country which lay north of the Firths of Clyde and Forth. He therefore built across the narrow piece of land which unites the low- _ ^ . Roman settle- lands and highlands of Scotland a series of fortified mentofthe posts, which are sometimes called Agricola's Wall. country. The Romans then organized Britain according to their usual plan. They chose a number of places which were Towns and important either for military purposes or because camps, they were useful for trade. At some they established permanent stations, at others colonies of settlers. They connected these by a network of roads, which enabled them to get their soldiers together to any place where they were wanted, and also gave great assist- ance to trade. The chief Roman towns were London, Colchester, Lincoln, York, Bath, Caerleon-upon-Usk, Uriconium, and Chester. The chief Roman roads connected these towns, but branches were made in every direction to places of smaller importance, and till the introduction of railways it may be said that the chief traffic of the country followed the Roman roads. The best-known Roman roads are the Watling Street, which ran from Dover by way of London to Chester ; and the Fosseway, which ran from Cornwall to Lincoln, lo Britain under the Romans. [8i- crossing the Watling Street near Eugby. Moreover, the Roman towns are still the sites of the greater part of our old English cities, and wherever we find the ending " Chester," " cester," or " caster," we have evidence of a Roman camp. Manchester is Roman, while the names of Liverpool and Birmingham serve to show that great cities have sprung up on those sites for reasons which were not in action in Roman times. Besides building towns and making roads, the Romans also taught the Britons civilization. As everywhere else in their Roman dominions, they introduced the Roman law, Roman Civilization, games, and, after they had been converted, Chris- tianity. It was Roman enterprise which felled forests, reclaimed fens, and. improved the soil, till Britain became the greatest corn-growing country of the west. Iron, lead, and tin mines were worked, pot- tery and bricks were manufactured. Beautiful villas, with every luxury of Roman life, were built along the roads and in the neigh- bourhood of large towns, and though large parts of the island were still barbarous, the country as a whole was fairly orderly and civilized. The civilized lands which were under the Romans were always looked upon with greedy eyes by the barbarous tribes who lived Defences of tiie across the frontier, and even at their strongest the Roman empire, j^omans had to maintain great garrisons of soldiers along the border in order to keep out the barbarians. These soldiers, some of whom were Romans and some hired, like our Indian Sepoys, from the inhabitants of the country, lived in camps along the frontier. Some of these camps can be traced at the present day in the great towns that lie on the Roman side of the Danube or the Rhine. In Britain we saw that Agricola established the frontier line between the Firths of Clyde and Forth ; but in 121 the Emperor Hadrian decided to give up a large tract of barren The Roman country, and made a line between the mouths of the wau. Tyne and the Eden his frontier. This line was forti- fied at various times, till its defences were composed of a rampart to the north, an earthwork to the south, and a series of fortified stations for the garrison between the two, so that the soldiers were pre- pared for an attack from the north or for a rising in the south. The whole of these fortifications are generally known as the Roman wall. 410.] Roman Civilization. ii For a long time the Romans were strong enough to defend the frontier of their whole empire ; but by degrees they became weak, and then the Teutons and Celts who were over the 11- -IT. . End of the border made their way mto the Roman territories. Roman rule in When this happened, the Romans were obliged to give ^^ ^"^" up trying to defend the outlying parts of their dominions ; and in the year 410, after withdrawing their legions from Britain, they released the Britons from their allegiance. At that time there were in Britain three classes of inhabitants : (1) The Romanized Britons, who had been taught and defended by the Romans. These occupied the fertile districts state of Britain and river valleys. (2) Those Britons who, though °tur^\f^tiiT' subject to the Romans, had still kept their own Romans, language and customs, and who lived in Wales and the mountainous parts of the island. (3) The unconquered Britons who lived north of the Roman wall. ' They are generally called the Picts and Scots. The name Pict, or painted, was given by the Romans to all the tribes who lived across the frontier, and included Brythons, Goidels, and Ivernians alike. The name Scot, which also means painted or tattooed, was the name given to the Groidels from Ireland, who had begun to attack the north-west coast of Britam before the Romans left. CHAPTER n. THE ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN BRITAIN. WiiEN the Roman soldiers were gone, the Romanized Britons did their best to maintain their independence ; but they were unac- customed to fighting, and had much ado to repel their countrymen from the hills, and the Picts and Scots from beyond the wall. These, however, were not their only enemies, for they were soon attacked by the English ; and in the course of two hundred years The Eng-iisii ^^c new-comers wrested from the Romanized Britons invasion. ^11 the fertile parts of the island. Only one writer, Gildas, was living when the conquest was taking place, and he tells us very little, so that we are obliged to rely upon historians who lived long after the events which they profess to relate. By them we are told that the Britons called in the English to help them against the Picts and Scots, that the English turned upon their employers, and, assisted by thousands of their countrymen, conquered large dis- tricts in Britain. The dates of these conquests are given. The kingdom of Kent is said to have been founded in 449, Sussex in 477, Wessex in 495, and Northumbria in 547. As a matter of fact, however, it is impossible to give any detailed account of the con- quest. These writers tell us mainly about the south coast ; they give hardly anything about Northumbria, and nothing at all about the conquest of the great midland kingdom of Mercia. The researches of modern historians have, however, done much to clear up the matter, and the main features of the invasions are Facts of the ^ow well known. The English, under which name invasion. q^q included three tribes, the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, were a Low German race who lived in the neighbourhood of the mouth of the Elbe. They were much given to plunder 410.] The English Conquest. 13 and piracy, and in Eoman times were known, under the name of Saxons, as the scom^ge of the North Sea and the British Channel. When Britain was left defenceless, they required no invitation to land and attack the inhabitants. Wherever there was a convenient port, thither they steered their ships, and, if they could master the inhabitants, began a settlement, just as their descendants did hundreds of years afterwards on the coast of North America. These settlements were dotted aU along the British coast from the Firth of Forth to the Southampton Water, and each became a little kingdom. Between the mouths of the Firth rpj^e English and Tyne we find the Bernicians ; between the Tyne settlements, and the Humber the Deirans; then the Lindiswaras between the Humber and the Wash ; then the East Anglians between the Wash and Harwich ; and the East Saxons, who were bounded on the south by the Thames. Crossing that river, we come in turn to the Kentish- men, the South Saxons, a small group of Jutes near Southampton Water, and finally to the land of the West Saxons, or Wessex. These tribes spread inland, and conquered the country from the Britons, but how far they killed oflf the old inhabitants, drove them away, or reduced them to slavery, it is not easy to Method of the say. It is certain, however, that at first, when the conauest. Enghsh were heathen, they simply pushed aside or slaughtered the Britons and took their place ; but it is thought that, as they pene- trated further into the country, few Britons survived where the fighting was severe, but many where large tracts were conquered by a single battle. The Britons who survived would be those in the large towns, and the agricultural labourers, who would naturally be preserved as hewers of wood and drawers of water, and for the purpose of cultivating the fields, which they could do much better than their English conquerors. Two things make it very hard to tell how many Britons survived. First, the Britons Evidence of who came under the rule of the EngHsh completely reugfont and gave up their own language and adopted that of their names, conquerors, just as the Gauls, when conquered by Caesar, learned to speak Latin. Secondly, in the eastern parts of the island we have no traces of Christianity, though it survived in tne west and in Wales. If we examine the names of places, we shall find that, with the exception of Roman names of towns and British names 14 The English Settlement in Britain. [4io- of rivers, we have hardly a single British or Eoman name in the low-lying districts of the east and south ; while directly we come to hilly country, British names are again found, such as Pen-y- ghent and Helvellyn. The language spoken in all low-lying dis- tricts is English, but we know that it is not long since Celtic was spoken in Cornwall, that it is still spoken in Wales, and large traces of Celtic can be found in the dialects of hilly districts. The chief part of the conquest took place between the years 410 and 600, by which date the English had made themselves masters CMef battles of ^^ ^ ^^ fertile country in the south and east, and the conctuest. the Britons only held possession of the mountainous and barren tracts of the west and north. They did not do this without hard fighting, and the struggle had the effect of uniting the Goidels and Brythons south of the wall, who began to call them- selves by the name of Kymry, or comrades. Two battles, however, stand out plainly, and must be remembered. In the year 577 the West Saxons defeated the Britons at the battle of Deorham, near Bath. The result of this victory was to separate the Britons of Cornwall from those of Wales. In the year 607, or 613, the Anglians of Northumbria defeated the Britons at the battle of Chester, and so cut off the Britons of Wales from those of Strath clyde, the hilly district which stretches from Morecambe Bay to the Firth of Clyde. The English, after this, began to call the men of Cornwall West Welsh, and those who Hved between the Bristol Channel and the Dee, North Welsh. The word Welsh means foreigner. The early settlements of the English seem to have been quite independent of one another ; but no sooner had they gained a firm Early Eng-iish footing, than the stronger kmgdoms began to attack kingdoms. ai^(j conquer the weaker. In this way Bernicia and Deira became united into Northumbria, with York as capital ; Norfolk and Suffolk into East Anglia ; the midland settlements from the fens to the Welsh border, and from the Humber to Watling Street, formed the kingdom of Mercia ; while aU the shires that lay between Watling Street and the south coast, except Kent and Sussex, fell under the power of the kings of Wessex, whose capital was Winchester. The period when Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Essex, Kent, Sussex, and Wessex were the principal kingdoms is sometimes known as that of the seven kingdoms, or the Heptarchy. 597.1 Conversion of the English. 15 111 such a small country as England one or other of these kingdoms was sure to get the mastery over the others, but it was a good many years before all the land came under one king. Long before this happened England was won back to Christianity. The English were heathens. They worshipped the powers of nature, such as Thor, the god of thunder : but they „ ' ' ° T J Conversion of had a special reverence for Woden, the leader of the the English to German race, whom the chiefs looked upon as their ^^ ^^^ ^' ancestor. They had many superstitions, but apparently no very strong religious beliefs. Such a people were sure to take kindly to Christianity, if it were presented to them in an attractive form. "While the English had been conquering Eoman _ . . Britain, other Teutonic races had been making them- tiements in selves masters of portions of the Roman empire, o^^n empire. The great difference between the English settlement in Britain, and the conquests of the Goths and the Franks, was this. The English kept their own religion and language, and . exterminated Christianity and the Celtic and Roman sion to ciiris- speeches ; while the Goths and Franks did all they ^^^ ^' could to become Roman : they learnt to speak the Latin tongue, they followed Roman customs, and adopted Christianity. While this was going on, the power of the Bishop of Rome, afterwards called the pope, was growing fast. His ecclesiastical dominions coincide with the old boundaries of the Roman empire in the west. England, however, was still heathen, while the Christians of Wales, Strath- clyde, and Ireland were cut off from his rule ; so it was natural that he should wish to convert the English. So little had been heard about Britain in the Roman empire, since it had been abandoned in 410, that one writer tells us that Britain was the abode of the souls of the dead, who Gregory's were ferried across the Channel from the shores of mission. France ; and it is said that Gregory the Great, the pope who had tlie honour of sending the first missionaries to the English, was only reminded of its actual existence by noticing some Northum- brian captives exposed for sale in the slave-market at Rome. How- ever this may be, Gregory determined on their conversion ; and as he could not go himself, he sent Augustine, a monk, with a number of clergy, to England. 1 6 The Endish Settlernent in Britain. [597- "ii The time was favourable to his plan. Ethelbert, the King of the Kentishmen, had married the daughter of the King of Paris, Kent, Conversion of Owing to having been settled more than one hundred Kent. years, was a well-organized kingdom, and its civiliza- tion had been improved by trade with the Continent. Encouraged by these circumstances, Augustine and his clergy paid a visit to the royal court at Canterbury. There they were graciously received by Ethelbert, who himself accepted Christianity, and gave his people leave to do the same. The Kentishmen adopted the new faith. Augustine was ordained Archbishop of the English Church ; churches were built on new sites, or on the ruins of the old British churches, and two missionary bishops were consecrated for Essex and West Kent, whose sees were to be respectively London and Eochester. So the south-eastern corner of England was again restored to Chris- tendom in the year 597. Augustine also tried to get the Welsh Christians to acknowledge his authority, but failed. No other English kingdom received Christianity for thirty years ; but after the death of Augustine, when Justus was Archbishop of Conversion of Canterbury, advantage was taken of the marriage Nortbumbria. of Ethelburga, daughter of Ethelbert, with Edwin, King of Northumbria, to send with her a missionary, Paulhnus. By his preaching Edwin and his nobles were converted and baptized. Paullinus also converted Lincolnshire, then called Lindsey. Mercia, Wessex, Sussex, and all the smaller kingdoms, were as yet pagan. While these events were in progress, the struggle between the kingdoms for the supremacy was still going on. Kent took the lead, struggle for Under Ethelbert the Christian ; but its power was supremacy, yg-^-y short-lived, and the earliest king to get any- thing like a real supremacy was Edwin, King of Northumberland. This northern kingdom was very strong. It was not so civilized as Kent, but it was much larger. It first came to the front when its king, Ethelfrith, defeated the Welsh in the battle of Chester; but Edwin, when he had beaten the West Saxons, was stronger still, and possibly his marriage with Ethelburga was a sign of his superiority over Kent. The great rival of Northumbria was Mercia. Penda, its heathen king, allied with the Christian Welsh, and overthrew and slew Edwin at the battle of Hatfield, 664.1 Conversion of England. 17 near Doncaster, in 633. This defeat threw Northumbria into con- fusion, and its Christianity perished ; but in a short time Oswald, Ethelfrith's son, became King of Northumbria, and united all Edwin's dominions under his rule. Hitherto we have heard only of Roman missionaries to the English, but we now hear of Celtic clergy as well. After Christianity had been destroyed by the English in the east of the _ .,, „ . Preaching of island, it still nourished among the Celts and made the Celtic miS' fresh converts. St. David, a member of the ruhng sionanes. family among the Brythons of Mid- Wales, converted the Goidels of the south, while St. Patrick preached to the Goidels of Ireland. About the year 500, a body of Scots from Ireland established a new kingdom in Argyle (the Gael land), which they took from the Ivernians. From this kingdom Christianity spread among the Goidels of Scotland, and their missionaries preached to the Ivernians of the north. Among the Celtic Christians monasteries were numerous, and at one of these, situated on lona, an island off the west coast of Scotland, Oswald took refuge, when driven from Northumbria by Penda, and on his return he sent for mis- sionaries from lona. St. Aidan was sent to him, and founded the monastery of Lindisfarne off the coast of Northumbria, and thence he made missionary journeys among the Northumbrians. His arrival took place in 634. Oswald, however, was defeated and slain by Penda in the battle of Maserfield, near Oswestry, in Shropshire in 642 ; but his successor, Oswy, also a Christian, surprised and defeated Penda at the battle of Wmwidfield^ in 655. After tliis success the Celtic missionaries pushed on in all directions. Chad converted Mercia, and fixed the bishop's seat at Lichfield. While the north was being won by Further the Celts, southern England was won by Roman conversions, preachers. Birinus, an Italian, converted the West Saxons ; Fehx, a Burgundian, drove paganism from East Anglia. Sussex for some time longer remained heathen. Thus Mercia and Northumbria were alhed in faith with the Welsh; the rest of England was allied in the faith with the nations of the Continent. There were slight differences between the two faiths. The * Site unknown, h iS The Endish Settlement in Britain, [664- '^j Welsh had a different way of cutting the tonsure, or shaving part Rivalry be- ^^ their priests' heads, and they kept Easter on a dif- tween ttie ferent day from that on which it was celebrated by the Celtic and ^ Roman forms Church of Rome. These do not seem great matters of Christianity, j^ themselves, but they really involved a great deal. If England adopted the Celtic method, she would cut herself off from the great body of Christendom, and this isolation would prevent her from sharing in all the treasures of culture, learning, and civilization which had been left by the Romans, and were now being preserved by the Roman clergy. If, on the other hand, she adopted the Roman practice, she would keep all these advantages, and secure for herself a share in any advances which were made by Christendom at large. The question was settled at the Synod of Whitby, 664. It was dealt with in a very practical way. The Northumbrian king asked Synod of Colman, the representative of the Welsh, whether he VThitby. admitted that the pope was the successor of St. Peter. On his answering '' Yes," the king then asked if he admitted that St. Peter held the keys of heaven. "Yes," was the answer. " Then," said the king, " I will never offend the Saint who is the doorkeeper of heaven." England in this way threw in her lot with the Church of Rome ; but the Celts of Ireland and Wales remained apart for many years afterwards. Four years afterwards the English Church was thoroughly set in order by Theodore, a native of Tarsus, in Cilicia, who was sent Organization of ^^ *^^ P^P® "^^ be Arclibishop of Canterbury. He the churcii by organized the English Church under the two arch- eo ore. bishoprics of Canterbury and York, and this accept- ance by the English of one form of Christianity was a step in the direction of their union as one nation. Since the battle of Chester, Northumbria, in spite of some reverses of fortune, had kept its position as the leading kingdom. It had Nortbumbrian', ^^^^ famous, not only for arms, but also for learning. supremacy. Durmg its Supremacy lived the venerable Bede, who wrote a history of the English Church, which is the earliest history of our race written by an Englishman ; Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne, a saintly and a learned man ; and Caedmon the poet, who wrote a paraphrase of part of the Bible. In the year 685, 62?.] Supremacy of Mercia. ig iigfrith, King of Nortllumbria, was defeated and killed by the Picts in the disastrous battle of Nectan's Mere, near the Tay, and with him ended the supremacy of Northumbria. Mercia then came to the front. This great kingdom, wliich originally included all the lands of middle England, was increased by the capture of the West Saxon settlements in supremacy of the Severn Valley. The most celebrated of the Mercia. Mercian kings are Penda, Wulfhere, Ethelbald, and Oflfa; and of these Oifa was by far the greatest. He ruled his own kmgdom with a strong hand, and set up kings whom he could trust in the smaller kingdoms. As Kent had the Archbishopric of Canterbury, and Northumbria that of York, Offa determined to have an archbishop at his capital too, and for a short time Lichfield was raised to the dignity of an archiepiscopal see. OfFa made war on the Welsh, and took from them Shrewsbury and its district of Powysland. To protect these conquests, he made an earthwork from Chester to Chepstow, which is still called Offa's Dyke. In his time, Mercia, Northumbria, and Wessex completely overshadowed the smaller kingdoms, which had lost all prospect of gaining the supremacy. The power of Mercia depended upon the strength of its king, and when Oifa died, the struggle for supremacy began again. His death happened in 796, and in the year 802 Rise of Wessex. Egbert, who had lived in exile at the court of Egbert. Charles the Great in Germany, was made King of Wessex. Egbert was bent on making Wessex the leading kingdom. His aim naturally brought about war with Mercia, and in 825, at the battle of Ellandun,! the Mercians were defeated with great slaughter. At once the smaller kingdoms, which had been under the sway of Mercia, passed under the rule of Wessex. In 826 Kent, Sussex, Essex, and East Anglia submitted. The next, 827, Mercia was conquered, and the Northumbrians received Egbert as their over- lords Egbert was now king over his oWn kingdom of Wessex, and overlord of the whole English-speaking race from the Channel to the Firth of Forth. 1 Site unknown. (mAPTER Til. GOVEENMENT OF THE ENGLISH. We have brought the English to England, seen them converted to Christianity, and united under one king ; we must now inquire how they were governed. We saw that in all probability the English kingdoms were formed gradually by the union of a number of small settlements, Ho th En - J^^^ ^^ ^^^^ kingdom of England was formed, in lisiiwere its turn, by the union of the smaller kingdoms themselves. The larger kingdoms, such as Wessex and Mercia, were divided into shires ; the smaller, such as Essex and Sussex, also became shires after they lost their own kings and were made part of one of the larger kingdoms. Each shire was divided into smaller districts called hundreds, which were larger or smaller in different parts of England. Each hundred contained a number of townships. The officer of the township was the town-reeve. He called The reeve. ^^ .^ , . . , the grown men oi the township to meet m the town-moot ; there they settled matters which concerned the town- ship. If the town was defended by a mound, it was called a burgh, a borough, or bury, which are only different ways of spell- ing the same word, which means defence. The head officer of a borough was called a borough-reeve. If the town was a place of trade he was often called a port-reeve (gate-reeve). The men of the township had to keep in repair the bridges and fortifications which the township contained, and, if need were, they had to fight. The hundred- The hundred was presided over by the hundred-man, man. ^^ hundred-elder. Its meeting was the hundred- moot, and this dealt with the business of the hundred. The head 827.] Divisions of the Country. 21 of the shire was the ealdorman, elderman, or alderman, who was placed over it by the king and wise men of the iheeaidor- whole kingdom. Beside him, in Christian times, was '^*^- the bishop ; and the king was represented by the ^^® bishop, shire-reeve, or, as we now call him, sheriff. The The sheriff, meeting of the men of the shire was called the shire-moot. There they settled all quarrels. If a man was accused of The shire- theft or murder, he had to get his relations to swear moot, that he was innocent. If they did not do this, he was put to the ordeal ; i.e. he had to plunge his hand into boiling water, carry a bar of red-hot iron, or walk over red-hot ploughshares, and if he was not healed in the course of a fixed time, he was held guilty and punished. Punishment usually consisted of a fine paid to the sufferers, or to the family of the slaughtered man, and an extra fine was paid to the king. When war was to be made, or the country was invaded, word was sent to the ealdormen, each of whom sent notice to the hundred-men of his shire to meet at an appointed place. Each The army of hundred-man called on the town-reeves of his hun- *^® shire, com- monly caUed dred. They assembled the men of each township. theFyrd. Every man between sixteen and sixty had to come ; they ranged themselves in families, and marched, under the command of the reeve and the parish priest, to the meeting-place of the hundred. There they met the men of other townships, and, forming one body, they marched under the hundred-man to the meeting-place of the shire, where the whole force of the shire was united under the lead of the ealdorman and the bishop ; and then marched against the enemy, or joined the men of other shires, as the case might be. The whole force collected in this way was called the Pyrd. In this way the shire managed its own -affairs, its own justice, and was able to fight its own battles. A group of shires made the kingdom. This was governed by the king and his witena-gemot, which means " meeting of the wise men." Every man could not come to the witena- „ . '' 11. 11 The kingdom gemot. It was made up of the kmg and the mem- andwitena- bers of his family, the ealdormen, the archbishops eemo . and bishops, and the king's thegns. The king's thegns were originally the king's servants. The bishops and ealdormen also 2 2 Government of the English. [8S7. had tliegns. But, among the English, it was thought an honour to be the servant of a great man, so the king's thegns were really nobles. Even in the large kingdoms the witena-gemot was quite a small body ; but it is very important, because the Parliament of our own day is the representative of the old witena-gemot, as we shall see by-and-by. The witena-gemot elected the king; but it very rarely chose a man who was not a member of the royal family. The late The powers of ^^^s'^ eldest SOU was usually chosen, but if he was the witena- young, foolish, or very wicked, they preferred the late king's brother. If the king turned out badly, they often deposed him, and set up another in his stead. Besides this, the archbishops, bishops, and ealdormen were named by the king in the witena-gemot. Questions of peace and war were discussed by the wise men ; they settled disputes among the great men. In fact, they helped the king to govern. The Idng, on the other hand, had great power. As the sup- posed descendant of Woden, he was looked upon with awe. His Powers of the f^-i^ily were royal. The whole kingdom looked up king-. to him as its representative. In war he led the army. The nobles were the king's thegns. He had palaces and estates. The power of the king varied with the size of his king- dom, for the King of Northumbria was naturally a much greater man than the King of Sussex, and as England became more and more united, the power of the kings steadily grew. In each English shire there was a quantity of land which belonged to the settlement, but had not been given to any one man. This was called folkland. The king and the wise men Tlie folkland. . used to make grants of this land, and the pieces thus granted were called bocland, because they were given to their owners by book or title-deed. By-and-by the kings began to give out this land without consulting the wise men, and this helped them to increase their power, because men looked to them for reward. Thus we see that each shire was strong and well organized ; but . the kingdoms were weak, because the shires, many kingdom of w^liich had been originally hostile settlements, had little sympathy with each other. This made it very hard to make England into a strong kingdom. CHAPTER IV. rNYASIONS OF THE NORTHMEN". Wb saw that Egbert, like Offa and Edwin, had in 827 made himself leading king, and had even succeeded in getting his supremacy acknowledged by the whole English-speak- ing race. It is probable, however, that his kingdom would have broken up like those of his predecessors had it not been for the attacks of the Northmen. We shaU see how this was. The Danes, or Northmen, were Aryans like the English, but belonged to the Scandinavian branch of the Teutonic race. They lived in what are . . The Xortlinieu. now called Norway, Sweden, and Denmark ; but m the eighth century they were not united into nations, but lived in small tribes, just as the English had done before their settlement in Britain. These Northmen, as the English had been, were pirates, and they also were on the look-out for fertile lands in which they might settle. They were barbarian and heathen, as the English had been before Augustine's time. Their language was very hke English. From the year 787 in the time of OfFa till the time of William the Conqueror, the English were constantly fighting with the Northmen. The invasions of the Northmen may be divided under three heads. First, they came to plunder- second, to settle ; and third, to conquer and rule England. The invasions of the Danes began in the year 787. A number of their ships would sail up one of the navigable rivers, such as the Trent or the Yorkshire Ouse, as far as they could. _. ^ ' "^ First period Then they brought their ships to land, and left them of nortiieni ander a guard, while the main body harried the country, and, in case they were attacked, retreated to their ships. 24 Invasions of the Northmen. [787- If they found the people of one district prepared, they sailed away to some other district and attacked that. The English had given up being sailors, and could do very little against these pirates ; so from 787 to 855 we continually hear of these plundering expeditions of the Northmen, who sacked the country, and burnt the monas- teries, where goods were naturally sent for safety. Sometimes the Northmen aUied with the Welsh, and in 836 Egbert won a great battle over an allied army of Northmen and Welsh, at Hengist's Down, on the Cornish side of the Tamar. In 839 Egbert died, and was succeeded by his son Ethelwulf. In his days the Northmen, in 855, for the first time wintered in the Ethelwulf, Isle of Sheppey. This begins a new period in the 839-858. Danish im^asions, for they now tried to settle in tlie country. Ethelwulf died in 858, and was succeeded in turn by his sons Ethelbald, Ethelbert, Ethelred, and Alfred. In their days the Second period Northmen continued their invasions. For the most of Northern p^^^ ^|^g attacked Northumbria, Mercia, and East invasion. i. J 75 Ethelbald, Anglia, and, so long as they confined themselves to the andmheiredi. under-kingdoms, they did not meet with very serious 858—871. resistance ; but in the year 871, when Ethelred was king, the heathen men, as the chroniclers call them, passed into Wessex. There they met with a strenuous resistance. In that year, 871, six great battles were fought. Of these the best-known is Ashdown, near Keading, in which the English were victorious ; but in four out of the six the Northmen had the better, and after the battle of Wilton, which the Northmen won, the English were glad to make terms. During the fighting Ethelred died, and was succeeded by his younger brother Alfred, the last of the sons of Ethelwulf. For the next seven years Alfred had much ado to A.lfred. defend Wessex from the Northmen, and meanwhile they swept over the under-kingdoms, and in 876 and 877 they divided Northumbria and Mercia among themselves. In the year 878 another gi'eat army of Northmen, under Guthrum, attacked Alfred, and forced him to retreat to the Isle of Athelney, among the marshes of the Parret in Somersetshire. There he was safe from pursuit; and the next year, 878, he issued from his retreat, 879.] King Alfred. 25 and surprised and defeated the Danes at the great battle of Ethandun, now called Edington. This victory drove the Northmen from Wessex, and the next year a treaty was made at Chippen- ham (sometimes called the treaty of Wedmore), and Guthrum became a Christian in 879. By this treaty it was agreed that the boundary of Alfred's king- dom on the north should run along the estuary of the river Tliames, then along the river Lea to its source, then to Treaty of cMp- Bedford, then by the river Ouse till it crosses Watling peniiam. Street, and along Watling Street to the Welsh border. This will be clearer if we may say, roughly, that all England which lies to the south of the London and North- Western Eailway from London to Chester belonged to Alfred, the rest to the Northmen. Immediately after this treaty was made, the Northmen secured East Anglia and portioned it out, as they had done Mercia and Northumbria. It is not easy for us to realize what this settlement of the North- men was like. We do not know for certain what proportion they bore to the English populations among whom they The settlement settled. Traces of them can be noted in three ways, of ti^e North- men. Wherever we find names ending in " by," "thorpe," Traces of the or " thwaite," as Grimsby, Grimsthorpe, and Nib- Northmen, thwaite, there we know that there was either a new settlement of Northmen, or that an old township was allotted to some Northern leader. In the northern dialect, again, we find a very large number of Norse words and modes of speech. It is also known that for a long time the laws and customs of the district settled by the Northmen were somewhat different from those in the rest of the island; hence the district north of Watling Street was often called the Dane-law. The Northmen soon became Christians, and mingled with the English among whom they lived, but for a long time they were independent of the West Saxon kings. The effect of the settlement of the Northmen on the West Saxon kingdom was twofold. First, it cut off from it the under-kingdoms which lay beyond Watling Street ; secondly, it gave ^„ •^ *' ^ \ ./ ' o Effects of the the West Saxons, as part of their own kingdom, settlement of that part of Mercia which lay between Watling Street "' and the Thames. Thus it reduced the size of their dominions, but to some extent made them stronger in reality than heretofore. 2 6 Invasions of the Northmen. t®45- Alfred was one of tliose great men who thoroughly understand what they can and what they cannot do, and it is one of the strong points in his character that he saw clearly that his business was not to waste his strength in trying to reconquer the Danes, but to make his own dominions as strong as possible. The first thing to be done was to prevent new incursions of Danes, so he organized a fleet which protected the coasts. He then put the Formation of a English fyrd, or militia, into order, so as to defend his fleet. kingdom by land. To secure order and good govern- code of laws, jj^gj-^^^ Alfred and his wise men drew up a revised code of laws, and saw that the law courts did their duty. To improve the culture of his people, Alfred invited learned men from abroad, superintended their work, and himself helped to translate from Latin into English books of philosophy, travel, and history, for the improvement of his people. In his days the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was compiled from old traditions, and from his time a narrative of the events of each year was kept in various monasteries and added to the chronicle, so that since Alfred began to reign we have a history of English events written by men who were living at the time. All through his reign Alfred had often to fight hard against new bands of Northmen, but he was usually successful, and in his time Fresii incur- the Northmen turned their attention to Normandy. sions. rjij^Q descendants of these settlers were the Normans, Normandy, of whom WO shall hear much more hereafter. The first settlement of the Northmen in France was made in 876, and Hrolf, or RoUo, became Duke of Normandy in 912. Alfred died 901, and was succeeded by his son Edward, commonly called Edward the Elder. On the election of Edward a difficulty Edward the ^^osc, for the crown was claimed by Ethelwald, son Elder. of Ethelrcd I., who had been passed over as a boy in favour of Alfred. Edward the Elder was supported by the nation, and Ethelwald took refuge with the Northmen of Northumbria. Edward the Elder is noted as a warrior. He determined to reconquer the Dane-law, and was helped by his warlike sister Ethel- Edward's plan fieda,themdowoftheEaldormanofMercia. Edward's for reconquer- ^^^ ^^^g ^]^^-g^ jj^ ^^^ ^ fortress-buildcr, and when mg tne Dane- ^ ' law. he had taken a piece of territory he fortified some 991-] Conquest of the Dane-law, 27 strong place in it, and then used that as a base of operations against the enemy. His sister adopted the same plan. The chief strength of the Danes lay in two districts. First the midlands, where they were strong in Leicester, T J ^ ' The five Lincoln, Nottingham, Stamford on the Welland, and boroughs of Derby, which were called the five Danish boroughs ; and, secondly, in a group of small towns which lay north of London, of which Hertford and Bedford are the best known. In 907 Ethelfleda fortified Chester, and in 912 Edward retook London, which had been captured by the Danes, and the brother and sister then set about a regular attack on the Danish conquest of the towns. Stafford, Derby, and Leicester fell to Ethel- i>ane-iaw. fleda; Hertford, Bedford, and Stamford to Edward. In 918 Ethelfleda died, and Mercia, south of Watling Street, was completely united to Wessex, and newly divided into shires which were called after the names of the chief town in each, as Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, and Warwickshire. Edward then pressed hard upon the Danes. In 921 Essex and East Anglia, and in 922 Nottingham, Lincoln, with the remainder of the district held by the five boroughs, submitted to him. Edward then advanced into Northumbria and fortified Manchester. The result of these conquests was to make Edward's name a terror to the Northmen, and to win him the character of a Adoption of protector among the English and Welsh. In conse- Edward as ovsrlord. by quence, in 922 the North Welsh asked Edward to be the Eng-iish their lord, and in 924 the Northumbrians, Scots, and ^^^ Celts. Strathclyde Welsh chose him for father and lord. This submission made Edward far more powerful than any former English king. He was now actual ruler of all England Edward's as far as the Humber, and overlord of the North- position, umbrians, Welsh, and Scots. Edward died in 925, and was succeeded by his son Athelstan. In his reign the subject kingdoms made a great effort to throAV off the English yoke. To help them they called in the aid of those Northmen who had settled in Ireland ; but they were defeated by Athelstan in the decisive battle of Brunanburh,^ 937, which completely secured the English supremacy. ^ Site unknown. 28 Invasions of the Northmen* 1945- Athelstan was succeeded by his half-brother Edmund in 945. He conquered Strathclyde, which by his time comprised only the land which lay between the river Derwent in Cum- berland and the Firth of Clyde, and was bounded inland by the Pennine range of hills and the Forest of Ettrick. It had been much harried by bands of Northmen, most of whom came from the district now called Norway. Edmund granted it to Malcolm, King of Scots, on condition that he would fight for him as his fellow- worker by sea and land. He also destroyed the inde- pendence of the five Danish boroughs, and their territory, like the rest of Mercia, was divided into shires, Stamford alone not giving its name to a division. Under Edmund first came into notice the Englishman who has the greatest reputation as a statesman of all those who lived before the Norman conquest. This was Dunstan, who was Dunstan. educated in the Abbey of Glastonbury. This monas- tery is situated in Somersetshire, and is believed to have been founded by the Christians of Roman Britain. There the British hero, Arthur, was said to have been buried, and there lingered what remained of the culture and learning which the British Christians retained. Thither came Irish pilgiims, and from them Dunstan as a lad learned the wisdom that made him famous. He rose to be abbot, and devoted himself to the service of his kmg and to the spread of religion and culture among the people. Edmund died in 946, and was succeeded by his brother Edred. Edredand He deposed the Danish King of Northumbria, and Edwy. divided it into three divisions, one of which, north of the Tweed, often called Lothian, was given to the King of Scots to hold on the same terms as Strathclyde. The other two were given to Ealdormen, who were called in the north earls, which is the same name as the Danish "jarl." Edred died in 955, and his son Edwy came to the throne. Meanwhile Dunstan had been rising in importance, but in 956 he quarrelled with Edwy and was banished. Edwy, however, was unpopular, for his rule was weak, and his half-brother Edgar was in 957 chosen king by all the men who dwelt north of the Thames ; and he recalled Dunstan, and made him Bishop of London. In 959 Edgar became king of all England on the death 091. Edmr''s Rule. 2 Invasions of the Northmen. 11040, came from Normandy to England. Alfred was blinded and died of his wounds ; Edward escaped. For this cruel deed the Normans hated the English, and held the family of Godwin responsible. Harold was succeeded in 1040 by Hardicanute. He sent to Normandy for his half-brother Edward; and when he suddenly died, in 1042, the Enghsh went back to the old line, and chose Edward, the son of Ethelred and Emma, as their king. DATES OF CHIEF GENERAL EVENTS BEFORE THE NORMAN CONQUEST Caesar's invasions of Britain Roman occupation of Britain Kingdom of Kent said to have been founded Arrival of Augustine Preaching of Aidan Synod of Whitby First invasion of the Northmen Egbert becomes King of all England Treaty of Chippenham Reconquest of the Dane-law Strathclyde conquered and given to the King of Scots Lothian granted to King of Scots Establishment of Danish dynasty Restoration of the English line ,„ ,„ B.C. A 66 and 54 ,D. 43-410 .. 449 .. 597 .. 634 .. 664 .. 787 .. 827 .. 879 907-924 .. c. 945 ,. c. 950 .. 1017 .. 1042 CHAPTER V. THE NOEMAN CONQUEST. Edwaed was not a vigorous king ; he had little authority, while the great earls grew more and more powerful, and their alliances and quarrels make up the chief part of the history Edward the of his reign. The most powerful families were those .Confessor, of Godwin, Earl of Wessex, Leofric, Earl of Mercia, and Siward, Earl of Northumbria. Edward married Edith, the daughter of Earl Grodwin, which added to the consequence of that house. Godwin had many sons, of whom the most notable were Harold and Tostig. Edward had been brought up in Normandy, and he was naturally fond of Norman life and manners. In those days the Normans were in many ways more refined than the English, and His fondness theh clergy were better educated. Edward, there- for Normans, fore, was wishful to bring over to England what he could of Norman civilization. He spoke French himself, and soon filled his court with French-speaking Normans. Some of these he placed in high offices in Church and State. Robert of Jumieges, a Norman, became Bishop of London and then Archbishop of Canterbury. Foreign merchants crowded to London, and it seemed as if the power of the English was passing into Norman hands, and that Enghsh customs were to be changed for Norman. Doubtless there was much to be said for adopting the manners of the Normans where they were an improvement, but it was not to be expected that the English would like it. Accordingly there was much discontent, and Godwin and his sons set themselves at the head of the English party. Matters came to a head in 1051. In that year Eustace of Boulogne, who was returning from a visit to his brother-in-law Edward, marched into Dover as though it were a conquered D 34 The Norman Conquest. [losi- town, and quartered his men on the inhabitants. The men of Banisiiment of Do"^er resisted, and a fight followed, in which some of tiie Godwins, -fche strangers were slain. Edward called on Godwin, as Earl of Wessex, to pmiish the rioters. He refused, and Edward called on Leofric of Mercia and Siward of Northumbria to help him against Godwin. A meeting of the wise men was called, and God- win and Harold were outlawed. Godwin went to Bruges in Flanders, Harold to Ireland, and Edith, the king's wife, was shut up in a monastery. While Godwin and Harold were away, Edward received a visit from Wilham, Duke of Normandy. Emma, Edward's mother, was William's sreat-aunt, but he himself had no blood- "Visit of \7imam of relationship with the English royal family. WiUiam Normandy. ^ ^^-^^^ Normans around the king ; he saw that Normans held great places in Church and State, he heard French spoken on every side, and, being an ambitious man, he conceived the idea of making himself King of England. For a Norman, there was nothing out of the common in this. At that very time one Norman was estabHshing himself as ruler of southern Italy; it was only ten years since a Northman had reigned in England ; and there was no likelihood that he would meet with a very formidable resistance, now that Godwin and Harold had been removed. It is said that Edward made a promise of the crown to William. This he had no right to do, because the election was in the hands of the witena-gemot ; but William returned home well satisfied. In the next year, however, the scene was changed. Godwin and Return of God- Harold came back, and the king was forced to make winandexpui- terms with them. Kobert, Archbishop of Canterbury, Normans. and most of the Frenchmen were expelled, and the English party triumphed. The house of Godwin was now supreme. Godwin died in 1053, but his son Harold became Earl of Wessex ; and in 1055, on the , death of Siward, Tostig became Earl of Northumbria. Supremacy of ' ° thefamUyof Harold and Tostig made war against the Welsh, ° ^^^' while Edward remained at home in his palace. The whole power of the kingdom seemed to be falling into their hands, when Tostig by his bad conduct made himself so unpopular that the Northumbrians expelled him, and made Morcar, a grandson of ioee.j Harold II. 35 Leofric, their earl. His brother had become Earl of Mercia, so that the chief power in the kingdom was divided between Harold, Edwin, and Morcar. A year after the expulsion of Tostig, Edward died, in 1066. He was called the Confessor on account of his piety ; but he Was a very feeble king. At the death of Edward it was very difficult to choose a successor. Of the direct English line, there was living the Atheling, or Prince Edgar, grandson of Edmund Ironside ; but he was quite Election of a boy at the time, and even when he became a man ^ successor, his character Was weak. It was pretty certain that William of Kormandy would try to seize the throne, so the English wise men determined to pass over Edgar, and make Harold, the son of God^ win, who had taken the lead against the Normans, king. Accordingly, Harold became king in 1066 ; and his whole reign Was made up of a struggle to keep the crown against ^ ^ "William the Norman. William had no difficulty in finding pretexts for attacking Harold* He had reaUy no claim at all; but he declared that he was Edward's appointed heir, and on that plea demanded -^iuiam's pre- the crown. Against Edgar Atheling he could have texts for said httle or nothing, but it happened that he could make a very plausible case against Harold. Harold had once been wrecked on the coast of Normandy, and had been tricked by William into taking a particularly solemn oath to be his man, and also, it was said, not to stand in the way of William^s claims to the crown. Again, Harold and his brothers had incurred the hostility of the Normans by their resistance to foreigners. The Normans, too, wished to take revenge for the murder of Alfred. The blessing of the Pope was obtained on the ground that Stigand had been wrongly consecrated on the expulsion of the Norman, Robert, and also had received his pallium, or archbishop's cloak, from a rival pope. Each of these pleas was weak enough by itself, but when they were all bound together they made a most formidable bundle ; and when they were presented to the Norman knights, who dreamt of dukedoms and earldoms in England, they were received as indis- putable, while a crowd of foreign adventurers flocked to William's banner, to join in the spoliation of England. 36 The Norman Conquest. tioee. On his side, Harold was not idle. He led the fyrd, or mihtia, to Preparations the south coast and fortified some of the important ofHaroid. posts, while he himself, with his huscarls, or hody- guard, any one of whom was said to be a match for two ordinary men, was ready to hurry to the point attacked. Unfortunately, William was not Harold's only enemy. His brother Tostig was disgusted at not being put back into his earldom Invasion of of Nortliumbria, and was now cruising about the coast Haroi?H:ard- ^^^^Ij ^^ make an attack. While so doing he fell in rada. ^th the ships of Harold Hardrada, King of Norway. This Harold was a typical Northman ; he had served in the Norman guard of the Emperor of the East at Constantinople, and had been to Egypt and gained a great reputation by slaying a crocodile. He agreed to help Tostig, and they sailed up the Humber to attack York. Morcar and his brother Edwin, who had come to his assistance, were defeated at the battle of Fulford on September 20. Harold's Harold marched to help them, and attacked Tostig "st *mfcrd^ and the Norwegians at Stamford Bridge on the York- Bridge, shire Derwent. Harold offered his brother a third of his kingdom, but Tostig refused to desert his allies, and the battle began. In the end the invaders were defeated, and Tostig and Harold Hardrada were both slain. The battle was fought September 25, and three days afterwards William of Normandy landed at Pevensey. Harold at once set off to meet him, and it was only fair that Haroid'smarcii Edwin and Morcar should give their best aid; soutii. 1^^^^ though Harold had married their sister, they ^IrySSS" refused to do so ; and so Harold, taking with him his and Morcar. huscarls, was obliged to go by himself. On his way he raised the fyrd of Kent, Essex, and East Anglia, and led them, with the Londoners, against William. Between Pevensey and London are two ridges of downs, one near the coast, the other much nearer the Thames, and between The battle- them lay, in those days, the forest tract of the weald. ground. Probably it would have been better for Harold to have fought William on that ridge which is further inland, as William would then have had a long march through difficult country, while Harold would have been nearer to his friends. 1066.] Battle of Hastings. 37 However, he chose to fight on the ridge at Senlac, seven miles from Hastings, on October 14th, 1066. Harold formed his men English fashion, on the brow of the hill behind a stockade, which they defended chiefly with their great battle-axes, while William relied on his archers and Battle of mounted knights. The Normans were the more Hastings, scientific soldiers, and when they found it impossible to break the Enghsh line, they, by William's orders, feigned flight. The English then broke their ranks, and the Normans, turning upon them, charged so fiercely that they prevented the English from reforming their line. Meanwhfle the Norman archers shot fast upon the defending force, and, aiming their arrows into the air, made them drop on the heads of the English, who were using their shields to guard their bodies. By one of these arrows Harold was killed, and then the English force was thrown more than ever into disorder, and men fell fast, till at length the Normans were masters of the field. Several of Harold's brothers were among the slain, and the power of Wessex was utterly crushed. From Hastings William marched to Dover, and secured it, so that he might have a safe line of retreat to Normandy. He then set out for London; but, instead of attacking it, he -w-miam's merely burnt some houses in Southwark, and then march ou marched up the Thames to Wallingford, where he crossed the river, and took up a position at Berkhampstead, near the Watling Street. By this manoeuvre he cut ofi" London from the rest of the country, and made the position of the Londoners hopeless. The witena-gemot, therefore, which in the first excitement had elected Edgar Athelingi king, finding that William had outwitted them, gave way. The leaders, including Edgar himself, came Election of over to William's camp ; a new meeting of the witena- ■Wiiiiam as gemot elected William king, as their predecessors ^°'^" had chosen Sweyn and Canute, and a new epoch in English history began. On the whole, we cannot regret the result of Hastings. Just as great advantages had come to England from her imion with the Church of Eome, so it was a great thing for the Results of Nor- English to become an important member of the family ^^^ conquest. 1 "Atheling " was the English word for a prince, or son of a king. 38 The Norman Conquest, [loee. of European nations. The Normans brought with them the greatest political ability, and their clergy the highest culture then known in Europe ; and though it was a hard thing for the English to be conquered, still their descendants have derived greater benefits from their defeat than they could possibly have done from their victory. DATES OF CHIEF BATTLES BEFORE THE NORMAN Pyrham '■A-fj -« f 577 Chester ... . ... 007 or 613 Hatfield 633 Maserfield .,. ,., ... ... ••• 642 Winwidfield ... ... ... 655 Ellandun ... 825 Hengist's Down ... 836 Ashdown .. .., 871 Ethandun ... 878 Brunanburh ... ».. ... ... 937 Maldon ... ... ... 991 Assandun ... ... •• ... 1016 Stamford Bridge ,„ •«• >•• *> 1066 BOOK II THE NORMAN KINGS I.— THE NORMAN KINGS OF ENGLAND, 1066-1154. ■William the ConcLueror, = Matilda of Flanders. 1066-1087. I Robert, Duke of Normandy, d. 1134. William Rufus, Henry, = Matilda Adela = Stephen 1087-1100. 1100-1135. (see I.), d. 1118. William, William, Matilda, = (1) Emperor { d. 1128. d. 1120. d. 1167. Henry V. (2) Geoffrey of Anjou. Robert of Gloucester. of Blois. Stephen, = Matilda of Henrj% 1135-1154, I Boulogne. Bishop of Winchester. Eustace, d. 1153. And others. (2) Henry XL, 1154-1189. signifies illegitimate. IV.— THE KINGS OF SCOTLAND, 1066-1214. Duncan I., 1034-1040. Malcolm III., = Margaret, 1058-1093. d. 1093. Donald Bane, 1094-1097, ancestor of John Comyn, murdered by Bruce, 1306. Duncan I., Edgar, Alexander I., Matilda, David L, = Dau. of 1093. 1097-1107. 1107-1124. d, 1118, 1124-1153. m. Henry I., d. 1135. Wal- theof. Henry, Earl of Huntingdon. Malcolm IV., 1153-1166. William the David, Lion, Earl of Huntingdon, 1166-1214. ancestor of Bruce and Balliol. CHAPTEE T. William I., 1066-1087 (21 years). Born 1027 ; married, 1053, Matilda of Flanders. Chief Characters of the Reign. — Odo of Bayeux, William Fitz-Osbern, Edgar Atheling, Edwin, Morcar, Stigand, Waltheof, Lanfranc, Ralf Guader, Hoger of Breteuil, Robert of Belleme, Robert Mowbray. William the Conqueror was crowned at Westminster on Christ- mas Day, 1066. He had been duly elected by the witena-gemot, and looked upon himself, not as a conqueror, but as the rightful sovereign of the English. He was a man of great energy and ability. By William's tis father's death he had been left Duke of Normandy youth. when only eight years old, and he had had to fight hard to keep his place. When he grew up he became one of the strongest as well as one of the ablest men of his time, and made himself feared and respected by all his subjects. In ruling England, William had to keep three things in view: William's 0-) ^^ secure his hold over the country ; (2) to reward policy. iiis Norman followers ; (3) to keep the Norman nobles from becoming too powerful. The battle of Hastings had only overthrown the power of Harold and weakened the men of the south-east ; the men of the north Revolts of tiie and west had not yet fought with the Normans. English. ^rom 1067 to 1071 rebellions were continually break- ing out in different parts of the island. In 1067 the men of Kent and Kent and Hereford, taking advantage of a visit which William Hereford. made to Normandy, rose in revolt against Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, and William Fitz-Osbern, whom William had left in command; but the revolts were unconnected, and William had taken to Normandy Edgar Atheling, Edwin, Morcar, and Stigand, the natural leaders of the English. The Normans soon crushed the English; but the next year risings took place in the west, 1069.] William the CoJiqueror, 43 helped by the sons of Harold, and in JSTorthumbria, where Edgar Atheling, who had escaped from William's court to Scotland, gave his aid. Again the English were beaten; so "West and in 1069 they called in the help of the Danes, and invasioT'o/Se under Waltheof, the son of Siward, made another Danes, great effort in the north. The united armies of English and Danes captured York and massacred the garrison, and for a moment it seemed as if William's power was in serious danger ; but he hurried to the spot, bought off the Danes, and defeated the English. To guard himself against similar attacks he ravaged the country from the Humber to the Tees. A glance at the map shows th^t this included the largest part of the fertile land of Ravaging of the north of England. The result was that the tue north, north of England, always less fertile than the south, was thoroughly thrown back, and never regained its position till the growth of manufactures in the eighteenth century. A last effort was made by the English in 1071. In this year, for the first time, .„ ,^ ^ , ^ J ' » Revolt of Edwin and Morcar put themselves at the head of the Edwin and rebels, but they were defeated. Edwin was killed by his own men ; but Morcar for some time held out with Hereward in the Isle of Ely, which the fens then made almost impregnable, William attacked it both by water and land, and the English surrendered. After these disasters the English gave up the struggle, and William was able to carry out his policy. He began by putting Normans into the chief places in Church and State. Edwin and Morcar had lost their earldoms, and William did not revive them. He thought that great . Normans earldoms like those of Mercia and Wessex were placed in chief dangerous to the power of the king, and he had good . , ^°^ ^" ^ ° r o' D Abolition of reason for doing so. On the Continent, the dukes, the great who had originally been merely governors of districts such as Burgundy or Bavaria, just as the English earls were governors of Mercia and Wessex, had gradually made themselves hereditary rulers of these districts ; they had granted land to their followers on military service, they had gained control over the law courts, and they were rapidly making themselves stronger than the kings. William had himself been Duke of Normandy, and he was determined to have no one in England with similar power. 44 The Norma7i Kings. [io7o. Accordingly, in rewarding his followers with titles and lands, he followed a careful plan. He had plenty of land to dispose of, for the English rebellions had been followed by vast confis- Careful ° •' distribution of cations. This land he distributed to his followers; ^^^ ^' but in giving it to them, he took good care that no one should have too much land in one place. For instance, Robert of Mortain had seven hundred and ninety-three manors, but they were situated in twenty counties. Only three exceptions were made. In Cheshire, Durham, and Kent, the earls were owners of the whole county, and the other landholders held their estates from them. These were called Counties Counties palatine. Cheshire was a safeguard against palatine. ^j^^ Welsh, Durham against Scotland, Kent against the Continent; but Durham and Kent were given respectively to the Bishop of Durham and to Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, who, being churchmen, could not marry and found families, while Cheshire only was given to a layman, as it was thought that the Welsh would give the earl sufficient occupation to prevent him thinking of treason. To keep down the English, William built castles in all the large towns and at places of military importance ; but he kept all these in his own hands, and gave them to men whom he could trust. It was not his policy to allow castles to be built which might be used against himself. In the Church William replaced the English prelates and abbots by Normans. Some were deposed and others died; but in each Normans in the case a Norman filled the vacancy. In 1070 Stigand ciiurcii. ^^g deposed, and Lanfranc became Archbishop of Canterbury. He was a learned and able man, and William found him a most useful adviser. These changes were good for the English Church. The Norman bishops, though some were statesmen and warriors rather than ecclesiastics, were more cultured than the English, and they brought the Church of England into closer union with Rome — a change which at that time was a good thing. In 1070 William made twelve men of each shire declare the laws Declaration of ^^ ^^ English, as it was his intention to preserve the law by the these laws, and not to supersede them by Norman English. ^. ^ '' practices. While he was making these changes, WilHam steadily maintained 1085.] William the Conqueror. 45 the rights of the old Engh'sh kings. He mvaded Scotland, and forced Malcolm, King of Scots, to '' become his man " in 1072, Relation with and he refused to hold England as a fief of the Pope, Scotland, as Gregory VII. (Hildebrand) demanded that he should in 1076. Wilham also took means to curb the power of the _ 1 , /^v 1 T^ Relations with Pope and clergy. He ordered (1) that no Pope thepopeand should be acknowledged in England, and that no ^^^^^^ergry. letters should be received from a Pope without the king's consent ; (2) that no canons should be made by the clergy, or (3) any of his ministers be excommunicated, without his express sanction. William's measures were not popular with his Norman followers. They expected that, when their duke became a king, they would naturally become dukes and earls, and when they ^^^ found that William meant to curb their power, some ment of the went home in disgust and some rebelled. For one tween^Sie kfng hundred years the barons continually tried to make ^'^'i the barons, themselves as strong as their fellows on the Continent. Against their efforts the king was usually helped by the clergy and the English, whose interest it was to curb the power of the turbulent barons. The towns had not been of much account Growth of the before the Conquest ; but when England became con- towns, nected with the Continent, trade grew and they throve fast. In return for sums of money the kings granted them charters and privileges, and they soon became very important. The first rebellion of the barons took place in 1074. Ealf Guader, Earl of Norfolk, and Roger of Breteuil, Earl of Hereford, were the leaders, and they asked Waltheof, son of Siward, Earl jtebeUions of of Northumbria, to join them. Their wish was to the barons, make one of themselves king, and the other two dukes. Waltheof seems to have refused ; but he fell under William's suspicion, and was executed. The rebellion was crushed by Lanfranc, with the aissistance of the English. The next rebellion occurred in 1078. Robert of Belleme (sometimes spelt Belesme) and Robert Mowbray were the leaders, and they obtained the help of William's eldest son, Robert. They were defeated. In 1085 the king ordered a complete survey of the whole kingdom to be made, so that he might know exactly how much land each man had, and what payments were due to the king. Commissioners 46 The Norman Kings. tios?. were sent to the shire-moots, where they learned from the great Domesday i^^n the general divisions of the shire, then to the Book. hundred-moot, and finally they called before them, from each township, the reeve, the parish priest, and six villeins, or men who held land under the lord of the township. From them they learnt the amount of arable, pasture, and wood land, to whom it be- longed, what mills and fisheries there were, and other particulars; what had been the value of the township in the time of King Edward, and what it was now worth. The results of these inquiries were written but in a book, called Domesday Book. It gives us a picture of all England except Cumberland, Westmoreland, Northumberland, and Durham, some of which were waste and some in the hands of the Scots, and it is of incalculable value as a description of England at the time* When the book was finished, WiUiam summoned all the English landholders to meet him at Salisbury. There he made each of „ ,^ . them swear allegiance to him, whether he held from Ijandliolders* ° ' oatiL to tiie an intermediate lord or not. This had a great effect. ^' Abroad, the Normans took an oath only to the Duke of Normandy, and if he rebelled against the King of France, they were only doing their duty in following him ; but in England, if vassals followed their lord against the king, they were guilty of treason. Though this oath was not feudal, from the meeting of Salisbury it is convenient to date the establishment in England of what is called Feudalism. By this is meant the system in which the king is regarded as the supreme owner of the land, and as letting it out to his tenants-in- Feudaiism chief or barons, who hold on condition of serving defined. ^xm. in War, and of paying him certain dues. They, in their turn, let their land to sub-tenants, who hold it on the same terms, and so the whole of society is bound together by a system of land tenure. During the whole of his reign William was at enmity with the King of France. In 1073 he led an English army against the ■Wars with province of Maine, just south of Normandy, and France. captured it from the French king ; and in 1087, stung by a joke of that monarch, he attacked Mantes, a town on the Seine. Here his horse plunged on some hot cinders, and William Was so severely hurt that he died, 1087. 1087.] William the Conqueror. 47 William was a harsh ruler, but he did a great deal of good to England. We saw how the quarrels between the great earls weakened Harold at Hastings, and they would prob- .^ ^, ° ' -^ ^ Death, afld ably have become just as oppressive to their subjects character of as the French nobles did. William prevented this, iniam, and by making the crown powerful, and reljdng on the English and the clergy against the barons, did a great deal to make England a united kingdom. His reign, however, was a tenible time ; the king raised many taxes, and the barons oppressed the English. William and the barons were very fond of hunting. William kept all the folkland as forest, and added to it by making the New Forest in Hampshire a place for sport, for " he loved the tall deer as though he were their father." From this time the waste land of the kingdom which was not enclosed in any manor or township was called the forest. In this the barons might not hunt, and to preserve the game a law was made that he who slew a deer should be bhnded. CHAPTER II. William II., 1087-1100 (13 years). Bom about 1060. Chief Characters of the Reign. — Odo of Bayeux, Lanfranc, Robert of Belleme, Robert Mowbray, Ranulf Flambard, and Anselm. William the Conqueror left three sons, Robert, William, and Henry. Of these, Robert succeeded his father as Duke of Nor- Eiectionof mandy ; while William, who had been his father's WiUiamRufus. favourite, crossed the Channel at once with a letter from the dead king to Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury. This prelate had been his tutor and had knighted him ; but before Lanfranc declared in William's favour, he insisted upon the young prince taking an oath to rule weU and to follow his advice. He then threw all his weight into the scale, and secured the election of William. This arrangement followed the idea of the time, that ancestral possessions should go to the eldest son, and acquired property to the younger. Henry, the youngest, had to content himself for the present with five thousand pounds left by his father. William IL, who was called Rufus from his ruddy countenance, was a bad man but a vigorous king, because his instinct made him keep in check the great barons, and prevent '^^'^^° ■ them from building castles, from which they might plunder the country; and thus he secured peace for the culti- vators of the soil and the traders of the towns. No doubt he levied very heavy taxes ; but no taxation could ever be so bad as the irregular exactions of the barons ; and so, though times were hard for all, the country was moving along the road marked out for it by the wisdom of William the Conqueror, and, as long as Lanfranc lived, the young king followed his advice, and adopted the old plan of playing off the English against the barons. He had need to do this, for the gi'eat nobles hated the Conqueror's system, and 1090.] William Eufus. 49 they were always on the watch to gain an advantage over the king. Many of them would have preferred Robert for king, because, though brave, he was careless and easy-going, and would have given them more licence. The leading barons were Odo of Bayeux, Roger Montgomery, and Robert Mowbray. Odo contrived a conspiracy against William in the first year of his reign, and fortified nebenion of the castles of Rochester and Arundel ; but William *^® barons, called on all the English to help him, and said that any one who did not come to his aid would be branded by the name of " nithing," which the English thought disgraceful. They fl.ocked to his standard in crowds ; both the castles were taken, and Odo was ignominiously expelled from the country. The careless Robert failed to come to the aid of his friends, and they were one by one defeated or forced to come to terms. Some time afterwards Robert Mowbray rebelled and fortified Bamborough ; but he was captured when away from his stronghold, and his wife was forced to surrender by the threat of seeing her husband blinded. This happened in 1095. In 1090 William, who had won over to his side a number of the barons of Normandy, invaded that duchy; but the nobles who held land on both sides of the Channel disliked ,„„. William in- either a war or a separation between England and vades Normandy, because they feared to lose one or other ^^^^^ y- of their estates ; so they brought about an arrangement by which it was settled that, if either brother died v^thout children, the other was to succeed to his dominions. William shortly afterwards found means to induce his brother to pledge him Normandy for a sum of money. William found both the Scots and Welsh troublesome neighbours, and had to take means to defend his kingdom from their assaults. Malcolm, King of Scots, the brother-in-law of Edgar Poiicy towards Atheling, sympathized with the barons, and had Scotland, claims of his own to Cumberland and Westmoreland, which had been granted by King Edmund to the King of Scots, and he took the opportunity of William's absence in Normandy to invade the northern counties. On his return from the Continent, William marched against him, and, being struck with the position of Carlisle on the south bank of the river Eden, caused it to be fortified, and B 50 Norman Ki?is[s. [io9o- peopled it with a colony of south-country men. Situated at one Carlisle extremity of the old Roman wall, it matched New- fortified, castle at the other, and these two fortresses made it harder for the Scots to penetrate into Durham and Cumberland than formerly. Malcolm was soon afterwards slain in Northumberland, near Alnwick. Twice William invaded Wales with a regular army, but found his heavy cavalry no match for the agile Welshmen in their Policy towards mountains and ravines, so he contented himself with Wales. checking the depredations of the Welsh by building a line of fortresses in Cheshire and the Severn Valley. At the same time, he arranged that the war should be carried into their territory by making a free grant of all land taken from the Welsh to the conqueror. This plan afforded occupation to the unruly barons of the border, and was so successful that in a short time almost all the lowlands of Wales and the southern coast was in the hands of Norman adventurers. Lanfranc died in 1089, and the king then made Ranulf Flambard his chief adviser. Flambard was one of the Normans who had been Extortions of in England in the time of Edward the Confessor. Flambard. jje was a churchman, and an able as well as an unscrupulous man ; but he served the king well, and helped him to grow rich by enforcing the feudal dues. When any man who held land from the king died, his heir had to pay a large sum of money called a "relief," because it was paid on tahing up the estate. If the heir was a minor, the king acted as his guardian, bringing him up, but putting the proceeds of the estate into the royal treasury; and when he came of age he had to pay a relief as well. If the heir happened to be a woman, the king claimed the right to bestow her in marriage, and in this way rewarded his friends. All these rights the king exercised, because the landowners were regarded as officers as well as tenants of the king, whose chief duty was to defend their estates, and to provide soldiers to fight for the king ; and the king naturally claimed to see that these matters were not neglected during a minority, and that an heiress did not jnarry one of his enemies. By enforcing these dues strictly, and also by exacting heavy aids, i.e. taxes paid by the feudal tenants, the king kept the treasury well supplied. 1096.] William Rufus, 51 The clergy at that time held the greater part of their lands, just like laymen, by feudal tenure, but with this diflference. There were no minorities and no heiresses, and so the king and Exactions from Flambard tried to make up for this, first, by keeping t^e cierg-y. bishoprics and abbeys vacant while they seized the revenues ; and, secondly, by making the new bishops and abbots pay a large sum before they were allowed to be consecrated. Thus, after Lanfranc's death, no new Archbishop of Canterbury was appointed for four years, and WilKam was only, when he thought himself dying, induced to name Anselm as Lanfranc's successor. William, however, recovered, and he then found that his new archbishop, a pious and able man, did not approve of his manner of life, and the way he was robbing the Church. A series of quarrels followed, and at last Anselm left England to lay his case before the Pope. In 1096 all Europe was stirred by the preparations for the first Crusade. Many years before, Jerusalem had been conquered by the Arab followers of Mahomet ; but they had treated causes of the the Christians well, and allowed them either to live ^^^'^ Crusade. , in the city, or to come and go as pilgrims or merchants. Under their rule the great Easter fair at Jerusalem became one of the great events of the commercial world, where Italian merchants met the traders of the East, and the spices and silks of Arabia and India were exchanged for the productions of Europe. But in 1076 Jerusalem fell into the hands of the Seljukian Turks, a wild tribe of Mahometans, who had made their way from the highlands of Asia. They hated Christianity, and cared nothing for commerce, so they oppressed pilgrims and merchants alike; and by degrees trade was utterly ruined, and the cries of the persecuted pilgrims, and the murmurs of the ruined Italians, coupled with the fears of the emperor at Constantinople that he would be exposed to the attacks of the barbarous infidels, created the greatest excitement in Europe. The Normans who had been fighting the Saracens in o- -1 1 1 1 1 . -, 1 . Preactimg- of iSicily had long been anxious to extend their con-' Peter the quests in the East ; so Normans, emperor, Italians, ^^^^ ' and adventurers were only too thankful when Peter the Hermit, who had himself sufi'ered from the persecutions of the Turks, travelled through Europe and preached a holy war, for the 52 Norman Kings, [iioo. recovery of Jerusalera and the Holy Sepulclire from the hands of the unbelievers. Then Pope Urban II. took up the cry, and The first when it was raised, plenty of people, some from pure Crusade. motives, some from interest, were eager to join in the expedition. The kings of France and England approved the plan, for it took away some of the most warlike of their subjects, and William Kufus was glad to take Normandy in pledge for ten thousand marks, to enable his brother Robert to betake himself to the East. After numerous adventures the Crusaders, or Grossmen, who wore the cross on their backs, conquered Jerusalem and estabhshed a Christian kingdom. Except a few of the leaders, who acquired shares in the new conquests, such as Bohemund, a Norman of Tarentum, who became Prince of Antioch, few of the Crusaders gained much except glory from their efforts, and the real advantage of the Crusades fell to the peaceful inhabitants of Europe, and the Kings, who, in the absence of their vassals, took the opportunity to consolidate their power, and the merchants of the Italian republics, such as Venice, Genoa, and Pisa, who, under the banner of the Cross, re-established their trade with the far East. While Robert was away, William, who had been hunting in the Death of '^^'^ Forest in Hampshire, was found with an arrow William. \^ j^jg heart, and though many stories were told of the event, no one can say with certainty how or by whose hand he met his death. CHAPTEE m. Henry I., 1100-1135 (35 years). T» tr^no ' J ( 1100, Matilda of Scotland. Born 1068 ; married i ^ ^ «-. a j i <• t I 1121, Adela of Louvain. Chief Characters of the Reign. — Anselm, Eobert of Belleme, Roger of Salisbury, William Clito. Henry, the youngest son of the Conqueror, was hunting in the forest when Rufus was killed, and he hurried at once to Winchester to secure the treasures of the late king. Robert was Election of still in the East, and no one pressed his claims; so a Henry i. small assembly of prelates and nobles chose Henry for king, and he was crowned, in the absence of Anselm, by Maurice, Bishop of London. The new king began his reign by four popular acts. He issued a charter, married Matilda, the daughter of Malcolm, Popular acts King of Scots and Margaret, the sister of Edgar Atheling, put Ranulf Flambard in prison, and recalled Anselm. Henry's charter is a very important document; it shows us what were the chief grievances of which the nobles and clergy complained, and the way in which they might be remedied. charter of Henry promised that the Church should be free, and Henry, that all bad customs should be abolished, especially ciiurcii. that of making a profit out of the revenues of vacant bishoprics and abbeys, which had been the chief cause of complaint against William Rufus. The nobles were to pay to the king only such reliefs as were just and lawful, instead of any sum that the king might choose to demand ; and heiresses and widows were not to be married against their wiU. Lands which were held by knight-service, i.e. on condition that the holder should provide a horseman in armour for the king's wars, were to be free from any other service. All personal property, i,e. money, chattels, or 54 Norman Kings. [iioo- furniture, might be disposed of by will. To conciliate the lower orders, the tenants-in-chief were ordered to deal with People. , . 11.1111 mi 1 their tenants as the king dealt by them. The laws of Edward the Confessor were to be retained with the improvements which had been introduced by William the Conqueror. This charter shows us the exact position of the king. He was in conflict with the higher classes, the clergy, and the nobles ; but between them and the people he was an arbitrator, to whom they could look for justice, and hence, when the king found himself at war with his nobles, he could ask the people to support him as their champion. Henry's marriage with Matilda was popular with the Enghsh, whom he wished to please ; but it annoyed the Normans, who laughed at Henry and his queen, as the Goodman Godric and his wife Godgifu, after some English story. The children of the marriage, as descendants of William the Conqueror and of Alfred, had a claim to the allegiance of both peoples. The imprisonment of Ranulf Flambard was pleasing to Church- men, nobles, and people alike. It was said that he had not only Imprisonment fleeced, but flayed the flock. His ill-gotten wealth, cfFiambard. howevcr, helped him to get a rope conveyed into the Tower in a jar of wine, and with it he managed to escape, and fled to Normandy. Henry had not been king long before he found himself at war "War with the with his barons. Their leader was Robert of Belleme, barons. Yi2A of Shrewsbur}^, and son of Roger of Montgomery, the old ally of Odo of Bayeux. He held a number of strong castles on the Welsh border, and was by far the most powerful lord in England. Henry marched against him, captured him and his castles, and drove him into exile. The English were delighted at his fate, and said, " Rejoice, King Henry, and praise the Lord God ; for you are now a true king, having beaten Robert de Belleme and driven him into exile." Throughout his reign, Henry always had the good will of the English, for his English birth and Enghsh wife made him more to them than the Norman Williams ; and to please them he learnt both to read and to speak the English tongue. W^hen Robert came home he naturally claimed the crowTi, in Robert's claim accordance with the arrangement made with Rufus ; to the Crown, y^^^ ^|^q English supported Henry, and Robert waa 1107.] Henry I, 55 obliged to content himself with Normandy. When Eohert of Belleme was expelled, he retired to Normandy and set himself to stir up war between the duke and his brother. In 1106 Henry, with an army of whom many were English, completely defeated Eobert at Tenche- brai. The duke was captured and imprisoned, and Henry became master of the whole of Normandy. The English looked on Ten- chebrai as a revenge for their defeat at Hastings forty years before. During the early years of his reign, Henry was engaged in a quarrel with Anselm. As the clergy held most of their lands from the king as feudal vassals, and had to perform the same military , . p • , Henry's services as laymen, it was or great importance to the auarrei with king that his bishops and abbots should not be his Anseim. enemies. The kings, therefore, insisted upon their right of granting investiture to abbots and bishops by giving them the ring and staff, and of receiving homage from them for their lands. When Anselm was on the Continent, he became acquainted with an attempt which the pope was making to regain for the Church the control over her own officers, and on his return he refused to consecrate bishops who had done homage for their lands to the king. Henry clearly could not allow the clergy, who owned a very large part of the country, to become independent of him, so he refused to give way. But both Henry and Anselm were reasonable men, and in 1107 it was agreed that the election of bishops should be in the hands of the cathedral clergy, but that the choice should be Election of made in the king's court, that the man chosen should bishops, then do homage ^ for his land to the king, and that the archbishop should not refuse to consecrate the bishop-elect, and give him the ring and staff, because he had done such homage for his land. In this way the Church was saved from the scandal of having her bishops directly appointed by the king ; on the other hand, the king retained his hold over the feudal services due from the Church lands, and in reality was still able to secure the election of his friends. After Henry had settled his diSiculties with his brother Eobert 1 To do homage meant to become the man of another from whom you held land, by an oath binding you to become his man of life and limb, and to hold faith for the lands held from him. 56 Norman Kings. 11107- and with Anselm, and had defeated the barons in the person of _ . Kobert of Belleme, few events of importance occurred Henry s con- ' . ^ Btitutionai for some years, and the time was employed in organ- izing the administration of the country. In this he was aided by Eoger, Bishop of Sahsbury, who had risen from being the king's chaplain to be his most trusted adviser, and who played a most important part in the system of e-overnment. SMre-moots ^ ^ \ ^ ^ "^ ° , , and iiundred- Dmre-moots and hundred-moots were ordered to moots. meet regularly as heretofore, which was a great advantage to the common people and a great check to the barons^ because they gave ready justice to all, and as they were presided over by the king's officer, the sheriff, the nobles were prevented from getting into their hands the administration of justice. After the Conquest the place of the Witena-gemot was taken by the Magnum Concilium, or Great Council, in which sat the arch- Magnum bishops, bishops, chief abbots, and earls, and also the concUium. tenants-in-chief, that is, men who held their land as vassals of the king, who took the place of the king's Thegns. It was, however, summoned only on great occasions, and the chief business was done by the Curia Eegis, or king's law court, which tried all cases between the great nobles, and other cases on appeal from the shire-moot. The members of this court were mainly the great officers of the realm, such as the Justiciar,! Chancellor, Treasurer, and others ; but the king could always name any one else to be a member of the court. When the court was sitting to give advice to the king on matters of state, it was called the king's Ordinary Council, as opposed to the Great Council which sat on special occasions ; when it was dealing with matters concerning the king's revenue, which formed at that time a large share of the business, it was called the Court of Exchequer ; and when it acted as a law court, simply the King's Court, or Curia 1 The Justiciar, under the Norman and early Angevin kings, was the chief officer of the realm. He usually acted as the king's representative, and in the king's absence presided over the Curia Regis. From this his chief duties became legal, and his title is still preserved in that of Chief Justice. The Chancellor was the king's chief secretary, and keeper of his seal. He afterwards took the Justiciar's place as Chief Minister. The Treasurer kept the king's treasure. He succeeded the Chancellor as Chief Minister, and is now represented by a set of Commissioners of whom the chief is called the First Lord of the Treasury. 1135.] Henry I. 57 Regis. Henry made this court sit regularly, and some of its money accounts made in this reign are still preserved. Moreover, he connected the shire-moots with this court by some- times sending members of the Curia Regis to sit in the shire-moots, which was a step towards collecting into a regular itinerant system the administration of justice throughout the justices, country. By this Henry conferred a great benefit on his subjects, and the order he kept was so good that he gained the honourable title of " The Lion of Justice." Henry and Matilda had two children, WilHam and Matilda. In 1120, when William was eighteen, his father began to take steps to secure for him the kingdom, and made the barons Death of Prince of Normandy swear allegiance to him. Unfortunately, "w-iiuam. on the return voyage, the prince's ship, owing to the drunken careless- ness of the crew, ran upon a rock and sank, and all on board but one perished. After the death of his son, Henry married again, for his wife Matilda had died in 1118 ; but, as he had no children, he set about securing the succession for Matilda, his daughter. This lady had married Henry V., the emperor ; she had no children, and on his death had returned to England in 1125. Accordingly, Henry called his barons together, and persuaded them AUeeiance to swear allegiance to her as their future sovereign. sworn to Henry's great fear was that William Clito, son of Robert of Normandy, would be her rival, as he was a young and vigorous man, and had the support of the King of France ; so, to strengthen Matilda on the Continent, he arranged a marriage between her and Geoffrey, the son of Fulk, Count of Anjou. This marriage pleased neither the English nor the Normans, of whom the Angevins were the hereditary foes ; and as Geoffrey was only sixteen, and had a violent temper, it was not happy for Matilda herself. However, three sons were born of it, which was a source of pleasure to Henry. Shortly after the marriage, Henry's fears were removed by the death of William Clito. The last few years of his reign were uneventful, and Henry him- self died in 1135. He was a great king. His instinct made him do what was best for his people, who wanted nothing henry's death BO much as to be safe from the turbulence of the great ^^^ character, landowners. Under him commerce, which was fostered by the 58 Norman Kings. [1135 connection between England and the Continent, flourished, towns . sprang into importance, and the townsmen often state of the bought from the king a charter to allow them to owns. p^^ ^ fixed tax to the exchequer instead of having their payments assessed by the sheriff, a concession which added to their consequence, and was a great source of security to the traders against the injustice of the sheriffs. Henry was a scholar himself, and encouraged learning. He knew French, English, Latin, and perhaps Greek. Under him state of "t^® monasteries, many of which had been founded by learning, -tj^g Normans, became schools for the nobility. In them manuscripts were collected and copied, histories were written, and each little society of monks became in that rude age a centre of civilization and comparative refinement. CHAPTER rV. Stephen, 1135-1154 (19 years). Bom drc. 1094; married, 1124, Matilda of Boulogne. Chief Characters of the Reign. — Matilda, Eoger of Salisbury, Henry of Winchester, Robert of Gloucester, Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury. When Henry was dead, all his schemes for the succession of his daughter fell to the ground. As yet no woman had ruled in England, and the Norman barons could ill brook the -crnpopuiarity reign of a woman; and more than that, Matilda was ofMatuda. the wife of the hated Angevin Geoffrey. Moreover, Matilda repre- sented the system of the Conqueror and his sons, which was distasteful to the barons, and accordingly they set aside the plan of Henry I., broke their oaths to Matilda, and chose a king to rule over them. Their choice fell upon Stephen, the son of Adela, daughter of William the Conqueror, by her husband the Count of Blois, one of the most notable of the Crusaders. Stephen had Election of been a great favourite of Henry I., who had made Stephen, him Earl of Leicester and enriched him with great possessions, so that he was regarded as the leading baron in England. On the death of Henry, which happened in Normandy, Stephen set off for England, and by the assistance of his brother Henry, Bishop of Winchester, on the plea that the late king had on his death-bed released the barons from their oaths, was elected king by the great men and by the Londoners. Meanwhile Matilda was trying to secure Normandy ; but her Angevin friends excited the hatred of the Normans, who readily accepted Stephen as their duke. Thus Stephen gained possession of both countries. Stephen was brave, energetic, handsome, and generous ; but he 6o Norman Kings. [1135- was not the man to keep up the wise admmistration of the first Norman kings, and at the very outset he made mis- Stephen. takes which caused him endless difficulty afterwards. s mis a e . rji^ \q,q-^ a garrison in every castle, and only to allow new castles to be built by special hcence, had been one of the great objects of the Conqueror and his sons. Stephen foohshly allowed the nobles to build castles on their own lands, and the natural result was that a swarm of castles sprang up, and soon the king found it necessary to engage in a series of sieges in order to capture castles which, had it not been for himself, would never have existed. The first person to declare in favour of Matilda was Robert, Robert of Earl of Gloucester, a natural son of Henry I., and Gloucester, ^s he was soon joined by Milo of Hereford, a party for Matilda began to be formed in the west of England. The same year, 1138, that Robert of Gloucester declared for Matilda, her uncle, David King of Scots, another of her supporters, Invasion of the invaded the north of England. He advanced into Scots. Yorkshire, and was there met by an army of Norman knights and English footmen, which had been collected by the exertions of Thurstan, Archbishop of York. To encourage the soldiers, Thurstan allowed them to take with them the sacred banners of St. Peter, St. Wilfrid, and St. John of Beverley. These were placed on a car, and when the Scots attacked the English near Northallerton, they closed up round the car. No efforts of the Scots could break their ranks, and the victory which was thus won was called the "battle of the Standard." It was the first of the great victories gained by the north-country men of England over the Scots. Hitherto Stephen's best supporter had been his brother Henry, who enlisted the Church in his favour; but in 1139 Stephen offended the clergy by rashly attacking the justiciar Roger of Roger, Bishop of Salisbury, his son the chancellor, ury. ^^^ j^.^ nephews the Bishops of Lincoln and Ely, the last of whom was also treasurer, on the plea that they were favourable to Matilda. These prelates held several strong castles, and as they had in their hands the three great offices of state, they were very powerful. Stephen was successful in getting them into 1151.] Stephen. 6i his power ; but it was foolish to alienate the Church, as he was thus left without support against his rival Matilda. Hearing of his mistake, Matilda came to England, and was allowed by Stephen, from an idea of the courtesy due to a lady, to join her half-brother and supporter, Eobert of Gloucester. ,, ^., , , ^r ■) ^ Matilda's Her arrival kindled a civil war, of which most of arrival in the barons took advantage to shut themselves up in ^le-iand. their castles, and support themselves by the pillage of their neighbours. It was a terrible time for the English ; trade and agriculture were ruined, and it was said that God and His saints were asleep, so terrible were the v^ongs which were done in the land. Some barons made horrible things called „ .^, ° TeiTible " sachentages," machines fitted with spikes, so that a cruelties of the man, when put in one, could neither stand, nor sit, nor lie, without pain. Others put their prisoners in noisome dungeons v^th rats and toads; others hung them up, and caused smoke to blow over them, so that they were all but choked. But some good came out of it all, for it taught the people that they must have a strong king who could keep the barons in check, so that these things should never be done again. The details of the war are unimportant. First Stephen was taken prisoner while besieging Eandolf, Earl of Chester, in Lincoln Castle. Then Kobert of Gloucester fell into the „ Varying hands of Stephen's queen, and was exchanged fortunes of the for Stephen. In 1141 Matilda was acknowledged as lady of the English ; but her insolence soon alienated the Londoners, and disgusted Henry, Stephen's brother, who had for a time taken her side. Then the tide turned against her, and she was so closely besieged by Stephen at Oxford, that she was only saved by dressing herself in white, and escaping at midnight over the ice. After a time she left England, and retired to Normandy. In 1151, Matilda's son Henry became, by the death of his father, Count of Anjou ; and the next year he made a lucky match with Eleanor, Duchess of Guienne, who had been divorced Henry of by Louis VII., King of France. From his mother he Anjou. had now obtained Normandy and Maine ; from his father, Anjou and Touraine ; and from his wife, Poitou, Saintonge, Limousin, Guienne, and Gascony. 62 Norman Kings. [1154. The movements of young Henry were viewed with suspicion by Stephen, who attempted to get the bishops to recognize his own Henry ac- SOU Eustace as his successor; but they, headed by knowiedgedas Ttieobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, refused to do Stephen's ' ^ ^•1T^^co successor. this, and soon afterwards Eustace died. In lloo Henry invaded England and renewed the war ; but, after his son's death, Stephen had little heart for the contest, and it was not hard to bring about an arrangement at Wallingford, by which Henry was recognized as the heir to the throne. The last year of Stephen's reign was occupied by an attempt to put a stop to some of the disorder which was going on in the kingdom, and in the midst of it Stephen died, in 1154, after an anarchy, rather than reign, which had lasted nineteen years. GENERAL EVENTS OF THE NORMAN PERIOD. Last Rebellion of the English against the Normans First Rebellion by Korman Barons Domesday Book compiled ... First Crusade Henry I.'s Charter Investiture dispute settled Roger of Salisbury begins to organize the Curia Regis Treaty of Wallingford ... 1071 ... 1074 ... 1085 1095-1099 ... 1100 ... 1107 ... 1107 ... 1153 CHIEF BATTLES OF NORMAN PERIOD. Hastings... Tenchebrai Northallerton 1066 1106 1138 BOOK III THE EAELIEB ANGEVIN KINGS, SOMETIMES CALLED PLANTAGENETS ENGLAND "i AND SOUTHERN SCOTLAND to illustrate History from 1155 to 1603 v.— THE EARLIER ANGEVIN KINGS, 1154-1272. Henry II. = Eleanor of Guienne, 1154-1189. divorced wife of Louis VII. ) d. 1204. = King Henrv, Ricliard I., Geof- = Con- John, = = Isa- Eleanor = d. 1183. 1189-1199. rey, stance 1199-1216. bella of d.ll86. of Brit- of An- Cas- tany. gou- leme. tile. Arthur, Blanche, d. 1203. m. Louis of France. (see"^ ni.). Henry III. = Eleanor Joan, Eleanor, . 1 Richar( 1216-1272. of Pro- m. Alexander m. Simon King of the vence. of Scotland. de Mont- Romans, fort. d. 1271. Edward I., Edmund Crouchback, Margaret, 1272-1307. d. 1295. m. Alexander IIL (see VL). VI.— THE KINGS OF SCOTLAND FROM 1153-1286. Henry, Earl of Huntingdon (see IV.). Malcolm IV., 1153-1165. William the Lion, 1166-1214. Alexander II., = Joan, sister of Henry III. 1214-1249. I Alexander III., m, Margaret, dau. of Henry III., 1249-1286. YII,— KINGS OF FRANCE, 937-1285. Hugh Capet, 987-996. Kobert I., 996-1031. Henry I., 1031-1060. Philip I., 1060-1108. Louis VI., 1108-1187. Louis VII. = (1) Eleanor of Provence, 1137-1180. divorced 1152. (2) Constance of Castile (3) Alice of Champagne Philip Augustus (3), 1180-1223. Louis VIII. = Blanclie of Castile (invader of England 1216), 1223-1226. (see v.). Louis IX. (Saint), 1226-1270. Philip III., 1270-1285. Robert, ancestor of tlie Bourbon kings (see V.). CHAPTER i. Heney II., 1154-1189 (55 years). Bom 1133; married, 1152, Eleanor of Guienne. Chief Characters of the Reign. — Archbishop Theobald, Thomas Beckef^ Richard Fitz-Gilbert, Richard de Lucy, RanuLf Glanville, and William Mandeville. At his accession Henry II. was the monarch of greatest consequence in Europe. He ruled over England and South Wales, witli rights over the princes of north Wales and the kings of character of Scotland ; he was Duke of Normandy, and Count of Henry ii. - Anjou and Maine, and in right of his wife he possessed the great domains of the Dukes of Guienne, which, with his ancestral dominions, gave him a much larger share of modern France than was held by the kings of France of that day. Moreover, he was a man of vefy great ability, thoroughly versed in the arts of war and diplomacy, and a determined enforcer of the law. He had a sound mind in a sound body, delighted in the exercise of the chase, never sat down, but kept his courtiers walking till they were tired, and was a traveller so rapid that he astonished his contemporaries by the suddenness of his appearances. With aU these good qualities, Henry was terribly passionate, and sometimes, though usually cautious, would allow his temper to get the better of him, and to hurry him into actions or words which afterwards cost him dear. To sudh a man as this the disorder of Stephen's reign was abhorrent, and he began at once to clear away the abuses which had disgraced and well-nigh ruined the country. In pirst measures this work he was assisted by his chancellor^ Thomas °^ *^® reiem. Becket. Thomas was the son of a London merchant; but while young he Was brought under the notice of Theobald, character of Archbishop of Canterbury. He is said to have been Becket. educated at Merton, in Surrey, and afterwards situdied at Paris 68 Early Angevin Kings. [1154- and Bologna. On his return to England, he was made by Theobald Archdeacon of Canterbury. It was Theobald who recommended Becket to Henry, and the king soon appreciated the energy and ability of his character, and made him Chancellor. The energy shown by Henry and Becket soon bore fruit. The foolish grants made of crown lands by Stephen and Matilda were Henry's resumed. The castles built in Stephen's reign were reforms. levelled to the ground ; the bad money issued from irregular mints was replaced by a good coinage ; and the bands of mercenaries who had fought for either side and plundered for them- ■ selves, were driven from the country. At the same time, Henry insisted upon his sovereign rights ; forced Malcolm, King of Scots, to give up Cumberland and Northumberland, which had been held by the Scots during the last reign ; and drove his own brother Geoffrey from Anjou, to which he had set up a claim on Henry's becoming King of England. In 1159 Henry went to France to attack the county of Toulouse, which he claimed in right of his wife. In his attack on Toulouse War of Henry was accompanied by Becket, at the head of Toulouse. a band of soldiers. He succeeded in shutting up the count in Toulouse; but refrained from taking that town, because the King of France had come to the assistance of the count, and Henry thought it would be setting a bad example for his nobles if they saw him taking prisoner his own feudal superior. This expedition, however, though it was not of much importance in itself, had indirectly an immense effect on the subsequent progress Institution of of the English nation, by being the occasion of the scutage. institution of scutage. It was a rule of feudalism that a tenant was bound to follow his lord to the wars for forty days, in which the going and coming were not counted. Now, this might not be very serious when the king was making war on the Welsh or Scots, but when the English king called on his tenants- in-chief to follow him to Toulouse or Guienne, it was a very serious matter indeed. As the English kings were now holders of large possessions on the Continent, it was plain that such calls would put a very heavy strain upon the system ; so a new and most important practise was introduced, namely, that of commuting personal service with the king for a payment in money, called shield-money — scutage, 1164.] Henry II, 69 or escuage-— amounting to forty shillings on each knight's fee, or holding, which was bound to provide one horseman. Results of This had great results, for on the one hand it gave scutate, the king a sum of money with which he might hire volunteers to serve for him, and on the other it relieved the tenants-in-chief from a burden, and also had a tendency to make them less warlike, and therefore less dangerous, both to the kmg and the peaceable in- habitants of the country. This arrangement was probably due to Becket, and when Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, died, Henry thought that he could not do better than use his influence to get his chancellor, ° 1 A T Becket made who had served him so well in the state, made Arch- Arciibisiiop of bishop of Canterbury. A difficulty had arisen about ^^ ^^ ^^^' the trial of clergymen. William the Conqueror had removed the bishop from the shire-moot, in which before the Conquest he had sat with the ealdorman, and given him a court of his own ; and from that time forward ecclesiastical cases were tried before the bishops and the archdeacons in their own courts. The question now arose whether clergymen who were accused of crime were to be tried by the bishop, or by the shire-moot like laymen. There was a very real difference between the two courts ; for the bishop's court could not inflict death, but only fine or imprisonment in a monastery, or deprive a man of his clerical orders. In those days there were no less than seven orders of clergy, so that, practically, every professional man who was not a regular soldier belonged in some extent to the clergy, and so, if clerics were to be exempt from the jurisdiction of the lay courts, it meant that all educated persons were to be punished, when they committed crime, with less severity than if they were ignorant. The clergy, however, feared that, if the king once got every criminal clergyman under the jurisdiction of lay courts, the clergy as a whole would lose their independence. Henry hoped that Becket would take his view, and help him to carry his reform. But Becket, when Archbishop of Canterbury, took a very different view of his duty towards his order to that which Henry expected, and entirely refused to give way. His idea seems to Becket's have been that if a clergyman were found guilty of proposal, murder, it would be sufficient punishment to unfrock him,, and then. 7o Early Angevin Kings. [ueS' if he committed another, he would be a layman, and could be hanged as such. In other words, it took two murders to hang a clergyman, Henry's ^'^^ '^^^ to hang a layman. Henry's wish was that a proposal. clergyman, tried and convicted in the lay courts, should be unfrocked by the bishop, and handed back to the sheriff to be hanged or otherwise punished. A very flagrant case of under punishment had just occurred, so in 1163 Henry took advantage of it to take the matter in hand. A Constitutions ^^^^ of the laws relating to Church and State, known of Clarendon, ^s the Constitutions of Clarendon, was drawn up in 1164, some of which were old and some new. Becket, who had at first been induced to accept this, afterwards withdrew his accepta- tion, and hurried from the kingdom to appeal to the pope. Henry insisted upon the Constitutions of Clarendon being enforced, and one of the chroniclers tells us that men might see the mournful spectacle of priests and deacons, who had committed murder and robbery and other crimes, dragged before the king's judges and executed just as if they had been ordinary men. For six years the struggle went on; but at last, in 1169, Becket and Henry patched up a renewal of friendship without exactly settling the question of the Constitutions, and Becket returned to England. Unfortunately, a new cause of offence had been given to Becket, Henry had desired to have his eldest son Henry crowned in his life- New duarrei time, after the German and French fashion, and, in witii Becket. Becket's absence, the ceremony was performed by Roger, Archbishop of York, who had long been Becket's rival. On his return, Becket excommunicated Roger and the bishops who had taken the king's side. This so annoyed Henry that he let fall the words, " Are there none of the cowards eating my bread who will rid me of this turbulent priest ? " Stung by the taunt, four knights in the service of the king hurried to Canterbury, and, after an angry interview with Becket, Murder of murdered him in the cathedral, 1170. No more Becket. wretched thing, both for Henry and for England, could have happened. Of course, Becket was looked on as a martyr, and it was out of the question to enforce the Con- T4-0 T^ftglll'tS stitutions of Clarendon, when every one said that miracles were bemg worked at the tomb of the man who had shed. 1170.] Henry II. yi his blood ill detending the Church against them. For years the pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Thomas of Canterbury was the most popular event in English life, and it was only by very slow steps that the state gradually recovered the hold over the clergy and the Church which was lost by the fatal impatience of the murderers of Thomas Becket. During the time the struggle with Becket was going on, Henry had been engaged in reforming the administration of justice in the shire-moots, or county courts. The sheriff had since Reform of the the Conquest presided over the court of his county ; siiire-moot. but Henry, in 1166, began the practice of regularly itinerant sending two or more judges from the Curia Kegis to -"^ ^°®** sit in the county courts. These judges were called justices in eyre, i.e. justices on journey, and their journeys were arranged in regular circuits, which underwent little change down to quite recent times. When the county court met, twelve knights from each hundred and four men from each township presented to the judges such men as were notorious murderers or robbers, or re- orig-in of the ceivers of such. The judge then ordered these men grand jury, to be put to the ordeal. If they were found guilty, they were punished by hanging or otherwise ; and even if they were innocent by the ordeal, it was thought that they must be good-for-nothing fellows, so they were ordered to leave the country. The body of sixteen men formed a sort of Grand Jury, who presented persons believed to be criminals to the judges, but their guilt or innocence was determined by the ordeal. Some years later, in 1215, a Lateran Council, held at Eome by Pope Innocent III., forbade the use of the ordeal. It was then necessary to replace the ordeal by a little, or petty jury. This origin of the consisted of twelve sworn men, who were taken from petty jury, the neighbourhood where the crime was committed, and were supposed to know the facts of the case. If they did not agree others were added, till twelve gave a verdict one way or another. At a later date the additional jurymen only gave evidence before the original twelve, who gave the verdict on the evidence of the witnesses, as is done at present. As the petty jury- was a substitute for the ordeal, the prisoner could not speak in his own defence, and till modern times he could not even call 72 Early Angevin Kings. [1170- witnesses in his behalf; but it was assumed that he was innocent unless the jury were certain that he was guilty. The improved method of holding the county courts was introduced by the Assize of Clarendon in 1166, and carried further by the Assize of North- ampton in 1176. During Henry's reign an important change had been made in the way of conducting the trial of civil cases. In Old English times Origin of tiie these cases had been decided by the oaths of persons civil jTiry„ -^j^q knew the facts, such as where the boundary of an estate in dispute ran, or who owned a certain wood ; but the Normans introduced the trial by battle, in which such questions were decided by the issue of a combat between the suitors or their representatives. Such a decision was obviously most unfair, and the practice was much disliked, so the plan was introduced of de- ciding such cases by the oaths of a jury of sworn men. This jury was a civil jury, and must be distinguished from the grand and petty juries in criminal cases. During the Becket struggle a step was made towards the con- quest of Ireland. After the Northmen had settled in Normandy Cause of the many adventurers sought for themselves settlements settlement of ^^^ kinffdoms elsewhere. One Norman became Norraansin ° Ireland. Prince of Apulia, another King of Sicily ; many had joined in the Crusades, and one, William the Conqueror, had become King of England. Many had won estates in England and Wales ; others, like the Bruces and Balliols, held property in Scotland ; so it was only natural that Norman knights should interfere in the quarrels of the Irish chiefs, and try to win for themselves lands in fir 1 d *^^* country, Ireland, in the time of Henry II., was in the twelfth in much the same state that England had been in the cen ury. ^.^^ ^^ ^^ Heptarch}!^ ; it was divided into a number of small kingdoms, presided over by a head king, called the Ardriagh, In Dublin and the towns on the eastern coast lived the Ostmen, or Norwegian settlers, who settled in the country during the tenth and eleventh centuries. Ireland was Christian, and many of its clergy had been distinguished for their learning ; but its Christianity was of the Celtic type, which had been rejected by the English at the Synod of Whitby. At the beginning of his reign, Henry had taken advantage of tho 1173.] Henry I J, 73 papacy of a great Englishman, Nicolas Breakspear, to obtain from him a bull authorizing him to conquer Ireland, and bring the practices of the Irish Church into accordance of conauering with those of the rest of Europe ; but he had never Ireland, had time to act upon it. However, in 1169 three Normans of Pem- brokeshire, Kichard Fitz-Gilbert, surnamed Strongbow, ' \ ^ 07 Invasion of Eobert Fitz- Stephen, and Maurice Fitz-Gerald, took Ireland by the the part of Dermot, King of Leinster, who had been ormans. expelled from his kingdom. He landed in Ireland with a small body of men, obtained a footing in the country, and conquered Dublin and a good part of the east coast. Henry condemned their action, but insisted on sharing the spoil, and in 1171, just after Becket's murder, he went over to Ireland, and his supremacy was acknowledged by the chiefs. His son John was afterwards nomi- nated Lord of Ireland in 1177 ; but the English with difficulty main- tained their ground in the counties round Dublin, which were called the English pale, and the real conquest of Ireland did not take place till the time of the Tudors. The years 1173 and 1174 were marked by a great combination of Henry's enemies, who attempted to defeat him by a simultaneous attack in England and on the Continent. It was now _, ° ^ ^ Causes of the one hundred years since the first rebellion of the barons' dis- barons against William the Conqueror, and the struggle had been going on ever since. During the reign of Stephen the barons had done pretty much what they liked, with what results we have noticed; but under Henry II. they had been losing ground, while the king, strong in the support of the middle classes, and of the soldiers he hired with the scutage money, and helped by able men, such as Richard de Lucy, William Mandeville, and Ranulf GlanviUe, was rapidly bringing the kingdom into thoroughly good order. Accordingly, in 1173, the barons took advantage of a quarrel which had arisen between the king and his sons, Henry, Richard, and Geoffrey, to construct a general league against Henry ; and into this alliance entered Louis of France, to whose court the young Henry had fled, the Count of Flanders, the King of Scotland, and the disaffected barons of England and Nor- mandy. The plan was to invade England and Normandy simul- 74 Early Angevin Kings. [1173- fcaneously ; but Henry was on his guard, and beat the French, and Bretons in Normandy, while Kichard de Lucy and Wilham Mande- ville routed the barons of England. Henry's difficulties were not yet over ; the Scots invaded England, and Hugh Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, was still in arms in the eastern counties. So great was the crisis, that Henry thought it good to come to England and do penance at the tomb of Becket, lest any should still regard him as under a murderer's curse. To his great joy, however, he heard that the very day he was on his knees at Canterbury, William the Lion, Capture of the Ki^g of Scots, had been captured at Alnwick; and King- of Scots, gjiortly afterward, the barons who were in arms in Norfolk were put down, and this, the last attempt of the barons to make themselves independent of the crown, was at an end. Henry took advantage of the captivity of the King of Scots to Treaty witii Hiake him not only do homage for the kingdom of Scotland. Scotland, but also put the castles of Lothian in English hands, by the treaty of Falaise, made 1174. The remaining years of Henry's reign were occupied with com- pleting his reforms in England and quarrelling with his sons on the _ - , Continent. In 1178 he made a change in the Curia Development _ ° _ of tiie Curia Eegis, which was a great step in developing our judicial system. We saw that when the Curia Eegis was dealing with the revenue, it was called the court of exchequer. In this year a selection of five judges was made from those of the Curia Eegis, who sat as a court to hear cases, and this court before long developed into the two courts of King's Bench and Common Pleas. In theory the court of King's Bench tried cases in which the king was concerned, which were called pleas of the crown ; the court of Common Pleas tried cases between one subject and another. From each of these courts there was an appeal to the king in the Ordinary Council. The last great measure of Henry was the assize of arms. Before the Conquest, every free man from sixteen to sixty had been hable to serve in thefyrd, or militia, and afterwards, though' Assize of arms. , , p t , i i i . , the leudal array had been more promment, the fyrd had been called out to fight against the Scots at Northallerton, against the Welsh, against Eobert of Belleme, and on many other occasions. However, since the institution of scutago, Henry had 11890 Henry II. 75 used the feudal obligation as a means rather of raising money than soldiers, so he determined to organize the militia anew. Accordingly, in 1181, an assize of arms was issued, which regulated the national fyrd, or militia, stated what arms each freeman was to possess according to his wealth, and arranged for the inspection of these arms at regular intervals. In this way the king had two armies — one a small one of paid troops, whom he hired to garrison his castles and fight his battles on the Continent; the other the militia, on whom he relied for the defence of England against foreign foes, or for putting down insurrection at home. Only freeholders were allowed to serve in the militia. In 1187, news was brought to Europe that Jerusalem had again fallen into the hands of the Mahomedans. The small Turkish states, which had been singly no match for the Christians, ^^ ^^^ ^^ had been united by Saladin into one great power, Jerusalem by which stretched from the Euphrates to the Nile, and before its strength the Christians of Jerusalem were defeated in the battle of Tiberias, and Jerusalem was lost. The news stirred Europe to its depths. The Emperor Frederick Barbarossa started to the relief of the Christians ; and Henry had such thoughts of following him, that he collected from his subjects a tenth of their goods, which was called the Saladin tithe. This tax is notable r^j^g saiadin because it was the first laid, like an income tax, on Tithe, personal property, all previous taxes having been laid on land only. The quarrels between Henry and his sons, however, prevented him from going to the East. His eldest son Henry had died in 1183, but Richard was in arms against his father with Philip of France. They drove Henry from Touraine and reduced him to great straits. Henry stiU relied on the good wiU of his youngest son John; but, on peeing his name among a list of noblemen who had joined the French king, he had no heart to continue the struggle, and died, we may almost say of a broken heart, in 1189. CHAPTER n. RiCHAKD L, 1189-1199 (10 years). Born 1157; married, 1191, Berengaria of Navarre. Chief Characters of the Reign. — William Longchamp, Walter of Coutance, Hugh of Avalon, Hubert Walter, and Geoffrey Fitz-Peter. On the death, of his father, Richard became king without opposition. His chief wish was to lead a crusade and win glory in the Holy Preparations Land, and he looked upon England as only useful to for a crusade, provide the money for that end. Accordingly, he sold all the offices of state in England, and for the sum of ten thousand marks gave up the concessions which William the Lion had made to Henry H. at the treaty of Falaise, and so restored the relations between the King of England and the King of Scots in the same uncertain condition as they had been before that treaty. As was usual when people were filled with crusading zeal, the Jews suffered from persecution. In England this people were re- persecutions of girded as the king's property, and, being taxed by him the Jews. ^^ ^^^ Were a source of great wealth to him. But, as most of their money was made by money-lending, they were hated by the borrowers, who were glad to take advantage of any excuse to attack them. Accordingly, when Richard took the lead in exact- ing money from the Jews for the Crusade, a general attack and massacre followed, and London, York, Norwich, with other great towns were the scenes of great atrocities. "When Richard had got as much money as he wanted, he left England, and prepared to set out for the East. In Richard's absence the government of England was entrusted ^ . to William Longchamp, the Chancellor, who became Qovemment in _ or? 7 Riciiard's Justiciar and Papal Legate, so that he held in his own hands the chief civil and ecclesiastical authority. To satisfy his younger brother John, of whom he was extremely 1189.] Richard I. 77 suspicious, Richard, entirely neglecting the policy of William the Conqueror, made him earl of territories which amounted to almost a third of the kingdom, but exacted an oath from him that he would never come to England. John does not seem to have expected his brother back again from the wars, and acted as if he might at any time become king. In this he was helped by Geoffrey, Arch- bishop of York, a natural son of Henry II. ; and the two raised the barons against Longchamp, who was expelled, and retired to Nor- mandy. Longchamp's place was taken by Walter of Coutance, Archbishop of Eouen, who brought letters of authority from Richard, and conducted the government of the country till he was succeeded by Hubert Walter, Archbishop of Canterbury, the nephew of Ranulf Glanville, who had been justiciar under Henry II. Meanwhile Richard had travelled by sea to Sicily, where he met his ally, Philip of France, at the court of Tancred, King of Sicily, who was himself a Norman. There Richard was Riciiarci's married to Berengaria of Navarre, and thence he adventiires. sailed to Cyprus, which he captured in revenge for the murder of some shipwrecked sailors. He then went to Acre, where he found Philip of France. Acre is a seaport town not far from Mount Carmel, and commands the coast of Syria. It had fallen into the hands of the Mahomedans, and was besieged by the Christians, who were themselves attacked by Saladin ; so it was difficult to say who were the besieged and who the besiegers. The energy of Richard carried all before him, and the city was taken 1191 ; but Richard, though brave and energetic, was not the man to weld together so motley a troop of fighting men as composed a crusading army, and he found it impossible to form the siege of Jerusalem, from which he had to retreat. Philip of France, on the plea of ill health, had already gone home, and Richard, hearing that on his return he was planning with John an attack upon his dominions, set off home with a few followers. Unfortunately, Richard was Wrecked in the Adriatic, and, while trying to make his way home by land, was recognized, and fell into the hands of his personal enemy, Leopold, Richard's Bake of Austria, who handed him over to the emperor, captivity, Henry VI. As soon as Richard's captivity was known, John did homage to Philip for Normandy 5 but Eleanor, Richard's mother, fS Eai'ty Angevin Kings, [iid9. and the chief English ministers, made the greatest exertions to secute their king's release, which was at length effected, at the cost of one hundred thousand pounds paid to the emperor. In 1194 Kichard was at liberty and came back to England. He raised more money by sale and extortion, while, to secure himself ^^, against being thought to have lost dignity by his im- return to prisonment, he was crowned a second time. He then ng an . j^^^ England, after a visit of two months, and spent the remainder of his life in making war upon Philip of France and his rebellious vassals, though he kept on comparatively good terms with his brother John. The exactions which Hubert Walter had to make to supply the king with money for these wars caused a great deal of discontent, « ^ „. ^ and in 1195 the poorer citizens of London, com- RebeUion of ^ . ^ ' "W'iniam Fitz- plaining that they had to pay too large a share of the taxes due from the city, broke out into rebellion under William Fitz-Osbert, but were easily crushed. In 1198 Hugh of Avalon, Bishop of Lincoln, was successful in refusing to Resistance to P^^ money to Support the war in France, which is the taxation. gj-gf; j-gal instance of successful resistance to taxation. The same year Hubert Walter retired, and Geoffrey Fitz-Peter became justiciar. A year later Kichard himself was kiUed while besieging the castle of a petty knight, who was the possessor of some treasure to Rictiard's which Richard thought he had a claim. Richard's deatiii reign of ten years, of which but a twentieth part was the reign. spent in England, was very useful to the nation, because it gave time for the legal and administrative reforms of Henry 11. to get into working order, and to take a firm hold upon the country. Richard was extolled as the ideal of a feudal knight. He was certainly brave, but his selfishness, cruelty, and vanity deprive him of all claim to respect. CHAPTER ni. Jomr, 1199-1216 (17 years). „ ^^^„ . , / 1189, Hadwisa of Gloucester (divorced). Bomllo7; married, { 1200, Isabella of Angouleme. Chief Characters of the Reign.— Ruhert Walter, Geoffrey Fitz-Peter, Stephen Langton, William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke, and Peter des Roches. When Eichard was dead there were two candidates for the crown of England. One was Arthur, the son of Geoffrey, Kichard's next brother, who had died before him ; the other was John, Election of the youngest son of Henry II. Philip of France was '^°^^- expected to support Arthur, and to his court Arthur fled ; but Philip at that moment was quarrelling with the pope about a wife that he wished to put away, and could give him no active assistance. The throne, therefore, fell to John. In France no one worked harder for him than his mother Eleanor, who wished to keep together all the dominions over which she and Henry ll. had ruled, and for that reason always supported that one of her sons who she thought was most likely to effect this. In England he had the support of Arch- bishop Hubert, Geofirey Fitz-Peter, the old ministers of Richard, and of William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke. These statesmen held a meeting of the chief men at Nottingham, where John was chosen king, the uncle of fall age being preferred, according to the old Enghsh practice, to the nephew who was a minor. After a solemn admonition from the archbishop, John was crowned, and made Hubert his first Chancellor. After a very slight effort on his behalf Philip gave up the claims of Arthur, and made peace with John, while he compelled Arthur as Duke of Brittany to do homage to John. John might now have etijoyed an honourable and prosperous 8o Early Angevin Kings, [ii89- reign; but his character was so bad, and his imprudence led him Joiin's to act so foolishly, that he not only lost for England prospects. most of her continental possessions, but only saved himself by dying from losing his crown. John's first mistake was to divorce his wife, Hadwisa of Gloucester, who was related to some of the strongest of the English barons, ^. ^ and then to marry Isabella of Angouleme, who was Divorce and •' ° ' re-marriage of betrothed to the Earl of March, one of the most powerful of the nobles of France. In this way he contrived to irritate against himself the nobility both of his English and Continental dominions. This quarrel led him to oppress some of the nobles of Poitou ; they in due form appealed to their feudal superior, the King of ^r -x-,- France, and Philip summoned John to Paris to be Warwitli . Phnipand tried by his peers. John refused to go, and Philip ^' and Arthur attacked his dominions. In the war, while Arthur was besieging his grandmother Eleanor, in the castle of Mirabel, he was captured by John, and then all trace of him was lost. John was held responsible for his death, and the French king again summoned John to Paris to be tried for this new offence. Again John refused to go, and Philip seized the occasion to attack Normandy. John was too lazy to bestir himself. The result of the fighting was that Philip made himself master of all Normally, ' the Strong places in Maine, Normandy, Anjou, and Anjou, and: Touraine, and the English were compelled to evacuate Tovirame. ' ° ^ the territories which had been handed down to them from William the Conqueror and Geoffrey of Anjou. Deatiiof The next year, 1205, John lost another of his ^^^Hubert*^ °^ supporters in Hubert Walter, whose death unfortu- "Waiter. nately involved him in a quarrel with the pope. There were two parties who claimed to elect the Archbishop of Canterbury — the monks of the ancient monastery of Canterbury, and Election of an the suffragan bishops of the province. In this instance archbisiiop. -^j^e monks were divided among themselves, for the younger monks named Eeginald, their sub-prior, and sent him to Rome to obtain his pallium from the pope. Reginald was told to go as quietly as possible ; but, on reaching the Continent, he assumed all the state of an archbishop-elect, and, the secret being out, the 1213.] John, 8 1 elder monks then chose John de Grey, Bishop of Norwich, who had been suggested by the king. A deputation of the elder monks then went to Rome to press the claims of De Grey, while the suffragan bishops {i.e. those bishops who belonged to the province of Canterbury) put in a claim to have a voice in the election. The Pope, Innocent III., set aside both elections, and persuaded the electors to agree upon Stephen Langton, an Englishman at the papal court, who had distinguished himself in many ecclesiastical capacities. This threw John into a rage, and he refused to receive Langton. The pope replied by putting the country under an interdict, which forbade services to be held in the churches, and only „ ^ allowed them to be held in the chapels of the Knights under an Templars. John cared little about the interdict, and retaliated by attacking the Church property, and even chose this as the best moment to march to the north and receive, from the Kin^ of Scots, such homage as was received before the treaty of Falaise. Finding John obdurate, the pope excommunicated him in person, and in revenge John seized the property of the bishops. The pope's next step was to depose John, and call on Philip to john ex- do the work of deposing him. This was no empty communicated, threat; for the Welsh, taking advantage of the pope's permission, made a raid on the border counties, and Philip collected a fleet and armj'- to invade the southern coast in 1211. It was clear to John that, unless he could divide his enemies, he would be lost, so he determined to make the pope his friend, and by an artful movement put himself on the same , , . ^^ *' ^ , , , John wins the side as the wielder of excommunication. The price pope to Ms the pope demanded was high, but John did not ^^ ®' shrink, and he actually, in 1213, agreed to hold England as a fief of the papacy, and to pay the pope a thousand marks a year, as an acknowledgment of his position. The success of this move was apparently great. The pope with- drew his sentence of deposition, and forbade Philip to continue the enterprise, while the English fleet put to sea, and invasion of inflicted a severe defeat on the French at Damme. Trance Elated by his success, John determined to invade ^ *^^^ France ; but his barons refused to follow him till he had fulfilled the 82 Early Angevin Kings. [1214- conditions of his treaty witli the pope. At this moment Geoffrey Fitz-Peter died, and was succeeded as justiciar by Peter des Roches, Bishop of Winchester, a Poitevin. When John had been freed from his sentence of excommunication the barons again refused to follow him to France, on the plea that their term of service was expired, and while John was Barons deter- ^ ; *• i • v mine to de- away they held a series of meetings, at one of which man ac ar er. i^d^wgiQTi^ who, contrary to the expectation of the pope, was taking the side of the barons, read to them the charter of Henry I., and they determined to demand something of the kind from John. Meanwhile John was fighting in Poitou ; but the real seat of war was Flanders, where Otto, John's nephew, the emperor, William ■War in Poitou ^^'^ ^f Salisbury, John's half-brother, and the Count and Flanders, of Flanders Were advancing against Philip. The Ruin of John's forces of the allies, however, suffered a complete plans by tlie ' , - ^ . i • i battle of defeat at the battle of Bouvmes, 1214, which com- pletely shattered John's hopes of revenging himself on Philip, and forced him to return home to face the anger of his barons. He found the barons determined to demand their rights ; and, indeed, they had bound themselves with a solemn oath to levy war John prepares ^po^ the king till they were successful. John put to resist the them off with a promise to answer their demands at „ ,.^ ' Easter, and meanwhile he did what he could to Fortifies ' .^ castles. strengthen himself for the struggle. He fortified his Hires castles: brought over foreign mercenaries from Poitou mercenaries. . ' . , . _. . , i « ^ ^ ~ and Flanders : made a desperate effort to wm back Grants freedom ' ^ of election to Langton and the clergy, by granting freedom of c erg-y. gjection to episcopal sees and monasteries : de- Demands an , oath of manded an oath of allegiance from every freeman aUegiance. throughout England; and put himself under the .especial protection of the Church, by taking the cross as a Crusader. The barons, however, were too strong for him. Mustering their forces in the midlands, they marched to London, and were well received by the citizens. John found himself deserted John s deffeat. . on all sides, and, brought to bay at last, was obliged, at Runnymede, to agi'ee to the demands of the barons on June 15, 1215. 1215.] John. 83 The demands of the barons, to which John now gave his assent, form the Great Charter. This document contains a large number of clauses, and deals with the Church, the baronage, the collection of aids and scutages, the administra- ^^^^ * *" tion of justice, purveyance,^ trade, and a variety of other points, some of permanent and some of only temporary interest. The most important of John's concessions were these : — The Church was secured in the enjoyment of all . . . TheChurcli, its rights, including John s concession of free election. The feudal dues of the barons were fixed at a regular rate, in proportion to the land held, and the rights of wardship and marriage were made less galling. No aids or scutages ,, iiii-n 1 . The barons. were to be collected by the king from the tenants-m- ^^^g ^^^ chief except the three ordinary ones (to ransom the scutages. lord's body, for the knighting of his eldest son, and for ®^ ^ ^®^' the first marriage of his eldest daughter) . Any other aids or scutages were to be voted by a council of prelates and „ •' IIP! Great council greater barons, summoned separately, and of lesser of feudal barons and tenants-in-chief, summoned by writ, *"*^ ^* addressed to the sheriff in the county court. As we have seen, the higher courts of the country were developed from the Curia Kegis. This court went with the king wherever he might happen to go, which was a great source of justice, trouble to the suitors, who might have to travel from ^ court of ' ° ^ Comni on Pleas one end of England to another before their case had fixed, been heard. To remedy this, it was arranged that the Com-t of Common Pleas was to stay at a certain fixed place. This place was Westminster, where lay one of the king's chief ... Justices in palaces. It was also settled that the justices in eyre, evre were to make their circuits four times a year, Justice not to *' 1 be delayed so that suitors should not be kept waiting. The or sold, king promised that he would not sell, refuse, or defer No freeman to right or justice to any one. More than all, that no without trial freeman was to be imprisoned, outlawed, punished, ^^^^ tti*^^^^ or molested, except by the judgment of his equals or * Purveyance was the right which the king exercised of providing for his household on a journey. This was done by forcing people to sell what the king wanted at nominal prices. 84 Early Angevin Kings. iisis. by the law of the land, i.e, by the decision of a jury, by trial by battle, or by ordeal. An attempt was made to get rid of abuses in the system of Purveyance purveyance, but as the king still retained the right of reformed. pre-emption, that is of buying a thing if he needed it, there was plenty of room left for abuse. Merchants were to come and go freely in the kingdom — ^there were to be no passports ; and, finally, the barons and clergy agreed that every liberty which the king had granted to his tenants should be observed by them to theirs. No sooner was the Charter agreed to than John set about freeing himself from his oath. For this purpose he trusted to the assistance . , of the pope, while, to prepare himself for a new cam- to annul tiie paign, he began to hire fresh mercenaries abroad. Innocent did not disappoint him, but took his side with vigour, threatened to excommunicate the barons for levying war upon a Crusader, and for exacting concessions detrimental to the honour of the Holy See, and finally suspended Langton from the exercise of his functions. Meanwhile John was harrjang the estates of the barons with fire and sword, and he crossed the border to ravage Scotland, whose young king Alexander had taken the side of the barons. The atrocities of John's foreign mercenaries were ter- rible ; they turned the country through which they passed into a desert. ^ At last the barons determined to offer the crown to the eldest son of Philip of France, Louis, and his wife Blanche of Castile, grand- Barons cau on <^^^g^^6^ ^f Henry H. Louis accepted the crown, and, Louis of landing at Sandwich, marched on London, where he was received with enthusiasm by the barons. The young prince made a very good impression, and won popularity by making Simon Langton, the brother of the archbishop, his chancellor, and the King of Scots came to Dover to do him homage. Meanwhile John and his mercenaries marched north and captured Lincoln and Lyim ; but, in returning to Lincolnshire, John had the John's misfortune to lose all the baggage of his army, con- misfortunes taining his jewels and money, which were swallowed up by the tide while crossing the Wash. That night he fell into a fever, and with difficulty reached Newark, where he died, on October 19, 1216. CHAPTEE rV. Heney III., 1216-1272 (56 years). Bom 1207 ; married, 1236, Eleanor of Provence. Chief Characters of the Eeign. — Stephen Langton, William Marshall, Hubert de Burgh, Falkes de Breaute', Peter des Roches, Richard Earl of Corn- wall, Robert Grossetete, Simon de Montfort, and Gilbert Earl of Gloucester. At the moment when John died, Louis of France appeared to have every chance of winning the kingdom ; he was supported by the most powerful of the barons, and had received prospects of the homage of the King of Scotland and the Prince Henry, of Wales ; but matters were changed by the death of the king. It had been John's character which had driven his subjects to rebel, while the innocence of the young king, now only in his tenth year, called for the protection of all loyal men. It took time, however, for a new royal party to be formed, and at first the supporters of the king were outnumbered by those of Louis. Henry's most powerful supporters were William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke, who was made regent, Peter des Koches, and Gualo, the papal legate. These three represented, respectively, the English, the foreign supporters of John, and the overlordship of the pope, and they formed a council to conduct the affairs of the young king. The first thing to be done was to get rid of Louis ; but the decisive battle was not fought till May, 1217, when Louis' forces were over- thrown at a battle fought in the streets of Lincoln, _ ^ . . , Defeat of Louis which was commonly called Lincohi Fair. Louis still at Lincoln and hoped to get assistance from France ; but a fleet of ^^ ^^° ' eighty ships which was bringing it was defeated off Sandwich by Hubert de Burgh, who, though he only had forty vessels, managed 86 Early Angevin Kings. [1217- by a clever manoeuvre to get to the windward of the French, and then his sailors grappled the ships of the enemy, while they threw quicklime in the eyes of the crews, and so completed their dis- comfiture. These two defeats secured the departure of Louis, and gave the regent time to take measures for the good government of the kingdom. Magna Carta had already been published, but all the clauses of Magna Carta ^ temporary nature had been omitted, and also those repubUshed. about aids and scutages, and the summoning of the council of archbishops, bishops, earls, and greater and lesser barons. New council of I^i 1219, WilHam Marshall, the great Earl of Pem- reg-ency. broke, died, and the government then fell into the hands of Peter des Roches, Pandulf the legate, and Hubert de Burgh. The great object of the Government was to re-establish security for life and property, and remove the disorders which had been created Reforms of the ^7 ^^^ Struggle against John. The chief obstacles to regents. ^(^yi: designs wcre the representatives of the turbulent barons of the Conquest, and the foreigners who had been bought into the country by John. The leaders of these two Turbulent . . nobles put classcs were WiUiam of Aum^le, who was obliged to ^''^^' submit in 1221, and Falkes de Breaute. Falkes had been the leader of John's foreign mercenaries, he had become sheriff of six counties, and he was in possession of several strong castles. So lawless was he, that he actually imprisoned one of the king's judges because he had condemned him to pay damages at the assizes at Dunstable. But the capture of his castle of Bed- ford broke his power, and he was expelled from the country in 1224. The early years of this reign were distinguished by the first attempt by the pope to raise a regular revenue from the clergy of Papal England. Already he received one thousand marks exactions. g^ yg^r as overlord ; but, besides that, he wished to make the English clergy contribute to the support of his court, partly by making them pay a direct tax, partly by pajdng his servants by giving them livings in England. At first he tried to get both laity and clergy to pay. The laity, however, refused, but the clergy had to give up to the pope a tenth of their yearly income, and the first year's emoluments of all benefices. These sums were 1232.] Henry III. 87 called annates and firstfruits ; the granting of livings was called provisors or provisions. In 1227 Henry, who was then twenty, declared himself of age to govern, and continued Hubert de Burgh in the office of justiciar. This statesman ruled well; he was the last of the Henry comes men who, Kke Hubert Walter and Geoffrey Fitz- of age. Peter, had been trained in the system of Henry II. Hubert de During four years of his rule Peter des Koches, his Burgh, rival, was away on a crusade, but in 1231 he returned, and im- mediately begun to plot the fall of Hubert. The justiciar had many enemies, and he is said to have used his power to increase his own wealth ; so Peter des Koches had little difficulty in forming a party against him, and won over the king to his views. Henry, like many weak persons, was unscrupulous when roused, so he attacked Hubert with fury, flung him into prison, and stripped him of his wealth and offices : and when , ^^. -, -, 1 . , 1 Fall of Hubert. the prisoner escaped and took sanctuary in a church, he had a moat dug round it and starved Hubert into surrender. The fall of Hubert de Burgh took place in 1232 ; he was the last of the great justiciars who had acted as the king's chief ministers since the time of William Kufus. After his time the Chancellor (see note, p. 56) became the most important of the king's officers. After Hubert's fall Henry took the conduct of affairs into his own hands, and twenty-six years of bad government followed. A considerable change had come over the state of affairs Henry's since the death of John. William the Conqueror government, and Henry II. had found a great source of their power in their wealth, which arose partly from the large number of manors in the king's hands, and partly because they had been practically able to levy aids and scutages at will. The extravagance of Richard and John, however, had stripped the crown of a large part of its posses- sions, while, although the clauses about aids and scutages had been omitted when the Great Charter was republished, the king had found it in practice impossible to levy these taxes without the consent of his tenants. Hence the king was continually pressed Poverty of for money, and there were special causes in Henry's *^® ^^^^• case which produced a constant drain upon his lightened purse. SS Early Angevin Kings. [1232- In the first place, Peter des Eoches was surrounded by a group of Poitevins who obtained oflBces from Henry through the influence Greediness of of their fellow-countryman. The favour shown to the fav?urSs. Poitevins instantly caused the nobles to form an op- Poitevins. position, at the head of which was Eichard Marshall, the second son of the late regent, who, unhappily, was soon killed in Ireland by treachery. Edmund Eich, Archbishop of Canterbury, then took the lead, and matters had come to the point of civil war when the dismissal of Peter des Eoches and his friends removed the grievance of the barons. Unfortunately, the Poitevins were not the only persons who thought they had a claim to Henry's bounty ; in 1236 the king married Eleanor of Provence, and her uncles, William Provencals. i. o of Valence, Boniface of Savoy, and Peter of Savoy, arrived in England with a troop of Provengals, and soon obtained as large a share of the revenue as the Poitevins had done. Then Isabella of Angouleme, Henry's mother, who had married Hugh de Half-brothers 1^ Marche and had a numerous family, sent over of the king. Henry's half-brothers, including another, William of Valence, to push their fortunes in England, and brought with them another body of Poitevins. Lastly, Henry was in debt to the pope. The pope had been continually pushing his claims to money, and making provisions for Debts to the ^^'^ dependents. The man who made the greatest pope. resistance was Eobert Grossetete, Bishop of Lincoln ; but he could do little to stop the provisions, while Boniface of Savoy the queen's uncle, who became archbishop in 1241, did nothing to help. In 1237, Cardinal Otho, in spite of the irritation of the clergy Exactions of and people, came over to England and collected vast the Papacy, g^j^g f^p ^^ papal treasury. At the Council of Lyons, in 1245, the English complained that sixty thousand marks a year went into the hands of the pope and the foreign clergy. These sums had been exacted from the clergy and people ; but in Henry accepts ^^^'^ ^^® P^P^j who had been warring in Italy against the crown of the descendants of the Emperor Frederick, who had Sicily for his son, and incurs married Henry's sister, offered the crown of Sicily further debts, ^j^j^j]^ j^^^j \iQ%\i part of the dominions of that monarch, to Eichard, Henry's brother. He refused it, and it was accepted 1 1255.] Henry III. 89 for Edmund, the king's second son, then nine years old. Henry- had no money to pay an army to go to Sicily, so the pope entered upon the war himself, and put down all the expenses to Henry's account ; consequently, by 1257, Henry's debt to the pope amounted to 135,000 marks. Meanwhile in other respects Henry's government had been unsuccessful ; in 1242 he had been led by his mother to make an expedition to Gascony in support of his stepfather. This adventure cost him a large sum, and only resulted expeditious to in the battles of Taillebourg and Saintes, in which the balance was certainly on the side of the French king, and the arrival in England of a fresh batch of Poitevins, who came back with Henry in 1243. Moreover, Henry's rule in England had been hopelessly weak, and on one occasion a number of his own servants were weakness of convicted of highway robbery, to which they had henry's rule, been driven by the arrears into which their salaries had fallen. It must not be supposed that this state of things had been viewed with indifference by the country. In 1244 the earls, barons, and bishops had demanded control over the appointment of ministers, and in 1255 the same demand was renewed by Parliament, as the great council of the nation had now begun to be called. It was refused, but the demand showed that the opposition had reahzed the right way to influence the king's policy, and were slowly feeling their way towards making the ministers responsible to the nation. At length the barons found a leader against the foreigners, in the person of Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester. Simon was himself a foreigner. He was the second son Rise of simoa of another Simon de Montfort, who had led the ^e Montfort. Crusade against the Albigenses, but when his father died the elder son succeeded him, and Simon came over to England to try and get the earldom of Leicester, to which his mother, being His arrival the sister of the late earl, had a claim. This claim was "^ England, admitted by Henry III., who received de Montfort at court ; and de Montfort's next step was to marry Eleanor, the sister Marriage with of Henry, and widow of William Marshall, eldest son -^^^^'^ sister, of the regent. From 1248 to 1253 the Earl of Leicester acted as 90 Early Angevin Kings. [1255- governor of Gascony, where he gained much experience, but acquired a character for severity, and he was unjustly charged by his subjects with peculation, tyranny, and cruelty. The result was a quarrel with Henry, and de Montfort left England for some time. On his return he was reconciled to Henry, but in 1257 he quarrelled with William of Valence, the king's half-brother, and Takes the lead ^°°^ ^^ leadership of the opposition. The time was of the very favourable for attacking Henry's government, opposition. rji^^ king's youugcr brother, Eichard Earl of Cornwall, had just gone to Germany, where he had been elected King of the Romans. Henry was desperately in debt, and the Parliament of 1258, often called the Mad Parliament of Oxford, under the lead of Simon de Montfort and Richard Earl of Gloucester, took upon itself to reform the administration. The plan they adopted was to take the government out of the hands of Henry and hand it over to a committee of twenty-four Provisions of persons, who were to reform all grievances in Church Oxford. ^j^^ State. Besides this committee, another body of fifteen were to act for the future as council to the king ; the fifteen were to hold three annual Parliaments. For the reform of the country the committee ordained that sheriffs should be chosen annually by vote, and that the sheriffs, treasurer, chancellor, and justiciar should give in their accounts once a year. By a threat of resuming the lands which had been granted by Flight of the Henry out of the estates of the crown, his half- foreigners, brothers were terrified into flight, and with them departed the great body of foreigners, partiality for whom had been in the eyes of his subjects Henry's worst crime. The government of the council really lasted from 1258 to 1264. Henry had taken an oath to accept the provisions, but the provisions, he asked the pope as his overlord to absolve him ^from^his'^ from it, and the pope did so. Henry and his barons promise by could come to no tcrms ; and, in 1263, Henry appealed to Louis IX. of France to arbitrate between him and his subjects. Louis was an excellent sovereign, but knew nothing Arbitration of about the merits of the case, so at Amiens he gave a St. Louis. decision in favour of Henry. This decision is generally called the " Mise of Amiens." 1265.] Henry III. 91 Open war now broke out between the king and the barons. As a rule, the north, with Devon and Cornwall, i.e. the poorer districts, were for Henry: the Midlands were divided; the South, .„ ^ ^ *' ' ' ' War bet-ween Cinque Ports, and London, i.e. the wealthy parts of the the king and country, were warmly for Simon de Montfort. The ^°^ ' Mortimers on the Welsh border were for the king, Llewellyn Prince of Wales was for de Montfort. In 1264 was fought the battle of Lewes, in which the king and Prince Edward, his eldest son, were defeated, and gave themselves up by a treaty called Battle of the "Mise of Lewes." The government now fell i^ewes. into the hands of de Montfort and Gilbert Earl of Gloucester, son of the earl mentioned above, and they summoned the celebrated Parliament of 1265. We saw that at the Conquest the place of the witena-gemot had been taken by the great council. This body contained the archbishops, bishops, and abbots, earls, and greater The Magnum and lesser barons. On very great occasions all of concilium, these assembled, but as a rule only the greater men attended its meet- ings. Magna Carta, in arranging for the calling of an assembly to vote scutages and extra aids, had provided that the archbishops, bishops, earls, and greater barons only, were to be summoned by writs sent to each separately, while the lesser barons were to be summoned by a general writ, sent to the sheriff in the county court. It was not to be expected that many would take advantage of such a general summons, so the next step was to „ \ Representa- send, as the representatives of the lower barons, tives chosen persons elected in the county court. Such repre- sentatives were first summoned to a Parliament in 1254, and in 1265 two knights from each shire were summoned. This, however, left the chartered towns, who had nothing to do with the county court, completely unrepresented ; and as it was very important that their good will should be secured, _ p . . Representa- de Montfort and his friends called upon the prin- tives chosen cipal cities and boroughs to send each two repre- and boroughs. sentatives, so that this Parliament of 1265 was the Parliament first Parliament which contained, together with the archbishops, bishops, earls, and greater barons, representatives from counties, cities, and boroughs. 92 Early Angevin Kings. 127s. However, the rule of Simon de Montfort did not last long. A quarrel arose between him and the Earl of Gloucester, and the Fau of Simon l^iiig's eldest SOU Edward took advantage of it to de Montfort. escape, joined the Mortimers, and got together an army. Simon de Montfort marched to Wales, but Edward defeated one of his sons at Kenilworth, and then hemmed in de Montfort himself in the corner made by the Severn and the Avon, and defeated him at the battle of Evesham on the latter river. In this battle Simon de Montfort was killed, and the attempt of the barons to control the government came to an end. Happily Edward was a very different man from his father, and had learnt a great deal from the struggle in which he had been _ engaged. It was due to him that what was good in de Montfort's de Montfort's arrangements was preserved. To all appearances Simon de Montfort's rebellion was a failure, but it led to three great results. First, after it we hear of no more inroads of foreign favourites ; second, it marks the end of the pope's interference in England as overlord ; and third, it gave people an ideal to aim at; and from this time forward, a ParHament representing the whole nation, to which the king's ministers should be responsible, was the ideal at which the states- man of this country aimed. After some fighting at Kenilworth and Ely, the country settled down again ; indeed, the latter years of the reign of Henry HI. seem Close of the ^° have been years of unusual prosperity, and in 1270 reign. -fche times were so settled, that Prince Edward went on a Crusade, and while he was away his father died, in 1272. Henry III. was a weak king ; he had the misfortune to ascend the Henry's throne when a child ; he inherited from his father character, g^ detestation of the Great Charter and its principles, and allowed himself too easily to fall into the hands of foreigners, who had no other object than the satisfaction of their own ambition. For chief general events, and the battles and sieges of the earlier Angevin kings, see pp. 133 and 134. BOOK lY THE LATER ANGEVIN KINGS SOMETIMES CALLED PLANTAGENET3 VIIT.~THE LATER ANGEVIN KINGS, SOME- TIMES CALLED PLANTAGENEIS, 1372-1399. Henry III., 1216-1272. Edward I. = (1) Eleanor 1272-1307. of Castile ; (2) Margaret of France. Margaret = Alexander III. of Scotland. Edmund, Earl of Lancaster. (1) Edward II. 1307-1327. Isabella (2) Edmund, Thomas, Henry, of France. Earl of Kent, Earl of Earl of executed. 1330. Lancaster, Lancaster, I d. 1321. d. 1345. Edward III. = Philippa of 1327-1377. Joan = Henrv, Hainault. (1) Sir T. Holland. Duke of (2) The Black Lancaster, Prince. d. 1362. Blanche = John of Gaunt. Edward, = Joan, Lionel, John of = Blanche, Black Prince, d. 1376. of Duke of Kent. Clarence. Gaunt, d. 1399. heiress of Lancaster. Edmund, Duke of York. Henry IV., 1399-1413. Richard II., 1877-1399. Philippa = Edmund Mortimer, d. 1380. Roger, Earl of March, declared heir of Richard II. in 1385, but killed in Ireland 1398. Thomas, Duke of Gloucester, d. 1397. IX.— THE KINGS OF SCOTLAND BET^WEEN 1165 AND 1406. Henry, Earl of Huntingdon, son of David I. ■William the Lion, 1165-1214. David, Earl of Huntingdon. I \ Alexander II., 1214-1249. I | I Margaret. Isabella. Alexander III., 1249-1286. j | ^1 I Robert Bruce,* I Devorguilla = John Balliol. d. 1295. Margaret = Eric, King of j | I Norway. | | Robert, d. 1305. I Margaret. Jolin Balliol,* } Margaret, Maid of I 1292-1296. Robert I., Norway, 1286-1290. | | 1306-1329. John Comyn, Edward Balliol. murdered. David Bruce, Margaret = Walter the m. Joan, sister of Edward II., 1329-1370. Steward or Stuart. Robert II., 1370-1390. Robert III., 1390-1406. * Competitors for the crown in 1292. X.— THE KINGS OF FRANCE BET^WEEN 1270 AND 1423, AND CLAIM OF ED^WARD III. TO THE FRENCH CRO'WN. Philip III., 1270-1285. Philip IV. (the Fair), 1285-1314. Charles of Valoia. I , I i \ \ ! I Louis X., Philip V., Charles IV., Isabella, Philip VI., 1314-1316. 1316-1322. 1322-1328, m. Edward II. 1328-1350. Edward III. John II., 1350-1364. John I., d. 1316. Joan, Queen of Navarre. Charles V., 1364-1380. Charles the Bad. Charles VI., 1380-1422. CHAPTEE I. Edwaed L, 1272-1307 (35 years). T^ . „or> • 1 ( 1254, Eleanor of Castile. Bom 1239; married ^ .^„„ ,.. ^ n-r^ ' \ 1299, Margaret of France. Chief CJiaracters of the Reign. — Llewellyn Prince of Wales, John Balliol, Robert Bruce (elder and younger), William Wallace, John Comyn, Earl Warrenne, Humphrey Bohun, and Roger Bigod. The heir to the throne being abroad, the government was carried on by the Archbishop of York and the Chancellor Walter of Accession of Merton. They had allegiance sworn to Edward in Edward. j^jg absence by the great men, so that his reign is the first which dates from the death of the last king ; former kings had always counted from their coronation. By leisurely steps Edward returned to England, and spent some time in Italy, France, and Guienne before he crossed the Channel. Commercial -^^^J^ foii^ of martial pursuits, he engaged in a tour- .treaty with nament at Chalon, in the Duchy of Burgundy, which ended in a deadly combat, in which many lives were lost, but from which Edward came out victorious. More important than this feat of arms was the treaty he made with the Countess of Flanders, by which the wool trade between England and the Nether- lands, which had been interrupted, was renewed. England was the greatest wool-gi'owmg country of the west of Europe, so this trade was of the utmost importance, and from this time the alliance between England and Flanders was regarded as being of the greatest consequence to both nations. Edward reached England in 1274, and his activity dming thethirty- rison of ^^^^^ years of his reign will compare with that of any Edward with other English monarch. In some ways he resembled his great-grandfather, Henry II. He had the same energy and regard for order ; but ha had the advantage of not being 1278.1 Edward I. 97 hampered by large possessions on the Continent, so that he was able to devote himself freely to further the interests of England. Two objects presented themselves to his mind ; first, to reduce to thorough efficiency the government of England, and secondly, to unite under one sceptre the whole of the British Isles. The former he was able to pursue from the beginning of his reign; the latter only opened itself to him as time went on. In dealing with the administration Henry II. had to force all his reforms on the country in the teeth of his barons ; Edward was able to use his barons to help him in ordering the ^ ,. ^. ^ ° Constitutional country. This he did by means of Parliament, government of Edward was the first king who used Parliament ^^ ' as a means of government. His predecessors had looked on this assembly as diminishing their power, or at best as a means of getting money ; Edward, took it into his confidence, and gained its aid. Among the many Statutes of this reign the following are to be remembered. First, the Statute of Mortmain. Mortmain means '' dead hand," and when land was owned by a body of _ ' .... Great statutes men and not by an individual, it was said in Roman of the reign, law to be held in mortud manu, i.e. in mortmain, or statute of dead hand. Land held by the Church was said to be ortmam. in mortmain. Now, people disliked land being acquired by the clergy, for many thought they had more than was good for them already ; and, moreover, land in mortmain escaped some of the feudal services and payments, such as reliefs and wardship and marriage. It was not easy to prevent the Church from acquiring land, because the clergy used to persuade men when dying to leave property to the Church, so that their souls might be prayed for when they were dead. Many persons also made sham grants of their land to the Church, receiving it back as tenants on easy terms, thus de- frauding the revenue. Accordingly, the Parliament of 1279 passed a very strict law to forbid land being given to the clergy without the consent of the king. Next is the Statute of "Winchester. This statute dealt with the defence of the country, and was founded upon the assize of arms which had been issued by Henry II. in 1181. It statute of must be considered together with the order about "Winchester, knighthood, which was issued in 1278. By this, all persons who H 98 Later Angevin Kings, [1277. owned land to the value of twenty pounds a year were ordered to be knighited, and such knights were always expected to serve the king, either in person or by deputy, when he called for their services. All other freeholders were ordered to have arms suitable to their wealth, which were inspected at regular intervals. By this means the country was provided with an ejfficient defensive force. The third statute is that of Quia Emptores. This was the most important of the statutes passed in this reign about the holding of land. Its object was to prevent holders of land from granting out portions of their estates to be held as sub-tenancies ; it was enacted that such portions should always be held directly from the superior lord. This statute had the effect of increasing the number of owners who held directly from the king. Another statute affecting land was that of De Donis Con- ditionalibus, which enacted that when an estate was Sn'tsdls. granted to a man and his heirs, the holder of the property, being only a life-tenant, could not part with it. Such estates were said to be entailed, and the passage of this act was a most important event in the history of English land tenure. Besides passing these important statutes, Edward also further regulated the law courts, and, in the year 1300, arranged by the Regulation of Articuli Super Cartas that Courts of Chancery and tiie law courts. King's Bench were still to follow the king, but the Ex- chequer Court was to remain at Westminster, as the Court of Common Pleas had done since the granting of the Great Charter. During this reign the lawyers became very important, and statutes or decisions which date from the reign of Edward I. are enforced at the present day, unless they have been especially set aside. A familiar insti- tution, that of Justices of the Peace, dates from the same period. These officers were first appointed to carry out the Statute of Winchester, and were then called conservators of the peace. They got their present title in the time of Edward III. Another event of the reign of the first Edward was the ex- pulsion of the Jews from England. In the Middle Ages the Jews The Jews in alone let out money at interest, because usury was England. forbidden to Christians by the Church. Their rates were very high, as was natural when there were few lenders and many borrowers, and when the times were insecure, and they 1277.] Edward I. 99 made the Jews very unpopular. The Jews, however, were under the protection of the king, who regarded them as his chattels, kept a register of their loans, and helped to enforce repayment. For these advantages he made them pay heavily, by exacting an annual poll-tax of threepence on every Jew above fourteen years of age, and by taxing them whenever he wanted money. The Jews always lived together in special quarters, and to preserve them from attacks they were obliged to be in- doors at a certain time, and the gates of the Jewry were kept locked at night, and they also wore a badge to distinguish them from Christians. The hatred against them grew in the thirteenth century because they constantly sold up the lands of their debtors, which then passed into the hands of the large proprietors. At last they were accused of clipping the coin of the realm, Edward found it impossible to support them any longer, and they Their were all ordered to leave England in the year 1290. expulsion. It was not till long afterwards that they were allowed to live openly in England. The expulsion of the Jews added to the power of Parliament, as it deprived the king of a large source of income. The most interesting events of the reign are those which are connected with Edward's attempts to annex Wales and Scotland. Circumstances gave him opportunities of interfering in both countries, of which he was not slow to avail -A-ttempt to ' annex W^ales himself; but Edward cannot be accused in either case and Scotland, of entering upon a war of wanton aggression. During the troubles of the previous reign, the Prince of Wales had taken the side of the barons, and had managed to assume greater importance than his predecessors. The present prince, ^ ^ Llewelyn, wished to play the same part, and pro- Prince of posed to marry the daughter of Simon de Montfort. This put Edward on his guard, and when Llewelyn put off doing homage again and again, the king detained the young lady, and invaded the country in 1277. The Welsh made a vigorous resistance, but were hemmed in among the ban*en mountains of Snowdon, and forced •w'ars -witii to come to terms. Llewellyn was allowed to marry "Waies. his intended bride, but only to keep as his principality Anglesea and the district of Snowdon., For three years the Welsh were quiet, loo Later Angevin Kings, uses- but in 1282, David, Llewelyn's brother, who had hitherto been on the English side, and been most kindly treated by Edward, made an unprovoked attack on Hawarden Castle. The prince, his brother, joined the nsing and went to the south, while David endeavoured to defend the north. Llewelyn, however, met his death at the Deatiiof hands of a single knight during a skirmish on the liieweiyn. Wye, and David, having fallen into the hands of the English, was condemned, by an assembly of lay barons and members for the towns and counties, to suffer a traitor's death. After the fall of these leaders Edward annexed the country, and his son Edward, who happened to be born at Carnarvon during the king's residence in Wales, was the next Prince of Annexation . . and settlement Wales. Edward is said to have won the favour of the ° ^ ®^- Welsh by telling them that he would give them a prince who could not speak a word of English; but he took effective measures to secure order, by dividing Wales into counties and hundreds, and introducing the English law and administration of justice, while he tried to win the Welsh from their rude pastoral life by granting charters to towns, and giving encouragement to trade and commerce. In Scotland Edward was less successful. As we have seen from time to time, the English kings since the days of Edward the Elder Relation had held some sort of superiority over the Scottish Engi^d^ajid Dionarchs, but what these rights were was uncertain, Scotland. and since Eichard I. had surrendered the terms exacted by Henry II. from William the Lion, this uncertainty had increased. The present King of Scots, Alexander III., had done hom- age to Edward, but for his English fiefs alone, and not for his kingdom. It happened, however, that all Alexander's children died within a short time of one another, and one only, a daughter who had Marriage Hiarried the King of Norway, left behind her a child. arranged Alexander himself was killed by an accident in 1286, bet-ween the •' ^ ' Prince of and his grand- daughter became the heir to the throne. heires^ of ^ In these events Edward saw the means of bringing Scotland. about the union between the crowns of England and Scotland, and he persuaded the Scots to consent to a marriage between their little queen and his son, the new Prince of Wales. Unhappily, the Maid of Norway, as she Was called, died at the 1895.) Edward L loi Orkneys on her voyage to Scotland, so this plan fell to the ground. But her death only caused a new difficulty, for a number of claimants to the crown at once appeared ; but it was agreed, as was usual in the case of a fief, to submit their claims to Edward as the superior lord. Edward agreed, and after securing the acknowledgment of his superiority, proceeded to consider the case. Of the competitors only two had any real claim. These were John Balliol, the grandson of Margaret, niece of William the Lion, and Robert Bruce (the elder), son of Isabella, Mar- Disputed garet's younger sister. Edward allowed Balliol and referred°to Bruce each to choose forty Scots ; to these he added Edward, twenty-four English, and to this body the question who was the rightful king was put. Of course they decided for BaUiol, whose claims were incontestably the stronger; and he, after swearing allegiance to Edward in the strongest terms, received the crown. It was one of the points in the feudal law that if any tenant felt aggrieved by a decision in the court of his lord, he had a right to appeal to the court of the superior lord. In accord- New difficulties ance with this right, which had certainly never been feu^airi^ht thought of when Constantino, King of Scots, com- of Edward, mended himself to Edward the Elder, some of Balliol's subjects appealed to the English law courts ; and Balliol was summoned to defend his decision, which he might do, if he chose, by deputy. This was galKng to Balliol, who, however, seems to have had little power in the hands of his chief barons. Meanwhile a difficulty had arisen in France, where Edward him- self, as Duke of Guienne, was a vassal of the French king. A Nor- man sailor had chanced to be murdered by an Endish- j XI AT • -1 Difficulty man, and the Normans, m revenge, seized a passenger about in an English ship and hung him topmast high, with c^ulemle. a dog at his feet. The result was a series of fights between the merchantmen of the two nations, in which the French got the worst. The fight soon spread to the land, and then the French king called upon Edward to answer for the conduct of his subjects. Edmund, the king's brother, went as his representative, summoned to and allowed himself to be gulled by the Frenchmen ^a^^s. into surrendering the castles of Gascony for six weeks, on the promise that at the end of that time they should be restored. The promise I02 Later Angevin Kings. ri295- was not kept. The French allied with the Scots, and for the next foui years France and England were at war ; while, to add to Edward's difficulties, the Welsh in 1295 broke out in revolt. It was in the midst of these troubles that Edward, in 1295, sum- moned what is known as the first complete and model Parliament. Model To this came, first, the spiritual peers, archbishops, fumm^ed! bishops, abbots, and the heads of the military orders, cierg-y. Each bishop was ordered to bring with him two representatives elected by the dean and chapter of the cathedral, and two representatives from each archdeaconry elected by the Barons. clergy. Second, the lay peers, earls and greater Knights of the ^arons summoned separately by writ. Third, the shire. knights of the shire, elected in accordance with a Burgesses and writ addi'cssed to the sheriff in the county court, and two burgesses or citizens from each borough or city which the sheriff of the county thought to be of sufficient consequence to send representatives. Thirty years had passed since the citizens and burgesses had been called to Simon de Montfort's Parliament; but since 1295 most Important Parliaments have in theory included the whole of the 'parfiament^ ^^1 members mentioned above. Of the clergy, how- in history. ever, the proctors for the chapters and archdeaconries rarely, if ever, came, as they preferred to make their grants in Con- vocation, while the abbots were abolished by Henry VIII. With the money granted by this Parliament Edward was able to act vigorously against his enemies. The Welsh were soon put down. Invasion of The Earl Warrenne invaded Scotland, and a battle Scotland. -^^g fought in 1296 near Dunbar, where the Scots, descending in disorder from the slopes of the Lammermuir Hills, were overthrown on the plain by the English. Shortly afterwards BaUiol surrendered his kingdom, and was allowed to retire to Normandy, while Edward appointed Earl Warrenne as guardian of the Scottish kingdom. Edward next proposed to invade France, and for this purpose Invasion of allied with the Flemings ; but he soon met with an "po^edtbut" unforeseen difficulty. Pressed for money, he had not ^^^^"^Z been scrupulous in his means of getting it, but had unpopularity, taxed the towns, seized the wool of the merchants, 1297.] Edward L 103 ordered his servants to levy supplies by force, and wrung from the clergy one-half of their yearly income. These exactions caused great indignation, and resistance was soon made. The first to stir were the clergy, who obtained from the pope a bull called Clericis laicos, which forbade them to grant their goods to a layman without the consent of the pope. clerical Armed with this, they met the king's next demand rettionstrance with a refusal. Edward retaliated by ordering the pay taxes, chief justice to announce that no suit in which a clergyman was plaintiff should be heard, but all against them should outlawry of be tried as usual. This meant that the clergy might *^^ clergy, be robbed with impunity, and accordingly the clergy by degrees gave way, some making the king a gift, others leaving victory of money where the king's officers could find it, and Edward, others paying large sums for protection. The archbishop, however, was still holding out, when help came from another quarter. Edward's plan was to attack France from Flanders in person, and to send an army to Guienne under Humphrey Bohun, Earl of Hereford, the constable, and Roger Bigod, Earl of Uefusaiof Norfolk, the marshal. Roger, however, irritated by in^°de prlnc the exactions, refused to go, saying that he was i)y themselves, only bound to follow the king's person. " By God," said the king " you shall either go or hang." " By God, sir king, I will neither go nor hang," was the answer ; and the earl kept his word. Edward had no time to press the quarrel, so he made terms with Edward goes the clergy, summoned his tenants to London, persuaded *o Flanders, them to grant him an aid, and then crossed to Flanders. This was the barons' chance. They marched to London, forbade the collection of the aid, and insisted that the young Prince of Wales, who had been left as regent, should confirm Bebeiiion of the Great Charter and the Charter of the Forest, at the barons, the same time adding a clause forbidding the collection of taxes without the consent of Parliament. This document, which is called the " Confirmation of the Charters," ^thf cha^rteS°' was then signed by Edward at Ghent. Meanwhile things had gone wrong in Scotland. A gentleman named William Wallace, who had murdered an Rebellion of Englishman, gathered round him a number of WaUace. enemies to the English side, and, gradually becoming strong enough, I ©4 Later Angevin Kings. [1307. attacked the forces of the guardian. With great military skill he con- Defeat of Cam- trived to attack the English army at Cambuskenneth, buskennetii. j^ear Stirling, when half of it had crossed the Forth by a long and narrow bridge. Those who had crossed were utterly cut to pieces, and Warrenne had the mortification to see his army ruined. The next year, however, Edward himself invaded Scotland, and Edward attacked Wallace at Falkirk. In spite of Wallace's invades most Careful arrangement of his army, in circles of pike- victory of men united by archers and backed by cavalry, Edward f^fof ■Wallace Succeeded in beating the Scots by attacking their rear, and Wallace's power was completely overthrown. The kingdom, however, was not yet conquered. The districts comyn's north of the Forth still held out, and placed at their rebeUion. bead John Comyn, the nephew of Balliol. Comyn had some success in 1303, but Edward again invaded the country Suppressed by and forccd him to submit. The insurgents were Edward. allowed to purchase their pardon by fines, and offers were even made to Wallace, but were rejected. Shortly afterwards that leader was captured, taken to London and executed as a traitor. His death made him the martyr of Scottish independence. All this time Eobert Bruce (the younger), Earl of Carrick, the grandson of the rival of Balliol, had usually been on the English RebeUionof ^ide, and had been consulted by Edward about the Robert Bruce, management of the kingdom; but in 1306 he de- termined to try for the crown himself, murdered Comyn, and was crowned at Scone. His chances seemed very poor, as he had against him not only the English, but also the relations of Balliol and the Lord of Lome. His forces in the field were soon defeated, and he with difficulty maintained himself in the woods and Death of mountains. Though the danger did not seem great, Edward. Edward was preparing to crush it himself, when his death near Carlisle, in 1307, brought his reign to a close, and totally changed the prospects of the Scottish king. Edward was twice married, first to Eleanor of Castile, and then to Margaret, sister of the French king. He left three sons who survived him. CHAPTER n. Edward II., 1307-1327 (20 years). Born 1284; Married, 1308, Isabella of France. Chief Characters of the Reign. — Thomas of Lancaster, Piers Gaveston, Robert Bruce, Roger Mortimer, Hugh Despenser (father and son), and Adam Orleton. Edward, Prince of Wales, who succeeded his father at the age of twenty-three, was handsome, accomplished, and en- character of gaging ; but his reign was one of the most ruinous in Edward ii. English history. The chief causes of his misfortune were his love of pleasure and his attachment to favourites. The word "favourite" is one which may easily be misunderstood. It may mean a man or woman on whom a king lavishes honours and wealth, or it may mean a councillor on whose ' *' 1 . T Meaning- of support the king relies. Favourites of both kinds the word were hateful to Englishmen of the Middle Ages ; the former because the king's grants were rightly thought to increase the weight of taxation by impoverishing the royal estates, the latter because the nobles looked on themselves as the hereditary advisers of the crown, and hated any man who engrossed the king's confidence. No king, therefore, had a chance of success who was not strong enough to stand alone, and so men Hke Edward II., Richard II., and Henry VI. met with their unfortunate ends. In England the leader of the barons against the favourite was always a younger member of the royal family. The first of Edward's favourites was Piers Gaveston. Gaveston was th3 son of a Gascon knight, and had been _. „ ^ . ' Piers Gaveston. brought up as Edward's companion. He turned out so badly that the late king had dismissed him from court; but when the old king died the young Edward recalled him and made io5 Later Angevin Kings. riso?- him Earl of Cornwall. He was a brave and able soldier, but he was haughty and vain, and irritated the barons past bearing by the nicknames he gave them. To this man Edward gave his confidence, and loaded him with riches and honour, so that he, a mere upstart, outshone the ancient nobles of the realm. Gaveston's antagonist was Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, the son of Edmund Crouchback,i younger brother of Edward I. He was Thomas of Earl of Lancaster, Leicester, Lincoln, Salisbury, and le^deTof tSe I^^rby, and was by far the most powerful subject the opposition, king had. This was the man whom Gaveston called *' the hog." His friend, the Earl of Warwick, was " the black dog." At his father's death Edward only advanced as far as Ayrshire, and then retired to England to arrange for his marriage and coronation. Edward's When he sailed to France, to marry Isabella, the favour to sister of the French king, said to be the most beauti- Gaveston .-r-, ■% i c r^ rouses tiie lul woman m Europe, he leit Gaveston as regent, and barons. ^^ j^|g coronation Gaveston walked in the place of honour. Enraged at this, the barons in Parliament demanded the dismissal of Gaveston. Edward had no means to resist, and Gaveston himself was forced to swear that he would never return to England. The king, however, appointed him Lord-Deputy of Ireland, and in 1309 he was ordered by the king, with the con- sent of a considerable part of the baronage, to come back to court. Meanwhile the disorders arose which always appeared when the king was too weak or too idle to make his power felt ; and in 1310 B ns appoint *^® barons, determined to put a stop to these, came the Lords ^q ^T'estminstcr in arms, and, following the lead of conduct the the Oxford Parliament of 1258, appointed a council government. ^^ twenty-one bishops and barons, under the name of Lords Ordainers, to regulate the king's household and reform the abuses of the kingdom. To keep out of the way of the ordainers, the king and Gaveston invaded Scotland, where Bruce was too wary to allow them to bring him to an engagement. In this expedition Gaveston dis- tinguished himself; but the barons were determined to get rid of 1 That is, crossback, or crusader. Cross Hill, near Banbury, is still called Crouch Hill. 1318. J Edward II. 107 him, and again insisted upon his banishment. This time he went to France and then to the Netherlands, but soon Deatiiof returned, and in 1312 the barons succeeded in oaveston. separating him from the king, and forcing him to surrender at Scarborough. He was sent as far as Deddington, in Oxfordshire, under the care of the Earl of Pembroke, but was there seized by the soldiers of Gruy, Earl of Warwick, and executed near Kenil- worth, in the presence of Lancaster and Hereford. The saying, "If you let the fox go, you will have to hunt him again," decided his fate. Such murders had hitherto been almost unknown in England. Edward, though heart-broken by the loss of his friend, was powerless to avenge his death, so was forced for the time to pardon the barons, and then gave his attention to Scotland, successes of It was high time that something should be done. Bruce. Though Bruce had avoided a great battle, he had steadily been seizing castle after castle in the lowlands. Roxburgh and Edinburgh were already in his hands, and Stirling was closely besieged, when, in 1314, Edward prepared with a splendid army to invade Scotland. His force would even have been stronger had not Lancaster and some of his friends unpatriotically refused to join the expedition. As it was, Edward with superior forces encountered Bruce Invasion of near Bannockbum, under the walls of Stirling. Scotland. The excellent dispositions of Bruce, who prevented Defeat at the cavalry from breaking his line, as at Falkirk, ^'^^^ ^^• by a series of concealed pits, overbalanced the superior numbers. The English were defeated, and numbers of the fugitives were killed in their attempt to force their way through a hostile country. Encouraged by their success, the Scots helped the Irish in an attempt to overthrow the English rule, and for some ^ . ^ . ^ ° ' Irisli msurrrec- time Edward Bruce, the younger brother of the tion helped by Scottish king, seemed likely to become King of Ire- land ; but his death at the battle of Dundalk, in 1318, ruined the cause, and the surviving Scots returned home. For a time the Scots had it all their own way on the border, captured Berwick, and even advanced to Scarborough and Ripon, and their presence kept the northern Eng-iandby counties in constant apprehension, and threw back the rising prosperity of that part of the country. io8 Later Angevin Kings. i[lS18- To add to the English misfortunes, the years 1314 and 1315 were times of famine; the crops failed, and prices were so high Famine of that many perished from hunger ; bands of robbers 1314 and 1315. traversed the country, and the nobles made matters worse by turning adrift the retainers who usually lived in their castles, and were fed and clothed at their expense. The result of these disasters was to add to the power of the Earl of Lancaster, who was able to dismiss the king's officers and to Power of bring his own friends into power. Among these was rise of the ^ jo^ng nobleman named Hugh Despenser, the son Despensers. of a baron of the same name, and grandson of the justiciar of Simon de Montfort. He was made the king's chamber- lain, and soon became as great a friend of the king as Gaveston had been. Though the Despensers were great English barons, the favour of the king soon made them unpopular with their fellows. Lancaster headed the attack on his former friend, and Parliament in 1321 demanded and secured the banishment of the Despensers. Owing, however, to an insult offered to the queen by one of the Lancastrian party, who refused her admission to Leeds Castle in Defeat of Kent, a reaction took place in the king's favour ; and Lancaster at when proofs were found that Lancaster had been Borougrli- bridge, and fall Corresponding with the Scots, Edward, in 1322, felt o e arons. g^p^j^g enough to attack the barons. Before the king's forces Lancaster and his friends retreated towards Scotland, but were intercepted at Boroughbridge on the Ure, by the governors of York and Carlisle. Hereford was slain, and the rest were forced to surrender. Lancaster, with many of his followers, were exe- cuted at Pontefract, to revenge the death of Gaveston; and Koger, Lord Mortimer, was imprisoned in the Tower. After the fall of Lancaster, a Parliament met at York which laid down a most important principle, namely, that what concerns the whole realm must be treated of by a complete Parliament. This was intended to prevent the barons from taking power into their own hands, as they had done when thev ap- Commons grain , . j r a share in pointed the lords ordainers, but it really admitted eg-is a ion. ^j^^ Commons to a share in legislation. The king now made another invasion of Scotland, but was unable 1327.] Edward II. 109 to bring the Scots to an engagement, while his army was starved by the devastation of the country. He was, therefore, rresh disasters obliged to retreat, and the Scots made an all but i^ Scotland, successful attempt to surprise him as he lay at Byland Abbey, in Yorkshire. In 1323 a truee was concluded with Scotland for thirteen years. In 1325 a difficulty arose about Guienne, and Queen Isabella went to France to settle it. There she was joined by her son Edward, who came over to do homage for Queen Isabella Guienne in his father's stead. At Paris also she ^andconSi^eT met Mortimer, who had escaped from the Tower in with Mortimer. 1324, and the two entered into a conspiracy to overthrow the Despensers. In spite of Edward's efforts, she and Mortimer, with the Prince of Wales, landed at Orwell in Suffolk, and were soon joined by the queen's friends and by the old followers of Lancaster. The king, finding he could trust no one, fled with the De- spensers to the west. Meanwhile, under the influence of Adam Oiieton, Bishop of Hereford, the plot had developed rate of into one for the dethronement of Edward himself. Edward's The king made an attempt to escape by sea ; but contrary winds drove him back, and at last, one after another, the two Despensers and Edward himself fell into the hands of the insurgents. The elder Despenser was executed at Bristol, the younger was hung at Hereford on a gallows fifty feet high. Edward's fate was soon determined. He was left at Kenilworth, while a Parliament was summoned at Westminster, where Orleton asked the members whether they would have the _ ^^ '' Dethronement father or the son for king. Shouts were raised for and death the son, and the Parliament then drew up articles of ° ^^^ deposition, while a deputation, with Oiieton at its head, was sent to Kenilworth to withdraw from the king the allegiance of his subjects. When this had beeii done, the lord chamberlain broke his rod of office, and the reign was considered at an end. Edward's person was intrusted to the keeping of his deadly enemies, and within a few months his murdered corpse was exposed to view at Berkeley Castle, near Bristol, and then quietly buried. The plea that he had died a natural death deceived no onCi The reign of Edward ll. saw the dissolution of the Knights no Later Angevin King's. [1327 Vb"'^'-"' -^^""^i- Templars. This order of military monks, with the Hospitallers or Knights of St. John, and the German knights, arose out of the Crusades. When Palestine was lost, the Knights of St. John retired to Rhodes, which they fortified as a bulwark against the advancing Mahometans, while the German knights fought against the heathens who still hved along the shores of the Baltic. The Templars, on the contrary, gave up their work and lived in idleness, while their great wealth and military training made them formidable subjects. Accusations of ill-life and of heresy were brought against them, and the order was dissolved by the pope in 1312, and most of their wealth went to the Knights of St. John. CHAPTER m. Edwaed III., 1327-1377 (50 years). Born 1312 ; married, 1328, Philippa of Hainault. Chief Characters of the Reign. — Roger Mortimer, the Black Prince, John of Gaunt, Archbishop Stratford, Henry Earl of Lancaster, and his son Henry Duke of Lancaster, William of Wykeham, John Wycliffe, Lords Latimer and Neville, and Alice Ferrers. The new king was in his fifteenth year when he ascended the throne. Henry, Earl of Lancaster, the younger brother of Earl Thomas, was the leading man in the king's standing council, but the chief power was in the hands of Isabella and Mortimer. The first difficulty was with Scotland. In spite of the truce, the Scots had invaded the north of England. Their army of horsemen was so rapid in its movements that it was hard to invasion of bring them to action, and when Edward had at the Scots, length discovered their position, they avoided battle by a sudden retreat. Happily for both countries, peace was soon peace witii afterwards concluded at Northampton, and the inde- Scotland, pendence of Scotland was fully recognized. The next year Robert Bruce died, and was succeeded by his son David, who was the first of the Scottish kings to be anointed with oil at his coronation, thus asserting that he reigned as an independent monarch, and not merely as a vassal of England. The rule of Mortimer was disliked by the Earls of Lancaster and Kent, a younger son of Edward I., and in 1330 Mortimer foimd means of executing the latter for treason ; but the same year Edward with Lancaster's help seized Mortimer and had him hanged, and henceforward ruled as well as reigned. Though the cessation of the Scottish wars was a good thing for both England and Scotland, it was not popular with those barons 112 Later Angevin Kings. ussb- who owced estates on both sides of the border, who feared to lose . *.^ one or the other ; and in 1332 some of them assisted Attempt of tlie ' ^ i ^ i • t i barons to make Edwaid Balliol, the son of the former kmg, J ohn '^^'^^^sof^"^ Balliol, to attempt to dethrone David. For a time Scotland. j^g succeeded, and defeated David's forces at Dupplin Moor, but soon had to fly the country. Edward, who had discountenanced the expedition, now came to his assistance, and besieged Berwick. The Scots tried to relieve it, and were defeated at Halidon Hill, 1333; Ber- Englisli ' .11 invasion of wick fell into the hands of the English, and has H^rd* n^^iii ^^^^ coimted as one of the possessions of the English Capture of king ever since. Balliol was again placed on the Berwick. throne of Scotland, and David fled to France, but was very soon restored by the Scots, and Balliol was expelled the country. A second invasion by Edward and Balliol produced no result. In the time of Edward I. we saw that the Scots had begun the poHcy of allying with France against England. Scots receive rj ^o o ° help from This was always their plan, and now Edwards Trance. interference made them call for French aid. This was given. In 1886 Philip invaded Gascony, and the result was the outbreak of the great war between England and France. All the brothers of Isabella, wife of Edward II. (see pedigree IX.), had died in turn, leaving only daughters, and by the Salic law no Question of tiie woman could reign in France ; but Edward now de- Frencii clarcd that the rights of the brothers had passed to Edward's his mother Isabella, and through her to himself, and claim. i)[sski^ therefore, he should be King of France, instead of Isabella's first cousin, Philip of Valois, to whom the French had given the crown. This claim of his was entirely an after-thought, for in 1329 he had done homage for his dominions to Philip, and it was only when he wanted to punish the French king for helping the Scots and for receiving David at his court that he brought forward the claim. Edward, however, not only persuaded himself that his demand was just, but he also got the English Parliament to believe that it would be a good thing for England if he could become King of France. This was probably due to the idea that if the king had 1337.] Edward III. 113 large foreign possessions he would require less taxes, causes why and also that there would be more trade with France pS-uament if the two countries were joined; but it is also supported thought that the English were afraid lest Flanders, to which the}'' sent their wool, might fall into the hands of the French and so their trade might be stopped ; for Flanders was to England what Yorkshire is to the Australian wool-growers at the present day. For these reasons the Parliament was eager to help Edward, and to vote taxes to pay for the war. This helped to make the Parliament much more important, and other causes helped to the same end. In 1322, as we saw, the Commons had got a share in legislation, but in 1332 importance of the knights of the shire are first recorded to have Paruament. deliberated by themselves, and the next year they joined themselves to the citizens and burgesses ; so that Parliament separation into separated into two houses, as it is now — the lay and *^° houses, spiritual peers forming the House of Lords, and the knights of the shire and citizens and burgesses the House of Commons. This change was most important. By birth the knights of the shire were of the same class as the lords, often they belonged to the same family ; and their sitting in the House of Commons importance of prevented the king from playing off one house against *^^^ change, the other, as he certainly could have done had the two been composed wholly of different classes. Moreover, the spiritual peers sat with the lay nobles, so that they could not be played off against one another. This helped Parliament to act as a whole. In the French estates, on the contrary, the nobles, clergy, and commoners sat in separate chambers, and the king used to play off two classes against the third ; this could not be done in England. In 1337 Edward assumed the title of King of France, and pre- pared for war. The Parliament had granted him money ; he had next to look out for men and allies. For an army Raising of Edward relied neither on the feudal array nor on the troops, militia ; he used hired soldiers, as England has always done since, when soldiers have been wanted. He was able to pay them well, as he had plenty of money, and young men of all classes who thought they had a turn for fighting flocked to his banners. They took service under some great man, and the whole army was I ii4 Later Angeviit Kings. [1337- formed into divisions, thorouglily well armed and rudely drilled. The best soldiers were the archers. For allies Edward, of course, had the Flemings, at the head of whom was the great master-brewer of Ghent, Jacques Van Artaveld ; but he also made friends with the small states on the east of France and with the Emperor, so he had hopes of bringing an immense force to bear upon the French king. The next question was the point of attack. Three routes pre- sented themselves, first by way of Flanders, second by the river Seine, and third by way of Gascony. Of these, France by way Edward, in Order to be with his allies, chose the first. On his arrival, however, he found that his friends, though wilhng to receive subsidies, were unwilling to risk themselves in the field. He invaded France, but Philip wisely Its failure. . ' x »» declined a pitched battle, and having exhausted his money and loaded himself with debt, Edward returned the next year to England. Parliament granted him the enor- mous tax of the ninth lamb, the ninth fleece, and the ninth sheaf in his dominions, and, having collected a new fleet and army, Edward prepared to return. He learnt, however, that Philip had prepared a vast fleet at Sluys to prevent his passage. The French fleet was formed in four lines, but Edward arranged that each ship of men-at- arms should be supported in its attack on a French ship by two vessels filled with archers, who shot down the French- men on the deck ; the men-at-arms then boarded, and in this way hue after line was defeated, and the ships either sunk or taken prisoners. The French loss was enormous, and for thirty years the English had complete command of the seas, and could Englisti gam ° ^ ' command of go to and fro as they chose. From Sluys Edward went to Brussels, but his new invasion of France was a failure, and it was not till 1346, when he changed his base of operations to the mouth of the Seine, that any success was won (See map, p. 145). Meanwhile Edward was terribly pressed for money, and he con- auarreiwitii ceived the idea that his ofiicers were cheating him of Arciibishop the taxes they collected. Accordingly he hurried to England in 1340, dismissed the Chancellor Robert Stratford with the other officials, and accused John Stratford, Arch- 1346.] Edward III, 115 bishop of Canterbury, of wasting his money, and ordered him to answer the charge before the Court of Exchequer. This Stratford refused to do, and the peers backed him up in demanding that a peer should never be tried except before his peers assembled in full Parliament. Edward was forced to yield, and he also made three other concessions of great importance. First, that the accounts of the kingdom should be audited by auditors elected in Parliament ; second, that ministers should be appointed by consultation between the king and his concessions to lords, and should be sworn before Parliament to keep parliament, the law ; third, at the beginning of each Parliament ministers were to resign their offices into the king's hands, and be compelled to answer complaints brought against them. The first of these gave Parliament complete control over the purse, for they not only were to vote taxes, but also to inquire how the money had been spent ; the second and third established what is called responsibility of ministers to Parliament. These concessions were revoked by the king the next year ; but they show what the statesmen of the four- teenth century aimed at, and how strong Parliament had become. For five years little had been done in the French war, but in 1346 Edward changed his base of operations to the mouth of the Seine. He did this because a dispute had arisen about the , T 1 f . , Invasion of succession to the duchy of Brittany, and of course France byway he took the side of one candidate and Philip of the ° ® ®^^®' other; accordingly, in July, 1346, he raised a new army and landed in Normandy. After plundering Caen, Edward reached Allies with Rouen, and finding the bridge over the Seine held in Brittany, force, he turned towards Paris, and, after burning and plundering Vernon and Mantes, he reached the neighbourhood of that city. His movements were followed by Philip on the right bank of the river. Edward's object was to reach Flanders, and by a clever feint on Paris he decoyed Philip from the bridge of Poissy, seized it, and crossed the Seine. He then marched north, but the river Somme, which runs slow and deep through a marshy soil, barred his path ; the bridges were all held or destroyed, and Philip was towards close behind him. (See map, p. 145). Flanders. It seemed that Edward would be shut into the corner between ii6 Later Angevin Kings. 1346. the Somme and the sea, when, by threats and bribes, he induced a Passage of tiie peasant to lead the army across a ford still called Somme. Blanchetaque, or white shingle, where the mouth of the Somme could just be crossed at low tide. A body of horsemen barred the passage, but the English fought their way across with the courage of despair, and Philip only arrived in time to see the incoming tide cutting him off from the rear of the English forces. H about 3^mi2&r ^Qm.Z^z.Br&yd I 1 ......... jE>tj72>^ Soot J-rench. ^ Cross erec^d. to mffTnory PLAN OF CEECr. Arrived on the north side of the river, Edward turned to bay on the high ground behind the village of Crecy, where the ground slopes away on three sides for a distance of some six hundred yards from a windmill which still marks the spot, and there, on Saturday, August 26th, 1346, he waited for Philip, who had gone back to cross the Somme at Abbeville, to come and attack him. The rest was a great help to the English, and they made good use of it to prepare for the coming fight. Edward drew up his men on 1346.] Edward III. 117 the hillside, with their backs to the light, in three bodies, each composed of men-at-arms and archers. All were on Arrang-ements foot. The archers of each body were arranged in for the battle lines behind one another like a harrow, so that the rear ranks could shoot over the heads of their fellows. Behind the archers stood the men-at-arms. The first division, led by the Prince of Wales, now a lad of fifteen, and the Earls of Warwick and Oxford, was in front ; the second, under the Earl of Northampton, a little in the rear on one side ; the third in reserve. Edward is said to have had in these divisions only four thousand men-at-arms and twelve thousand archers; but he had certainly camp-followers, and a body of archers had been told off to guard the baggage. Against this small but highly trained army Philip brought an immense but inefficient force. It was of the old feudal pattern, and the only infantry were a number of hired Genoese cross-bowmen, and a few serfs dragged unwillingly to the fight. To add to his disadvantages, Philip made the attack at the end of a long day's march, when the army was tired and disorganized, and when the strings of the crossbows were drenched with rain. Under these circumstances the English quietly stood their ground, and poured upon the surging crowd arrows that pierced the joints of the knights' armour, and brought their horses to the ground, while the wretched cross-bowmen fell in heaps, or were trodden down by the impatient horsemen. When at length the French, by mere weight of numbers, reached the English ranks, the two foremost closed up, and when night fell were still unbroken, while the French army was in hopeless confusion. Philip, wounded, fled from the field to La Broye, and thence to Amiens, his brother was killed, and numbers of nobles were slain or taken prisoners. The next day a dense mist pre- Eoutofthe vented the French from rallying, and the slaughter French, of that day was said to have been greater than that of the fight itself. The glory of the day was given to Edward, Prince of Wales, who has ever since kept as his motto the words " Ich dien " (7 serve) — said to have been that of the blind King of Bohemia, who had fallen in the fight as the ally of the French king. ii8 Later Angevin Kings, [i346- From Crecy Edward marched to Calais, to whicli lie laid siege. By this time he had lost faith in his Flemish allies, who had Siege of murdered his friend, the great brewer, Van Artaveld, Calais. ^j^d the possession of Calais would give him a port of his own. Moreover, Calais was famed for its pirates, who annoyed the merchants of the southern coast; and if he could win it, he would not only rid himself of this evil, but also would secure a mart for the English wool. Against Calais Edward used no engines of war, but simply formed his lines round it, and waited till famine should subdue the garrison. To raise the siege Philip levied a new army, and also persuaded his allies the Scots to invade the northern counties, and help to divert the attention of the English. Both these attempts were unsuccessful, for when it came to the point Philip dared not risk another battle. His Scottish allies fared even worse. The Scots had crossed the border, and were harrying Northumberland and Durham, when they I Invasion of learned that the lords of the border, Percy and tiie Scots. Neville, and the Archbishop of York, with an army raised by the encouragement of Queen Phihppa, were ready to attack them. The battle was fought on October 17, 1346, at a place afterwards known as Nevill's Cross, near Durham, and, as at Crecy, the English archers showed their superiority over feudal cavalry. The invaders were totally routed, and David King of Scots was taken prisoner and conveyed to London. For nearly a year Calais held out, and at last, when their supplies were exhausted, the garrison agreed to treat. Edward declared his Capture of Intention of punishing them for their piracy, but was Calais. moved to gentler counsels by the entreaties of his wife Philippa. To secure his new conquest, Edward took most careful measures. All the inhabitants who would not swear allegiance to the English king were expelled, and their place supplied by colonists from England. Privileges were granted to the citizens, and it was ordered that all wool going to the Continent should pass through Calais, which secured for it a flourishing trade. The defences were put in good order, and a strong garrison maintained. The English of those days thought as much of Calais as we now do of Gibraltar. The capture of Calais brings to a close the first part of the war 1349.] Edward IIL 119 Edward had been successful in the north, and his general, the Earl of Derby, son of Earl Henry of Lancaster who died 1345, had dis- tinguished himself greatly by defending Gascony close of first against superior numbers. For his services there he part of the war. was raised to the rank of duke, being the first to hold that rank in England. For a time the thoughts of all were turned from the war by the Black Death. This terrible pestilence, which broke out in China, gradually made its way to Europe ; it reached Con- r^^^ Black stantinople in 1347, and England in 1349. Its Death, ravages were terrible, and were helped on by the filthy habits of the people and their neglect of all sanitary precautions ; for it is known that some monks, whose monastery had been supplied with good water, were hardly touched by the plague at all. It is hard to know how many persons died, but two Archbishops of Canterbury were cut down the first year, and it is said that in the East and West Hidings of Yorkshire one-half the priests died. In those days there were no registers of deaths kept, so we can only guess at the number of the victims, but these were so numerous as to cause a great crisis in the history of wages and agriculture. At this time all England was divided into manors. The lord of the manor usually owned half the soil, a portion was in the hands of freemen, and the remainder was held by villeins. The manorial The viUeins paid the lord for their houses and land system. by doing for him certain fixed services, and paying certain dues ; these, however, could not be altered, and so long as they were paid the villein could not be turned out. The lord cultivated his own land through his bailiff, who supplemented the customary services by hiring the poorer villeins as labourers. Each manor had its mill and dovecot. The villeins were all obliged to get their corn ground at the lord's mill; and they were not allowed to keep pigeons, but every villein had his pig and bis poultry, and very often cattle, which were pastured on the common lands of the manor. When the lord let his own lands to a farmer, he always let with them the stock for the farm, so that there were no farmers who merely rented the land from the landlord as they do now. For some time the lords had been glad to let the villeins pay a fixed sum of money instead of performing services, because the lords, I20 Later Angevin Kings. [1849- especially when they were going on a crusade, or had reliefs to pay, Rise of "^^^^ S'^^^ ^^ S^* ready money; and when such an copyiioiders. arrangement was made, it was noted down in the roH of the manor, and a copy was given to the villein, who was then called a copyholder, and his land a copyhold. When the Black Death came and killed numbers of labourers, wages, of course, rose, and then the landlords were driven to their Effects of the '^''^^^ ^^^ *^ S®* their fields cultivated. To keep Black Death, wagcs down, Parhament passed several laws, called the Statutes of Labourers, forbidding labourers to receive higher wages than they had earned before the plague came; and when it was found impossible to enforce these laws, because the cost of living had risen too, the landlords then tried to find flaws in their villeins' copies, and to do all they could to make them perform their old services instead of paying in money. As the rise in the price of labour had made the villeins prosperous, these attempts were resented, and for many years the country population was extremely discontented. For some years after the siege of Calais the French war languished, but in 1355, Edward the Black Prince — so called from his black armour — starting from Gascony, made a plundering expedition into Second period ^^® south of France, and returned home laden with of the -war. gpoil. The next year he made a raid upon the France by way provinces south of the Loirc ; but this time the King of Gascony. ^£ France, John, son of Philip of Valois, cut him off with an immense army at Poitiers. The French outnumbered the English by at least four to one, and so desperate seemed his case, that the prince was willing, at the request of the pope's legates, who were present, and, to the credit of the Papacy, doing all they could to prevent bloodshed, to agree to any reasonable terms ; but the French demanded that the prince should yield himself a prisoner of war, and to this he would not submit. The scene of action was a valley called by the French Mau- pertuis, or the ill gap, through which a lane passed. Edward drew Battle of Poi- ^P ^^^ main body of archers and men-at-arms on tiers Sept. 19th, foot, in the favourite harrow formation, across the Arrangements lane, at the point where it came out of the valley of the troops. ^^ ^^^^ h\^\ ground above, and placed the rest of his archers along the hedges which ran parallel to the lane, and in the 1356.J Edwa7'd III. 121 vineyards on the slopes, so that the French when attacking would thrust themselves between two hostile fires. He placed a small body of men-at-arms in ambush so that they might charge the French in flank. At Poitiers the French, mindful of Crecy, put their main body on foot, but reserved a select body of horsemen to charge down the lane. These were soon thrown into confusion by the showers of arrows from the slopes, and the dying and struggling horses formed a barrier between the English and the incoming French. Safe behind this living rampart the English The fight. 1 l^IELD OF POITIERS, 19TH SEPTEMBER, 1356. (ADAPTED FROM SPKDNEfi.) archers closed up, and poured their arrows on the main body of the French, while the handful of men whom Edward had sent forward fell upon the French flank. The whole army then fell into confusion, and the English, advancing to the charge, attacked the Result of body-guard of the French king. John disdained to the battle, fly, and after a bloody combat he found himself the prisoner of the prince whose terms he had so disdainfully rejected a few hours before. From Poitiers Edward hurried to England with his prize, and 122 Later Angevin Kings. [isse- was received in London with the utmost enthusiasm. Four years, Peace made at however, elapsed before peace was concluded, and it Bretigny. ^^^^^ Qj-,iy ^f^^r the EngHsh, under Edward, had suffered terrible hardships during an almost unresisted march to Paris, that Edward agreed to come to terms. The treaty, which was called the Great Peace, was made at Bretigny in 1360. By it Edward agreed to give up his claim to the Terms of the French crown, and to Normandy, Anjou, and Maine, treaty. j- g^ ^q ^I^q possessions derived from Henry II. On the other hand, he was to have in full sovereignty the whole of the duchy of Aquitaine, which had come to England through Eleanor, the wife of Henry II. ; Ponthieu, which was the dowry of Margaret II., wife of Edward I. ; and his recent conquest, Calais. By this arrangement Edward secured the advantage of extensive possessions in the wine-growing districts of the south of France, Results of the ^^^ entrance for his wool and his soldiers into the •war. north, and a great accession to the glory of the English name. In return for these advantages he gave up the empty dream of uniting the crowns of the two countries. The new possessions in the south were created into a principality, which was conferred on the Black Prince. At the same time a treaty was made with David, and both France and Scotland were bound over Treaty with ^^ P^Y large ransoms for their captive kings. The Scotland. Scots paid their instalments with difficulty, but it was found quite impossible to raise the stipulated sum in France ; so John returned to England, and died during his residence in this country. The validity of the treaty of Bretigny depended on the mutual renunciation by the English and French kings of the claim to the Cause of fresh crown and the suzerainty over the ceded provinces trouble. respectively. The formal ceremony was delayed by the lawyers, and in the end this delay was the cause of the renewal of hostilities. While England and France had been at war, Spain had been convulsed by the cruelties of Pedro the Cruel, Kinsr state of Spain, n r^ . ' s> of Castile. His unpopularity was so great that his illegitimate brother, Henry of Trastamare, formed a plan to dethrone him, and called to his aid many of the professional soldiers who had been lately fighting for the French or English. He was successful, 1373.] Edward III. 123 and Pedro appealed for help to the English. The Black Prince, out of a false idea of the duty of princes to dethroned , ^ ., IT,. , Interference of sovereigns, gave him his aid, and defeated Henry of tiie Black Trastamare in 1367 at Najara, near Vittoria, in Spain ; ^^^^ce. but Pedro was unable to pay the expenses of the expedition, as he had promised, and the Prince, loaded with debt and smitten with disease, returned to Bordeaux. To pay his creditors, Edward levied taxes on his French subjects; this was resented, and the people of Aquitaine appealed to their superior lord, the King of France, who summoned Edward to answer for his conduct. This, of course, led to war. The second stage of the war opened with far less advantage to the English than the first. The enthusiasm of the nation had cooled, and men were less eager than before to offer _ IT •!-. • 1 1 -, Kene-wal of themselves as soldiers. Besides, the French soldiers the war. were very different from those who had fought at Bad prospects the beginning of the war. In a long war the feudal 0^*^^^ English, system always broke down, and then the French had to adopt the English plan of hiring soldiers. These men were well trained, and, we may take it, made as good soldiers as the English had ; so they could no longer rely on winning against superior numbers as of old, and in any fight the chances are that the invaders will be outnumbered. Moreover, the French king, Charles V., was a very clever man, and had adopted as his motto that the French never ought to fight pitched battles with the English, but should content themselves with small skirmishes, cutting off supplies and stragglers, and harassing the invaders without bringing on a decisive engage- ment. Under these circumstances the renewal of the war was all in favour of the French, and they rapidly overran the English provinces, in spite of all the efforts of the Black Prince. The war began in 1369, and in 1372 the English suffered a disaster which made their case hopeless. Since the battle of Sluys they had had the command of the sea, but in 1372 Loss of the they lost this advantage ; for the Spaniards, who were command of now under Henry of Trastamare — for Pedro had been Defeat off murdered — were on the side of the French, and in that RocheUe. year the Spanish fleet completely defeated the English under the Earl of Pembroke, near Eochelle. After this the French made way rapidly., 124 Later Angevin Kings. [I872- An expedition under John of Gaunt lost almost all its men without bringing the French to action, and in 1374 only Calais, Bordeaux, and Bayonne remained in the hands of the English. It is now time to return to English events. During the wars the Parliament had been very active ; the continual demands for money Activity of g^"^^ i^ excellent opportunities for demanding redress ParUament. Qf grievances, and a great many statutes were passed, some bad, some good, which effected many changes in the state of the country. Among others, two important laws regulating the Papal power were enacted. We saw how, in Henry III.'s time, the pope statute of ^^d caused discontent by paying his servants with provisors. English livings. In 1351 was passed the Statute of Provisors, which ordered that all persons receiving such preferments from the pope were to be liable to imprisonment, and that the right of presentation should go for that turn to the king. We have also seen how jealous the English were of appeals being made to the Papal courts. In 1353 a statute was passed to prevent statute of persons prosecuting suits in foreign courts without the Praemunire. ]jing's leave. This law was called the Statute of Praemimire, from the words in the writ jpraemunire (a corruption Q^ praemoneri facias J cause A. B. to be forewarned). Its penalties were forfeiture of goods and imprisonment during the king's pleasure. This statute was often renewed, and it was held a violation of it to receive letters from Rome without the king's consent, as had been forbidden by William the Conqueror. Another statute defined the meaning of treason. This term statute of had been made very elastic by the lawyers, so it Treason. ^^g ^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^1^-^^^ ^^ j^^^^ j^^ meaning laid down. Its chief forms were levying war against the king, or plotting his death. This statute was passed in 1352. Edward had sometimes evaded the confirmation of the charters by getting the merchants to make a private grant of a duty on wool. Private grants "^^^^ clearly infringed the rights of Parliament, and forbidden. was forbidden by statute in 1362. Besides these Regulation of Statutes, Parliament took a great deal of trouble to regulate trade, with a view to increasing the quantity of coin in the kingdom. It was long thought that the amount of 1376.] Edward III. 125 coin in a country was the true test of its wealth. This is now known to be a mistake. During the latter part of Edward III.'s reign, a great deal of discontent was roused against the clergy. This took various forms. Some part of it was directed against the pope, who unpopularity was now living at Avignon, on the Khone ; for the of the pope. English hated paying money to him, when they feared that some of it found its way into the treasury of the King of France. The Statutes of Pro visors and Praemunire were the outcome of this feeling. The English clergy themselves were also very unpopular, and that for many reasons. For many years the way in which the clergy engrossed most of the offices of state had been atipi of the much disliked ; for the universities were now turning clergy, out plenty of laymen sufficiently weU educated to perform the duties required, and who naturally objected to these posts being in the hands of a particular class. Complaints were also made from the country that bishops and priests neglected their dioceses and hvings in order to go and seek lucrative places in London; while there was a general outcry against the wealth of the clergy, which was said to lead to all manner of corruption even in the most recently created orders. (For orders of regular clergy, see p. 187). To reform these abuses, one party appeared who wished to drive the clergy from all secular offices, and another who wished to purge the Church of abuses and to restore it to the purity Rise of the of primitive times. The latter were often called bollards. Lollards, a name which is frequently used to include reformers of all kinds. At the head of the former was John of Gaunt, at the head of the latter was John W3''c]ifFe. John of Gaunt was the third surviving son of Edward III., and when that king grew old, and the Black Prince was abroad or in feeble health, he aspired to be the leader of the johnof government. His rival in the state was William of Gaimt. Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester, the founder of Winchester College and of New College, Oxford. John Wychffe, a Yorkshireman, was educated at Oxford, where he became master of Balhol College. He was strongly j^j^^ moved by the corruption he saw around him, and Wyciiffe. at Oxford he did his best to train up a set of young priests who 126 Later Angevin Kings. [1376. should set an example of the duties of clergymen ; he also trans- lated the New Testament, and published in a popular style tracts which appealed to the intelligence of the common people. Wycliffe was not the only man to write against the clergy — the whole literature of the time is full of satire on the monks and friars ; and Chaucer's Prologue to the " Canterbury Tales " gives us a very good idea of the feelings with which some of the orders were regarded. The disasters of the French war were naturally charged on the party in power, and in 1371 Parliament petitioned The clergy r •' ,. . ^, i rv replaced by the king to dismiss all his clerical officers. This gave aymen. jolm of Gaunt an opportunity of appointing his own friends ; but they proved worse administrators than the clergy they had displaced. A reaction, therefore, ensued, and in 1376 a Parliament was elected, under the influence of the Black Prince and his brother Lionel, Duke of Clarence, which attacked the king's new advisers. Some of them were very corrupt, and had made friends The Good Parliament, with the king's mistress, Alice Perrers. Accordingly Impeach- the Commons proceeded to impeach, that is, prose- cute before the House of Lords, Lords Latimer and Neville. It was the first time that the Commons had attacked the king's ministers in this way. The persons impeached, and also Alice Perrers, were condemned and punished, and William of Wyke- ham came back to power. This Parliament is known as the Good Parliament. Unfortunately the Black Pruice died in 1376, and many feared that John of Gaunt would try to set aside the little son of the Black Prince, and make himself king on Edward's death ; Reaction on r-t • . ni tti death of the but the Commons insisted that Eichard should be Black Prince, j-gcognized as heir-apparent. John of Gaunt then called another Parliament, which reversed the acts of its pre- decessor. To revenge himself on Wykeham, he also allied himself Death of the ^^^^ Wycliffc, and defended him when he was sum- ^T^s. moned by the bishops to appear before them at St. Paul's. These violent proceedings caused much discontent, and matters were in this position when the kiug died, in 1377. CHAPTER Vr, Richard TI., 1377-1399 (22 years), ^ ^^^^ . , /- 1381, Anne of Bohemia. Bom 1366; married, | jgg^^ ^^^^^^ of France. Chief Characters of the Reign. — John of Gaunt and Henry Bolingbroke ; Thomas, Duke of Gloucester ; Edmund, Duke of York ; De Vere, Earl of Oxford ; Neville, Archbishop of York ; the Earls Arundel ; Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury; Sir Simon Burley ; Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk ; John Wy cliff e 5 and Wat Tyler. 0]sr Edward's death, his grandson Richard, the son of the Black Prince, was made king. He was only eleven years old, which was a very unfortunate thing for the kingdom, as his lot Difficulties of had fallen in troublous times. Not only was the war ^'^^ reign, with France still going on, but also there was reason to expect difficulties in England. Besides the Black Prince, Edward IH. had had four grown- up sons, and he had provided for them by marrying them to rich heiresses. Thus Lionel, Duke of Clarence, married ■w'eaitii of the the heiress of the De Burghs, who had great estates ^oy^i family, in Ireland; John of Gaunt married the heiress of Henry, Duke of Lancaster ; Edmund, Earl of Cambridge, and afterwards Duke of York, married a daughter of Pedro the Cruel; and Thomas of Woodstock, afterwards Earl of Gloucester, married the co-heiress of the Bohuns of Hereford. The daughter of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, married the Earl of Mortimer ; while John of Gaunt's eldest son, the Earl of Derby, was married to the sister of Gloucester's wife. The result of these marriages, which took place in Edward's lifetime or soon after, w^as to collect very large estates in the hands of the royal family — an arrangement which was hkely enough to cause trouble. Besides this, the commons were discon- tented, and the whole country had been much oppressed by taxation* 128 Later Angevin Kings. 11377- To carry on the government a council was appointed, from which the king's uncles were excluded, and the care of the king's Formation of person was entrusted to his mother, Joan of Kent. a councu. r^\^^ g^st duty of the council was to provide for the carrying-on of the war. The French were ravaging the southern coasts, and, to provide for their defence, the Commons voted a large sum ; but they stipulated that it should be paid into the hands ^ , of two London merchants, Walworth and Philipot, Control over ' the whom the king named as treasurers. This was a very expenditure, i^^pop^ant step, and shortly afterwards the Commons demanded to see the accounts of the treasury ; this they had never done before, but the government were so pressed for money that it was quite impossible to refuse. Unfortunately, the tax granted by Parliament did not amount to as much as was expected, and in 1381 an additional tax had to be levied. The first tax had been graduated - axes, according to wealth, John of Gaunt having paid £6 13s. 4cZ., while the poorest only paid ^d. each ; but the new tax was a shilHng each on all over fifteen. This caused great discontent, and the commons all over the east and south of England rose in insurrection. The chief risings were Rising of the ill Essex, under a leader who called himself Jack peasants. Straw, and in Kent, under one who took the name of Wat Tyler. Everywhere the rebels burnt the manor-houses in order to destroy the rolls on which the services due by the villeins were recorded, and they killed every lawyer on whom they could lay their hands. The rebels from Essex and Kent reached London ; but the men of Essex were pacified by promises, and Kichard himself won the goodwill of the Kentish-men after their leader, Wat Tyler, had been killed by Walworth, the Lord Mayor. The rebels demanded that customary services should be Demands of the abolished, that the rent paid for the land, instead of serfs. ^]^Q services, should be fourpence an acre, and that all should have liberty to buy and sell in fairs and markets. These demands were granted by the king ; but when Parliament met, the landowners refused to confirm the grant, on the ground that no one had a right to deprive them of the services of their villeins. In practice, however, individual landlords were unable to enforce 1386.] Richard II. 129 the services, and the peasants' revolt marks the beginning of a century of great prosperity for the labouring classes. During the insurrection the rebels had shown great hostility to John of Gaunt, who continued, however, to have much influence till 1385; but in that year Eoger Mortiroer,i Earl of March, the grandson of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, was declared heir to the throne, which destroyed his hopes of the succession, and the next year he made an expedition to Spain, to prosecute his right to the crown of Castile, which he claimed through his second wife, the elder daughter of Pedro the Cruel, and remained there till 1389. During the absence of John of Gaunt, the government lay in the hands of the council, in which Michael de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, had the chief power, and his principal colleagues Rise of a were De Vere, Earl of Oxford (afterwards created »eace party ' ^ and. a "war Duke of Ireland), Neville, Archbishop of York, and Sir party. Simon Burley. The council advised peace, but the nobles, headed by Thomas of Gloucester, opposed this poHcy, and naturally had the support of those who had made money by the war, and of the soldiers who would lose their occupation if it was concluded. To defeat the plans of the council, Gloucester and his friends in 1386 demanded the dismissal of Suffolk. For some time Richard resisted, but the opposition threatened him with the g^^,^ ^ fate of Edward II., and he was compelled to yield. A between the council of eleven was then appointed as a commission, anTthe^ior J to sit for a year, and to regulate the royal household ^PPe^ian*' > ROGER MORTIMER'S CLAIM. Edward III., Edward the Black Prince, d. 1376. Rieliard II,, 1377-1399. Lionel, Duke of Clarence. I Philippa = Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March (great-grandson of Roger Mortimer, who was executed 1330). Roger, Earl of March, d. 1398. 130 Later Angevin Kings. [isse- aud tlie kingdom. Eichard disliked this, and got the judges to declare the council illegal. Upon this, the Duke of Gloucester, and the Earls of Arundel, Derby, Nottingham, and Warwick, took up arms and beat the king's friends, under De Vere, at Eadcot Bridge, on the Thames in 1387. A Parliament, called the Merciless, was then summoned to meet in 1388, and the confederated lords appealed 1 of treason the king's favourites, De Vere, Suffolk, Neville Archbishop of York, Sir Simon Burley, and others. Some were executed and some banished, and the chief power fell into the hands of Gloucester. The next year, 1389, Richard declared himself of age, and took the government into his own hands. Richard's reign was a time of great activity with the Lollards. Wycliffe died in 1384, but Richard's wife, Anne of Bohemia, was their friend, and under their influence Parliament The liOUards. renewed the Statutes of Provisors, Mortmain, and Praemunire. Some even wished to go further, and deprive the Church of its property, and this naturally made the clergy angry with the court, and favourable to the party of the nobles. In 1389 John of Gaunt returned to England, and afterwards gave his support to the king, who obhged him by making his children by Katharine Swynford legitimate, and having the deed confirmed by Parliament. These children were called the Beauforts. In 1394 Anne of Bohemia died, and in 1396 Richard married Isabella, the sister of the French king, and made a truce with France for twenty-five years. This truce was distasteful to Gloucester and his friends, who thwarted Richard every way in their power, and he, on the other hand, determined Gloucester and to crush them once for all, and to rule as he thought fit. To do this he laid his plans with great skill, won over the Earls of Derby and Nottingham to his side, and then, in 1397, suddenly aiTested the others and accused them of treason. Arundel was executed, and his brother, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was banished. "Warwick was imprisoned; but when Gloucester should have been tried, it was announced that he had died at Calais. Every one believed that he had been murdered by order of his nephew. Having thus got rid of his opponents, Richard called a Parliament * To appeal is to deliberately charge. 1399.] Richard II. 131 at Westminster. On previous occasions the Commons had been strong because tbey had been supported by the Parliament of mihtary power of the nobles ; but now that this was Shrewsbury, broken, they were overawed by the king's body-guard of Cheshire archers, and were compelled to annul the acts of the Merciless Parliament. At a second meeting held at Shrewsbury they granted the king customs for life, which deprived them of control over the purse, and delegated their authority to eighteen of their members, who of course belonged to the king's party. It now seemed as if Eichard were absolute, and the next year he found an opportunity of getting rid of his only formidable opponents. A quarrel occurred between the Duke of Hereford, formerly Earl of Derby, and the Duke of Norfolk, Hereford and formerly Earl of Nottingham. They accused each other of treason, and as there was no evidence except their own word, the case was decided by single combat. However, when the fight was to begin, Eichard stopped it, and gave sentence that Norfolk should be banished for life, and Hereford for ten years, which were afterwards reduced to seven. This was unjust, for both could not be guilty, and impolitic, for Hereford was by far the more dangerous of the two. In banishing them Eichard stipu- lated that they should not communicate with Archbishop Arundel ; but he promised Hereford that he should not be deprived of any land or goods which came to him by inheritance during his exile. However, within a short time news was brought that Eoger Mortimer, the heir-apparent, had been killed in Ire- confiscation of land, and Eichard, whose extravagance made him Joii^ofGaunt's ' ' ^ property. poor, was foolish enough to seize the property of Expedition to John of Gaunt, who had died shortly after his son's Ireland, exile, to provide funds for an expedition to that country. While he was in Ireland, the new Duke of Lancaster came back to England and demanded the estates of his Lancaster's father. All those who had favoured Gloucester, or revolt, who were aggrieved by Eichard's arbitrary government, flocked to his standard ; and the Duke of York, who had been left as regent, offering no resistance, the whole country passed into the power of Lancaster. Meanwhile Eichard was detained in Ireland by contrarj winds, and when he at last landed in Wales, he found that the army 132 Later Angevin Kings. [1309. of Welshmen on whom he had rehed had dispersed before his arrival. He was then tricked into sm-rendering himself into the hands of his cousin, and a Parliament, called under the influence of Lancaster, after enumerating his various arbitrary acts, deposed him. The throne was then claimed by Henry of Lancaster, as the descendant of Henry HI. His real claim rested on the ready con- Throne claimed Sent of the clergy, nobility, and commons of the realm, byiiancaster. ^j^q thought that the transference of the crown from an extravagant and arbitrary king to one who they believed could restore order, and secure them from the evils of the late govern- ment, was the best thing for the country. CHIEF GENERAL EVENTS UNDER ANGEVIN KINGS [SOMETIMES CALLED FLANTAGENETS). Quarrel with Becket First settlement of English in Ireland Magna Charta agreed to Parliament of Oxford De Montfort's Parliament Annexation of Wales Claims to Scottish throne referred to Edward I. First complete and model Parliament Confirmatio Cartarum agreed to Lords Ordainers named Commons admitted to full share of legislation Parliament divided into Lords and Commons Hundred years' war with France begins The Black Death The Good Parliament Peasant Revolt Death of Wyclifee 1164-1170 1172 1215 1258 1265 1284 1291 1295 1297 1310 1322 1333 1339 1349 1376 1381 1384 Richard II. 133 BATTLES, SIEGES, AND TREATIES, UNDER THE ANGEVIN KINGS {SOMETIMES CALLED PLAN- TA GENETS), 1174 1191 1213 1214 1217 1217 1242 1242 1264 1265 1296 1297 1298 1314 , 1322 1328 1333 1340 1346 1346-7 , 1346 1356 1360 1367 1372 1387 1388 Treaty of Falaise Siege ( of Acre Battle of Damme J5 Bouvines j> Lincoln 5) Sandwich M Taillebourg ... 1) Saintes J) Lewes M Evesham JJ Dunbar JJ Cambuskenneth >> Falkirk 55 Bannockburn J> Boroughbridge Treaty of Northampton Battle of Halidon Hill J) Sluys JJ Crecy Siege < of Calais Battle of Nevill's Cross JJ Poitiers Treaty of Bretigny Battle of Najara 3J Eochelle )J Radcot Bridge 11 Otterburne ... BOOK V THE YOBK AND LANCASTEB KINQS XI.—THE HOUSES OF YORK AND LANCASTER. Edward III., 1327-1377. Lionel, Duke of Clarence (2nd son), d. 1368. Edmund, Duke of York, (4th son), 1401. I John of Gaunt (3rd son), 1399. Philippa, = Edmund Morti- d. 1381. nier, Earl of March (great- grandson of Roger Mortimer, who was executed 1330). Elizabeth, m. Henry Hotspur. Roger, Earl of March, killed 1398. Blanche of Lancaster. Henry IV., 1399-1413. Henry v., Thomas, 1413-1422. Duke of Clarence, 1421. Henry VI., 1422-1461. John, Humphrey, Duke Duke of of Bed- Gloucester, ford, 1446. d. 1435. Edmund, Earl of March, d. 1424. Anne = Richard, Earl of Cambridge, executed 1415. Richard, Duke of York, killed at Wakefield 1460. Edward, Duke of York (elder son), killed at Agincourt 1415. Edw^ard IV., 1461-1483. George, Duke of Clarence, executed 1478. Richard III., 1483-1485. Edward V, Richard, Duke of York, Elizabeth = Henry VII. 1483. supposed to have been murdered in the Tower 1483. XII.— SCOTTISH KINGS, 1306-1488. Robert Bruce, 1306-1329. David II., Margaret = Walter the Steward, 1329-1370. I generally spelt Stuart. Robert II., 1370-1390. Robert III., 1390-1406. Robert, Duke of Albany, I d. 1420. I I James I., = Jane Beaufort, Murdoch, 1406-1437. I (see p. 162). captured at Homildon, I d. 1425. James II., 1437-1460. James III., 1460-1488. XIII.— THE KINGS OF FRANCE, 1350-1515. Jolin II., 1350-1364. Charles V., 1364-1380. Philip, Duke of Burgundy, I d. 1404. Charles VI., Louis of Orleans, John, Duke of Burgundy, 1380-1422. murdered 1407. murdered 1419', I I at Montereau. Charles VII., Charles, Duke of Orleans, | 1422-1461. captured at Agincourt, Philip, Duke of Burgundy, I grandfather of d. 1467. Louis XI., Louis XII., I 1461-1483. 1498-1515. Charles (the Bold), I Duke of Burgundy, Charles VIII., d. 1477, 1483-1498. m. Margaret, Bister of Edward IV. CHAPTER I. HEimY IV., 1399-1413 (14 years). T. . o/^/. • J r 1380, Mary de Bolnm. Bom 1366; married, ^ ^ .^o t Vf -vt ' i 1403, Joan of Navarre. Chief Characters of the Eeign. — Archbishop Arundel, the Earl of North- umberland, Henry Percy (Hotspur), Owen Glendower, Thomas Beau- fort, and Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester. The first act of the new government was to imprison the late king. He had still a good many friends, and the Earl of Eutland, son of the Duke of York, Eichard's half-brothers, the favour of Earls of Huntingdon and Kent, and the Earl of Salis- Riciiard. bury, entered into a conspiracy in his favour. The plot was either betrayed by the Earl of Eutland or detected by his father, and those who rebelled were captured by the common Death of people, who were strong partisans of Henry. The Riciiard. chief result of the insurrection was to cause the murder of Eichard. What was his exact fate is unknown, and this uncertainty served to keep alive reports that he was still Hving, which added much to Henry's difficulties. Henry's success had been much furthered by the assistance of the bishops, who had been opposed to the Lollardism of Eichard's ActDeHeretico court. They were rewarded, in 1401, by the passing comburendo. Qf ^he act De Heretico Comburendo, which enabled the ecclesiastical courts, on the conviction of any one of heresy, to hand him over to the civil powers for execution. This act was passed by the lords at the request of the clergy, but without the consent of the Commons. The first person executed for heresy was William Sawtre, at one time vicar of Lynn, in Norfolk. From this time forward executions were not unfrequent. They are not often mentioned by the chroniclers, but the expenses of burning a heretic occur from time to time in the accounts of cities and boroughs. 1403.] Henry IV. 139 Henry soon found himself in difficulties, both in Wales and Scotland. In Wales, Owen Grlendower, who had formerly been in the service of Kichard, raised a rebellion, ravaged Q-iendower' the lowlands, and retired for safety into the fastnesses rebeiuon. of the country. These tactics made it very difficult to bring him to battle, and the young Prince of Wales, to whom the duty was entrusted, found the task quite beyond his powers. With Scotland, since the release of David, the English had, on the whole, been on fair terms, but Eichard had once, in 1385, invaded the country, and in 1388 a battle had -war with been fought at Otterburn between the rival border Scotland, lords, Percy and Douglas. Now, however, the Scots refused to acknowledge Henry, so he attacked them. With a powerful army he advanced to Leith and burnt the town; but the Scots refused to be drawn into a pitched battle, and the English, having consumed their provisions, returned home without glory. The conduct of the war was left to Percy, Earl of Northumberland, and his son Henry, sumamed Hotspur. In 1402 the Scots were beaten at Nesbit Moor and at Homildon Hill, where the Percies were fortunate enough to take prisoners the Earl of Douglas and Murdoch, Earl of Fife, the son of the Duke of Albany, brother of the Scottish king. Henry, of course, demanded possession of the prisoners, and this demand led to a quarrel. Although the Percies had been the chief supporters of Henry's attempt against Eichard, they complained that the king had never repaid them the sums they had advanced. Moreover, nebeUion of Hotspur had married Elizabeth Mortimer, the sister *^® Percies. of that Eoger who had been declared heir to Eichard 11. Her brother Edmund, the guardian of Eoger's children, who were kept by Henry in Windsor Castle, had been taken prisoner by Glendower, and Henry refused to do anything towards procuring his ransom. Exasperated by these grievances, the Percies in 1403 formed a con- spiracy, into which they brought the Earl of Worcester, brother to the Earl of Northumberland, Douglas, Owen Glendower, and Mortimer. The great object of the conspirators was to join their forces, so Hotspur and Douglas hurried to the Welsh border, while Northum- berland stayed behind to wait for an army of Scots who were to join 140 House of Lancaster. ti403- the enterprise. Hotspur had raised the men of Cheshire, who were Battle of devoted to the cause of Eichard, and was close to Shrewsbury. Shrewsbury, the possession of which would have secured his junction with Glendower, when Henry entered the town before him. The next day an obstinate battle was fought within sight of the walls, and while the fortunes of the day were yet doubtful, Hotspur fell by a chance arrow, the rebel army was completely routed, and Douglas and Worcester were taken prisoners. Worcester was at once executed, and Henry marched north against Northumberland. That crafty nobleman, however, pretended that the troops he had levied were intended for the king's assistance, and Henry found himself obliged to accept this explanation. Two years later, in 1405, another conspiracy was discovered ; its leaders were Scrope, Archbishop of York, the brother of one of EeTDeUionof Richard's ministers, and Thomas Mowbray, Earl of Scrope and Nottingham, son of the Duke of Norfolk, whom Eichard ow r y. j^^^ banished. The insurgents were outwitted, not to say cheated, by John, the king's third son, and were both executed. The public execution of a prelate is noteworthy in the history of the Church, and shows how much the respect for the clergy had declined since the days of Thomas Becket. The Earl of Northumberland, who had sympathized with the rebels, escaped their fate by flying to Scotland. For some time Fate of he sought aid iq that country and in Wales, but in '^and^^^of " 1408, having raised a small army on his northern Glendower. estates, he was defeated and slain at Bramham Moor, near Tadcaster. Dming the whole of the reign Owen Glendower maintained himself in his fastnesses, and sometimes ventured to attack the English in the plains, and till his death in the next reign he managed to preserve his independence. These troubles made Henry's throne no enviable seat during the early years of his reign, but his ability enabled him to overcome Good fortune of them, and by degrees he became firmly seated. Henry abroad, fortune gave him great advantages in his relation to foreign countries. Scotland was distracted by the ambition of the Duke of Albany, the younger brother of the mad King Eobert IH., whose son Murdoch was in Henry's hands; and when the Scots sent James, Robert's little son and heir, to France to be out of 141S.] Henry IV, 141 the way of his uncle's violence, he was captured off Flam- borough Head by the English. These two captures gave Henry a great ascendency in Scotland, and in France circumstances were equally favourable. In that country the imbecility of the king, Charles VI., had allowed the nation to be convulsed by a struggle between the rival houses of Burgundy and Orleans. In 1407 the Duke of Orleans was murdered, and four years later Henry assisted the Burgundians against the revenge of the duke's followers. The next year he changed sides, and sent his son Clarence to help the Orleanists, and in this way he was able to keep France weak. At home, however, Henry was totally unable to make head against the demands of his Parliament. The extravagance of Eichard had left the crown poorer than ever. Henry „ _ . , 1 1 . P Constitutional feared to excite the country by askmg tor money, rule of so his only chance was to rule as a constitutional ^®^y i"^- sovereign. Accordingly, we find the Commons in 1406 insisting upon a proper audit of the accounts of their grants, and the king in 1407 conceding the right of the Commons alone to originate money grants, and allowing perfect freedom of deliberation on such grants between both Houses of Parhament. In 1404 the king even, at the request of the Commons, named twenty-two members of Parhament to be his great and continual council, and in 1406 and 1410 similar requests were made, showing that the notion that ministers should be chosen by consultation between king and Parlia- ment, which had been stated under Edward HI., was now being put into practical effect. One great object of the Commons was to induce the king to confiscate the property of the Church, which they , , . if I r \> Proposed assured him would serve to support a large force of disendowment soldiers, and so give relief from taxation ; and it was °^ *^® church.. only the friendship of the king to the Church which prevented them from carrying this policy into effect. Another object was the abolition of retainers. These were men, often disbanded soldiers, who wore the badge of some great lord and were bound to fight in his quarrels. They con- - . The retainers. Btituted a standing army for those who could afford to keep them, and were an incessant temptation to rebelhon and private war. Three times during this reign the Parhament forbade 142 House of Lancaster. [1412. their maintenance, but the king was not strong enough to enforce the observance of the law. The chief statesmen of the reign were Archbishop Arundel, and Thomas and Henry Beaufort, sons of John of Gaunt by Katharine Close of the Swynford. Henry himself seems to have preferred reign. Arundel; the Prince of Wales favoured the Beauforts. Towards the close of the reign, Prince Henry seems for some reason to have lost the confidence of his father. In 1412 he was dismissed from the council, and the next year his younger brother Clarence was sent to lead the army in France, and at the same time Thomas Beaufort was dismissed from the office of chancellor. There is a tradition that the prince wished to seize the crown before his father's death. Perhaps he had not shown sufficient regard for his father's position ; but the king's health was so bad during the latter years of his reign that he could hardly attend to business, and he died in 1413. CHAPTER n. Henkt v., 1413-1422 (9 years). Born 1388 ; married, 1420, Katharine of France. Chief Characters of the Reign. — Archbishop Arundel ; Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester, afterwards Cardinal ; Sir John Oldcastle ; Eichard, Earl of Cambridge ; and Thomas, Duke of Clarence. Whatever may have been Henry's conduct as Prince of Wales, on his accession he set himself to be a thoroughly good king. His first act was to make Henry Beaufort chancellor, and Arundel returned to his duties as Archbishop of Canterbury. Arundel's first act was to renew the persecution of the Lollards, by attacking their leader, Sir John Oldcastle, who was generally known, in right of his wife, as Lord Cobham. Oldcastle persecution of was a good soldier and a personal friend of the king ; *^® liouards. but Henry's influence was not enough to induce him to give up his principles, so he was tried for heresy, and condemned to be burnt by the civil powers. Before the day came, however, he managed to escape from the Tower, and for some years led a wandering life, till his capture and execution in 1417. Shortly after his escape a rumour reached the king that a great meeting of Lollards was to be held in St. Giles's Fields, just outside the walls of London. Prompt measures were taken ; the gates were shut, and the country scoured by parties of horsemen. Some sixty or seventy men were captured, who admitted that their leader was Sir John Oldcastle. These were executed, and Henry's vigorous actions prevented the movement from becoming serious. This trouble, coupled with the danger which always existed from the turbulence of the barons and their retainers, determined Henry to gratify his ambition by prosecuting the war with Renewal of the France, by which he hoped to distract the attention French war. of the country from home affairs, and also to turn into a useful 144 House of Lancaster. [1414- channel the energy of his unruly subjects. His father is said to have suggested this policy, and he was supported by the nation on much the same grounds as secured support for Edward III. Henry himself had not a shadow of claim to the French crown ; for even that of Edward IH., bad as it was, had clearly descended to the line of Mortimer; but the moment was extremely favourable, for the struggles between the Burgundians and Orleanists were still going on, and he hoped to gain the support of one or other of these parties. Accordingly, in 1414, he laid formal claim to the French crown ; and as his demand was rejected, he took the advice of Parliament and prepared for an invasion of France. The Parha- ment granted liberal supplies, and the English property of foreign monasteries was handed over to the king. An army was hired in the usual way, an earl receiving 13s. M. a day for his services, an archer ^d.-, so that, as the ordinary wages of labourers was at this time 4f?., Henry had no difficulty in getting troops. When all was ready, a " Great Council" {i.e. a meeting of the magnates without the inferior clergy and the Commons) gave orders Cambridge's ^^^ ^^® "^^^ should begin, and the army was on the conspiracy, point of Setting out from Southampton, when a plot was discovered against the king. The leaders were Kichard, Earl of Cambridge, second son of Edmund, Duke of York, and husband of Anne, the sister of Edmund Mortimer ; and Lord Scrope, a relative of the archbishop of that name. Their plan was to place Edmund Mortimer on the throne. The leaders were both executed without disturbance. The Earl of Cambridge left behind him a son, Kichard, of whom we shall hear more. From Southampton, Henry, with a force of twenty-four thousand archers and six thousand men-at-arms, sailed to Havre, landed Siege of ^"^^ l^i^l siege to Harfleur, and took it. Dysentery, Harfleur. however, broke out in the camp, and when a garrison had been told off for the defence of the town, Henry found that he had only nine hundred men-at-arms and five thousand archers remaining efficient. "With these ho rashly determined to march along the coast to Calais. On their way the little band suffered terrible privations, and Themarciito when they reached Blanchetaque, where Edward HI. Calais. j^^^j crossed the Somme, they found the ford guarded, 1415.] Henry V, MS and there was nothing for it but to march up the river, in hopes of finding some means of getting across. But all the fords and bridges were guarded, and it was not till the English had advanced almost to the source of the Somme that they succeeded in crossing the river, and they then found that the constable of France, with the Duke of Orleans, and a large army had barred the road to Calais at Agincourt. Henry had no choice but to fight or surrender, so he Walker i-rJioutallSc NOBTH OP FRANCE, TO ILLUSTRATE THE CAMPAieNS OF CRECT AND AGINCOUET. and his little army faced the French and prepared to make a brave resistance. The French are said to have outnumbered the English by Beven to one. They had no archers, but relied on their men-at-arms, the great body of whom, as at Poitiers, fought Arrangements on foot. The constable was a bad- general, and of ti^-e battle, he drew up his men in such a fashion as to tlu-ow away all the 146 House of Lancaster. [1415- advantage whicli Ms numbers gave him. At tlie point chosen for the fight the road ran between two woods, and the constable drew up his forces in three divisions, one behind the other, the front stretching from wood to wood. The result of this plan was that the front of the first division was only equal in length to that of the English, so that the French gave up all chance of outflanking their opponents. Had the field of battle been an open plain, the long lines of Frenchmen might have wheeled completely round the ._ ETtfflisTt-^rchera Jifan.alArmi FIELD OF AGINCOURT, 25TH OCTOBEK, 1415. (ADAPTED FROM SPEUNER.) little English army. Moreover, as the French had no archers, only their front rank could fight hand-to-hand at a given time ; while the English, in open order, could from a distance pour their arrows on the mass of unresisting Frenchmen. In addition to this, the ground where the French stood was newly harrowed, and the men-at-arms in their heavy armour sank knee-deep in the mud. Henry fully expected that the French would make the attack, and ordered each archer to provide himself with a long stake pointed at the end, which he was to stick in the ground before him as a 1419.] Henry V. 147 defence against the cavalry ; but so confident did he feel in the steadiness of his archers, that he ventured to detach from his force two bodies of men-at-arms, who were to creep round the woods and attack the French flank at the critical moment. When the battle began, Henry found that the French meant to stand on the defensive. He therefore ordered his men to attack the huge French army. Carrying their stakes, the archers advanced, and when well within range planted them in the ground, and quietly sent their deadly arrows among the crowd of standing Frenchmen. Soon the dying men and struggling horses threw the first division into confusion, an.d then the English, slinging their bows behind them, rushed sword in hand upon the struggling mass. The first division was utterly routed, and forced to fall back on the second. A similar manoeuvre discomfited that too, and then the English, confident of victory, marched to attack the third. At that moment a cry was raised that they were being attacked in the rear. The alarm w^as false, but the mistake was not discovered till orders had been given to kill the prisoners, lest they should take advantage of the danger to turn upon their captors. Then the third line was attacked, and a charge in flank completed its destruction. The constable of France and the Count of Alen9on were killed, the Dukes of Orleans and Bourbon were taken prisoners. Over- joyed at their success, the English lost no time in Result of the marching to Calais and returning to England. Henry battle, was received with tumultuous rejoicings, and Parliament, forgetting the importance of controlling the purse, voted him in gratitude a tax on wool and leather, not for a fixed time, but for life. The next year Henry entered into a formal alliance with John, Duke of Burgundy, who since the battle of Agincourt K'ew invasion had had the chief power in France, and in 1417 he of France, again invaded Normandy. The Norman towns fell fast before him, and in 1419 Rouen, the capital, was taken. Danger now made the French factions unite. Hitherto the queen, with her daughter Katharine, had been on the r of the side of the Burgundians, and Charles, the dauphin, Duke of on that of the Orleanists ; but hopes were now entertained that a reconciliation might be effected. Accordingly, a 148 House of Lancaster. [1419. meeting was arranged between the Duke of Burgundy and the dauphin at the bridge of Montereau-sur-Yonne. There a dreadful crime was committed, for the followers of the dauphin, pressing into the wooden cage reserved for the conference, murdered the duke. This crime was a gross blunder, for the duke's son Philip and the French queen threw themselves into the arms of the English, and Treaty of ^^ agreement was made that Henry should marry Troyes. Katharine, and become King of France on the death of Charles. In the mean time he was to act as Kegent of the realm, and levy war on the dauphin. This arrangement, made in 1420, is known as the treaty of Troyes. Henry at once married Katharine, and was received in Paris as heir to the throne, and then returned to England, leaving his brother Clarence to manage affairs in France. Meanwhile the dauphin had gathered to his standard the forces of the south of France, where the Armagnacs, as the Orleanists are Alliance of the often Called, were strongest ; and called to his aid the ^^^scots^^*^ Scots, who, as was usual during this war, invaded Defeat of the north of England, and also sent troops to France. Beaug-e. Clarence was foolish enough to attempt to surprise the allied army by leaving his archers behind and rapidly marching with men-at-arms only to Beaugd. There he met with a severe defeat, and was himself killed, in 1421. To repair this disaster Henry hurried back from England and besieged Meaux, a strong fortress near Paris. This he took after a Death of great eJSbrt, in 1421. The same year a son was born Senry. \q j^im at Windsor ; but before Henry could return, an attack of dysentery, then the scourge of armies, put an end to his life, in the thirty-fourth j'-ear of his age, and the ninth of his reign. Henry V.'s character has been much praised. There is no question that he was a great warrior and an able man; but he was terribly severe to the Lollards, and his ambition cost England many lives and much misery. A chronicler says of him, " He had been of high and great courage, valiant in arms, prudent, sage, great in justice, who without respect of persons did right for small and great. He was feared and revered of hia relations, subjects, and neighbours." CHAPTER m, Henry VI., 1422-[detlironed] 1461 (39 years), [died] 1471. Born 1421 ; married, 1446, Margaret of Anjou. Chief Characters of the Eeign. — John, Duke of Bedford ; Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester ; Cardinal Beaufort ; Jeanne Dare ; William de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk ; Richard, Duke of York ; John, Earl of Somer- set ; and Edmund, Duke of Somerset ; Richard Neville, Earl of Salis- bury ; and his son Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick (the king-maker). Heney's little son was only nine months old when his father died, so the chief power rested in the hands of the council, and it was arranged that his uncle, John, Duke of Bedford, should Arrangements be protector of the realm, but that in his absence minorityof the Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, should hold that king-, position, and be the king's chief counsellor. As a rule, Bedford was busy in France, so that Gloucester had the chief power, and next to him stood Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester. The late king wished the regency of France to be held by the Duke of Burgundy; but that prince declined it, and the post fell to the lot of Bedford. John, Duke of Bedford, was a Bedford's man of noble character. He was thoroughly dis- aUiance. interested, and, though he was not as brilliant as the late king, he combined Henry's solid talents with some of the nobleness of character which distinguished the Black Prince. His first care was to secure the English dominions from attack. The English territory north of the Loire was something in the form of a wedge driven from the sea-coast into the centre of France, and having its point at Paris. To secure the sides of this wedge, Bedford drew close his alliance with Burgundy in the east and Brittany in the west, and, to strengthen the union, he and Arthur of Kichemont, the brother of the Duke of Brittany, married sisters of the Duke of Burgundy. i^o House of Lancaster. [1423- Two battles secured his communication with these allies. Crevant, in 1423, drove the French out of the district between Paris and Crevant and Burgundy, and Verneuil, in 1424, cleared the district verneaii. between Paris and Brittany, so that the French were forced to confine themselves to the lands south of the river Loire. To deprive the French of Scottish aid, James, King of Scotland, was released and sent home with an English wife, Jane Beaufort, grand- daughter of John of Gaunt. (See p. 152). Unfortunately, the imbecile Charles VI. died in 1422, very soon after Henry, and this deprived the English of the pretence of being Fouy of t^6 ^lli^s of *^^ French king, and made the dauphin, Gloucester, now Charles YII., the rightful champion of the French cause. A worse blow still was struck at the English power by the folly of the Duke of Gloucester. That nobleman married Jacqueline of Hainault, the divorced wife of a relation of the Duke of Burgundy. She had extensive lands in the Netherlands, to which the Duke of Burgundy hoped to succeed ; and as Gloucester tried to push his wife's claims by arms, the Duke of Burgundy's friendship for England naturally cooled. At home, too, Gloucester caused trouble by quarrelling with his uncle Beaufort, and Bedford had to come over to England to arrange their differences. The old difficulties which had caused the loss of France in the time of Edward III. now began to tell upon the English. Men and Siege of money were more difficult to get, while the French Orleans. j^^d given up their feudal armies and had hired pro- fessional soldiers, after the English fashion. The great want of the French was enthusiasm and belief in their ovm power, and this was supplied as follows. In 1428 Bedford decided to lay siege to Orleans. This town lies on the north bank of the river Loire, and, therefore, acted as a gate by which the French might at any time enter the English territory. In the siege the English were unlucky from the first. One of their best generals, the Earl of Salisbury, was killed by a cannon-shot while he was examining the defences, and though at Eouvray Sir John Fastolf cleverly beat off a party of French who attacked a convoy of herrings under his charge, the siege made slow progress. Just at this moment there arrived in Charles's camp a peasant girl of Domremy, Jeanne Dare, who was filled with a generous 1436.] Henry VI. 151 enthusiasm for her country, and assured Charles that, if she were allowed to lead the soldiers, she would raise the . ' . , Jeanne Dare. siege and conduct him in triumph to be crowned at Rheims, like all the French kings before him. The appearance of Jeanne gave just the spark of enthusiasm that was needed ; the French under her were a match for the English, and drove them from Orleans. The Earl of Suflfolk was captured at Jargeau ; Sir John Talbot was defeated and taken at Patay; and within the year Charles VII. was crowned at Rheims. The effort, however, died away ; the Maid of Orleans was captured and burnt as a heretic, and seven years elapsed before the French made any further progress in their efforts to rid themselves of the invaders. At home the most important event of the time was the passing of an act of Parliament, in 1431, to restrict the right of voting for knights of the shire to persons possessing freeholds in the shire to the value of forty shiUings a year. By sMiimg" this act all copyholders and villems were disfran- ®® oiders. chised, and the forty-shilling freeholders were the only voters for the counties till the Reform Bill of 1832. Unfortunately, in 1433 Bedford himself made a great mistake. His Burgundian wife died, and he very soon afterwards married Jacquetta of Luxemburg, the sister of the Count of Quarrel with. St. Pol. The lands of this nobleman lay between the Burgundy. possessions of Burgundy and those of France, and he was in the habit of playing off one against the other ; the consequence was that the Duke of Burgundy became estranged from Bedford, and prepared to go over to the side of Charles VII. To make matters worse, Bedford's health declined, and he was less able to conduct the difficult struggle. Under these circumstances, in 1435 the pope arranged a congress at Arras to try and bring about peace. Most of the European states sent ambassadors, and the Duke of Burgundy secretly agreed that, if the English did not accept the French terms, he would take up arms against them. The French offered to give the English Normandy and Guienne in exchange for Deatii of their claim on the French crown. These terms were Bedford, refused. Burgundy joined the French, and at the same moment Bedford, worn out by overwork and disappointment, died at Rouen. Bedford was succeeded by Richard, Duke of York, son of the 152 House of Lancaster. [1435- Earl of Cambridge, who had been executed in 1415. He was an able man, but was unable to cope with the united Burgundians and French, who now pressed heavily on the English. Paris was aban- doned in 1440, and the English with difficulty maintained them- selves in Normandy. In hopes of dividing the French, the Duke of Orleans, captured at Agincourt, was released in 1440 ; but the plan had no success. During these years the chief power in England lay in the hands of Gloucester and Beaufort. They were constantly at variance, and Quarrels in the ^* ^^^ taxed Bedford's powers to keep the peace. In royal family. 1426 Beaufort was made a cardinal, which gave Gloucester a fresh opportunity for attacking him, but Parliament granted him a dispensation from the Statute of Praemunire, which he had broken by receiving an appointment from Eome. As the war went on, two parties appeared in England, one for peace, the other for war. Bedford had been wishful for peace, and Beaufort supported his views; but Gloucester, with the young nobles and professional soldiers, took the opposite side. Gloucester was a popular man, and had a reputation for chivalry which gained him the title of " Good," but it is hard to see why he deserved it. To the same party as the cardinal belonged his nephews, John Beau- fortji Duke of Somerset, who died in 1444, leaving an only 1 THE BEAUFORTS. John of Gaunt, = Katharine Swynford. d. 1399. I , L- I John, Earl of Somerset, d. 1410. Henry, Cardinal Beaufort, d. 1447. \ I J Katharine = Owen John, Duke Edmund, Jane, of France. I Tudor. of Somerset, Duke of m. James I. d. 1444. Somerset, of Scotland. killed 1455. Edmund Tudor, = Margaret. Earl of Richmond. Henry VTI. 1485-1509. r I I Henry, Duke of Edmund, Duke of John, Somerset, executed after Somerset, executed after killed at Tewkesbury Hexham 1463. Tewkesbury 1471. 1471. 1450.] Henry VL i53 daughter, Margaret, and his brother Edmund, who, after his death, succeeded to the title. Another adherent was William de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, grandson of the minister of Richard II. When Henry grew up, his gentle disposition led him to take the same side, so that there was thus formed a court party in favour of peace, and an opposition, or nobleman's party, in favour of war. In 1445 the peace party carried out a great stroke of policy, by negotiating a marriage between Henry and Margaret of Anjou, the daughter of Rene, Count of Anjou and Maine, and King's niece of the French queen. It was hoped that this "carriage. ! would lead to peace, and, to pave the way, the English gave up to Rene the counties of Anjou and Maine, which had been long in their hands. This marriage was arranged by the Earl of Suffolk, who brought over the young queen ; and, though he was thanked for his services by Parliament, the step was so hated in the country that it was the beginning of Suffolk's unpopularity. Margaret was a woman of great force and impetuosity ; she soon acquired a com- plete ascendency over the mind of Henry, and as she reposed confidence in Suffolk, he gained discredit for any mistakes that were made, especially as Cardinal Beaufort was now an old man. Of course the power of Suffolk was viewed with jealousy by Gloucester, and in 1447, at the Parhament of Bury St. Edmunds, the court party determined to strike a blow at their ^^^^^^ ^^^ opponents by arresting Gloucester on a charge of high death of treason. This was carried out, and five days after °^"^®^ ^^' his arrest Gloucester died in prison. As his health was wretched, there is every reason to suppose that his death was due to natural causes, but at the time it was generally believed that he had been murdered. Henry had as yet no children, so -^^^^^^^^^-^ Richard, Duke of York, as representative of the elder heir to the line of the descendants of Edward III. (see pedigree XI.), became heir-apparent to the throne, and he also succeeded Gloucester as leader of the opposition. The same year Cardinal Beaufort died, and Somerset and Suffolk were the most prominent men left about the court. Meanwhile things began to look very black in France. Brittany had joined the French, the English had been driven Rapid loss from Rouen in 1449, and in the north Bayeux, Caen, of France. 154 House of Lancaster. [1450- and Cherbourg were lost in 1450, and Calais alone remained in English hands. At home the heavy drain of men and money had begun to tell ; the government had hard work to get funds to pay the troops, or to find soldiers to replace those who had fallen. Disastrous . ^ condition of The power of the king was so weak that frightful e coun ry. (jjgQj.(3^ej. existed in the country. There was no respect for the law among the great nobles. In Norfolk a gentle- man named John Paston obtained a house and property in a lawsuit. The defeated suitor, Lord Molejms, who quite unjustly claimed the manor of Gresham, collected a force of one thousand men, and attacked the house while the owner was away, taking the beams from under the bedroom of his wife to make her leave the place. In the north the Percies and the Nevilles were carrying on a private war of their own, and the whole country was in disorder. Every- thing showed the need of a change. ' In this state of affairs Suffolk's rule became most unpopular, and in several places riots occurred. In one of these, Moleyns, Bishop of Chichester, who had gone down to Portsmouth to offer the sailors a portion of their pay instead of the whole, was murdered; and another minister, Ascough, Bishop of Salisbury, was seized in his own diocese, and murdered at Edington, in Wiltshire. Between these two events an attack was made in Parhament on Suffolk himself. He was impeached; but, having thrown himself on the king's mercy, was banished for five years. This did not satisfy his enemies, and on his way to Calais the ship was boarded, and he was taken out of it ; and shortly afterwards he was taken on board a small boat and beheaded, and his body was flung on the shore of Kent. Immediately after the death of Suffolk, the Kentishmen rose in arms, under Jack Cade, an Irishman who had been a retainer of Sir Cade's Thomas Dacre, but who gave out that his name was -• L rebeUion. Mortimer, and that he was a cousin of the Duke of York. Followers flocked to his banner from Surrey and Sussex as regularly as though the militia had been called out, and with a large force he marched on London, proclaiming that he was going to set right the grievances of the common people and reform the govern- ment. A force that was sent against him, under Sir Humphrey 1452.] Henry VI. 155 and William Stafford, was routed at Sevenoaks. The king un- wisely withdrew to Coventry, and Cade entered London without opposition. There the rebels seized Lord Say, another of Suffolk's ministers, and beheaded him ; and the same fate befell the sheriff of Kent. The disorderly conduct of the rebels roused the anger of the Londoners, and a fierce battle was fought on London Bridge. In this the Londoners got the better. Cade's men began to despair of success, and accepted the terms which were offered by the government. The rebel army dispersed, but Cade himself kept a few followers, and retreated into Kent, whither he was pursued by Iden, the new sheriff, captured, and summarily executed. His head was placed on London Bridge, and it is said that it was the twenty-fourth which had been placed there within the year. In this way Suffolk and his supporters, Moleyns, Ascough, and Lord Say, had been disposed of; but the government still remained in the hands of Edmund Beaufort, who was „ ' Formation of supported by the queen, Percy, Earl of Northumber- a Yorkist , land, and Lord Clifford, while the Duke of York was ^^^ ^* assisted by Lord Salisbury and his son, who was, by right of his wife. Earl of Warwick. In our days these noblemen would have brought a motion of want of confidence against the ministry ; but then it was hard to get rid of an unpopular minister except by impeaching him, or murdering him, or by successful insurrection against the king. For in those days the king and not the ministry was regarded as responsible for the government of the country. As each of these nobles was at the head of a band of retainers, any attempt to appeal to force was certain to lead to civil war. The hope of York's friends was that Henry would die without children, in which case York would have had the best claim to succeed to the tbrone ; and in 1451 they tried to get ' , . •' , ° Quarrel Parliament to declare him the king's heir, but the between York proposal was not carried out. In 1452 York collected an army, and demanded the dismissal of Somerset (Edmund Beau- fort). The king ordered Somerset's arrest, on which York disbanded his followers, but was in his turn arrested and compelled to swear allegiance to Henry. AVhile Somerset and York were quarrelling in England, matters 156 House of Lancaster, [1452- liad been going from bad to worse in France. Normandy had been altogether lost, but the English were still struggling to retain possession of the southern provinces. The struggle did not last long ; Guienne and Gascony were lost in 1451, and in 1453, in an attempt to recover them, Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, the best general the English had, was killed with his son in the battle of Chatillon, and the loss of all France but Calais immediately followed. These disasters were ascribed by the nation to the incapacity of Somerset, and to some extent they were right. Henry had no idea Weakness of ^^ being a despot like Eichard II. ; but he was in- thekinff. capable himself, and was unfortunate in not being aided by capable friends. He was not unjust, but he was not strong enough to enforce justice; and consequently those who smarted under the loss of France, or were ruined by the loss of their trade with Guienne — to which country we sent our wool in exchange for ■vvine — or who wished for a minister who could enforce law and order, were prepared to force Henry to put York in Somerset's place. Almost at the same time that the defeat in Guienne occurred, Henry was taken ill. Perhaps he was tainted with the madness of Illness of his grandfather, Charles of France ; but, be this as it Henry. may, his illness completely upset the balance of his mind, and made him for a time an idiot. About three months _. ^, ^ after his seizure his wife bore a son, who was called Birth, of a ' ,. /v • Prince of Edward. These events altered the state of affairs. The birth of a prince destroyed York's hope of succession, but the madness of the king made a protector for the kingdom necessary, and in 1454 the lords chose him to till the place. In making this appointment, the lords were careful to say that nothing was to prejudice the rights of the little prince. No sooner was the king's support withdrawn than Somerset was thrown into prison; but the next year, 1455, Henry recovered, Beginning of York was dismissed, and Somerset was released and the civil war. restored to influence. To get rid of him, York, Salisbury, and Warwick called their supporters together, and marched First battle of ^^ London. Somerset, with the king, marched St. Aiban's. to meet them as far as St. Alban's, on the Watling Street, and there the first battle of the Wars of the Roses was 1460.] Henry VJ. 157 fought, May, 1455. In the fight the Lancastrians were beaten, the Duke of Somerset, the Earl of Northumberland, and Lord CliEford were slain, and Henry himself was taken prisoner. The result of the battle was to destroy the old party of Somerset, and Henry had no choice but to receive York into his councils. The king's mind was now thoroughly weakened, and in November he was again insane. York again became protector till the king's restoration to health in 1456. For some time peace was maintained, and the representatives of each party went in procession to St. Paul's, to pray for the souls of those slain at St. Alban's. Unfortunately Margaret took Somerset's place as York's antagonist, and her action brought on a renewal of the war. In 1459 Lord Sahsbury was marching with his retainers from Middleham Castle in Yorkshire, to Ludlow in Shropshire, the principal seat of the Duke of York, when the queen ^. Bent Lord Audley to arrest him. Lord Audley was renewed, beaten off and killed at the battle of Bloreheath, and Battle of then the Earls of Salisbury and Warwick joined York at Ludlow. Henry marched on that town, and a battle was expected, when panic seized the Yorkist ranks and the rebel army fled in all directions. York took refuge in Ireland, panic at where he had once been deputy. Salisbury and i-udiow. Warwick fled to Calais, of which town Warwick had been governor since the battle of St. Alban's, and with them went young Edward, Earl of March, the eldest son of the Duke of York. The king then called a Parliament at Coventry, and in it York, Salisbury, Warwick, March, and many of their followers, were attainted ^ by Act of Parliament. This only served to Battle of aggravate the Yorkists, and the three earls made Northampton, their way to Kent, seized London, where Salisbury was left as governor, and then marched on Coventry. The king met them at Northampton, July, 1460, but was again defeated, and a number of Lancastrian lords were slain. * A Bill of attainder is a bill brought into Parliament for attainting, condemning, and executing a person for high treason. By attainting is meant corrupting the blood, so that the attainted person can neither possess property, nor transmit it to his heirs. What he has is forfeited to the Crown. An attaint also followed upon a sentence in a court of law of death for treason or felony. An attainted person was usually executed, but sometimes only the penalty of forfeiture was enforced. 158 House of Lancaster. [i46o. The Yorkists now called a Parliament at London, and in this the Duke of York, as Henry of Lancaster had done before him, claimed „ , , . the crown, as the descendant of Lionel, Duke of York claims ' ' the crown, and Clarence. The lords admitted the claim, but, un- willing to depose the son of Henry V., arranged a compromise, by which Henry was to be king for life, and York was to succeed him. The Prince of Wales was thus passed over. Henry had not been able to say a word for his son, but Margaret could not submit to such an exclusion. In the north the Lancas- trians were still powerful, and the queen, aided by renews the Clifford, Somerset, and Northumberland (sons of the noblemen slain at St. Alban's), and the Earl of Westmoreland, collected a powerful army and utterly defeated Battle of York and Salisbury at the battle of Wakefield. Wakefield. There York was slain and Salisbury was taken and executed, and for a moment it seemed that the tide had turned. The battle of Wakefield was fought on December 29, and on February 3 the Earl of March routed Jasper Tudor, Earl of Battle of Pembroke, Henry's half-brother, at the battle of ^°cross!^ ° Mortimer's Cross, in Herefordshire. Meanwhile the Second battle ^^^^^ marched south and beat Warwick at the second of St. Alban's. battle of St. Alban's, February 17, rescued the king, and cleared the road to London. It was a question whether Margaret or Edward would now reach London first ; but Edward won the race, and on the 28th of the same month he entered London, and was received by the citizens as king. From that moment his reign begins. The war which had begun in a struggle for the reins of govern- The rival nient thus resulted in the overthrow of the House roses. Qf Lancaster and the placing on the throne of the House of York. From the red and white roses which were respectively adopted as the badges of the Lancastrians and Yorkists, these wars are often called the " wars of the Roses." CHAPTER IV. Edwakd IV., 1461-1483 (22 years). Born 1441 ; married, 1464, EKzabeth Woodville. Chef Characters of the Reign. — The Earl of "Warwick, and his brother John Neville, Marquess of Montagu ; George, Duke of Clarence ; Queen Margaret ; Edmund, Duke of Somerset ; Lord Rivers. The new king did not waste time over his coronation, for the moment was favourable for striking a decisive blow. Margaret's rude northerners had sacked S^t. Albans, and their ^out of cruelty and rapacity had roused the southerners to Margaret, rally to his standard. Hitherto the people had taken little interest in the war, and the battles had mostly been fought by the retainers, but now the men of the rich counties of Essex and Kent joined the Yorkist ranks, and with a powerful army Edward Battle of took the northern road in pursuit of Margaret. At ferrybridge. Ferrybridge he drove Lord Clifford from the banks of the Aire, and made his way into the plain of York; and at Battle of Towton, between Leeds and that city, he thoroughly Towton. beat the Lancastrians in a pitched battle. It is said that thirty- eight thousand corpses were buried on the field. This battle gave Edward the complete command of the great plain of York, which secured his power in the north. Twice, with Scottish and French aid, Margaret tried to rally ; but at Hedgeley Moor and Hexham, 1464, she was again defeated, and HedgeieyHcor forced to take refuge at the court of her cousin, ^^^ Hexham. Louis XL of France. The next year, 1465, Henry, who had eluded pursuit in Lancashire and Westmoreland, was betrayed near Clitheroe, and imprisoned in the Tower of London. In the wars of the Roses, the north, in which the feudal lords were most powerful, was Lancastrian ; the south, in which at that time the wealth of the country was situated, and in which the great i6o House of York. [i46i- towns, sucli as London, Norwich, Bristol, and Coventiy, took the Yorkists and lead, was Yorkist. At Towton the townsmen fought liancastrians. under their own banners — the "Ship" of Bristol, the " Black Earn " of Coventry. We may almost say that the fight was one between mediaeval and modern England, in which the old feudal families of the north were destroyed. Edward had hardly succeeded in crushing the Lancastrians when he found himself involved in new difficulties. His great trouble was ■Warwick's tis relation to "Warwick, who had had so large a poHcy. share in placing Edward on the throne that he was called the king-maker. That nobleman, who was exceedingly rich, so that he was able to maintain an army of retainers, and who was also crafty and ambitious, expected to have considerable influence. He wished Edward to marry a French princess, and perhaps hoped to play through her the part that Suffolk had played through Margaret of Anjou. This scheme was defeated by Edward's falling in love with and marrying Elizabeth Woodville (daughter of Jacquetta of Luxem- Edward's ^^^g, by her second marriage with Kichard Woodville, marriage. jj^rl Rivers), the widow of Grey, Lord Ferrers of Groby. Edward then began to promote his wife's relations, to the disgust of Warwick. A few years later he married his sister Margaret to the Duke of Burgundy, the mortal foe of Louis XL, King of France. Meanwhile Warwick bided his time, and in 1469 he married his daughter Isabella to George, Duke of Clarence, the younger brother of Edward, thus detaching him from the king. He Conspiracy of ' ° " . - , Warwick and then began to look out for an opportunity of de- c arence. throning Edward. Li 1469 a rebellion broke out in the north, and the rebels, marching to Banbury, defeated and killed Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, at the battle of Edgecote. At the same time, another party seized Earl Rivers and his son. Sir John Woodville, and beheaded them. These events deprived Edward of his supporters, and he fell for a time into the hands of Warwick and Clarence, and was confined in Middleham Castle, in Yorkshire. Warwick, however, soon found that Edward was too popular to be kept a prisoner, and he was released about Christmas the same year. In the spring of 1470 a new insurrection broke out in Lincolnshire ; I 1471.] Edward IV. i6r but this time Edward crushed it near Stamford, in a battle afterwards known as Losecoat Field, and Warwick and Clarence, fearing that Edward's vengeance would fall on them, fled to France. There they entered into a league with Margaret, to marry her son Edward to Warwick's daughter Anne, and to replace Henry on the throne, and, accordingly, in September, 1471, Warwick's they landed at Dartmouth and marched against success. Edward. The king was at Doncaster, and a battle was imminent, when he found that Warwick's brother. Lord Montagu, the victor at Hexham, whom he had hitherto trusted, was a traitor. There was nothing for it but flight, and he escaped by sea to his brother-in-law, Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, takmg with him his younger brother Eichard, Duke of Glloucester. Meanwhile the queen took sanctuary at Westminster, where her eldest son Edward was born. Warwick then marchod to London, drew Henry from the Tower, and placed him on the throne. Edward did not long stay abroad ; he got a little help from the Duke of Burgundy, and, in 1471, landed at Eavenspur, in Yorkshire, stating that he was coming to regain his estates. Return of Numbers flocked to his standard ; and at Coventry Ecjward. his brother Clarence, who had naturally changed his mind, since Warwick had taken Henry's side, joined him. Their combined forces marched on London, and took the queen from the sanctuary. Edward then tm-ned to face Warwick, and beat him at the battle of Barnet, where Warwick was killed. The same day Margaret, with a new army, landed at Weymouth. -» tti She had two courses open to her ; one to march on Bamet and London and rescue Henry, the other to make her ®^ ^^ ^"^' way through Wales to the north, districts in which the Lancastrians were strong. Edward moved to Wiadsor and forced Margaret to choose. She decided for Wales, and marched to Bristol. The lowest bridge over the Severn was at Gloucester, but that town was Yorkist, and she was therefore forced to move on Tewkesbury. There Edward caught her up, and in a terrible battle, in which his brother Eichard, the young Duke of Gloucester, led the attack, Margaret's hopes were again shattered. She remained a prisoner, her son Edward perished on the field, either in fight or in cold blood, and her supporter, the Duke of Somerset, was beheaded. M 1 62 House of York, \x^i\. From Tewkesbury Edward marched to London, and the day of his entry saw the death of Henry. Whether he died a natural Death of death or was murdered, is uncertain. In after-times Henry VI. Gloucester was blamed for the death of both father and son. Margaret was, after a time, handed over to the King of France. In 1475 Edward, in alliance with the Duke of Burgundy, crossed to Calais and invaded France. Louis XL, however, was anxious Invasion of iiot to involve France in war, and made a treaty with France. Edward at the bridge of Pecquigny. For a large sum of money and a yearly pension, Edward agreed to release Margaret and to retire to England, while Louis promised that the dauphin should marry Edward's daughter Elizabeth. Three years later, in 1478, Edward took an opportunity to execute his brother Clarence, whom he had never trusted since his Deaths of defection to Warwick; and in 1483 Edward died ^^Edward'^*^ somewhat unexpectedly, at the age of forty-two. On Policy of ^® whole, Edward gained for the country most of the Edward IV. results at which the Yorkists aimed. During the first ten years of his reign there was not much improvement, but after the faU of Warwick, and the attainders and forfeiture of Lancastrian property that followed the battle of Tewkesbury, the nobles, who had been the great causes of disorder, were either killed off, or were so much impoverished that the difficulty of keeping order became much less. Edward's strong rule was a great advantage to the merchants and industrial classes who wanted peace and order, and had therefore supported the Yorkists ; its opponents were the old nobility who looked back regretfully to the old state of things. Edward established a spy system by which he well knew what was going on ; he saw himself to the administration of justice, tried, by his affability, to make friends with the middle classes, and, in short, began the system which was continued by the Tudors, in which the sovereigns were the patrons of the commons but the enemies of the nobility. For this, however, the wealthy had to pay ; and Edward invented the system of benevolences, by which men of means were asked of their goodness to contribute to the needs of the government. As they did not dare to refuse, the plan was a distinct violation of the principle that supplies should be voted by Parliament only, but it did not meet with any active resistance. CHAPTER V. Edwaed y., 1483 (2 months, April to June), Bom 1470, died 1483. Chief Characters of the Reign. — Richard, Duke of Gloucester ; Anthony Lord Rivers ; Lord Hastings ; the Duke of Buckingham. The death of Edward gave the throne to his son, now thirteen years of age. Nothing could be more alarming to the country than the prospect of another minority like that of Dangers of a Richard II., or more recently that of Henry VI. minority. " Woe to thee, land, when thy king is a child," was a proverb well impressed by hard experience on the English mind, and there is no wonder that an attempt was soon made to depose him. Hardly was Edward dead than a struggle began for the possession of the reins of power. Of the competitors the most important were, first, the family of Woodville, the relations of the struggle for queen, who had been promoted by Edward, to the power. disgust of Warwick and the old nobility. Their leaders were the queen, her brother Anthony Lord Rivers, and her son Sir Richard Grey. Then came the old nobihty, of whom the most important were Staflford, Duke of Buckingham,! a descendant of Thomas of Wood- » GENEALOGY OF THE STAFFORD S. Edmund, = Anne, daughter of Thomas, Duke of Gloucester, fifth Earl of Stafford, I and granddaughter of Edward III. Humphrey, created Duke of Buckingham, killed at Northampton 1460. Humphrey, Earl of Stafford, Sir Henry Stafford, m. Margaret, killed at St. Alban's 1455. Countess of Richmond, I mother of Henry Henry, Duke of Buckingham, VII. by her first beheaded 1483. husband. Edward, Duke of Buckingham, beheaded 1521. 164 House of York, diss. stock, youngest son of Edward III. ; Percy, Earl of Northumberland ; and Lord Stanley, husband of Margaret, daughter of John, Duke of Somerset. Nest to them stood the lords of the Council faithful to the house of York, but opposed to the Woodvilles, the most notable of whom were Lord Hastings and John, Lord Howard. Last came Richard, Duke of Gloucester, the younger brother of the late king. Richard had been a faithful friend to his brother. A mere boy during the early wars, he had, as a young man of twenty, gone with his brother into exile, and had distinguished himself Character of . Riciiarciof by his valour at Barnet and Tewkesbury. Since Gloucester. ^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ France in 1475, and had lately been acting as governor of the north of England, in which capacity he had carried on a war with Scotland in 1478. His rule in the north had been good, and there he seems to have been deservedly popular. He was a man of great abihty, but, like most of the men of his time, quite unscrupulous as to his means. The charge that he had had a hand in the death of both Henry VI. and his son was made when Richard's name was a butt for abuse, and it cannot be either proved or disproved. When the king died. Rivers and his friends were in London with Hastings, the Prince of Wales was at Ludlow, Gloucester was at York, and Buckingham, Howard, and Stanley were Gloucester ' . made in the country. The Woodvilles were the first to protector. jnove. They sent to Ludlow, and were escorting the young king to London, when they were met at Stony Stratford by Gloucester and Buckingham, who were making common cause. These noblemen seized Lord Rivers and Sir Richard Grey, and sent them prisoners to the north, while thej^^ themselves marched with the young king to London. There Gloucester was proclaimed protector of the kingdom, so that he had the chief power in his own hands. His next step was to get rid of Hastings, whom he caused to be suddenly executed on a false charge of conspiracy. He then boldly claimed the crown on the absurd ground that Edward's marriage with Elizabeth Woodville was illegal, because Fall of liG had already been betrothed to another lady, Edward V. ^^^ ^]^^^ ^j^g right of Clarence's children was barred by their father's attainder. However, as in the case of Henry IV. only a pretext was wanted, and as Richard had already secured the 1483.] Richai'd III, 165 power, he had Httle difficulty in getting the title, of king. Before the end of June, a body of lords and others took upon themselves to ojBfer the crown to Richard, which he accepted ; and at the same time Rivers and Grey were executed at Pontefract Caistle, in Yorkshire. Richard HI., 1483-1485 (2 years). Bom 1450 ; married, 1473, Anne Neville. Chief Characters of the Reign. — Henry of Richmond ; the Duke of Buck- ingham ; Bishop Morton ; Lord Stanley. Richaed's accession seems to have been received by the nation without surprise. It was a relief from the dangers of a long minority, and his good reputation in Yorkshire promised that Richard's he would make a successful king. He began his popularity, reign by making a progress through the south, where he was well received, and he won popularity by refusing offers of money which were made to him by some of the citizens. It was, however, during this progress that a crime which in the end lost him his throne was committed ; for it is certain that during his absence the two young princes, Edward and his Murder of the brother, Richard Duke of York, who were living in princes, the Tower, disappeared, and it was generally believed that they had been murdered. Those who thought that the princes had been murdered now turned then' hopes to Henry of Richmond, the son of Margaret Beaufort, great granddaughter of John of Gaunt, and her first Lancastrian husband, Edmund Tudor, the son of Katharine of plots. France and her Welsh husband, Owen Tudor. His chief supporter was Morton, Bishop of Ely, who had been a friend of Hastings, and since his death had been living in the custody of Buckingham. That nobleman was much disappointed with Richard, because he had not received the post of constable of England, to which he 1 66 House of York. ti483- thought he had a claim ; and he was, therefore, won over by his prisoner, Morton, to join in a movement for placing Henry of Eich- mond on the throne. The plan included a rebellion of Buckingham in Wales, and a landing in Devonshire of Henry, who was now an exile in Brittany. It failed, however, because heavy rains flooded the Severn so much that Buckingham could not ford it, and the bridges were held for the king. Consequently, when Henry reached Plymouth, he found no one to help him, so retired ; and Bucking- ham's forces having dispersed, he himself was taken, and executed at Salisbury 1483. Kichard now seemed more secure than ever. He held a Parliament, in which he passed two very good laws, one forbidding Difficulty of the "^^^ collection of benevolences, the other the keeping succession. Qf retainers ; but he did not live to see them enforced. Unfortunately for him, his only son Edward died in 1484, and as he had declared the children of the late king to be illegitimate, and as those of Clarence were debarred from the succession by the attainder of their father, he appointed as his heir John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, the son of his sister Elizabeth by a son of the Duke of Suffolk, the murdered minister of Henry VI. Morton now formed a plan for marrying Henry of Eichmond to Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of Edward IV., and so uniting the claims of the houses of York and Beaufort. This of the rival scheme frightened Eichard so much that he for a houses. time, as his wife was dead, thought of marrying Elizabeth himself. He even seems to have won the favom' of the late queen, but the suggestion came to nothing. Meanwhile Eichmond had not been idle. With the aid of the Earl of Oxford, he had collected forces in France, and in August, Bichmond's l^^^j ^® landed at Milford Haven, in Wales. invasion. Thcnce he marched to Stafford, where he was assured of the support of the Lord Stanley, who was, however, unable to join him openly, because Eichard had seized his eldest son as a hostage. Meanwhile Eichard was joined by John Howard, Duke of Norfolk, and the Earl of Northumberland, and collected his forces at Leicester. Thence he marched to fight Eichmond at Bosworth Field. In the battle that followed Norfolk fought bravely, but Stanley 1485.] Richard III. 167 went over to the enemy, and Northumberland, as was likely in an Battle of old Lancastrian, stood aloof. The fight raged chiefly Bosworth. between Richard's own followers and those ot Richmond. The king made terrible exertions, and was within an ace of slaying Richmond with his own hand, when he was over- whelmed by numbers and slain. The armies which fought at Bosworth were very small, and very little interest seems to have been excited by the struggle. There was no question of principle between the parties, and Englishmen were as likely to get good government from one as from the other. In after-times it was the fashion to charge Richard III. with every species of crime. This was probably unjust. He was an unscrupulous man, who slew men freely if they Richard's stood in his way, but not a tyrant ; and when we reputation, think of the times in which he lived and the scenes he had witnessed, it could hardly be wonderful that his scruples were not so great as they might have been if his lot had been cast in times of greater quietness. CHIEF GENERAL EVENTS UNDER THE HOUSES OF YORK AND LANCASTER. Statute De Heretico Comburendo passed Glendower rebels , Percies' rebellion Scrope's rebellion... James of Scotland captured Meeting of Lollards at St. Giles's Fields Hundred Years' War renewed Earl of Cambridge's conspiracy Francbise in counties restricted to 40s. freeholders Marriage of Henry VI. and Margaret of Anjou Impeachment and death of Suffolk Cade's rebellion Wars of the Eoses begin Warwick's rebellion Disappearance of the priaces Stafford's rebellion .. 1402 .. 1403 .. 1405 .. 1405 .. 1414 .. 1415 .. 1415 .. 1430 .. 1445 .. 1450 .. 1455 .. 1470 .. 1483 t68 House of York. CHIEF BATTLES, SIEGES, AND TREATIES UNDER THE HOUSES OF YORK AND LANCASTER. Battles of Nesbit Moor and of Homildon Hill ... 1402 „ Shrewsbury ... 1403 „ Bramham Moor ... ... ... 1408 Siege of Harfleur ... 1415 Battle of Agincourt Siege of Eouen by the English ... 1419 Treaty of Troyes ... 1420 Battle of Beaugd ... 1421 Siege of Meaux Battle of Crevant ... 1423 „ Yerneuil ... 1424 Siege of Orleans 1428-9 Battles of the Herrings and of Patay ... 1429 Battle of Sevenoaks ... 1450 „ St. Alban's (1st) ... 1455 „ Bloreheath ... 1459 Battles of Northampton and Wakefield ... 1460 Battle of Mortimer's Cross ... 1461 „ St. Alban's (2nd) „ Towton Battles of Hedgeley Moor and Hexham ... 1464 Battle of Losecoat Field ... 1469 „ Barnet ... 1471 „ Tewkesbury ... 1471 Treaty of Pecquigny ... 1476 Battle of Bosworth ... 1486 BOOK VI THE SOUSE OF TUDOR XIV.— THE HOUSE OF TUDOR. Henry VII., 1485-1509, great-great-grandson of John of Gaunt, by his mother, Margaret Beaufort. r= Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV. Arthur, Henry VIII., Margaret, Mary = (1) Louis XII. of France, d. 1502. 1509-1547. m. James IV. of Scotland Mary, Elizabeth, Edward VI., 1553-1558. 1558-1603. 1547-1553. d. 1515. (2) Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. Frances, = Henry Grey (great-grandson of Elizabeth d. 1559. Woodvilie by her first husband), Duke of Suffolk, executed 1554. Lady Jane Grey, m. Guildford Dudley (see p. 198). executed 1554. executed 1554. Katharine. XV.— THE KINGS OF SCOTLAND, 1460-1603. James III., 1460-1488. (1) James IV., = Margaret Tudor = Earl of Angus. 1488-1513. I I James V., 1513-1542. Margaret = Earl of Lenox. Mary, Queen of Scots = Lord Darnley, Charles, 1542-1567. I murdered 1567. Earl of Lenox. I I James VI. of Scotland Arabella Stuart, and 1. of England, 1667-1625. XVI.— THE KINGS OF FRANCE, 1483-1603. Charles VIII., 1483-1498. great-grandson of Charles VI. Succeeded by Louis XII., great-grandson of Louis, Duke of Orleans, 1498-1515. brother of Charles VI. Claude = Francis I., also great-grandson of Louis, 1515-1647. Duke of Orleans, brother of Charles VI. Henry II., 1547-1559. = Katharine de Medici. Francis II., Charles IX., Henry III., 1559-1560, 1560-1574. 1574-1589, m . Mary, Queen suitor of of Scots. Queen Elizabeth. Francis, Duke of Alen^on, suitor of Queen Elizabeth. d. 1584. Margaret, m. Henry IV., 1589-1610, descendant of Robert, the son of St. Louis and heir to French throne, all the intermediate branches being extinct. CHAPTER I. Henry VH., 1485-1509 (24 years). Bom 1456 ; married, 1486, Elizabeth of York Chief Characters of the Reign. — Archbisliop Morton ; Edward Plantagenet ; Lambert Simnel ; Perkin Warbeck ; Sir William Stanley ; Sir Edward Poynings. Chief Contemporary Princes. Scotland. France. Spain. James III., d. 1488. Charles VIII., d. 1498. Ferdinand and Isabella, James IV., d. 1513. Louis XII., d. 1515. 1479-1516, d. 1504. Henry VH. claimed the crown on three grounds — right of birth, right of conquest, and approval by Parliament; and, to give the Henry's claims Sanction of religion to his succession, he had it con- to tiie tiirone. firmed by the pope. After he had gained possession of the throne, he strengthened himself by marrying Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV., but he was careful not to allow her claims to rival or even support his own. The new king was, above all things, a far-sighted statesman, and he set before himself three objects to which he steadily adhered : first, by rooting out all rivals, to secure the throne to himself and his family ; second, to strengthen the power of the crown by depressing that of the nobihty ; third, to take an active part in Em-opean politics. These three aims he handed down to his successors, and all the Tudors, as his family were called after Edmund Tudor, Henry's father, kept them in view. They regarded themselves as the champions of the orderly classes against the disorderly, and therefore we find that, under them, executions of noblemen and thieves were frequent, because one endangered the peace of the crown, the other the security of property. The middle classes, on the other hand, were contented and prosperous, secure from noblemen's wars and insurrections on one side, or from lawless depredation on the other. With the bulk of the nation, therefore, whose first thought is always for peace and order, all the Tudors, but Mary, in spite of their severity, were popular. Henry's first care was to secure the surviving members of the 1492,] Henry VII, 173 house of York. Edward Plantagenet, the son of Clarence and grand- son of the Earl of Warwick, was at once imprisoned secures in the Tower, and John de la Pole, Earl of Lincohi, ^thlSTuse"^ who had been acknowledged as his heir by Ki chard of York. III., was induced to give in his submission. Lincoln, however, soon changed his mind, and fled to the court of Margaret of Burgundy, the sister of Edward IV., who hated Henry and was always ready to help any Yorkist adventurers. This enmity between the king and the duchess was a serious matter for another reason, for it inter- fered with trade. The first dangerous insurrection was that carried on under the name of Lambert Simnel, an Oxford simnei's boy, who pretended to be Edward Plantagenet, whom insurrection, every one knew to be imprisoned in the Tower. In Ireland, how- ever, where the Yorkists had been very popular, the imposture was believed, and with a force of Irish and German mercenaries under the command of Lincoln and Level, an old minister of Eichard III., he landed near Ulverston, in Lancashire, and marched on London. Henry met him and beat him at Stoke, near Nottingham. Lincoln was killed ; Level disappeared ; Simnel was taken prisoner. Henry showed his contempt for Simnel by making him a scullion, and he also took the politic step of having his queen crowned in order to appeal to the Yorkists. The next impostor was a young man named Perkin "Warbeck, who, in 1492, came forward under the protection of the Duchess of Burgundy, and pretended to be Eichard, Duke of York, the younger brother of Edward V., and said /warbeck's to have been murdered with him in the Tower. Henry could not disprove the story, because he was unable to prove the murder. Only one of the persons who was said to have had a hand in it was alive, and his evidence went for very little, because no bodies could be found; indeed, it was not till the time of Charles II. that two skeletons answering to the size of the princes were discovered. The consequence was that Warbeck received much support. He was well received in Ireland, where the Yorkists were popular, and then went to France, where he was received by the king, because Henry had sent troops to help the Duchess of Brittany against the French. Henry on this made peace with France for a large sum of money, and Warbeck was obliged to take 174 The Tudor s. [1492- refage in Flanders. For three years he stayed there, and then Philip, Duke of Burgundy, fearful of losing the wool trade, made a commercial treaty, called the " Great Intercourse," with Henry, by which it was agreed that the trade should be renewed and that no more help should be given to Warbeck. From Flanders Warbeck moved to Ireland, and thence to Scotland, where he was helped by James IV. to ravage the northern counties of England. Nothing came of this, so he went to Ireland. There he learnt that there had been a rebellion in Cornwall. This happened in 1497, and was caused by an attempt to levy taxes on the ground of the Scottish raid. The Cornishmen marched comisii to Blackheath, but were there beaten by Henry, who rebeUion. ^i^^ provided himself with a train of artillery. After all was over Warbeck landed in Cornwall, and tried to renew the insurrection. He liad some success, but fled when the royal troops came near, and was soon captured and imprisoned in the Tower. There he made friends with Edward Plantagenet, and they agreed to escape together ; and this gave Henry the opportunity of getting rid of them both, which was accomplished in 1499. Seven years later, Henry contrived to get into his hands the Earl of Suffolk, a younger brother of John, Earl of Lincoln, on condition that he spared his life. He kept his promise, but advised his son Henry VIII. to have Suffolk put to death, which was done in 1513. The weakness of the royal authority in Ireland, and the strength of the Yorkist feeling there, caused Henr}^, in 1494, to send over as deputy Sir Edward Poynings, who induced the Irish Parliament to pass an act forbidding any bill to be brought into the Irish Parlia- ment unless it had received the consent of the king's Enghsh council. This is called Poynings' Law, and it remained in force for nearly three hundred years. All this time Henry had not lost sight of his second object, the depression of the nobility. Parliament readily renewed Eichard III.'s law against keeping retainers. But the real Court of star ,.^ , '^ i , , Chamber dimculty was not to pass the law, but to enforce up. .^^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^^.^ purpose Henry set up a new court. This court was intended for the trial of offenders whose crimes were too subtle, or who were themselves too powerful, to be tried at the regular assizes. In theory it was a revival of the judicial 1600.] Henry VI L 175 power of the king's privy council. The court was composed of the chief officers of state, with several judges, and any others whom the king chose to appoint. It summoned offenders before it, and tried them without a jury. It was said to be aimed particularly at " stout gentlemen of the north of England," then the most unruly part of the kingdom, at sheriffs who impanelled juries unfairly, at inciters of riots, keepers of retainers, and similar offenders. This court, which was afterwards known as the hated Star Chamber, was at first very useful, so long as it was used in the interests of the orderly against the disorderly, and it is said that much of the quiet which was maintained during the difficult times of the Reformation was due to its effects. Two instances may be noted as specimens of Henry's dealing with his nobles. On the occasion of a visit to the Earl of Oxford, one of the most noted warriors on the Lancastrian side, he Treatment of passed through lines of men in livery. " These are nobles, your servants ? " said the king. " Sir, they are my retainers," replied the earl. " Thank you for your hospitality, my lord," said the king ; " but I cannot have my laws broken in my sight." For keeping retainers Oxford was fined £10,000. On another occasion Henry learnt from his spies that Sir William Stanley, brother of the Earl of Derby, one of the richest and therefore one of the most dangerous men in England, was corresponding with Warbeck. He was instantly tried and executed, and his wealth was added to the royal treasures. In this way Henry steadily enriched himself at the expense of his turbulent nobles. Like Edward IV., Henry made the merchants pay well for the security they enjoyed, by giving him benevolences. Morton, now Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellor, "Morton's ' invented a most ingenious plan of suiting his method Fork." of asking to the habits of each. If a man spent much, he was told he could well afford more for the king and less for himself; if he spent little, that he could give out of his savings. This dilemma was called "Morton's Fork." Henry also added to his „ „ •^ Ho-w Henry wealth by enforcing to the utmost the strict letter of fiued Ma the feudal law, and in this his chief agents were Empson and Dudley, two lawyers who were bitterly hated for their extortion. The Parliament were stiU ready to vote money 176 The Tudor s, [isoo- for war with France, and on several occasions Henry obtained grants for that purpose, and then, making peace for the sake of a gift from the French king, he put both the grant and the gift into his exchequer. Thus Henry provided himself with a well-fiUed treasury, by which his position was much secured. By estabhshing the Star Chamber, he secured a law court independent of popular feeling, and by filling his coffers he freed himself from the control of Parliament, so that he took two long strides towards making himself absolute. The great power which Henry had thus gained in England enabled him to interfere with effect in the affairs of the Continent. At this time France and Spain had become much more powerful than they had been formerly, and were ambitious of seizing territories in Italy. The result was that, for the first time in European history, great alliances were formed to eflect objects in which all Europe was interested. The great question of the day was whether the French should be allowed to annex some of the Itahan states, especially Milan ; and „. Ferdinand of Aragon, who claimed Naples and Sicily, European aUx- ... . . ance against and the Emperor Maximilian, who claimed authority over Northern Italy, were wishful to prevent this. Maximilian had married Mary, daughter of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. The child of Maximilian and Mary was Philip, Duke of Burgundy, who, by right of his mother, owned the Netherlands, and hoped some day to be head of the house of Austria, and perhaps emperor. On the other hand, Ferdinand of Aragon and his wife, Isabella of Castile, had a numerous family, and they arranged a marriage between Philip and their eldest daughter Joanna. Presently their only son John died, so Joanna became their heiress. The son of Philip and Joanna was Charles V.,^ who was thus heir to Burgundy, 1 GENEALOGY OF CHARLES V. MaximiliaB (Emperor), = Marv of Ferdinand of Aragon, = Isabella d. 1519. Burgundy. d. 1516. I of Castile. Archdxike Philip, = Joanna. Katharine, m. (1) Arthur. Others. of Austria. | d. 1536. (2) Henry VIII. Charles V., Emperor, d. 1558. 1509.] Henry VII. 177 Austria, the Netherlands, and Spain. Ferdinand married another daughter to the King of Portugal, and on her death the pope allowed a younger sister to take her place. Ferdinand had only- one more daughter, Katharine. Ferdinand and Philip both wished that Henry VII. would ally with them against France, and for that end a marriage was arranged in 1501 between Arthur, Prince of Wales, Marriage of and Katharine of Aragon. Soon after his marriage ^^I'^ce Arthur. Arthur died, and as Ferdinand had no more daughters, it was arranged that, by a dispensation from the pope, Katharine should be married to Henry, the only other son of Henry VII., so that the alliance might remain as it was. In 1502 Henry VII., to bring Scotland into the league, married his daughter Margaret to James IV., King of Scotland, hoping that this would detach the Scots from their old friendship with the French. In this way almost the whole of Europe was leagued together against France, and shortly after this had been accomplished Deatii of Henry died in 1509. Henry. The reign of Henry VII. is remarkable for having witnessed some of the greatest events in modern history. In 1492 Columbus discovered the West Indian Islands ; in 1497 John Cabot, an Italian, with a Bristol ship and Bristol sailors, reached the mainland of America; and before Henry died the greater part of the eastern coast of North and South America had been examined by Enghsh- men, Portuguese, or Spaniards. In 1497 Vasco de Gama, sailing from Lisbon, had doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and made his way to India by sea. These discoveries were due indirectly to the conquest of the eastern shores of the Mediterranean by the Turks, who took Constantinople in 1453. Their cruelty and extortion prevented merchants from following the overland route to India. This forced traders to seek for a road to India by sea, and it was in pursuit of this that the voyages of Columbus and Vasco de Gama were made. These discoveries had the greatest effect upon the history of Europe. Hitherto the countries which lay round the Mediterranean Sea had been most important ; they now began to be outstripped by those which lay on or near the Atlantic and Spain, Portugal, England, and Holland became the chief trading nations of the world. N 178 The Tudor s. [1509. During the same reign a great revival of learning occurred in England. This spread from Italy, which was then the most learned and civilized nation in Europe, and a great stimulus had been given to it by the study of Greek and Eoman writers, while the invention by Gutenberg of Mainz in 1442, of the art of printing by movable types, had made it cheaper to copy books. The invention of gunpowder, which had been coming into use since the middle of the fourteenth century, gradually changed the art of war, and destroyed the power of the old armoured knights, and of the archers with their bows and arrows. The discovery of America and the new route to India, the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks, the revival of learning, and the inventions of printing and gunpowder, are the great events which mark the change from mediaeval to modern Europe, and their influence began to make Itself felt in England in the reign of Henry VII. Born 1491 ; married, -< CHAPTER II. Henry VIII., 1509-1547 (38 years). ( 1509, Katharine of Aragon, d. 1536. 1532, Anne Boleyn, executed 1536. 1536, Jane Seymour, d. 1537. 1540, Anne of Cleves, divorced 1540. 1540, Katharine Howard, executed 1542. V 1543, Katharine Parr, survived her husband. Chief Characters of the Reign. — Cardinal Wolsey ; Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk ; Sir Thomas More ; Fisher, Bishop of Rochester ; Thomas Cromwell ; Robert Aske ; Edward Seymour, Lord Hertford ; Henry Howard, Lord Surrey ; Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury. Chief Contemporary Princes. Scotland. France. Spain. Pope. James IV., d. 1513. Louis XII., d. 1515. Charles V., Clement VII., James V., d. 1542. Francis I., d. 1547. 1516-1556. 1523-1534. Mary, deposed 1567. Henky VIII. was only eighteen when he came to the throne, and his accession made little difference in the general course of events. He followed his father's foreign policy by -^^^ foUows completing his marriage with Katharine, and his his father's domestic pohcy by executing the Earl of Suffolk, nephew of Edward IV., who had been surrendered by Philip of Burgundy ; while he tried to win popularity by having Empson and Dudley executed on an absurd charge of high treason, and by making a lavish display of his father's treasure. In accordance with the views of the league, Henry in 1513 invaded Battle of Guine- France, besieged Therouenne, and won the battle of easte, I5is. Guinegaste, which the French laughingly called the "Battle of the Spurs," because they used their spurs more than their swords. The same year, in spite of the marriage between James IV. and Margaret of England, the Scots invaded England after their usual manner, as allies of France. The Scots posted themselves on Flodden Edge, a strong position overlooking the deep river Till, which flows almost due north from the Cheviot Hills to fall into the Tweed. The Enghsh general, Lord Surrey, finding the Scots too securely posted to be attacked i8o The Tudors. [1513- with success, marched past them, and crossing the Till at Twizell Mill near its junction with the Tweed, placed himself between the Battle of Scots and Scotland. The Scots were thus forced to Fiodden, fight at great disadvantage, and, in spite of all their bravery, they were surrounded by the English host, and few survivors made their way to Scotland. Among those who Englisli Mfles MAP 03? THE FLODDEN DISTKICT. Peace -with. France concluded. perished were James IV. himself, and the flower of the Scottish nobility. James was succeeded by his infant son, under the care of Margaret of England, and for many years Scotland was too weak to be a danger to England. Neither Henry VIII. nor his subjects were prepared to under- take the conquest of France. Maximilian and Ferdinand did httle to help, and so, in 1514, Henry made peace, and married his youngest sister Mary to the French king, Louis XII. Unfortunately, Louis died three months after his marriage, and Mary then married Charles Brandon, created Duke of Suffolk, by whom she became the ancestress of Lady Jane Grey. Louis was succeeded in 1515 by his young cousin Francis L, who inherited all his ambitious schemes. During the first twenty years of this reign, the most striking Thomas figure in England was Thomas Wolsey. This states- "Woisey. _ j^g^j^ ^g^g \,oxxi at Ipswich, in 1471. His father, though not a man of rank, gave him the best education in his 1519.] Henry VIII. i8i power, and sent him to Magdalen College, Oxford. He arrived there at the moment when the English miiversities were begin- ning to catch some of the enthusiasm for learning for which Italy was then famous. He became a Bachelor of Arts at fourteen, and was afterwards made fellow and tutor of Magdalen College. It was in his time that the beautiful tower of that college was built. His post of tutor gained him the friendship of the Marquess of Dorset, whose sons were at the college. By him Wolsey was presented to a living, and was brought to the notice of Henry VII., under whom his rise was rapid. His ability for busi- ness was very great ; he was hard working, and he knew no scruple in forwarding the views of the king. Under Henry VIII he advanced to greater favour, and in 1515 he was made Chan- cellor. The next year the pope made him cardinal, and in 1517, by the special request of Henry, papal legate. It ought to be noticed that the chief power, both in ecclesiastical and civil matters, was thus united in the hands of the first minister of the crown, and as this went on for fourteen years, people became accustomed to look to the king's leading minister as chief man both in Church and State. Wolsey had in view three objects : (1) to increase the power of the crown, as Henry VII. had done ; (2) to improve the state of the Church of England, by abolishing some of the -woisey's smaller monasteries, and applying their revenues to Bchemes. the foundation of colleges and schools, where the new learning could be taught ; (3) to become, if possible, pope, and so to gain control over the general reformation of the Church which he saw was impending, and which began under Luther in Germany in 1517. We may call these plans ambitious if we hke; but they were certainly the views of a great man, and had they been carried into effect, both England and Europe might have had a very different history. Wolsey saw that he might make his third scheme fit in with Henry's desire to play an active part on the Continent, and so he furthered the king's wishes in this respect. In ^ Woisey's 1519 the Emperor Maximilian died, and a new foreig'n election followed. The emperor was elected by schemes, seven persons— the Archbishops of Mainz, Koln, and Trier,i and '^ The French spelling of these towns is Mayence, Cologne, and Treves. 1 82 The Tudor s, [1519- by the Electors of Bohemia, Saxony, Brandenburg, and the Palati- nate. These chose a king of Germany, who had a right to demand coronation at the hands of the pope ; and when he had received this he was looked on as the successor of the Roman emperors of the West. Charles of Spain, Francis of France, and Henry of England all came forward as candidates; the electors chose Charles of Spain. This had the result of uniting together Spain, Holland, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, and Naples in one vast dominion. Now, the Italian question was certain to bring about war between Francis and Charles, and it was uncertain which Henry would join. Both made him offers. Francis entertained him at the " Field of the Cloth of Gold " ; Charles came over to England to visit the husband of his aunt Katharine. But Charles' offer to use his influence to get the cardinals to elect Wolsey pope won England for the Spanish alliance. For some time Henry held AUiance with ^0 this, and even sent in 1522 and 1523 small expe- spain. ditions to France. But two events changed England's policy. Charles failed to secure the Papacy for Wolsey; and, Battle of secondly, Charles beat Francis so completely at the Pavia, 1535. battle of Pavia, that there seemed to be danger lest all Europe should fall under his complete control. In the time of Henry V. the weakness of France would have seemed a good reason for prosecuting the claim of the English kings to the crown ; but Wolsey did not think so. He was the first English statesman who grasped the idea of the balance of power, by which is meant, that if one European state shows symptoms of reaching such a Alliance with power as to threaten the liberties of the others, they France. should all Combine to balance her strength by their union. According to this policy Henry and Wolsey joined France, and Charles was soon obliged to release Francis. While engaged in his Continental schemes, Wolsey had not lost sight of his plans for reform at home. He had gained from the Reformat pope authority to suppress some of the smaller home. monasteries, and had begun to use the money he thus gained to found a new school at Ipswich, and a college in Oxford, on the model of Winchester College and New College, which had been founded by William of Wykeham. Meanwhile a very serious question was coming to the front in 15S9.] Henry VIII. 183 England. Henry and Katharine had been married a long time, and though they had had many children, all had died, . "^ ' ' Difficulty except one delicate girl, the Lady Mary. If Henry about the died without children, there would probably be a dispute about the succession ; and even if he left a daughter, no one doubted that very difficult times would follow. The danger was so serious that Henry, in 1521, took an oppor- tunity, on a charge of high treason, to get rid of Edward, third Duke of Buckingham, who, as a descendant of Edward HI., Execution of would have been very likely to put forward his "i^j^e^,^* claims, especially as, by one act or another, all the Bucking-iiam. members of the royal family who stood between him and the throne had been either declared illegitimate or attainted. If we remember that the legality of Henry's marriage with Katharine, though sanctioned by the pope, might still be disputed, it is plain that the situation was very serious. These were considerations of state ; but when Henry himself grew tired of Katharine, and wanted to marry some one else, it became of the utmost importance that the question whether his present marriage was legal should be expeditiously settled one way or another. Wolsey was in favour of the divorce, as he wished the king to marry a French princess, and he is said to have exclaimed, " If I could see the king well married and the Church reformed, I could die happy." The natural course, under the circumstances, was to appeal to the pope; and this Henry did. Under ordinary circumstances, the pope would probably have made no difficulty; but the circumstances were not ordinary, for Pope to about the Clement VII. was imprisoned by Charles' troops <^vorce. in the castle of St. Angelo, at Eome, and the emperor was all powerful in Italy. Hence Clement was afraid to offend Charles by divorcing his aunt Katharine. At the same time, he did not wish to offend Henry and Francis, who might help him against the emperor, and consequently he tried to please both and to gain time by doing nothing. Accordingly, he sent PopecaUstue Cardinal Campeggio as his legate to try the case case to Rome, in England with Wolsey; and when Queen Katharine appealed to have the case tried in Kome, the pope called the case thither in 1529. 184 The Tudors. [1529- This course was fatal both to Wolsey and to the Papal power; for the king determined to put in force the Act of Praemunire, which The king- puts allowed Mm to forbid either appeals to Rome or the Pr^^munire receiving of letters from Rome. In spite of the fact in force. that Wolscy had been made cardinal and legate by his special request, Henry accused Wolsey of violating this act. In a contest with the pope, Henry felt the need of having England at his back; and though, like Edward IV. and Henry VII., he had hitherto summoned few Parliaments, he now called Parliament One together in 1529. This sat, not as previous called. Parliaments had done, for a month or two, but for seven years, and carried out one of the greatest revolutions in English history. No doubt Henry took good care to get members elected whom he could trust; but he need have had no fear of trusting his subjects to help him in attacking the pope or reforming Church abuses. The Church had been unpopular for years, and, as we saw in the time of Henry IV., Parliament had only been held back by the authority of the king himself from con- fiscating its property. Of course Henry's wrath fell on Wolsey, who had, he thought, played him false. He was dismissed from his office and from court, and his place was taken by Sir Thomas More, a lawyer who had written "Utopia," a book which, under the form of a description of an ideal commonwealth, was a satire on the abuses of the time. Within a year Wolsey was sent for to London to answer a charge of high treason. How- ever, he was fortunate enough to die on the road, at Leicester Abbey. The Church of England was connected with the Papacy by the following ties. In the first place, the pope was theoretically head Connection of of the Catholic Church, to which England had be- En^ia^with lo^^g^d since the days of St. Augustine. Secondly, Rome. though by the Act of Praemunire the king might prohibit it, appeals had constantly gone from the English eccle- siastical courts to Rome. Thirdly, large taxes, called tenths and firstffuits, had been paid by the clergy, and Peter's pence by the laity. Fourthly, the pope had practically appointed the English bishops and a good many of the English clergy, though forbidden 1534.] Henry VIII, 185 to do so by the Act of Provisors. All these links were swept away by the Parliament of 1529. We saw that Wolsey had incurred the penalties of Praemunire by accepting from the pope the office of papal legate. By the strict letter of the law, the clergy who had acknowledged „ ' °'' ^ Henry becomes him in this capacity had made themselves liable to "Headoftiie the same penalties. By these their goods were to be ^'^ forfeited to the king, and themselves to be imprisoned at the king's pleasure. Henry had no scruple in using this weapon, and forced the representatives of the clergy assembled in convocation to address him as " Supreme Head of the Church and clergy; " Acts to but they bravely added the words, "so far as the separate the Clmrcli of law of Christ will allow." The Parliament then set England from itself to sever the other Imks. In 1532 an act for ti^^pope. restraining all appeals to Kome was passed. In 1534 another act forbade the payments of tenths to Eome, and at the same time the pope's power of influencing the election of bishops was done away with. It must not, however, be supposed that the clergy were allowed either to keep the tenths or to elect whom they pleased. On the contrary, they had to pay the tenths to Henry's exchequer, and the king from this time forward managed the Election of election of the bishops thus. When a see became bishops, vacant, the king sent to the dean and chapter a letter, called a conge cfelire^ authorizing them to elect a new bishop. At the same time, he sent another letter, called a letter missive, suggesting whom they should elect. If the man named were not chosen, the whole chapter would incur the penalties of Praemunire. There has never yet been an instance of refusal. To complete the separation, in 1534 an act was passed abolishing the authority of the pope in England; and the next year, by the Act of Supremacy, Henry took the title of " Supreme Head on earth of the Church of England." While these acts were being passed to separate the Church of England from the pope, another series of acts had reformed the abuses in the discipline of the clergy. We saw that church in the time of Wycliffe there had been good ground discipline, for complaint, and there is nothing to show that things were any better since his time. The first of these acts regulated the fees 1 86 The Tudor s. [1534 whicli the clergy had been in the habit of exacting from the people for performing religious services. A second forbade clergymen to hold several livings at once, v^hich had been a cause of great scandal. A third reformed the spiritual courts and strengthened the old mortmain statutes, which forbade lands being given to the clergy. A fourth did away with the abuses of benefit of clergy, by which, since the murder of Becket, the clerical offenders had been tried and punished by the bishops, and not by the ordinary law of the land. These reforms seem to have been very much needed, and to have been all steps in the right direction. Meanwhile Henry had not been fortunate about his divorce. At the suggestion of a Cambridge scholar named Cranmer, Henry's ^® ^^^ appealed to the universities of Europe to marriages, gay whether the pope could allow a man to marry his deceased brother's wife. Their answers were not conclusive, but as soon as the act forbidding appeals to Eome was passed, Henry had the case tried before Cranmer, whom he had made Archbishop of Canterbury, in the ordinary archbishop's court. Of course the decision was in his favour, and Henry acknow- ledged his marriage with Anne Boleyn, a lady of the family of Howard,^ to whom he had been long attached. Anne soon became the mother of a daughter, afterwards Queen Elizabeth. 1 THE HOWAEDS. John Howard, created Duke of Norfolk, killed at Bosworth 1485. Thomas, Earl of Surrey, won battle of Flodden 1513, restored to the dukedom 1514, d. 1514. Thomas, Edmund Howard. William Howard, Elizabeth — Thomas Duke of 1 created Lord Howard Howard. I Boleyn. Norfolk, Katharine Howard, of Effingham. | d. 1554. m. Henry VIII., | Anne Boleyn j executed 1542. Charles, m. Henry VIII., j second son of Lord Howard executed 1536. I of Effingham, defeated the | Henry, Earl of Surrey, Armada 1588, created Earl Queen Elizabeth, beheaded 1547. " of Nottingham 1590, d. 1624. 1558-1603. Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, beheaded 1572 (great-grandfather of Lord Stafford, executed in 1680). 1536. J Henry VIII, 187 Parliament then passed an act settling the succession on the children of Henry and Anne. Sir Thomas More, the Chan- cellor, and Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, refused to accept this act, and were sent to the Tower. A year later they were both executed, nominally for high treason, in reality because they disapproved of what Henry was doing. Unfortunately, before a prince was born to inherit the throne, Henry became jealous of Anne. Probably she had only been fooHshly indiscreet ; but the matter was serious, and she was executed. Execution of Two days afterwards Henry married another lady, AnneBoieyn. Jane Seymour. By her he had a son, born in 1537 ; and as Katharine had died before Anne Boleyn's fall, there could be no doubt that this prince was heir to the throne, so that the succession difficulty was over for the present. Unfortunately, the queen died soon after the birth of her son, and Henry did not marry again for some time. After the fall of Sir Thomas More, the chief adviser of the kmg was Thomas Cromwell. He had been a dependent Thomas of Wolsey's, and, like More, he was a layman. He cromweu. was an able man, devoted to the king's interests. With his aid the king proceeded to attack the monasteries. At this time there were in England more than six hundred monastic houses, where dwelt men and women who had taken the three vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience. The oldest of the Religious orders was the Benedictine, founded ui the sixth orders, century by St. Benedict, the patriarch of Western Monasticism. Its houses were usually in populous towns, which had often grown up around them. Of their abbeys, Westminster is an example. Branches of this order were the Clugniac, founded during the eleventh century, which took its name from the French abbey of Clugny, and the Cistercian, called from the abbey of Citeaux, founded at the close of the eleventh century by Stephen Harding, an Englishman. The Cistercian monasteries were built in out-of- the-way places, which were reclaimed by the monks, and of these Fountains, Tintern, and Furness are examples. Next to these orders stood the Augustinian and Premonstratensian canons, of which the houses at Bristol and Chichester are specimens. During the crusades were founded the mihtary orders, of which the chief 1 88 The Tudor s. [isse were the Templars, wliose principal house was the Temple in London, and the knights of St. John, or Hospitallers, one of whose houses was at Clerkenwell. The Templars, however, had been dissolved in the time of Edward II. Next came the mendicant friars, who had houses in every important town. Their chief orders were the Grey Friars, or Franciscans, founded by an Italian, St. Francis, at the beginning of the thirteenth century, and the Dominicans, or Black Friars, founded about the same time by St. Dominic, a Spaniard. The monks and nuns lived by themselves within the walls of their monasteries, but the friars travelled from place to place, living upon alms, and only used their houses as headquarters. There was much to be said for and against the monasteries. In a rude age they had done good service as retreats for men of peace and learning; but their place had now been f Henry attacks tiie taken by the universities, and Wolsey, as we have monasteries. ^^^^^ ^^^ recognized that some of their wealth, at any rate, might be better employed in supporting colleges and schools. Thus from the point of view of the men of the new learning, they were behind the age. Others, no doubt, looked at them as valuable institutions, which diffused some culture in country places, educated the children of their neighbours, sent poor lads to the university and maintained them there, relieved the distressed, succoured the wayfarer, and performed a number of kindly ofiSces which could ill be spared. Neither of these views was, we fear, taken by the majority. The needy king saw in the wealth of the monasteries a good reason for their fall ; members of Parliament thought that, if this wealth were given to the king, there would be no more need for taxes ; while, doubtless, many coveted the lands of the monks and hoped to profit by their misfortunes. Actuated by these diverse feelings, the government sent a com- mission to inquire into the state of the monasteries. Their condition Commission was probably no better and no worse than it had long senttoinauire ^ ^^^ rp|^Q larger wcrc for the most part in good into state oi ° x ^^ f monasteries, order, the Smaller were frequently full of abuses ; but sufficient evidence was got to afford a pretext for what was wanted, and by Act of Parliament in 1536, the smaller monasteries were dissolved. Their fate frightened many of the greater ones into 1636. J Henry VII I. 1S9 voluntary submission ; some were cajoled into making what they believed was a formal surrender ; the abbots of Glastonbury, Colchester, and Eeading, were indicted for treason _. , ^. ' ®' Dissolution and executed; and in 1539 another act was passed, of the authorizing the surrender to the king of all the property of the remaining monastic institutions. Doubtless the more honourable statesmen hoped that the money thus obtained would be used for the good of the nation as a whole. Plans were brought forward to increase the number of bishoprics, and to found colleges and schools. Unfortunately, very little was done in this way: only six new bishoprics were „ created; and the money did not even go to form money was a permanent fund for the reduction of taxation. ^^^ ^® Some was spent on the fortification of the coast, but most of it found its way into the pockets of the king's courtiers, and helped to make the fortunes of a new nobility devoted to the interests of the reformation ; and such families as the Cavendishes, the Russells, the Seymours, the Dudleys, and the Cecils, whose wealth was gained from this source, began to take the place of the old nobility of England, of whom the family of Howard, though their title only dated from the reign of Edward IV., were the chief representatives. The proceedings of Henry and the Parliament in the matter of the divorce, the separation from Rome, and the abolition of the monasteries, did not pass without disturbance. So Disturbances early as 1534 a half-witted girl, commonly called caused by the Nun of Kent, who in her fits had spoken Henry and strongly against the divorce, and had been made Parliament, the tool of the disaffected priests, was executed. In 1535, the" execution of Sir Thomas More and Bishop Fisher showed that the most accomplished layman of his day, and one of the most learned of ecclesiastics, were not prepared to join a movement which they thought schismatic. In 1536 the northern counties, where the monks were more popular than in the south, rose in rebellion, under a lawyer, Robert Aske, against the sup- pression of the lesser monasteries. This move- "Piig-rimage" ment was called the "Pilgrimage of Grace." The leaders, Aske, Darcy, and Constable, with four abbots, were iQo The Tudors. [isse- executed, but the common people were treated with leniency. Council of 0^^^ result of this rebellion was the institution of the North, q^q Council of the North, a committee of the Privy Council, which henceforth sat for four months of the year, at York, Hull, Newcastle, and Durham. The severance of the connection between England and Kome, and the attacks which had been made on the clergy, naturally encouraged the party which took their ideas partly Movement °^ r J r j towards from the German reformation, partly from the Imger- ro es an ism. .^^ traditions of LoUardism ; and an impetus had been given to these ideas by an English translation of the Bible being allowed to be set up ia the churches in 1536. Such a movement towards Protestantism formed no part of Henry's plan. To the end of his life he was a Catholic, and in 1539 an act was passed to put a stop to the movement. This law passed Parhament by acclamation, and imposed on the nation Six Articles of doctrine and observance, of which the most important were — the belief in transubstantia- tion, the celibacy of the clergy, and auricular confession. Henry was determined that these should be believed in and practised ; and when he sent to execution at the same time one man for denying the royal supremacy, and another for denying the truth of tran- substantiation, he exactly showed what his own attitude was. For some time after the death of Jane, Henry remained un- married, but in 1539 he was persuaded to accept in marriage Anne, ^ sister of the Duke of Cleves — a small territory on the Marriage of _ '' Henry with Rhine. CromwcU devised this match, because he nneo eves, ^g^j^^g^j Henry to make common cause with the German Protestant princes who had formed a league against Charles V. Unluckily for Cromwell, his scheme of an alliance against Charles failed; and when Anne arrived, her person was distasteful to the king. The matter was easily arranged. Anne was divorced and provided for by a pension; but Thomas Cromwcll lost his head. His enemies were only too glad to attack him, and when the king's favour was withdrawn, an act of attainder brought his career to a close, in Marriage with ^^^^' "^^^^ ^™° *^^^ pleased the old nobility by Katharine marrying Katharine Howard. Unfortunately, after two years the king found that she had behaved badly 1542.] Henry VIII. 191 before her marriage, and she was put to death ; the Marriage with king then married Katharine Parr, who survived him. Parr.^^^ Possibly the difficulties in which Henry had been involved revived the hopes of the Yorkists, and encouraged them to plot against him ; perhaps Henry was angry because Keginald Pole, who had written against the divorce, had been made a Cardinal; at any rate in 1638 Henry arrested Pole's countess of mother, the Countess of Salisbury,i daughter of the ^^^i^bury. Duke of Clarence, the brother of Edward IV. ; her eldest son, Henry- Pole, Lord Montacute, and Edward Courtenay, Marquess of Exeter, grandson of Edward IV. AU three were executed — the lords in 1539, the Countess in 1541 — and after this the rivalry between the two houses of York and Lancaster may be said to disappear. The confiscation of the property of the monasteries had a bad effect upon Henry and his court. When the money was gone, he looked about for more, and he hit upon Debasement of the expedient of debasing the coinage. Since the *^® coinage, days of Edward III. England had always been very careful to keep up a high standard. On this the credit of a nation depends ; for if there is any uncertainty as to the value of money, foreign trade becomes impossible. The old rule was that in every twelve ounces of silver there should be three quarters of an ounce of alloy, in order to make it hard enough to stand wear and tear ; but m 1543 Henry paid his creditors with shillings in which the proportion was two ounces of alloy to twelve ounces of silver. From bad he went to worse, and in 1546 he actually issued money in which there were eight ounces of alloy to twelve ounces of silver. Naturally Henry »THE POLES. George, Duke of Clarence, = Isabel Neville, daughter of the brother of Edward IV, d. 1478 Earl of Warwick, d. 1477. Margaret, = Sir Richard Pole. Edward Plantagenet, Countess of Salisbury, executed 1541. Earl of Warwick, executed 1499. Henry Pole, Lord Montacute, Reginald, executed 1539. Archbishop of Canterbury, and Cardinal, d. 1558.' 192 T/ie Tudor s, iie^a- Havod by iliin, bnl, il, whh killiiip^ tho pooHO that laid the f^oldoii oggH. Ti'iulo WHH I'liiiicd ; no olio would buy who (M)til(l hcilp il,, Ibr no ono know tho viiJiio of nionoy. 'J'ho (lont of pioviHioni-i roHo jniuiilbld, iind tho dinlroHH ol" tho ])0()r wiiH bu'ribhi, Ibr wiij^dH iiov(!r riwo so IiihI. an \\w oont of proviBions. Naturally beggary and robbery iii(!rnt was concluded with tho chiolH of the ICnglish l>a,rty in Si'otland. Tho l>onch, and the Froiioh ])aTty in Scotland, beaded by Cardinal Hoalon, disliked the plan; 80 in 1544 TTonry found biniHolf at war Ii'i'nTX'fi (1,11(1 * HiM)t.iaiui with both [''rancid and S(^olIa,nd. The English in- inviuiod. ^,^^^,^^^j ^,.„,i,„„j „„,i,.,. (|„, (.onunand of Lord ITcrt- ford brotluu" of .bino Soyniour, and of Lord Ijislo, son of tho l)udloy (^xocutod at (lu^ lH\!;inning of llu^ roign. lOdinbingh and Leitb were both yiartly bin-nt, but this barbarity served only to oxasperate the Scots. Meanwhile llcury bimsidf invaded Franco and took r>oulogu(^. It now b(H'aiuo a])parent that Henry's life could not last long, and all parties bogan to intrigue for the chief y)ower under the exi)ected iniriB-uoHof minority of I'jdward. If tho lot foil to the Howards, tho lu.bioH lor |in,,.o would probably be a reaction towards lionu^ : if thoohlof . . . power. to tlio now nobility, tho reformation might be oxpectod 1B47.J IJcnry VJIJ. ifj-; t(j ^0 forwiud In llio direction of ilio LullKJ'.'in rriov* irxttiL Tlio new iiobiliiy won liio day. A \x\\\\\\)iAy\\) clifu'^o jif';;i,iniit Uio lIowanlH, thai, tli(;y quarLcnid on ilicir nliicld Uio anriH of" ICdwurd U)o ConfcHHor — which they hsul a, lirdif to do — urouHcd Ifonry'H joaloiJHy lor tho HuccoHHion of hiw Hon. Th(! \)\\\'m of Norfolk fiirn- Hclf and hiH cldont won, tho Karl of Surn-.y, an a<;(;ofn|)Jiii[i(;d poet, hut no favourer of reform, wen; eondenmed ofj ;), ehar;.';'; of trrjanon, and tho Hon wiUi <;xeeuted. The death of Henry, in \UM ^ oaved Norfolk from the Hame hite. ll(jnry VIM. w;i,h one of 1,]ie moiit retri:uk;iJ>le amonf', the \'.\\\['\\ of England. IIIh hurly ['v./\wi^ \\.\A litronf^ will have ta,ken firm hold upon tho Kriglinh imagination. Of ;),ll the (;overei;',ri(i wlio r(;i;Mj<;d HJnoo the orgfini/ation of Pii,rlijufient, he wan the mf^Ht al>nohd,<5. I'arliamrjnt gave to hin f)roeIam!).tiofjH th'i force of law, and f)ermittod him to leave the kingdom hy will. He eolleeted forced lo;j,n!i, ii<;t u[) and y)u]ied down inininterH an h(j chone, and riirely met with any rcHiHtanco to hiH winheH, wlj(;th(ir ho anked l'arliam(;nt to (;hango Horno ancient irmtltution, or demanded from tho law-courtH the con- demnation of J), wife, J), nol)h;m;u), oi' ;i, milliliter. Of iirinry'n [iIh p(!rKonal character tin; moht o[)poHite entimatcH ';*'"•'"-';<''"•. Fiavo been f(;rm<;d. Home liave refircHcntrjd him aH a monnter fjf wiokedriCHH, whoiie only motive w;),!i the fM;i,lifie;i,tion of hiii own [(aHHioriH ; othern, an a Hov r j ■- & r victory on the tion of England. During the remainder of the reign country. England had little to fear from Spain. Her soldiers 1598.] Elizabeth. 217 and sailors attacked the Spanish ships wherever they could find them, even against enormous odds, and in 1596, when Philip had col- lected a new Armada at Cadiz, Howard, Raleigh, and Essex sailed into the harbour and destroyed or captured all the ships under the guns of the forts. No more had the queen to trim her sails between France and Spain. Henry of France was proud to accept Elizabeth as his ally, and the enemies of the queen at home and abroad despaired of success. It was a turning-point in other ways. Within a year Leicester died. Walsingham soon followed him. Cecil, Lord Burleigh, was growing old; and new figures came upon the scene. Of these the most striking was Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex. He had the attractiveness of Leicester, but he was a greater man. He had great schemes, but he did not agree with the r^j^g -^^^^ ^^ other statesmen of the time. Burleigh and the Essex. queen wished to bring to an end the Spanish war ; Essex wanted to contmue it, for he thought England might gain much by conquest and colonization. Of late the queen had been very stern both to the Roman Catholics and to the Puritans; Essex, on the other hand, had used expressions showing a wish to tolerate both. He also failed to conciHate Lord Burleigh's son, Robert Cecil ; and he was viewed with jealousy by Sir Walter Raleigh, Lord Cobham and other courtiers. On the other hand, he was the idol of the people and the favourite of the queen. Throughout the reign Ireland had been a constant source of trouble and expense. The Tudors had steadily pursued the pohcy of taking land from the rebel chiefs and giving it to English state of settlers. This was extremely unfair, because in Ireland. Ireland, land belonged, not to the chief only, but to him and his clan, or sept ; and so the innocent clansmen suffered for the guilt of their chief. Consequently rebellions, in which the English settlers were massacred and their homes burnt, were numerous. One of these rebellions broke out in 1595. It was led by O'Neal, O'Neal's Earl of Tyrone, and help was given to him by Spain. rebeuion. O'Neal was an excellent general, and made the most of the bogs and woods which embarrassed the regular soldiery. Sir John Norris died, worn out by pursuing him, and Sir Henry Bagnal was killed iu an ambuscade at Blackwater. Essex had talked so much of what he 2i8 The Tudors, (1533- would have done had he been there, that all parties united to press Essex sent to him to go out as deputy. He was obliged to accept rebeuion^ the post, but did no better than his predecessors ; and He returns t ^'^'^i fearing that his enemies were plotting against England. him, he Suddenly, without leave, returned home and threw himself on the queen's mercy. His case was investigated, and he was kept for a time in honourable confinement. Essex' spirit chafed at this, and on his release he began to correspond with James of Scotland, and to form friendships with the „ Puritan separatists, and collected round him bodies of Essex plots ^ , against the discontented Catholics and disbanded soldiers. There queen. .^ _^^ doubt that he meant to change the government by force ; but the council heard of his proceedings, and determined He is seized ^^ strike first. Essex resisted ; but his plans were not and executed, ready, and he was seized, tried, and executed for treason. His death is said to have preyed very much upon Elizabeth's mind. In the latter years of the reign Parliament showed greater independence than in the earlier. The defeat of the Armada Attitude of ^^d relieved the English of a great anxiety, and Parliament. ^Si^x it they were less ready than before to put up with high-handed conduct on the part of the court. Their Monopolies chief grievance was the existence of monopolies, abolished. These, like our patents, were rights to sell a particular article, but they were not given, like patents, as a reward for invention, but to some courtier or other, and the extra price he charged was really a tax on the nation for his benefit. These had been granted recklessly, as an easy way of satisfying greedy applicants for court favour, and were very unpopular. Parliament in 1601 insisted on their being abolished, and when the queen saw that the House was in earnest she gave way. Though the reign was in many ways glorious, it had been a hard time for the poor. Ehzabeth had done good service by renewing Distress among the coinage, and getting rid of the bad money of the poor. Henry VIII. and Edward VI. ; but prices had still kept high in proportion to wages, and the enclosure of commons had still gone on. Consequently in every parish there were numbers of poor ; and as, now the monasteries wore gone, there was no one 1603.J ElizabeiJi. 219 The poor law. whose business it was to relieve them, the churchwardens were allowed first to ask voluntary alms, and afterwards to levy a rate for then- support. In 1601 all the acts on the subject were recast, and the maintenance of the impotent poor, and the setting the able-bodied to work in workhouses, was intrusted in each parish to regular guardians. After the death of Mary, Queen of Scots, it was pretty certain that her son James would succeed Elizabeth; for the claim of Katharine Grrey and her children in virtue of the will of Henry VIII. was no longer thought of. The queen did not like to think of James being her successor, but it began to be understood that he would be the next king; and when Elizabeth died, in 1603, there was no question as to the succession. Deatli of Queen Slizabetb.. CHIEF GENERAL EVENTS UNDER THE TUDORS. Court afterwards known as Star Chamber established Sebastian Cabot reaches the mainland of America Marriage of Margaret of England to James IV. FallofWolsey Church of England separated from Rome ... Pilgrimage of Grace English Bible set up in the churches Dissolution of the monasteries completed ... Issue of bad money begun by Henry VIII. Ket's rebellion against the "Enclosures " ... Marriage of Mary to Philip of Spain English Church reformed by Elizabeth Mary, Queen of Scots, arrives in England ... Northern insurrection ... Court of High Commission established Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots Ealeigh's first attempt to colonize America First Charter granted to the East India Company Execution of Essex Poor law established hed ... 1487 1497 1502 1529 1532-1534 1536 1539 1543 1549 1554 1559 1568 1569 1583 1587 1600 1601 ... ..• ^~-~ 2 20 The Tudor s. CHIEF BATTLES, SIEGES, AND TREATIES, UNDER THE TUDORS. Battle of Stoke ... 1487 Treaty called the "Great Intercourse" made with the Netherlands 1496 Battle of Guinegaste 1513 ,, Flodden ,, Solway Moss 1542 „ Pinkie 1547 „ St. Mary's Clyst 1549 „ Mousehold Hill Defeat of the Armada 1588 Victory at Cadiz ... 1595 Battle of Blackwater 1598 BOOK YII THE STUARTS AND THE COMMONWEALTH XVIT.— THE STUARTS. James I., = Anne of Denmark, 1603-1625. I d. 1619. Henry, CharleSj d. 1612. 1625-1649. Elizabeth =; I rederick Charles II., 1660-1685. James II., 1685-1688, d. 1701. Marv d. 1660. d. 1662. William of Orange, d. 1650. James Anne, (the old 1702-1714. Pretender), b. 1688, d. 1765. Mary, = William III., 1688-1694. 1688-1702. of the Palatinate. Prince Kupert, d. 1682. Prince Maurice, d. 1652, Sophia = Elector of Hanover, d. 1714. I George I., 1714-1727. George II. XVIII.— BOURBON KINGS OF FRANCE, 1589-1715. Henry IV., 1589-1609. Louis XIII., 1609-1643. Louis XIV., 1643-1715. CHAPTER T. James L, 1603-1625 (22 years). Born 1566; married, 1589, Anne of Denmark, Chief Characters of the Beign.—SJT Walter Raleigli ; Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury ; Catesby ; Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset ; George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham ; Sir Francis Bacon (Viscount St. Alban's) ; Edward Coke ; John Selden ; John Pym. Chief Contemporary Princes. France. Spain. Henry IV., d. 1610. Philip III., d. 1621. Louis XIII., d. 1643. Philip IV., d. 1665. James VI. of Scotland, the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and Lord Darnley, became James I. of England by right of descent from his great-grandmother, Margaret, daughter of Henry VII. He was the first of the Stuart sovereigns, a family who, with the exception of the Commonwealth from 1649 to 1660, reigned in England one hundred and eleven years. At his accession James James' was thirty-seven years old. He had been King of ^^viJw?on'^*^ Scotland since he was a baby, and he had very government, exaggerated ideas as to the rights of sovereigns. . The Tudors had never troubled about the theory of government so long as they had the power to do what they liked, and they had usually taken care that what they did agreed with the wishes of the majority of their subjects. James, on the contrary, thought much of the theory of government, but had little idea of winning respect, while his slovenly and gluttonous habits contrasted ill with the dignity of the Tudors. For all that, James was a learned man, and knew more about foreign affairs, and about history and religious controversy, than most of his contemporaries ; but he had little judgment, and was called by the witty Henry IV. of France, " the wisest fool lq Christendom." Parliament had begun 1604.] James I. 225 to be restive under Queen Elizabeth, and it was not likely that it would be more steady when the reins were handed to such a man as the pedantic James. On the other hand, it could not be expected that the new sovereign would give up rights which had been exercised by his predecessors, so that a quarrel between king and Parliament was inevitable. On his road from Scotland, James hanged a pickpocket at Newark without the form of trial, and this act, which violated a host of statutes from Magna Carta downwards, was a fitting prelude to the new era. James took for his minister Robert Cecil, the son of Elizabeth's minister Burleigh, who inherited the policy of his father. This was a very sore blow to Sir Walter Raleigh and Lord Cobham who had hoped to supplant Cecil, and were disappointed to find that James intended to give him his confidence. Raleigh, moreover, was deprived by James of the post of captain of the royal guard. They therefore discussed a plan for getting rid of Cecil, and possibly thought of placing on The Main and the throne Arabella Stuart (see p. 211), niece Bye Plots, of Lord Darnley, in case James proved obdurate. At the same time, some Roman Catholics and Puritans, led by Watson, a priest, and Lord Grey de Wilton, a Puritan, who had been friends of Essex, talked of seizing the king and forcing him to grant toleration. These two plans were called the Main and the Bye Plots. Cecil heard of them, arrested the leaders, ^ ' ' Imprisonment and cleverly tried them as if the two plots were ofHaieig-ii the same. By this means he contrived to get rid ^^ ° ^^' of his rivals, Cobham and Raleigh, who were condemned to death and thrown into the Tower; and for nine years Cecil was the leading minister. Both Roman Catholics and Puritans hoped to find favour with James. The first relied on his descent from Mar}^, Queen of Scots, the second on his Presbyterian education ; but they soon found that he was determined to uphold the religious settlement of ™, ^ ^ ° The Hampton Elizabeth. In 1604 a conference was held at Hamp- Court ton Court between the bishops and the representa- tives of the Puritans. It simply served to show how transiatk)n of much they differed, and the only good that came from ^^® Bible, it was an order for a new translation of the Bible. This translation Q 226 The Stuarts. hqq^ was made carefully, and is still used in churches under the name of the Authorized Version. With the Roman Catholics James had more sympathy, but Parliament alone could alter the laws, and James' first Parliament, which met in 1604, was Puritan in feeling, and, so far from doing this, pressed for greater severity. The more reckless Roman Catholics, therefore, who had shared in Essex' conspiracy and the Bye Plot, under the lead of Catesby, The Gun- determined to blow up king and Parliament together. powder Plot. Their plan was well laid, and they were fortunate enough to hire some cellars under the House of Lords, where they stored their gunpowder ; but the date of Parliament's meeting being again and again put off, and their funds running short, they were obliged to let some rich men into their secret, and their plans were made known to the government. The meeting of Parliament was at length fixed for November 5th, 1605, but at the last moment the cellars were searched, and Guy Fawkes, a Yorkshireman, who had fought in the Spanish service, was found ready to fire the train. On learning the news of his arrest, the other conspirators, who had assembled at Dunchurch, in Warwickshire, intending to raise the country as soon as the catastrophe occurred in London, fled for their lives, and fought desperately when attacked. By accident, however, their powder blew up, and many of them were killed. The rest, with Fawkes, were tried and executed. Their plot was ^ ^, , ^ a terrible misfortune for their fellow-Catholics. How tlie plot affected the Quite unjustly they were credited with a reckless willingness to use any means, however horrible, to gain their ends, and many years passed away before ignorant people ceased to believe that when any evil happened the Roman Catholics were at the bottom of it. As soon as Parliament again met, the laws against the Roman Catholics were made more severe. As might have been expected, from the divergence of their views on religion and politics, the relations between James and his Parlia- james' first ^^^^^ were from the first unfriendly. In his first Parliament, summons, issued in 1604, James ventured to warn Control over the electors not to choose outlaws, or men of extreme religious views. Buckinghamshire, however, chose Goodwin, an outlaw; and a new election was ordered by the Chancellor. The House of Commons remonstrated against this 1608.] James I, 227 violation of their rights, and the king had to give way. This victory gave the House the right to settle the merits of all disputed elections, and was of great importance. In the case of Shirley, Arrests of who had been imprisoned for debt, it was established members, that no member could be arrested, except on a charge of treason, felony, or breach of the peace. At the close of the session of 1604 the House of Commons recorded their opinion that the privileges of Parliament had " been more universally and dangerously impugned than ever, as they suppose, since the beginnings of Parliaments." James' most serious violation of the law was in respect to taxation. His main sources of income were the Crown lands, the feudal dues, and tonnage and poundage, which were ^j^g granted to him for life. Tonnage meant a tax of impositions, from \s. ^d. to 2>s. levied on each tun of wine or liquor coming into or going out of the kingdom, and poundage a similar tax of ^d. to Is. on every pound of dry goods. The rates on each article were recorded in a book. James, who through the extravagance of the court was sore pressed for money, claimed to alter these rates as he chose, and the additions he made in 1608 were called the Im- positions. In the case of Bates, a merchant who refused to pay, the judges, who could then be dismissed from their posts at the king's pleasure, decided against him ; but Parliament never ceased to protest against the Impositions, which infringed their right to control taxation. On matters of general pohtics the Commons agreed with the king no better than on matters of privilege. In 1607 Parliament refused to allow England and Scotland to be united james* policy into one kingdom, as James would have liked, and rejected, contented themselves with doing away with the hostile border laws, exactly a century before the union of the two countries in 1707. James proposed to commute the payment of feudal dues, and the rights of wardship and marriage, for a fixed tax of £200,000, levied upon lands held by feudal tenure. This the Commons thought too much, and the plan broke down. On foreign politics James was no more in accord with his subjects than in other matters. James was very desirous, as Elizabeth had latterly been, to make peace with Spain. This policy james' foreign was unpopular, for the English had made money by policies, sacking Spanish towns and plundering Spanish treasure -ships, and 2 28 The Stuarts, cidos- had no wish to be at peace. Elizabeth, moreover, had always wished to keep up a close alliance with France ; but James wished to make Spain England's chief friend, and this the nation disliked. As long as Eobert Cecil, Lord Salisbury, lived he tried to hold Influence of James to the traditions of Elizabeth. In this he Robert Cecil, ^g^g tolerably successful, and in 1612 he negotiated a marriage between James' daughter Elizabeth and Frederick, Elector of the Palatinate, one of the leading Protestant princes of Germany, and one who was hostile to Spain and Austria. Un- fortunately, Cecil died shortly after the wedding, and by an unhappy coincidence he was soon followed by James' eldest son Henry, a Death of prince of great promise, who was the hope of those Prince Henry. ^Jiq disliked Spain. After the death of Cecil and James aUies Princo Henry, James drifted rapidly away from with. Spain. France, and became a close ally of Spain. He hoped much from a marriage between his second son Charles and a Spanish princess, for he expected to pay his debts out of the lady's dowry, and also to gain increased influence abroad. Meanwhile the energy of the country was finding new out- lets. After the failure of Essex in Ireland, Mountjoy was made deputy, and before the close of Ehzabeth's reign settlement in he had put dowii the rebellion, and bridled the Irish of Ulster by building small forts in every position of importance, which he garrisoned with picked soldiers well pro- vided with provisions. His successor was Arthur Chichester, one of Ireland's best rulers, who did justice to all ahke. Unfortunately, new troubles threw a great deal of land into the hands of the government. Chichester advised that the best land should be given to the Irish, and the remainder to English and Scottish settlers. The government, however, rejected his counsel, and after giving the best lots to the settlers gave what remained to the Irish. The new comers showed themselves to be men of energy, and in their hands Ulster, which had been the wildest, became the most prosperous district in Ireland ; but the wrongs of the dispossessed Irish were never forgotten, and sowed the seed of a wild revenge at a later day. After Sir Walter Ealeigh's imprisonment the project of colonizing Virginia was taken up by a body of merchants and others, styled the Virginia Company. It was some time before they made a permanent b 1612.1 James L 229 settlement, but at length, in 1607, an expedition led by John Smith succeeded, and so laid the foundation of the Beeinnineof United States. The same year a colony was also So^ai established on the West Indian Island, Bermudez, so Empire, that the date 1607 may be taken as that when the English colonial empire was founded. The next settlers in America were Separatists, who disliked the religious settlement maintained by James. In 1608 a body of Nottinghamshire Independents left England, and settled at the town of Leyden in Holland. After a time they thought they should prefer a country life, and in 1620 they sailed from England to America in the Mayflower^ and called the place where they landed New Plymouth. Their land was situated in a temperate climate, like that of England. It had no gold, nor was it suited for growing sugar or tobacco, so the colonists kept abroad the habit of indus- triously tilling the ground with their own hands, and so remained vigorous and energetic, neither enervated by a relaxing climate nor demoralized by the institution of slavery. Their example was fol- lowed by others, and soon a new England, Puritan in faith and agricultural m profession, grew up on the eastern coast of North America. (See map p. .351.) Under Elizabeth the English had carried on a flourishing trade with India and Africa and the ports of the Mediterranean, and just before her death, in 1600, the East India Trading- Company was formed for the purpose of carrying on companies, trade with that country. Under James commerce acquired still greater importance. In those days trade was almost always in the hands of companies, just as railways are now, and every branch had its company, such as the Smyrna Company, the Turkey Company, and so forth. Most of these companies had their houses of business in London, and their establishment led to London getting far ahead of other English towns as a mart. This increase of London was looked upon with jealousy by the kings, but it was a great source of strength to Parliament, of which the London merchants were the most energetic supporters. When Cecil was dead, James allowed himself to fall into the hands of favourites. Of these the first was Robert james' Carr, a worthless but handsome young man, whom favourites, he made Earl of Somerset. To please him James furthered tlie 230 The Stuarts, 11613- divorce of the Earl of Essex from Ms wife, whom Somerset then married. Presently it was found that Somerset and his wife were concerned in a murder. She was tried and found guilty, and Somerset was disgraced. The next favourite was George VUliers, also handsome but a better man than Somerset. On him the king showered favours, and, though he had had no experience, preferred his advice to that of wiser men. Under the guidance of these favourites the expenses of the court rose threefold, and in 1614 James, in spite of the additional income gained from the Imposi- tions, found himself obliged to call a Parliament. Some of the The Addled courtiers undertook to secure a friendly one, for which Parliament, reason they were called " undertakers ; " but when it met, the king found it so hostile that, being dissolved before it had passed a single measure, it was called the Addled Parliament. For seven years he ruled without a Parliament, and during those years James remodelled the government after his own ideas. In legal matters his chief adviser was Sir Francis Bacon, author of the "Essays," and of the "Advancement of Learning," who rose to be chancellor in 1618. Like most Chancery lawyers. Bacon had a high idea of the king's power, and wished to see it used well ; but he was too weak to take a strong line, and was willing to keep his place whUe his good advice was disregarded. As a lawyer. Bacon's rival Dismissal '^^^ Edward Coke, who was dismissed from his post of of Coke. Chief Justice in 1615, as a warning to the judges that they held their posts only so long as they pleased the king. Meanwhile the greatest of Elizabethan heroes, Sir Walter Raleigh, was a prisoner in the Tower, wiiting a history of the world, and amusing himself with chemical experiments. However, in 1616, James ordered his release, and allowed him to go on a voyage to Guiana in search of a gold-mine, whose whereabouts he had learnt on a former voyage. At the same time, he was ordered not to enter into hostilities against the Spaniards. It seems to have been James' idea from the beginning that, if Raleigh found the mine, the benefit would go to the crown, but that, if he failed, the fault could all be laid upon his shoulders. Unfortunately, the expedition proved a failure. Raleigh himself remained at the mouth of the river, and sent his son, under the care of Captain Keymis, to search for the miae. A fight with the Spaniards ensued, in which young 1621,] James I. 231 Ealeigh was killed, and Keymis, despairing of success, returned to the ships. Kaleigh then proposed that an attack ^aieigii-s should be made on the Spanish treasure-fleet ; but his expedition and captains refused to follow him, and the expedition returned to England. Except at court, Ealeigh was the most popular man in England, for James' friendship for Spain was detested by the nation ; but James, thinking only of not offending the Spaniards, threw the whole blame for the fighting on Sir Walter, and, after offering to give him up to the Spaniards, had him executed on his old sentence, which had never been commuted. The disgraceful sacrifice of Raleigh, the extravagance of the court, and the influence of favourites brought James' government into utter contempt; but in 1621 James thought that he might induce his subjects to forget the past by asking them to aid him in helping the German Protestants. War between the Catholic and protestant German States had long been imminent, and matters reached a crisis when, in 1619, the Protestant Bohemians elected Frederick of the Palatinate their king, instead of the Catholic Ferdinand of Styria, who two days afterwards was chosen Emperor. As James was his father-in-law, Frederick hoped to have Eng- hsh support, and also that of the Protestant powers, while he expected to be attacked by the Austrians and Spaniards. While James was hesitating what to do, the Austrians The Thirty attacked Bohemia and the Spaniards the Palatinate, "^®^^s' '^^^• and in 1620 Frederick was expelled from both countries. These events roused the greatest indignation in England. Volunteers hurried to Germany, to fight for the cause of the princess and her husband, and even James was for a moment roused, and called a Parliament. Most Englishmen hoped that war with Spain would be immediately declared, for they saw that the shortest way to help Frederick was to attack his real enemy, Spain ; but James still relied on negotiations, and hoped to find some way of thwarting Spanish pohcy without involving himself in hostihties with the Spaniards. When Parliament met, however, the Commons, especially as they found that James had no notion of war, gave more atten- tion to the abuses at home than to foreign affairs. Parliament Their chief act was to impeach some of the king's ofi62i. ministers. Impeachment, or the trial before the House of Lords 232 The Stuarts. [loas. of an offender accused by the House of Commons, had been disused in England since the case of the Duke of Suffolk in 1450. It was Revival of ^^^ revived, and Sir GUes Mompesson and Francis impeaciiment. Bacon, now lord chancellor and Viscount St. Alban's, were impeached. The charge against the former was the holding of monopolies, against the latter the receiving of bribes. Both were convicted and punished. Irritated by this assault on his ministers, James was less able to bear the inquiries which the Commons directed into abuses. James asserted that their privileges sprang from his grant, and forbade them to meddle with religion and foreign affairs. The Commons retorted that " their liberties and privileges Parliament ^^rc the Undoubted birthright of the subjects of dissolved. England," and James tore the protest from their journals with his own hand. He then dissolved the Parhament, and imprisoned Coke, Selden, Pym, and two others. James then went back to his negotiations with Spain. He hoped, that if his son married the infanta, the Spaniards would be wilHng to interfere on behalf of his son-in-law Frederick. This negotiates the Spaniards had no intention of doing, but thought witii Spam. ^^^ Jamcs ought to show some favour to the English Catholics. This James could not do without the consent of Parlia- ment, and to gain that was out of the question. Hence there was no prospect of a settlement. The negotiations, however, dragged on, and in 1623 Charles and Buckingham went in Bucking-ham disguisc to Madrid, and tried to win the infanta's go to Madrid, j^^^ -^^ ^^^ romantic adventure. The pair reached Madrid safely, but the Spaniards were too astute to allow their flank to be thus turned. They still held to their terms, and as Buckingham proved himself a bad negociator, the treaty was broken off, and Charles and he returned home, loudly denouncing the ill faith of the Spaniards and calling for war. This quarrel had the effect of making Charles and Buckingham popular. In 1624 a new Parliament met, and votes supplies eagerly voted supplies for a war with Spain. A ^•thV^^^n treaty was made for a marriage between Prince Charles and Henrietta Maria, daughter of Henry IV. of France, and sister of the reigning King, Louis XIII., and war was imminent when, in 1625, James I. died. CHAPTEE IT. Chakles I., 1625—1649 (24 years). Born 1600 ; married, 1625, Henrietta Maria of France. Chief Characters of the Reign, — George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham ; Sir John Eliot ; John Pym ; Sir Thomas Wentworth, afterwards Earl of Strafford ; William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury ; Prynne ; Chambers ; John Hampden ; Edward Hyde ; Lord Falkland ; Lord Manchester ; Lord Essex ; William Cavendish, Earl (afterwards Marquess and Duke) of iS'ewcastle ; Ferdinand, Lord Fairfax; Oliver Cromwell ; Sir Thomas Fairfax ; the Duke of Hamilton. Chief Contemporary Princes. France. Sweden. Louis XIIL, d. 1643. Gustavus Adolphus, Louis XIV., d. 1715. 1611-1632. At his accession Charles I. was twenty-five years old. In character he was a great contrast to his father. James had been slovenly and unkingly in his habits ; Charles was ciiaracter of every inch a king, and won the respect of all by his ciaaries i. manners and deportment. On the . other hand, James had been distinguished among kings by his education and by his acquaintance with the theory of government, both in Church and State ; Charles was narrow-minded, and had no special knowledge of these matters. James' early history had taught him the need of giving way; Charles had not learned this. As Sir Ferdinand Fairfax said of him at his iiccession, "The king in his own nature is very stiff." Worse than all, Charles was wanting in ingenuousness. He trusted much to king- craft, and his subjects formed the opinion that his word was not one on which they could rely. At the same time, it must be borne in mind that Charles' training had taught him to look on all the powers exercised by his predecessors as his rights, and that it could not be expected that he would give them up without a struggle. 234 The Stuarts. [I625- Tn pursuance of the policy of the last reign, Charles married Henrietta Maria of France, and made war against marriag-e. Spain. The taxes which had been voted to James War declared for life ccased at his death, and when Charles' agains pain. ^^^^ Parliament met, the Commons, instead of voting tonnage and poundage for life, voted it for one year only, just Tonna eand ^^ ^^ Parliament votes all taxes at the present poundage time. Along with this grant Parliament also voted two subsidies. These the king accepted, but the ton- nage and poundage bill was dropped in the Lords, after one reading. As part of the plan for the Spanish war, Charles lent to the French eight ships. Eichelieu, however, the French minister, Irritation ^sed the ships, not against Spain, but against the ofParnament. Huguenots of Eochelle. This irritated the English Protestants, and when they learnt that the marriage treaty with Henrietta had given her full hberty for worship, and that the court was showing favour to the Eoman Catholics by pardoning convicted priests, Parliament became so outspoken against the government, and especially against Buckingham, that Charles had recourse to a dissolution. The popularity of Charles and Buckingham now disappeared; and, in order to recall it, an expedition, intended to rival the ^ Failure of achievements of Drake and Ealeigh, was sent against ^t?£d2!^ Cadiz. Unfortunately it turned out a complete Second Pariia- failure, and left the country more irritated than mentcaued. before. To provide himself with funds Charles collected tonnage and poundage, just as though they had been granted ; but in spite of this, he was forced by his necessities to ' call a second Parliament in 1626. In calHng it, Charles contrived to get rid of some of the most out- spoken members by naming them sheriffs, so that they could not be returned as knights of the shire ; and to exclude the Earl of Bristol, formerly ambassador at Madrid, whose revelations might have been most inconvenient to Buckingham, by refusing to send him a writ. ^ These devices completely failed : the members elected Impeaclinient . of jBucking- were as determined as ever, and the lords heartily ^^' espoused the cause of Lord Bristol. Sir Dudley Digges and Sir John Eliot boldly impeached Buckingham. The 1628.] Charles I. 235 king in a fury sent them to the Tower. The Commons refused to continue business till they were released, and Charles Parliament was forced to give in. The impeachment was then dismissed, resumed, and as the Commons refused to grant any supplies till their grievances were redressed, the second Parliament was dismissed. Still the war went on. The exchequer was empty, and to pay his expenses Charles levied tonnage and poundage as before, and also collected a forced loan, as had often been done by FigMing' Henry VIII. To add to his difficulties, Charles abroadand •' ' discomfiture quarrelled with France, and war broke out with that at iiome. country. To help the Huguenots, a great expedition was sent to occupy the Isle of Rhe off Rochelle. Buckingham himself led it, but the scheme was a hopeless failure, and gave the nation further proof of the incompetence of its rulers. In consequence, men were more than ever unwilling to pay the forced loan ; but five gentlemen who refused to pay were cast into prison, and the judges, subservient as usual, decided that the king's special order was a good ground of imprisonment — a decision which set Magna Carta at defiance. Meanwhile poor men were pressed for the army and navy under martial law, and billeted on the refractory gentlemen. Still Charles' necessities forced him to apply for money, and in 1628 his third Parliament met. The Commons at once renewed their attack on Buckingham, and under Sir Thomas , ciiaries' third Wentworth and John Pvm drew up the famous Peti- J,^^^Jf ^f?^ * ^ _ _ The Petition tion of Right. This document, which ranks with of Right. Confirmatio Cartarum and Magna Carta, condemned in four great clauses the recent acts of the government. These laid down (1) that no freeman be required to give any gift, loan, benevolence, or tax without common consent by Act of Parliament; (2) that no freeman be imprisoned or detained contrary to the law of the land; (3) that soldiers or mariners be not billeted _ ,. ' ^ ' . . . Parliament in private houses ; (4) that commissions to punish grants five soldiers and sailors by martial law be revoked and no more issued. To this Charles gave an unwilling consent, and in return Parliament liberally granted five subsidies. It was then prorogued. During the recess several events of importance happened. In 236 The Stuarts. [less- ecclesiastical matters Charles sided with the High Church party. Attitude of He was not a Roman Catholic, and had no idea of Charles becoming one ; but he sympathized with those who religion. wished to retain as much as they innocently could of the splendour of the old Catholic worship, and disliked the Puri- tans, who wished to go further along the path of reform. Just after Advancement *^^ prorogation of Parliament, Laud, who thoroughly of Xiaud. sympathized with the king's views in this matter, was translated from Bath and Wells to London, and, though he was not made Archbishop of Canterbury till 1633, immediately became the king's chief adviser in ecclesiastical business. Laud was a pious and earnest man, thoroughly convinced that what he did was right; but, like the Puritans, he was narrow-minded, and could not believe that those who differed from him were as conscientious as himself. He was therefore viewed with great dislike by the Puritans, and his connection with Charles did the king a great deal of harm. About the same time that Laud became Bishop of London, Sir Thomas Wentworth, who had been one of the chief promoters of the Petition of Right, came over to the king's side. "Wentworth. n , t im t i i ^ -r^ 1 • i -. comes over to Personally he dishked the rule 01 Buckingham, and t e ng s SI e. ^^^ averse to his illegal proceedings ; but he disliked still more the tendency he saw in Parliament to take upon itself the king's business of governing the country. Not long afterwards Buckingham, who was at Portsmouth pre- paring a new expedition against France, was assassinated by a Buckingham's Private enemy named Felton. His removal from the assassination, scene made way for Wentworth, who was soon raised to the peerage as Baron Wentworth. He was made president of the Council of the North, and from this time took a leading part in the king's councils. Meanwhile the king, declaring that they did not come under the Petition of Right, was collecting tonnage and poundasre King collects i o o r t> tonnage and as before. Alderman Chambers of London objected poundage. ^^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^ thrown iuto prison for his refusal. Under these circumstances Parliament reassembled in 1629. ■Parliament I* ^^ o^ice objected to the collection of tonnage and objects. poundage, but the Commons were prevented from passing a resolution on the subject by continual adjournments. 1633.] Charles I. 237 At last the Speaker was held in his chair till a resolution had been passed, that they who make innovations in religion, or who exact or pay taxes not granted by Parliament, are enemies of the kingdom. After this. Parliament was dissolved as a Parliament matter of course, and following the evil ways of his dissolved, father, and, as a matter of fact, of most sovereigns too, the king sent Sir JohnEhot and others to the Tower. After a time „ ^ , _,. ^ Sir John Eliot all but Eliot made their peace with the government. sent to the He refused to give way. His health was undermined, o^er. and when he died the king would not even allow his relations to bury his body outside the prison. Eleven years of arbitrary government followed, during which Laud and Wentworth were the king's chief advisers. Wentworth saw clearly enough that the difficulty about money -Wentworth was at the root of the king's troubles, and he therefore advises advised economy in every direction. Peace was made peace made with France and Spain. Inquiry was made into the with France mode of collecting taxes, and the receipts of the treasury were increased by greater strictness. In spite, however, of these economies, the king, finding that his revenue was not yet equal to his expenditure, had to cast about for means to increase it. For this end he revived certain „ „, , Ho-w Charles rights of the crown which had fallen into disuse. For increased Ms instance, he enforced the provisions of an old statute which ordered all holders of land to the value of forty pounds a year to be knighted. Those who neglected to comply were Enforced fined. In this way the country gentry were irritated, knighthood. Three years later the king took a step most gaUing to the nobUity. From time to time those landowners who had property adjoining the royal forests had encroached upon their boundaries, till Kocking- ham Forest, as an example, had decreased in width Reclamation of from sixty miles to six. In 1633 Charles sent out a the forests, commission to inquire into the encroachments, and either to reclaim the lands or fine their present holders. In this way large tracts were restored to the forests and considerable sums secured for the treasury ; but the irritation of the nobles was great, as they were the, chief losers, and the Earl of Essex in particular found himself stripped of a great part of his property. Long forgotten Acts of 238 The Stuarts. tiess- Parliament were revived, and offenders against them punished. For example, some were fined for pulling down houses on their estates, and others for building houses in London. The same year the king attacked the corporation of London, and confiscated the settlements in Ulster which had been given to it by James L, on the ground that they had been mismanaged. Mismanagement, doubtless, there had been, but it was not wise in Charles to set against his rule the richest city in the realm. The king's chief adviser in these matters was Noy, who became attorney-general. In Noy's measures the chief object was to raise money, but further irritation was caused by a class of measures whose first object, at any rate, was the benefit of trade. The regulation of this was regarded by the king as one of his duties, and though the Act of 1624 forbad the grant of monopolies to individuals, Charles behoved that he would stimulate business and improve the quality of goods, by granting the sole right to deal in certain articles to companies formed for the purpose. In this he was mistaken. The prices charged by the monopolists were high, while the goods supplied were bad ; and as the sale of soap, starch, beer, bricks, and other articles, were in the hands of the monopolists, the indignation both of the private traders and of the consumers was widespread. Meanwhile Wentworth had in 1633 become Lord-Deputy of Ireland. There he wished to show the king how much could be "Wentwortii in ^'^^^ hy a firm and far-sighted ruler. During his Ireland. office he reformed every branch of government, introduced the linen manufacture, and secured large tracts of land for the crown. Above all, he made the army thoroughly efficient, and induced the Irish Parliament to make a grant of money. Unfortunately his reforms were carried out without regard to the feelings of the Irish, whose interests were everywhere sacrificed to those of the king and the English merchants and manufacturers. His rule, therefore, prepared the way for a terrible reaction. During this time Charles ruled England with a heavy hand. The Court of Star Chamber stifled discontent with the government, the Court of High Commission checked the complaints of the Puritans, and punished clergy who did not keep the strict letter of the Act of Uniformity. This Court was created in Queen Elizabeth's reign, for 1634.] Charles I. 239 the purpose of seeing that the Act of Uniforniity was carried out. It was on the whole useful, but its attacks on the Puritans made it very unpopular. Both the Courts of Star Chamber ^^^^ chamber and High Commission examined the accused, which andmgii was contrary to the practice of the other courts, and judged cases without a jury. As early as 1628 Alderman Chambers had been imprisoned by the Star Chamber for refusing to pay tonnage and poundage. In 1630 Dr. Leighton, a clergyman, was sentenced by the same court to be pilloried, flogged, and deprived of his ears for writing against the bishops. In 1634 a similar sentence was passed by it upon Prynne, a law}^er, for writing a book called " Histriomastix, or the Player's Scourge," which, by attacking the character of female actors, was supposed to reflect upon the queen. Those who offended in any way against the views of Charles and Laud were constantly liable to attack, and in 1637 Prynne was again brought up, with Burton, a clergyman, and Bastwick, a physician, and savagely punished for their attacks upon Church government. It must not, however, be supposed that the Courts of Star Chamber and High Commission were wholly tyrannical. The Court of Star Chamber tried cases between private persons quickly and well, while the Court of High Com- mission fought hard against immorality; but these things were forgotten in the indignation caused by their overbearing treatment of the opponents of the court. In 1634 the king, unable to fill his purse by the means above mentioned, ventured to levy a direct tax. This tax was called ship- money, and was an old institution. To meet invasion King- levies or in time of war the king had the constitutional sMp-money. right to collect ships, or, in their place, money, from the seaport towns. In 1634, by the advice of Noy, Charles, on the true plea that English commerce needed protection from the Algerine pirates, levied ship-money on the seaports. The writ demanding it was carefully drawn up according to the old precedents, and was levied without much complaint. The money gained was used by Charles, act against the pirates, but to strengthen the fleet in view of a war with the Dutch. Next year a new writ of ship-money was sent out, by which the tax was levied upon inland as well as seaboard counties. This was quite unconstitutional, for there was no pre- 240 The Stuarts, &639- tence of immediate danger. The money was paid, though with some grumbling. But when in the next year a new levy was ordered, it became clear that Charles intended to make ship- money a perpetual tax, which could be levied whether voted by Parhament or not. Had Charles succeeded he would have destroyed the bulwark of the English constitution, and it was well that John Hampden, a Buckinghamshire gentleman, came boldly forward and refused to pay the tax, on the broad gi'ound that The ship- Charles had no right to levy it. When the case was money trial, ^p^gj j^ 1637, seven judges out of the twelve decided for the king. Nominally the king had gained his point, in reality Hampden's trial gave a fatal blow to the government policy. Men grudged their money more when it was demanded as a right than when they thought they were giving it as a favour. During these trying times the settlements in America had made rapid strides. The Pilgrim Fathers of the Mayflower were joined The American ^J many a man who hated the tyranny of Laud and settlements. Wentworth. The new colony of Massachusetts was founded in 1629 for the distinct purpose of being a refuge for those who disliked Charles' policy in Church and State. In 1635 no less than three thousand fresh settlers went out. Even noblemen thought of bemg colonists. Frightened by the sympathy between the colonists and the Puritans, Laud wished to bring the settlers under his sway. They resisted, and his interference only tended to make the new states more bigoted than before. It was not in America only that Laud thought to enforce his views. He wished to bring Scotland over to Episcopacy. - Greatly against the mi. « ^ will of the Scottish people, James I. had reintroduced The Scots r r ■> refuse a the Order of bishops. They possessed little power, 1 urgy. ^^^ ^^ Scots clung firmly to their dislike of a regular Liturgy. In 1637 Laud determined to introduce a Prayer- book modelled on that used in England. The first attempt to use it was met by a riot, in which the reader barely escaped with his life, and within a year almost the whole Scottish nation had bound itself by a new Covenant to preserve the Presbyterian form of Church government. In 1639 Episcopacy was abolished in Scotland by the General Assembly, and as Charles was not expected to agree, preparations were made for war. 1640.] Charles /. 241 The, turn of Scottisli affairs had naturally been watclied in Eng- land with the greatest interest. It was the first sign of armed resistance to Charles' government, and what would „, , . =■ ' , The king come of it none could tell. As was expected, the king appeals to appealed to arms. But he met with faint support, while the Scots, many of whom had seen service abroad in Germany and the Netherlands, were able to collect a formidable force. The two armies reached the neighbourhood of Berwick, but Charles, feeling his weakness, negotiated with the Scots, and Pacification of the Pacification of Berwick was agreed upon. Both Berwick, parties, however, looked on it as a mere truce, and preparations to renew the war were made on both sides. Under these circumstances Charles found himself again forced to summon a Parhament. The fourth Parliament of Charles I., often called the Short Parliament, met in April, 1640. The The short king hoped that jealousy of the Scots would lead it Parliament, to support him ; but the members, led by Pym, applied themselves to remedjang English grievances, and when it seemed likely that they would refuse Charles' offer to give up ship-money in return for twelve subsidies, a bargain which would have seemed to recognize the legality of ship-money, the king hastily dissolved the Parhament before it had sat a month. In the summer the Scottish army crossed the Tweed. Charles' soldiers, ill fed and commanded, with no heart in their work, allowed themselves to be beaten at Newburn, on the Tyne, The scotch and the Scots poured into Yorkshire. In this ex- '^iweed^ tremity the king fell back on a precedent of Edward Battle of III., and called a meeting of the old Magnum Kewbum. Concilium, or Council of Peers. The peers met at York, and though they pledged their credit to raise money, declared for a Parliament; and the king, seeing no other course open to him, made a truce with the Scots, and called a Parliament for Novem- ber 3, 1640. On that day the Long Parliament met. It numbered among its members John Pym, John Hampden, and John Selden, who had already suffered for the cause of freedom, and Oliver The Long Cromwell, Edward Hyde, and Lord Falkland, who I'ariiament. were afterwards to attain celebrity. For the most part the members K 242 The Stuarts, [.i64o- belonged to the class of country gentlemen. There were few citizens or townsmen among them, for most of the comitry towns preferred to choose a representative from one of the county families. John Pym, for instance, sat for Tavistock. Few members were not owners of landed property. They were not, therefore, as a class likely to be revolutionary; but to them had come down the obstinate spirit of resistance to arbitrary power which had in the Middle Ages resided in the nobility. Next to the landed gentry stood the lawyers, who were certainly not the men to readily support violent changes in the constitution. There were, however, no two opinions about the badness of the late government, both in Church and State. Went- worth (now Earl of Strafford) and Archbishop Laud were at once impeached of high treason. Prynne, Burton, Bastwick, Chambers, and others, who had been imprisoned by the unpopular law courts, were released. The ecclesiastical policy of Laud was reversed, and a commission was issued by the Commons to deface and demolish the images, altars, and monuments in churches. It was quite certain that nothing had encouraged Charles and his friends to act as they had, so much as the uncertainty whether a Parliament would ever sit Triennial Act ^^ inquire into their acts. To remove this doubt for passed. the future, a Triennial Act was passed, by which it was ordered that more than three years should not elapse without a Parliament being summoned. These measures occupied the autumn and winter of 1640 and 1641, and in March the trial of Strafford began. Lord Strafford was really Strafford' being tried, not for treason against the king, in whose trial. interest he had acted, but for treason against the state. This charge was very difficult to prove, and when the trial was nearly over, the Commons, fearing that Strafford would escape, gave up the impeachment and passed instead a bill of attainder, as had often been done under the Tudors. This change in the course of procedure, to secure the death of their opponent, seems to us most unfair ; but it was supported by some who were afterwards Royalists, and only fifty-nine members under Lord Digby and Selden voted against it, as Strafford had few friends even among the courtiers. The attainder, however, could not be complete without the king's consent to the bill. Charles had pledged his word for Strafford's safety, but he broke it, and by giving his consent to the bill deprived 1641.] Charles I. 243 himself for ever of the ablest of his friends. Strafford was exe- cuted on May 12, 1641. When he died the popular leaders felt that their greatest opponent was gone. Just before the death of Strafford, the king had given his consent to a bill by which he agreed that Parliament should not be adjourned or dissolved without its own consent. This measure, ,., i'xjji.-i !> , Parliament not which was only intended to induce men of money to to be dissolved lend with greater confidence on the credit of Parlia- without its ° _ o-wn consent. ment, was of great importance, as on it rested the legal position of the Parliament during the war which army comes to followed. Shortly afterwards a grant of tonnage and terms, poundage for two months was made, and terms were arranged with the Scottish army. During the spring and summer of 1641 Parliament continued its reforms. The Courts of Star Chamber and High Commission were abolished. Statutes were passed against the collection of ship-money, distraint of knighthood, and illegal of the Long customs duties, and at the same time the extent of ^^.riiament. the royal forests was fixed at what it had been before the late commission. All these measures were passed with practical unanimity, but there was not equal agreement in ecclesiastical matters. The Puritans were fast becoming hostile, not only to the Hostility of the doctrines of Laud, but to the Church of England itself. ^"^ESiish*^^ This hostility was much due to the perverse attitude church, of the bishops, who were blamed for being the cause of the Scot- tish war, and also for their subservience to the king. However, when attacks were made upon Episcopacy itself, and the advanced Puritans brought into the Commons a bill for its The Root and abolition, called the Root and Branch Bill, and when Branch biu. a bill for the exclusion of the bishops from Parliament was only thrown out by the Lords, moderate men who loved the Church, and who did not see whither the extreme men were going, began to hold back. Similarly in state affairs a party arose who thought reform had gone far enough, and who now wished to give the king a fair chance. In August, Charles went to Scotland, attended by a committee of the Commons, who were intended to keep a watch upon his charies goes to movements. In Scotland Charles took steps to secure Scotland. 244 T^^ Stuarts. [i64i- evidence of collusion between the leaders of Parliament and the Scottish rebels. By this means he hoped to strike a fatal blow at Pym and his friends. In September, after a long session, Parliament separated for a recess, to meet in October. During the recess the party who thought that Charles had yielded enough, in diaries', sccms to have gathered strength. Dread of further ecclesiastical changes increased its ranks. It seemed certain that if Charles could make his cause one with that of the Church he would get a large follow^ng. Hardly had Parliament met again, when terrible news came from Ireland. The Irish, who had long smarted under the loss of their Eebemon in land and the degradation of their religion, took advan- ireiand. ^^gg q£ j^^ removal of Strafford and the divisions in England to rise in rebellion. A terrible massacre of the new land- owners and of the Protestants followed, and the news clearly showed that instant action was needed, if English rule were to be maintained at all. For this an army was necessary ; but to trust Charles with an army was a thing the Commons dared not do. The progress of the reaction frightened the Parliamentary leaders, and Pym, who had gained such authority over Parliament Tie Grand ^^^ ^^ Went by the name of King Pym, determined Remonstrance, to appeal to the nation. With this view he brought in the Grand Eemonstrance, which recounted, in a series of clauses, the arbitrary acts and mistakes of the king, both in Church and State, since the beginning of the reign. It was, in fact, a history of the reign of Charles as viewed by the Parliamentary leaders, and to this Pym asked the Commons to give their guarantee. The debate which followed brought out clearly the differences between the moderate upholders of the Church and the extreme Puritans, and, after an all-night sitting, the remonstrance was carried by only eleven votes. The majority at once clenched their victory by ordering the remonstrance to be printed. In fact, they appealed to the nation against the king. A day or two later Charles returned to London. He was well received by the citizens, and their cheers encouraged him to attack Charles returns ^^ Commons. He had now a party in the House toi^ondon. itself. Digby was his friend; and Falkland and Hyde, the leading opponents of the remonstrance, had joined him. 1642.1 Charles I, 245 He believed that a stout blow at the leaders would still win the day, and in this idea he was encouraged by his wife Henrietta Maria, Charles' plan was to charge his opponents •^ o rr The leaders With treason, and on January 3, 1642, the Attorney- charged with General charged Lord Kimbolton (afterwards Earl of *^®^s°^- Manchester) and five members of the Commons — Pym, Hampden, Holies, Hazelrig, and Strode — with high treason. This attack offended the House of Lords, of which Lord Kimbolton was a member, as well as the Commons. Both Houses took time to consider what should be done. This delay angered the king, and on January 5, attended by a band of armed men, he hurried down from Whitehall to Westminster, and demanded ' Attempt to that the five members should be given up to him. seize the Fortunately word had been sent to Pym of what was ^^^ members, intended, and while Charles was marching from Whitehall to West- minster, the members fled by boat to the city. Finding the birds, as he said, flown, Charles returned to Whitehall. Had the members been there the attempt to seize them might easily have led to a conflict between the members and the soldiers, and, as it was, the appearance of the armed men at the door of the House, convinced Parliament that Charles meant to resort to force. From that moment war was all but inevitable,. Meanwhile the Londoners had determined to protect the members. To Charles' demand for their surrender, " Privilege of Parliament ! " was shouted in return. The Commons adjourned for charies leaves a week, when they meant to conduct the five members London, in triumph from Temple Bar to Westminster ; and Charles, to avoid seeing his own humiliation, left London never to return until just before his execution. Parliament then took in hand the duty of preparing for the Irish war, and it was determined to call out the militia, then the only regular military force. The ofiicers of the militia ^ had usually been appointed by the lords-lieutenant, for the war who in their turn were named by the king. An ^"^^^^^^^'i- act was passed giving to Parliament the appointment of the lords-heutenant, thus securing hold over the militia. This course was unconstitutional, for ParKament was taking upon itself the duties of the executive government; and as the king refused to 246 The Stuarts. [1642. agree to tlie act, Parliament determined tliat it should take efiect without his consent. Their action, therefore, was both unconsti- tutional and illegal. Both parties now began to prepare for war. The king sent the queen to buy arms in Holland, and, taking his eldest son with Preparations ^^i™' moved northwards to York, where he was joined for civil war. j^y many noblemen and members of the Commons. At this moment the command of the fortified places was of the utmost importance. Of these the Tower, Portsmouth, and Hull, where the arms collected for the Scottish war had been placed, were of the three chief. Parliament took measures to secure these, and sent one of its members, Sir John Hotham, to command at Hull. The king himself demanded admission to Hull, which was refused, and war became inevitable. Both sides now raised forces, the Parliament employing their lords-lieutenant, the king issuing commissions of array. In July the Both sides raise Parliament named the Earl of Essex captain-general forces. of its forces. Essex was a son of Queen Elizabeth's old favourite. He was a fair soldier and an honest man, but he was too cautious to succeed well. To pay their troops the Commons made an order for levying tonnage and poundage. Charles was worse off, and had to rely upon the generosity of his followers. It is not easy to draw a geographical line between the two parties. In every county some were for the king and some for the Parlia- ment. High Churchmen and Eoman Catholics fol- parties were lowcd Charles. Puritans and Separatists followed the distributed, parliament. Koughly speaking, however, if we draw a hue from Hull to Gloucester, thence to Bristol, and from there to Weymouth, we shall find that the majority on the south and east were for the Parliament, on the north and west for the king. Two great exceptions there were. The University of Oxford supported the king ; the clothing towns of the West Eiding of Yorkshire went with the ParHament. These divisions are not unlike what we noticed in the wars of the Koses. The towns and the richer districts were with the Parliament, as they had been with the Yorkists ; the poorer followed the king. All ranks were divided ; noblemen and gentlemen fought on either side. The tradespeople as a rule were Parliamentarian, especially the Londoners. The 1642.J Charles I. 247 poorer classes usually went with their landlords. Men of equal nobiKty and purity of motive were to be found on either side. In the autumn both parties had armies in the field. The king raised his standard at Nottingham, but fixed his head-quarters at Shrewsbury, where his followers from all parts . ^ Charles raises could jom him. His great object was to march on his standard at London, and bring the war to a close by a decisive ° *^^^ ^^' success. Essex' aim was to keep Charles at a distance from the capital, and for this end he placed garrisons in a series of towns from Northampton to Worcester to bar the king's path. Essex himself seized Worcester, where he had a smart combat with Prince Rupert, son of the Princess Elizabeth, who had come over to help his uncle. When the royal forces were collected at Moves towards Shrewsbury, Charles moved by forced marches to- liondon. wards London, and, passing between Essex' garrisons, gained a day's march on that general. OPERATIONS CONNECTED WITH EDGEHILL, OCTOBER 23, 1642. The roads to London from Shrewsbury and Worcester met at Banbury, near which the king turned aside and occupied a strong position on Edgehill, over which Essex would have to pass. The first battle of the civil war was fought here on October 23, 248 The Stuarts. ri642- 1642. The king lost the advantage of his position by marching Battle of down to fight Essex on the plain. On the Royalist Edgeiiiii. riglit Prince Rupert and his cavaliers carried all before them, but in the centre Essex' infantry held their own, and when Rupert returned he found that the day had gone against the king. Though Charles had failed to beat Essex, he was still nearer to London than Essex was, but the latter, rapidly marching to Northampton, outstripped Charles, who, on reaching the capital, found it unassailable, and was obliged to retire to Oxford. The next year, 1643, saw fighting going on in aU parts of England. In the south, Essex and the king faced one another on the road between Oxford and London ; in Cornwall and Devonshire, Sir William Waller for the Parliament, opposed Sir Ralph Hopton ; in the east, Cromwell and the Earl of Manchester were fighting the Royalists of the fens ; and in the north, Ferdinand Lord Fairfax and his son Sir Thomas led their tenants and the men of the clothing towns against the Earl of Newcastle, with whom was Henrietta Maria. The year opened disastrously for the Parhament. At Deatiiof Chalgrove Field, near Oxford, Hampden was killed Hampden. while trying to cut off a troop of Rupert's horse. At Roundaway Down, near Devizes, Sir William Waller was utterly defeated, and Prince Rupert stormed the defences of Bristol, and the town was surrendered. Rupert's success was, however, dearly purchased by the loss of many officers, and of five hundred " in- comparable foot," while the pillage to which the Parliamentarians of the place were subjected made resistance elsewhere more desperate. In the north, the Fairfaxes were beaten at Atherton Moor, now spelt Adwalton, and forced to take refuge in Hull. Only in the east did the Parliamentarians hold their own. Encouraged by his success, Charles wished Newcastle to join with him in a decisive march on London. Newcastle, however, refused, Siege of ^nd the king was obliged to give up his plan and Gloucester, ^q besiege Gloucester, which, now that Bristol had fallen, was the only stronghold of the Parliament in the Severn Essex raises Valley. Gloucester, however, fearful of the fate of the siege. Bristol, made a stout resistance, and Essex, marching with the London train-bands, raised the siege. At Newbury, on the Kennet, the king tried to bar Essex' return to London ; but the attempt 1644.] Charles I. 249 failed and Falkland was killed. Charles then retreated to Oxford, and Essex passed on to London. Meanwhile Cromwell pj^st battle of had defeated the Royahst forces at Gainsborough and Newbury. Winceby, and Newcastle himself had been forced to raise the siege of Hull. The year, therefore, though checkered, closed well for the Parliament. In the winter both parties tried to secure allies. Parliament, under the guidance of Pym, signed with the Scots the Solemn League and Covenant, and an army of twenty-one thousand men -, 1 -. n r- -1 . 1 -r. T , The Solemn crossed the border to light in the Parliament s pay. League and This was Pym's last act, for he died at the end Covenant, of the year, and it marks the highest power to which the Presby- terians attained. On his side, the king made a truce charies ames with the Irish rebels, and a contingent from his Irish "^^^^ *^® insh. army landed in Wales. At the same time Charles, by the advice of Hyde, called a Parliament at Oxford. The year 1644 opened well for the Parliament. In January, Sir Thomas Fairfax, defeated the Irish contingent at Nantwich, and then turning north routed, in April, an outpost which Battle of Newcastle had placed at Selby, on the Ouse, for the Nantwicii. defence of York. The defeat at Selby forced Newcastle to retreat before the Scottish army to York, where he was besieged by the united forces of the Scots, the Fairfaxes, and the army of the eastern counties under Lord Manchester and Cromwell. In the south, Essex and Waller attempted to hem Siege of York. the king into Oxford with a view to besieging the town ; but Charles cleverly passed between the two armies, and then returning, fought them in detail. Waller was routed at Cropredy Bridge, near Banbury, and then the Royalists Battle of Crop- forced Essex to retreat before them into Cornwall, redy Bridge, where his army surrendered at Lostwithiel, and Essex himself escaped by sea to London. This great success was, however, balanced by a still greater disaster in the north. After leaving Oxford, Charles had ordered Prince Ptupert to raise the siege of York. The prince made his way by Cheshire and Lancashire to Yorkshire, and, after crossing the Aire at Skipton, and the Wharfe at Otley, reached Knaresborough, on the Nidd. 250 The Stuarts. [1644- When news of his arrival reached the allies, they raised the siege of York and drew up to meet him on Marston Moor, opposite the place where the usual road from Knaresborough to York crosses the Nidd at Skip Bridge. Rupert, however, eluded them by marching north, and, crossing the Ure and the Swale above their junction, came down the left bank of the Ouse and relieved York. Upon this the Parhamentarians retreated south, in order to hold the line of the Wharfe against Rupert's return. But the RoyaHsts marched out OPEKATIONS OF MARSTON MOOK, JULY 2, 1644. of York against them, and the Parliamentarians then halted and drew up on the rising ground on the south side of the moor. However, as the Royalists did not attack them, they took the offensive. Rupert's Cavaliers were routed at the first charge, and though Newcastle's foot made a stout resistance, the Royalist forces Battle of "v^^ere completely overthrown. The battle of Marston Marston Moor, j^^qj, utterly ruined the king's cause in the north, and Newcastle himself fled to the Continent. Rupert with difficulty rejoined the king. After this victory, Manchester and Cromwell, leaving Fairfax and the Scots to besiege Pontefract, marched south, and joined Essex in an attempt to cut off the king's return from 1046.] Charles L 251 Cornwall to Oxford. The two armies met at Newbury, and the kmg was worsted ; but Manchester's hesitation prevented Cromwell from charging the retreating Royalists with his Ironsides, so the king was able to regain Oxford. This failure brought to a head the discontent of the more energetic members of the Parliamentary party. These for the most part were Independents in religion, while the moderate members were Presbyterians. The leaders of the moderates were Essex, Manchester, and Waller ; Cromwell led the Inde- j^ise of pendents. This great man had rapidly been coming Cromwell, to the front. He had been the first to see that the feelings of loyalty and honour which inspired the Cavaliers could only be met by religious enthusiasm. At first the ParHamentary armies were strong in infantry but weak in cavalry. Cromwell, however, found among the farmers' sons of the eastern counties as good riders as the gentry, and men inspired with the utmost zeal for the cause of their religion. From them he formed his Ironsides, and drilled them into one of the finest bodies of horse ® ^°^^^ ®^' the world had then seen. These men carried the day at Marston Moor, and only Manchester's hesitation hindered them from crushing the royal forces at Newbury. The Independents now came forward, and declared that the army must be remodelled, and that the old generals must retire. As these happened to be members of Parlia- ment, a Self-denying Ordinance was passed, by which r^-^^ Seif-deny- all members were deprived of their commands. Thus "^s- ordinance. Essex, Manchester, and Waller were removed; but Cromwell's services were so valuable that they were retained by a special Act - of Parliament, renewed from time to time. During the winter negotiations with the king had been going on at Uxbridge; but Charles, who was not yet dis- , ^ , . , , T T Charles refuses couraged, reiused to come to terms. In January, to come to 1645, by a monstrous act of injustice. Archbishop terms. Laud, who was innocent of any crime, was attainted .^chbishop' and executed. Laud. By the summer the new model army, consisting of fourteen thousand foot and seven thousand horse, was ready. Battle of and was put under the command of Sir Thomas Fair- Naseby. fax. Fairfax and Cromwell met the king at Naseby, near Leicester, '252 The Stuarts, ti646- June 14tli, and totally routed him. The king's "baggage was taken, and liis letters to the queen and to the Irish rebels, which showed that while negotiating with the Parliament he had really no in- tention of coming to terms, were published. The king's hopes now rested upon the Marquess of Montrose. That nobleman had eagerly espoused the king's cause, and at Tippermuir, Inverlochy, and Kilsyth he had beaten the Covenanters under the Marquess of Argyll. Charles hoped that he would be able to in- Batties of vade England ; but three months after the battle of ""^^^and"^^ Naseby Montrose was defeated at Philiphaugh, and RowtonHeatii. ten days later Charles, from the walls of Chester, saw his last army defeated at Eowton Heath. All the next winter Charles tiirows Charles wandered about the country, and at last, himself on the in May, 1646, threw himself upon the protection protection of ^,10.., i , the Scottish 01 the bcottish army who were then encamped at ^^^^- Newark. Taking the king with them, the Scots retreated to Newcastle. There negotiations with Parliament were again opened ; but the The Scotch king, though he would have given up the command '^^^MngTo*^^® of the militia, refused to establish Presbyterianism, ParUament. and they were broken off. Parliament then paid the Scots the first instalment of the £400,000 due for their expenses, and immediately afterwards the Scots handed over the king to the commissioners of the Parliament. Charles was treated with respect, and lodged at Holmby House, in Northamptonshire. Meanwhile difficulties had arisen between the Parliament and the army. Since 1643 an assembly for the regulation of religion had Difficulties been sitting at Westminster. It had substituted paJiiTmSit Presbyterianism for Episcopacy as the established re- and the army, ligion of England, and had replaced the Prayer-book by a service book called the Directory. These changes had been confirmed by Parliament. This settlement of the religious question was quite contrary to the views of the army, which, as we saw, was mostly composed of Independents ; and the Presbyterians, who formed a majority in Parliament, now tried to get rid of the army. Accordingly they passed four ordinances, to reduce its numbers, to deprive members of Parliament of their commands, to make all officers take the Covenant, and to pay the soldiers only one-sixth of 1648.] Charles /. 253 what was due to tliem. The army naturally objected, and when commissioners from the Parliament came down to T , , . , The army disband some regiments and to send others to Ireland, secures the the soldiers refused to obey, appointed a council of ^^^ ^ person, officers, and by a clever move got possession of the king's person. In the dead of night Cornet Joyce and a body of horse arrived at Holmby, and compelled Charles to go with them to Newmarket. There they demanded the expulsion of eleven of the Presbyterian members, and to enforce their de- to Hampton mands marched on London, and placed the king at Court. Hampton Court. While this was going on they offered to make terms with the king, on the basis of restoring Episco- pacy, with toleration for other sects. These terms come to terms were more favourable to the king than those offered ^^^^ charies. by the Parliament ; but the king, hoping that the dissensions between the army and Parliament might be turned to still better account, refused them, and escaped to the to the^isie^of Isle of Wight, whence he kept up a correspondence wig-ht. with all parties. As Charles expected, a second civil war began in 1648. EoA^alist insurrections broke out in Kent and Wales, while the Duke of Hamilton entered England with an army composed -j^^ ,. . of moderate Presbyterians. Against this new danger i^isurrections. the army acted with the greatest energy. Fairfax put down the Eoyalists at Maidstone and took Colchester by siege. satti Cromwell took Pembroke Castle, and then marching Preston, northward, cut Hamilton's army in two at Preston, on the Kibble, and completed its destruction at Wigan and Warrington. Meanwhile, in the absence of the army, Charles had made terms with the Parliament, and agreed at Newport to establish Presby- terianism for three j^ears. But the army came back p . . , 1 " 1 1 Charles comes from vVarnngton m no humour to brook such an to terms with arrangement, and Colonel Pride at once marched *^® Parliament. . " ^ ' , - n 1 1 -n. 1 . ^^^ army puts down to the house and expeiled the Presbyterian an end to the members. After this Parliament had not the slightest ^^^^^^^^^^t- claim to legally represent the nation; however, the Independent minority of fifty-three members, who were often called the Eump, in obedience to the wishes of the army, voted to bring the king to 254 The Stuarts. [i649. trial before a special or high court of justice. This proposition was rejected by the Lords, upon which the Commons declared their King brought conscnt to be unnecessary. The king was then to trial. brought to London, and arraigned before a so-called court of justice, composed of some of the Independent leaders. He refused to acknowledge its authority, and the court voted him to be Execution of ^^"^^ ^f high treason. A few days after, on January Charles I. 30, 1649, Charles was beheaded on a scaffold placed before the windows of the Palace of Whitehall. The chief cause of Charles's defeat was the insolence and insubor- dination of his own officers, which prevented him from gaining decisive success at the outset. This gave the Parliamentarians time to organize their forces, and to oppose drilled soldiers to the brave but ill-disciplined Cavaliers. Throughout the war the Royalist horsemen could never be mustered for a second charge, while the Parliamentarian cavalry, both at Marston Moor and Naseby, showed how well they could rally. The Royalist historian. Clarendon, fills his pages with pictures of the wi'ongheadedness and selfishness which again and again ruined the king's plans; and shows that Charles' armies suffered defeat from the same causes which had ruined the French feudal levies at Crdcy and Agincourt. CHAPTER III. The Commonwealth and Peotectorate, 1649-1660 (11 years). Chief Characters of the Commonwealth. — Oliver Cromwell ; Fairfax ; John Milton ; Sir Henry Vane ; Henry Cromwell ; Ireton ; Lambert ; Fleet- wood ; Blake ; Penn ; Kichard Cromwell ; and Monk. Whatevee may be thought of the right or wrong of putting Charles to death, there is httle doubt that it was a political mistake. Charles himself was discredited, but his death rallied the Royahsts round the Prince of Wales, against whom execution no harm was known, and made it certain that the a mistake, new government would have to rest upon the terror inspired by the army. The expulsion of the Presbyterians in 1648 had thrown them into opposition, so that the party now in power consisted only of the Independents and sectaries supported by Cromwell's soldiers. Hardly was Charles dead when the publication of "Eikon Basilike " (the Royal Likeness), which professed to have been written by Charles himself, and gave an account of his life and "Eikon meditations in prison, produced such a reaction in his Basilike." favour that the poet Milton was engaged to answer it. Directly after the execution the Commons voted that the House of Lords "is useless, dangerous, and ought to be abolished." They then resolved that government by a king or single person "is un- necessary, burdensome, dangerous, and ought to be abolished." A Council of State was then appointed to carry on council of state the government, and an act passed, declaring the appointed, people of England to be a commonwealth and free state. About the same time some of the Royalist leaders were brought to trial, and Hamilton, who had led the Scottish invasion, was executed with Holland and Capel, the leaders of the Royahst rising in 1648. Meanwhile the government found itself surrounded with difficulties. 256 The Commonwealth, [I649- In England a dangerous mutiny broke out in the army. In Ireland the rebels and Royalists, who were now making The Irish war. i, j i j • ^i td r common cause, had hemmed m the rarliamen- tarians at Dublin. In Scotland the Covenanters were levying troops and corresponding with the Prince of Wales. The council acted with great energy. The mutineers were sternly put down ; Cromwell himself was despatched to Ireland. Before his arrival, Battle of however, General Jones had beaten the Royalist Rathmines. Qrmond at Rathmines, near Dublin. Upon that, the Royalists, quitting the open country, were preparing to protract the war by forcing the English to undertake a number of sieges. Drog-heda Cromwell at once marched on Drogheda and sternly stormed. ordered it to surrender. On a refusal, he stormed the town and put the garrison to the sword. This terrible act probably saved bloodshed in the long run ; for Wexford stood a siege, and, the example being repeated, most other towns surrendered at the first summons. In Scotland the prince had been doubtful whether the Covenan- ters under Argyll, or the old Royalist leader Montrose, would best The Scottish serve him. Montrose was allowed to make an expedi- ^^^- tion and attempt to raise the clans, but, on his defeat at Corbiesdale, Charles meanly suffered him to be tried and executed by the Covenanters without a protest. As the council expected the Scots to invade England, they determined to take the first step ; and, as Fairfax refused to command against Covenanters, Cromwell was ordered to invade Scotland. With a large army supported by a fleet, Cromwell took the road from Berwick to Edinburgh. He found the Scots strongly posted on Salisbury Crags, a part of Arthur's Seat. As their position was impregnable, Cromwell was obliged to retreat when his provisions were exhausted. As he retired the Scots pursued, keeping along the ridge of the Lammermuir Hills which here run parallel to the Forth, while Cromwell marched on the Battle of level ground by the shore. On reaching Dunbar, Dimbar. which lies at the end of a small promontory, the Scots placed themselves so as to command the roads from Dunbar to Berwick and Edinburgh. Their position was so strong that Crom- well despaired of success. He had already sent his heavy guns and sick on board the fleet, and was preparing to follow with his whole less.] The Co??imonwealth. 257 army, when tlie Scots, fearful that their prey would escape, and urged on by their preachers, began to come down into the plain. Instantly Cromwell saAV his advantage ; he dashed his troops upon the descendiag Scots, threw their van into confusion, and hurling it back on the main body, completed the discomfiture of their whole army. From Dunbar Cromwell marched on Edinburgh, which opened its gates, while the Scots retreated to a strong position near {Stirling. There Cromwell, unable to bring the Scots to an scots marcii on engagement, crossed the Forth, in order to take liondon. them in the rear. This manoeuvre left the road to England open, and Charles, who had now joined the Scots, boldly abandoning Scotland, marched with his whole army for London. Cromwell who was quite taken by surprise, sent Lambert by forced marches to try and check the Eoyalist advance. Lambert failed to stop Charles, but he turned him, and the Royalists, instead of marching straight to London, took the road to Worcester. This mistake gave Cromwell time to come up, and with an over- Battle of whelming force he crushed the Eoyalist army at "W'orcester. Worcester. Few of Charles' men escaped, but the prince himself contrived to make his way through Cromwell's line, and after many hair-breadth adventures found a passage to France. Next year war began with the Dutch. For many years the Dutch had been our rivals in the Colonies, and the two nations were bitterly jealous of each other's success in trade. ^j^q Dutch The Dutch had done a large business in carrying the ■"^^^• goods of other countries to England, where they sold them at a profit; but Parliament passed the ]Sravio;ation Act, which forbade the importation of goods into England except in English ships, or in the ships of the country producing them. This law was naturally resented by the Dutch, and war broke out. Owing to the care which Charles had taken of it, the navy was in good condition, and after an indecisive battle in May, 1652, the Dutch were Defeat of the defeated in September in a battle off the coast of ^^*ch. Defeat of Kent. Their discomfiture, however, only spurred the Biake. Dutch on to greater efforts, and in November their fleet, under Yan Tromp, beat Blake, the English admiral, off the Ness. After the battle of Worcester the army became much dis- s 258 The Commonwealth. . [less- satisfied with the conduct of Parliament. They thought that the present House ought to be dissolved, and its place satisfied with taken by one more in harmony with their views. Parliament, however, wished to put off the dissolution as long as possible, and fixed November 3, 1654, as its date. This did not at all meet the views of the army, and when a bill was brought into Parliament by which all the members were to keep their seats without re-election, and also to have a right of veto on newly elected members, Cromwell in 1653 went down to Crom'weU expels tiie the House and expelled the members. This done, mem ers. Cromwell and the officers appointed a new council of state, which, in place of a Parliament, chose an assembly of one hundred and forty nominees from names sent in by the various Inde- Barebones pendent ministers. This assembly is often called Bare- ParUament. ■^ones' Parliament, from the name of one of the mem- bers for the city of London. Its members were animated by the best intentions, but they had no knowledge of statesmanship. For instance, they named a committee to reform the law which did not contain a single lawyer. Many of their reforms were good, but many were too violent to suit Cromwell ; the army was dissatisfied, and the members resigned their power into Cromwell's hands. Upon this, in December, 1653, the council of officers by the Instrument of Government, made Cromwell Lord Protector, with a council of twenty-one persons. The Protector CromweUbe- i i i i i , i comes Lord was to DC general by land and sea ; but he was to Protector. (decide all questions of peace and war by the aid of the council. Parliament was to be summoned at least once every three years, and was not to sit for less than five months. All laws were to be made by it, but the Protector might delay any law coming into force for twenty-one days. The first Parliament was to meet in September, 1654, so that till it met Cromwell and the council had sole power. In 1645 the use of the Prayer-book had been forbidden by Act of Parliament, and Presbyterianism established by law for three years. Presbyterianism had, however, never gained policy of any real hold in England, except in London, Lan- cromweu. casliire, and some of the large towns, as Bristol and Hull ; and since 1648, when the army gained the upper hand, no 1654.] The Commonwealth. 259 attempt had been made to enforce it, and the pari&h churches had been occupied by men of all denominations, who used any form of service they liked, so long as it was not the Prayer-book of the Church of England. Many of these men were earnest and pious, others were wholly unsuitable, and Cromwell, therefore, despatched a commission to inquire into the characters of all against whom complaint was made. As immorality, frivolity, the use of the Common Prayer-book, and loyalty to the Stuarts, were equally regarded by the commis- sioners as " scandalous," much injustice was done among some good. The places of the ejected ministers were filled up by the ordinary patrons of livings, but all persons nominated had to pass a board of triers, consisting of Presbyterians, Independents, and Baptists, who were naturally somewhat prejudiced against the Eoyalist clergy, many of whom were rejected. In 1655 it was made penal for any dispossessed minister to hold the office of private chaplain, to preach, to administer the sacraments, to use the Prayer-book, or to teach iu a public or private school. The reform of the law was a favourite subject with the army, and Cromwell appointed a commission to take the matter in hand. He also prepared for a reform of the Court of cromweii's Chancery, by arranging that suits in that court should policy, be tried in the other law courts until all arrears were cleared off. An advantageous peace was concluded with Holland. Law and order were enforced in Ireland and Scotland with a stern hand. In Ireland, Henry Cromwell, second son of the Protector, ruled from 1654 to 1659. Under him the property of the Irish Catholics and Royalists was forfeited, and divided among those who had lent money for the war and the Cromwelhan soldiery. The new settlers, like the Ulstermen, were vigorous improvers of the country, but the confiscation of the lands of the Irish was as unjust then as it had been in 1608. Scotland was under the rule of George Monk, who reduced the High- lands to order. Presbyterianism ceased to be established, but there was no religious persecution. The union with England did much good to Scottish trade, and Cromwell's rule was a time of great peace and prosperity for that country. At home and abroad Cromwell showed himself a vigorous and successful administrator. The elevation of the Protector was the signal for plots against his 2 6p The Commonwealth. [I654- life ; but the first of these, contrived by Gerard and Vowell, was detected, and the plotters executed. On September 3, 1654, the first Protectorate Parliament met. A great many members had been taken away from small or decayed towns and given to large unrepresented towns, while Protectorate the counties received members in proportion to their amen . population. Four hundred members sat for England, thirty for Scotland, and thirty for Ireland, so that the Parliament represented the whole of the British Isles, and not England and Wales only, as previous Parliaments had done. When it met, the extreme Eepublicans, headed by Sir Henry Vane, who disliked the Protectorate, insisted upon debating the advisability of govern- ment by a single person. This was to strike at the very root of the present settlement, and Cromwell found it necessary to exact a pledge from the members that they would not attempt to alter the form of government, and excluded about a hundred members who refused to give it. At length, after a stormy session, Parliament was dissolved in January, 1655. Its dissensions encouraged the Koyahsts, and a number of them, under Penruddock and Wag- „ ., ^ staff seized the iudges who had come to hold the Failure of / Jo Penruddock's assizes at Salisbury, and attempted to raise the rising-. countr3^ The movement, however, was a complete failure, and it was clear that so long as the army was united casual insurrections had no chance of success. The plot, however, gave Cromwell an excuse for dividing England into eleven military districts, and placing each of them under a major-general, who paid himself and his men out of the estates of the Koyalists, and ruled with almost despotic power. In foreign affairs Cromwell went back to the policy of Queen Elizabeth. The Stuart friendship with Spain had always been un- cromweu popular ; Cromwell, therefore, made war with Spain, in France^ against ^-lliance with France, as Elizabeth had done. By this Spain. time the chief E7Tropean nations had acquired con- siderable colonies in the New World. Cromwell was the first to ■We begin to realize that, as England was a naval power, the best ^'^enemies^ policy for her was to attack the colonies of her colonies, opponents, and this plan was steadily followed afterwards. In 1655 Penn and Venables made an expedition to 1658.] The Commonivealth. 261 the West Indies, and though they failed to take San Domingo, they captured Jamaica, which the Enghsh hold at the capture of present day. The French were glad enough to join Jamaica, with us against Spain, and, to please Cromwell, ordered Charles to quit their territory. In 1658 an army of English and French troops beat the Spaniards in the battle of the Dunes, or sand-hills, on the Netherland coast, and captured Dunkirk, Defeat of the which was handed over to England iust a hundred ^pamards. ° "J Capture of years after the loss of Calais. Cromwell made it DunMrk. his aim to make England feared abroad, and on his remonstrance the Duke of Savoy, in 1656, gave up persecuting the Protestant Vaudois, whose cause had been pleaded by Milton. In 1656 Cromwell again called a Parliament, as he did not wish to be an arbitrary ruler. To avoid the difficulties of the last Parlia- ment, above ninety Republicans and Presbyterians were not allowed to take their seats. The new Par- second liament wished Cromwell to take the title as well as ^^^^^^^e^*- the powers of king, and to call a house of lords : this would have had the advantage of securing Cromwell's officials from prosecutions for treason in event of a restoration, because they would have come under the de facto statute of Henry VII., according to which no one could be prosecuted for treason for holding office under a king who was actually reigning. The name of king, however, was still odious to the army, without whose support Cromwell could not hope to keep his place. He was, therefore, obliged to decline the title of king, but accepted the Humble declines the Petition and Advice, by which the office of Protector ^'^^^ °^ ^''^• was made hereditary ; and the old constitution of England, with the changes introduced by the Long Parliament before the war, was practically restored. All forms of faith except Roman Catholicism and Socinianism were to be tolerated, but no denomination was established as the State Church. At the beginning of 1658 the re- organized Parliament met, but Cromwell's enemies in the Commons made agreement with the lords impossible, and it was soon dissolved. After this Cromwell's health grew rapidly worse, and in 1658, worn out by anxiety, he died. Cromwell was a really great Death of man ; his military genius secured his pre-eminence in cromweii. a time of war. When he had become the leader of the country, he 262 The Commonwealth. [lesa- showed his sagacity and practical wisdom by the moderation of his acts ; but he failed to make his rule permanent, because an attempt to govern the majority of a nation by a minority supported by an armed force, can in the nature of things only be transitory, and there is little doubt that a freely elected Parliament, any time after th.^ beginning of the war, would have given a majority, possibly to the Royalists, certainly to the Royalists and Presbyterians combined. On Cromwell's death the council declared his eldest son, Richard, Protector. It was unfortunate that the second son, Henry, who was a capable soldier and experienced statesman, could Ricliard Crom- ^ ^ ' weu becomes not have Succeeded ; for Richard, though a kindly Protector. ,t .,t , , t t gentleman, was neither a statesman nor a soldier, and had not the rehgious character which was necessary to win the respect of the zealots. His accession, however, passed off without disturbance ; but when his first Parliament met, the old dissensions broke out, and Richard found that he must either trust to the support of the army or that of Parliament. He preferred the army, and Parliament Parliament was dissolved. The army then took dissolved. matters into their own hands, and recalled the remains of the Long Parliament, generally called the Rump ; and Richard, finding himself neglected, left Whitehall and retired to private life. These events naturallj^ encouraged insurrection, and a rising broke out in Cheshire, under Booth, which was promptly put down by Lambert. On Lambert's return to London he was dismissed by the Parliament, so the next day he marched on West- minster, and for the second time the army expelled the Rump. The army was now supreme, but its power was threatened by the march from Scotland of General Monk, Cromwell's officer in MoiLk;, joined *^^* country. Monk was a cautious man and kept by Lord his own counsel, but it was thought that he was marches on opposed to the leaders of the English army. Ac- London. cordiiigly Lambert marched north to fight him ; but Lord Fairfax, who since the Protectorate had retired from public End of the ^^^®' "^^stered the Yorkshire militia and threatened Rump to join Monk. Upon this Lambert's troops dispersed, and Monk, marching without opposition to London, declared for a free Parliament. He then forced the Rump, which had resumed it? sittings on Lambert's departure, to dissolve itself 1660.] The Commonwealth, 263 in accordance with the act of 1641 ; and called a new Parliament, or Convention (because it was not summoned by a king), to meet in April. The Convention was elected, not according to Cromwell's plan, but by the old boroughs. It was composed almost entirely of Royahsts and Presbyterians, who had hitherto been ^^^ kept in subiection by the army, of whose rule all convention England, with the exception of a few fanatics, was heartily tired. With one voice the Convention determined to recall Charles, who was in no way responsible for the ill deeds of his father. Charles was only too glad to respond, charies and amidst the enthusiasm of the whole nation he recaUed. landed at Dover, and entered London on his birthday, May 29, 1660. CHIEF BATTLES AND SIEGES OF THE CIVIL WAR. Battle of Edgehill October, 1642 „ Chalgrove Field June, 1643 ,, Atherton Moor June, ,, Eoundaway Down July, „ Gainsborough July, Siege of Gloucester August 10— September 5, First battle of Newbury September 20, Battle of Winceby October, ,, Nantwich January, 1644 „ Selby April, „ Cropredy Bridge ... June 29, „ Marston Moor July 2, Surrender at Lostwithiel September, Second battle of Newbury October, Battle of Naseby June, 1645 Battles of Tippermuir, Inverlochy, Kilsyth, and Philiphaugh Battle of Rowton Heath September, „ Preston 1648 ,, Eathmines \^^^ Siege of Drogheda Battle of Dunbar September 3, 1650 „ Worcester September 3, 1651 CHAPTER IT. Charles II., 1660-1685 (25 years). Born 1630; married, 1662, Katharine of Portugal. Chief Characters of the Reign.— 'Edwaxdi Hyde, Earl of Clarendon ; the Duke of Buckingham ; Clifford ; Antony Ashley Cooper, created Earl of Shaftesbury ; Arlington ; Lauderdale ; Sir Thomas Osborne, created Earl of Danby ; the Duke of Monmouth ; James, Duke of York ; Titus Gates ; William, Lord Eussell ; Algernon Sidney. Chief Contemporary Sovereigns. France. Holland, Louis XIV., William of Orange, Stadtholder, 1643-1715. 1672-1702. Charles II. became king at the age of thirty. He had lived abroad since he had been twenty-oae, sometimes in France, sometimes Character of ^^ Holland. He was a man of great natural sagacity, Charles II. ^^.-ndi his checkered career had given him considerable experience of men and things. More able than his father, he had more knowledge of the world than his grandfather, and he brought back with him one fixed determination, never to set out on his travels again. At the same time, he was determined to secure as much power as circumstances would permit, and his easy-going manner, which blinded observers to his real character, enabled him to gain a large measure of success. At his accession his confidence was given to Clarendon, the Edward Hyde of the Long Parliament, who, after a steady adherence to the royal family in its misfortunes, now returned as Lord Chancellor. The first step of the Convention was to pass an Act of ^ ^^^ Indemnity and Oblivion for offences committed Indemnity during the civil wars and the Commonwealth. From and Oblivion. ., . . , ,, ^ ^ ^ ■, its provisions, however, those persons who had been I 1661.] Charles II, 265 especially Gonnected with, tke trial and execution of Charles were excepted. Of these many were dead, but of those who were captured ten suffered death, and others were imprisoned. A year later Gleneral Lambert and Sir Henry Vane were tried for treason. Neither of them were regicides, and they pleaded that what they had done was protected by the de facto statute of Henry VII., which,, under the actual title of king, might be held to include a settled government. The judges, however, decided against them, and Lambert was imprisoned and Vane executed. Parliament next abolished the practice of holding land on military tenure, which involved the payment of feudal dues. These dues had long been a source of complaint, for the Feudalism objects of feudalism had disappeared ; but it was not aboushed. fair to commute them for an excise on liquors, which fell, not upon those who had formerly paid the dues, but upon the general body of the nation. At the same time, the right of purveyance, by which the "king had the privilege of buying all goods he wanted at market price, and of pressing into his service carriages and carts, was abandoned. The question of defence was next considered by Parliament. The command of the militia and the fortresses was restored to the king, and it was also determined to keep up a force r^e standing of two regiments, and several garrisons, amounting in army, all to five thousand men. There is a certain point in the develop- ment of a country at which a standing army of professional soldiers becomes necessary. A highly civilized nation will not endure to be called upon to leave its business and take service in the field, while at the same time the progress in the art of war makes it needful for the soldier to have a more regular training than he can get while following any other pursuit. England's insular position, however, enabled us to do without a standing army long after the continental nations had adopted them. The Convention Parliament was dis- solved in 1661, and the same year a new Parliament met. The new members were almost entirely Eoyalists, and so eager were they for vengeance, that the government had great difficulty in inducing them to confirm the acts of the Convention. At the Kestoration the Church of England resumed its old position as the Established Church ; but it might have been ex- 2 66 The Stuarts. rieei- pected that Charles would have done something to improve the Re-estabUsh- position of the Presbyterians, to whose alliance with "chifrch.*of^ the Royalists he owed so much. A conference, England. indeed, was held at the Savoy Palace between the bishops and the Presbyterian ministers, but neither party was really anxious for union, and the meeting came to nothing. In Charles' first Parliament, Churchmen were in a great majority, and their first act was to reinstate the Church in the position she had held before the rebellion. By the Act of Uniformity, passed in 1662, all holders of benefices were required to be ordained by a bishop, to use only the Book of Common Prayer, of which a re^ased version was published the same j'^ear, and to take an oath that re- sistance to the king was unlawful. As a number of ministers who had been appointed to livings since the disestablishment of the Church refused to comply with these conditions, they were forced to vacate their livings on St. Bartholomew's Day, 1662. As to the number and qualifications of these men. Churchmen and Noncon- formists are hopelessly at variance ; but it is probable that the number did not fall short of fifteen hundred, and it certainly included many men eminent for piety and learning. The restoration of the Church livings to members of the Church was not unfair, but the hardships of the expelled ministers were made greater by the day chosen for their expulsion falling just before they received their tithes, so that they lost a year's income as well; while, not content with re-establishing the Church in ^ possession of its livings, Parliament persecuted its Persecution of ^ ° ' ri i • • theNoncon- fallen opponents. Many of the expelled ministers, formis s. j^^^ ^g ^^ Royalists had done under the Common- wealth, continued to call their followers together in some barn or large room ; so, in 1664, Parliament imitated the bad example of Cromwell by passing the Conventicle Act, which forbade all assemblies for worship other than those of the Church, and in 1665 it revived another of Cromwell's regulations, by passing the Five Mile Act, which forbade expelled ministers, unless they had subscribed to the Act of Uniformity, to get their Hving by teaching in any public or private school, or to settle within five miles of any corporate town. The political strength of the Nonconformists, of whom the chief bodies were the Presbyterians, the Independents, 1667.] Charles II. 267 the Baptists, and the Quakers, lay in the corporations of small towns ; and, to deprive them of this, the Corporation Act was passed, in 1661, ordering all holders of municipal office to renounce the Covenant, and take the Sacrament according to the forms of the Church of England. The Corporation Act, Uniformity Act, Con- venticle Act, and Five Mile Act are often called the Clarendon Code ; and a comparison of these with the legislation of the Com- monwealth shows that, in the seventeenth century, neither the Church nor her opponents had grasped the idea of religious toleration. In foreign politics Clarendon continued the policy of hostility to Spain and friendship to France. In accordance with it, Charles in 1661 married Katharine of Portugal, which country Charles* had in 1640 revolted from Spain, to which it had foreig-n been united since 1580. With her Charles received politics, the island of Bombay, in the East Indies, and Tangiers, on the north- west coast of Africa. The possession of these places gave England new opportunities for trade, which Charles, like all his family, had much at heart. The same year Clarendon sold Dun- Dunkirk sold kirk to the French. This was probably not unwise, *° *-^® French, but it made Clarendon very impopular. It was said that he had been bribed, and a new house which he was building was nicknamed Dunkirk House. In 1664 war broke out with the war with the Dutch. Its chief cause was the commercial and Dutch, colonial jealousy which had brought about the former war, and to this was added the annoyance which was felt by Charles because the Dutch burghers were keeping out of power the house of Orange, the head of which. Prince Wilham, was his nephew. At first the English were successful. Sir Kobert Holmes seizing the Dutch colony of the New Netherlands, which lay between Virginia and the New England States. It became an English capture of colony, and its capital, New Amsterdam, received ^^^ York. ^ ' Battle of the name of New York, in honour of the king's Lowestoft, brother. In 1665 the Duke of York won a great victory over the Dutch off Lowestoft, on the Suffolk coast. However, in 1666 the French, who had always been friends with the burgher party, came to their assistance. In spite of this the English, under Prince Kupert and Monk (now Duke of Albemarle), won several victories, but in 1667 the Dutch advanced into the 2 68 The Stuarts. [lee?- Thames, and burnt tiie ships at the mouth of the Medway. Soon afterwards peace was made between England and Holland. This war is remarkable for another point. In 1665 Parliament granted £1,250,000 to be spent on the war only, so beginning the Appropriation Practice of making special votes for special things, of supplies, called appropriation of supplies, which gave it a much more efficient control over expenditure than when money was voted to be added to the general fund, to be spent at the discretion of the government. Besides the failure of the Dutch war, England had been unfortunate in other respects. In 1665 occurred the Great Plague, the last of the great pestilences which from time to time devastated the filthy alleys and narrow streets which formed the towns of mediaeval The Fire of Europe, and in September the next year a great fire liondon. raged for four days, which destroyed St. Paul's Cathe- dral and the greater part of the city of London. Clarendon was also unpopular with the king, of whose dissipated life he disap- ciarendon is proved, and SO, when an outcry was raised against ^^d^me^ to' ^™' ^^ ^^^ dismissed from his post and impeached the Continent, in 1667. By Charles' advice he fled to the Continent, where he spent the remainder of his life in completing a history of the Great Kebellion which he had begun during his former exile. During Clarendon's ministry important events occurred in Scot- land and Ireland. In Scotland, in spite of the wishes of the people, Events in the old form of government was restored. Episcopacy Scotland. re-established, and the persecution of the Covenanters begun. In Ireland an Act of Settlement was passed, by which a Treatment of Certain amount of the land forfeited by Cromwell the Irish. -^^^ restored to the Catholics and Ro3''alists. Un- happily, the English Parliament did all it could to injure Irish trade, in the interests of the English merchants and manufacturers. The Irish were forbidden to trade with the English colonies, or to enjoy the benefit of the Navigation Act. They were also forbidden to export to England either cattle, meat, or butter, so that everything was done to check the development of the country. After Clarendon's fall, the king gave his confidence to a group of five statesmen — Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley, and Lauder- dale. Such a group was called a " Cabal," but as this word is formed 1672.] Charles IL 269 by the first letters of these statesmen's names, it is often thought that it was derived from them. The Cabal was really ^^^ ^^^^^ very much like the modern Cabinet. The chief aim of the Cabal was to reverse Clarendon's pohcy, and they therefore formed a Triple Alliance, between Holland, Sweden, The Triple and England, against France. This poHcy was pro- AUiance bably quite right, for France, not Spain, was now the most dangerous power in Europe, and the treaty was therefore very popular in Eng- land. The ministry also tried to induce Parliament to do some- thing for the Catholics and Nonconformists, but mthout success. To Charles the Triple Alliance was distasteful. Under his mother's influence, both he and his brother James, Duke of Distasteful to York, were attached to the Roman Catholic faith, Charles, and he behoved that Louis' aid would alone enable him to openly declare his religion. Accordingly, in 1670, Charles secret treaty made with France the secret treaty of Dover, by with France, which he agreed to make war upon Holland and to declare himself a CathoHc, upon condition that Louis should pay to him a large sum of money, and that he should also receive a share of Holland when it had been conquered. Of this treaty the nation knew nothing, and only Clifford and Arlington were aware that Charles had promised to declare himself a Catholic. Charles well knew that Parliament would disapprove of his new poHcy, so as soon as he had induced it to make a liberal grant for the navy, under the impression that war was to be declared against France, it was prorogued, and did not meet again for nearly two years. Meanwhile, to add to his resources, the king gave notice that he was not going to pay back the loans which fell due this year, but that only the interest on them would be paid. By this means ^j^^^^j^g refuses Charles kept a large sum of ready money which ought to repay the to have gone to his creditors ; but the transaction really amounted to a national bankruptcy, and the greatest con- sternation prevailed among those capitalists who had reckoned on the payment of the money due to them. Next, to Duke of York try the temper of the nation, the Duke of York was received into . . the Roman publicly received into the Roman Catholic Church, cathouc and then a Declaration of Indulgence was proclaimed, church, by which the king suspended the operation of all Acts of Parlia- 270 The Stuarts. [i67s- inent against Nonconformists and Catholics. These acts filled the nation with consternation, and their surprise was still greater when the Enghsh fleet suddenly issued from Portsmouth, and, without even English, attack ^ declaration of war, attacked the Dutch spice fleet the Dutch, which was peacefully anchored off the Isle of Wight. s'outhwofd "^^^ Dutch beat ofl* the attack, but war was simul- Bay. taneously declared against them by England and France, and a great battle was fought in Southwold Bay, which, however, was indecisive. In the beginning of 1673 Parhament met. The members were in high dudgeon. They at once forced Charles to withdraw the Declaration of Indulgence, and thinking that the cause The Cahal ministry of his misdeods lay in his having Catholic ministers, broken up. pegged the Test Act, by which it was ordered that all persons holding office under the crown were to take the Sacrament according to the rites of the Church of England, and make a declaration against transubstantiation. This act made it impossible for a Catholic to hold office. Clifford and Arlington resigned, and the Duke of York gave up his office of High Admiral. Ashley, now Lord Shaftesbury, and Buckingham left office and joined the opposition, and so the Cabal ministry was broken up ; Lauderdale alone keeping his place in Scotland. Sir Thomas Osborne, afterwards known as Earl of Danby and Duke of Leeds, now became Lord Treasurer and leading minister. In foreiern policy he agreed with the principles of The court far./ o r r and country the Triple Alliance, and at home strongly supported parties. ^^^ Church of England and the royal prerogative. Since 1661 there had been no general election, but the temper of the Parliament had a great deal changed, for Charles' govern- ment and his manner of life had alienated many of the members. These usually belonged to the country, as distinguished from the court, and so two parties sprung up — a court party which supported the government, a country party which formed the opposition. The policy of the country party consisted of strong attachment to the Church, and distrust of the Catholics and Nonconformists. Abroad they were for peace with Holland and war with France, but they were much afraid of an increase in the standing army. The existence of this opposition kept Louis XIV. in continual fear, for 1677.] Charles II. 271 he dreaded lest thej should force Charles to go to war with him ; he therefore played a double game. When he thought Attitude of the opposition likely to get their way, he would pay ""^J^a^dJ" Charles money to enable him to prorogue the Par- England, liament ; if he thought Charles was too independent, he would help the opposition to attack him. Consequently there was no consistency in the action of either king or Parliament. In 1674 Parliament met, and the country party attacked Bucking- ham, Arlington, and Lauderdale. The same year peace was made with Holland ; by it England kept St Helena, an island -p^^^^ qq^. off the coast of Africa, which was very useful as a eluded with place of call for our ships going to and from the East Indies. This peace made Louis afraid that England would join Flolland against him, so he gave Charles an annuity of £120,000, in order that he might do without a Parliament, Louis bribes which was accordingly prorogued for fifteen months. cbaries. When it met again, in 1677, Shaftesbury and Buckingham, who now led the opposition in the House of Lords, and whose great object was to force on a general election, as they thought that their party was stronger in the country than in the House, strug-g-ies contended that Parliament was dissolved by lapse of cSStl^ time. Their reasoning, however, was not admitted, Opposition, and the Lords sent them to the Tower for refusing to apologize to the House. Incited by Louis, the country party now demanded the dismissal of the army, which would effectually have prevented England from interfering on the Continent. Danby, on the other hand, revived the policy of the triple alliance by The Dutch, arranging that Mary, the eldest daughter of the Duke marriage, of York, and heir presumptive to the crown, should marry her cousin, William of Orange,^ Stadtholder of Holland. This marriage ' GENEALOGY OF WILLIAM OF ORANGE. William the Silent, d. 1584. Maurice, d. 1625. Frederick Henry, d. 1647. William II. m. Mary, daughter of Charles L of England, d. 1650. I d. 1660. William 111. of England, d. 1702. 272 The Stuarts, [i677- was tliorouglily popular. William was figliting bravely against the French, who had invaded Holland in 1672, and in 1678 Parliament Parliament voted money for a war with France. This made '^°forwa?^'' Louis rctum to his old tactics, and he distributed ■with France, money among the members of Parliament who were opposing the government, and at the same time he entered into negotiations with the Dutch. During the negotiations Charles made a secret treaty with France, by which he agreed, for £300,000 a year for three years, to dissolve „, , , ^ Parliament, to disband the army, and not to assist Charles secret ' '' treaty witii the Dutch if they continued the war. In obedience to the king's order, the text of this treaty was written by Danby. As soon as Louis had secured his treaty with the liouis betrays I^wtch_, he revenged himself on Danby, whom he had Danby. never forgiven for the marriage of William and Mary, by disclosing his share in the French treaty to the leaders of the country party. Upon this the Commons impeached Danby^ and, to save him, Charles in 1679 dissolved Parliament, after it had sat since 1661. As had been expected, the country party were much Danby's stronger in the new House, and were able to renew impeaciinient. Danby's impeachment, and to commit him to the Tower, where he remained till the end of the reign. Three administrations, those of Clarendon, the Cabal, and Danby, had now been overthrown by the votes of Parliament, and many thought that such sharp contests between the king plan for ^"^^ Parliament ought to be avoided. Others disliked making- ^j^g j^g^ practice of giving the chief power to a small more and secret committee of the Privy Council, such as impo an . ^^^ Cabal had been, and accordingly Sir William Temple brought forward a plan for making the Privy Council much more important, so that it might act as a check upon both the king and the Parliament. The new council included not only the lead- ing ministers, Robert Spencer, Earl of Sunderland, Sir William Temple, Arthur Capel, Eari of Essex, and George Savile, Marquess of Halifax, but also Shaftesbury, William, Lord Russell, and other leaders of the country party. The plan, however, did not work well, and power soon fell, as before, into the hands of a small body of confidential advisers, which developed into the modern cabinet. 1680.1 Charles II. 273 Meanwhile all England had been agitated by the story of a Popish Plot. Ever since the gunpowder conspiracy the country had been ready enough to believe any stories against the r^^^ Popisii Roman Catholics, and in 1666 it was seriously thought "BYot. that the fire of London had been caused by them, There was no doubt, too, that Charles and James were secretly working in favour of the Catholics, and this added to the anxiety of the nation. But in 1678 an impostor, called Titus Gates, came forward with an absurd story of a plot of the Catholics to murder the king and the Duke of York, who were their best friends. In spite of the obvious falseness of the story, it created such excitement that hundreds of Catholics were arrested, and the king, feeling the weakness of his position as an unacknowledged Catholic, did not dare to interfere on their behalf. Accordingly, while the panic lasted many Catholics, of whom the chief was Viscount Stafford, were executed, and the ill feeling against that body was increased. One result of this was an attempt to exclude the Duke of York from the throne, and in 1679 a bill for this purpose was brought into the Commons. If James were excluded, it was pro- Attempt to posed to put the Protestant Mary and her husband exclude the William on the throne. This made the bill popular, from the and secured it the good will of William of Orange, tiirone. who wanted English help against France. The king refused to sacrifice the interests of his brother, and dissolved the charies con- Parliament. This dissolution is notable for another Habeas^COT^a event. At it the king gave his consent to the -^ct. famous Habeas Corpus Act, which provided that no Englishman should be kept in prison without trial, and gave facilities to a prisoner for obtaining either a speedy trial or release on bail. The fourth Parliament of Charles met in 1680. The country was now in a state of wild excitement. In Scotland, a party of fanatics had murdered Sharp, Archbishop of St. Andrews, the battle of Both- head of the Episcopal Church, and the Covenanters '^^^ Briggr. had risen in revolt against the government, which had defeated them at Bothwell Brigg. In England, the king's delay to summon a Parliament had revived all the party feeling of the previous reign. On the one side petitions were sent to the king, urging him to assemble T 2/4 -^^ Stuarts. rieso- Paiiiament; on the other, counter petitions were sent from those who abhorred the Exclusion Bill. From this came the names of "Petitioners" and "Abhorrers," which were afterwards changed •wniigsand i^^^o Wliigs and Tories. These names were given to Tories. ^^^ parties by their opponents. Whig was supposed to denote the Presbyterians of Scotland, who were sometimes called Whigamoors, with whom the Exclusionists were said to be allied ; and a Tory was properly an Irish brigand. It is needless to say that these names soon lost their original meaning, and were adopted as honourable distinctions by the two parties. Both Whigs and Tories were in favour of government by king and Parliament ; but the Tories thought much of the king's divine right, while the Whigs were inclined to look upon him as only an official. On the other hand the Tories were stout supporters of the Church, while the Whig members, though themselves Churchmen, leaned to alliance with the Nonconformists. Members of both parties were to be found in all ranks of society, for in England Whig and Tory have never been class distinctions. In 1680 the Whigs were in favour of the Exclusion Bill, while the Tories, on their theory of divine right, were opposed to changing the order of succession. However, in the House of Defeat of . . ' , t i , -n tiie Exclusion Commons a large majority were Whigs, and the bill "Rill was passed by them and sent up to the House of Lords. In that House it was defeated by the influence of the Prince of Orange. So long as Mary was to succeed Charles, the Prince had been eager for the bill ; but some of the extreme Whigs were now pressing the claims of the Duke of Monmouth, an illegiti- mate son of Charles, and this turned the prince against it. The supporters of the bill did not despair, but the next year Charles declared that he would never give his consent to it ; and when It was again brought forward, and the Commons threatened to stop supplies, Parliament was dissolved in 1681. The elections were conducted amidst great excitement, but the Whigs had a majority at the polls, and it seemed certain that the struggle would be renewed with much rancour. In meets at these circumstanccs Charles acted with skill; he Oxford. g^g^ ^^ pj^^g q£ meeting at Oxford, which had been his father's head-quarters, and was stoutly Tory, while he 1683.J Charles II. 275 disposed his regular troops between Oxford and London, which was the stronghold of the Whigs. To Oxford the members came with troops of servants, the Whigs wearing blue ribands as their party colour. Civil war seemed to be imminent, when Charles, after offering that James should only reign in name, and that the ad- ministration should be in the hands of Protestants — a proposal which the Commons rejected — suddenly dissolved Parliament. This done, the Whigs were no longer an organized body; the members were forced to disperse, and so long as the king could do without a Parliament, they had no chance of gaining their ends but by insurrection. But there was little chance of Charles calling a Parliament. Louis, to whom a union of the powers of England and Holland under William of Orange would be most Discomfiture of dangerous, agreed to give Charles £250,000 in the the-whigs, next three years, which relieved Charles of his immediate diffi- culties. The next step of the government was to prosecute Shaftes- bury, the leader of the opposition, for treason ; but Prosecutio the grand jury of London, who were Whigs, ignored Shaftesbiiry. the bill, and the trial thus falling through, Shaftesbury left the country in 1682, and died next year. Shaftesbury was an able man, and his scheme to exclude James had been very nearly successful, and had only failed on account of his foolish substitution of Monmouth for Mary as the king's successor. Monmouth's Undeterred, however, by the fall of his supporters, supporters. Monmouth had by no means given up hopes of the crown. In 1682 he made a progress through England, in which he assumed royal state, and pretended to have the power of curing people, by his touch, of the king's evil, which it was supposed to be in the king's power to do. Experience had taught Charles that he could not maintain his ministers in face of a hostile Parliament. He therefore deter- mined to try and secure a permanent majority in the Commons. The strength of the Whigs lay in the biroughs^^ boroughs, that of the Tories in the counties. The ^^^o^^^e^^- election of borough members was usually in the hands of a close corporation, that is to say, one which filled up its own vacancies. These bodies were usually Whig, and Charles saw that if he could get rid of the existing members and replace them by Tories, lie 276 The Stuarts, [I682- could look forward to a great increase in the number of Tory members. Accordingly, he began by demanding the charter of the city of London, and, on pretence that it had been violated in some particular, forfeited it and immediately regranted it, only naming a new Tory corporation. He then issued a series of writs of ''Quo warranto," by which he forfeited almost all the charters of the Parliamentary boroughs, few of which, in course of time, had not in some way infringed the terms of their charters. In restoring these charters the king reserved to himself the right of confirming all elections to municipal offices, and, in case he were dissatisfied, of naming the officers himself. Meanwhile violent schemes had been discussed by the Whig party. It is certain that the leaders had set their face against any Rtunboid's rcsort to arms, but their followers had not been so plot. moderate, and a few of the more reckless, at the head of whom was an old soldier, named Eumbold, had formed a plan to murder the king and the Duke of York on their return rom Newmarket to London. The scheme failed, and some of the plotters were arrested. The government then took the unjustifiable Arrest of Lord coursc of arresting William, Lord Russell, and Alger- ^Ai^eri^^ non Sidney, and trying them along with the other Sidney. prisoners, as if they had been concerned in one wide- spread conspiracy. The evidence against them was ridiculously slight, but by browbeating the witnesses and intimidating the jury the judges contrived to get verdicts for the crown. Both were executed, and were looked upon as martyrs to the Whig cause. The next year Monmouth was pardoned for his late extravagant proceedings, but was banished to Holland. This brought to a conclusion Charles' triumph over his opponents. He was now little less than an absolute king. He possessed a small standing army, and named the officers of the Triumpii of militia and the commanders of fortresses ; he dis- Charies. misscd the judges as he thought fit, and could secure the services of compliant jurymen; the appointment of magistrates was practically in his hands; and, more than all, by remodelling the corporations he had secured the means of packing the House of Commons. On February 6, the next year, at the height of his power, 1685,] Charles II, 277 Charles suddenly died. He was a man of consummate ability, who concealed under the appearance of frivolity a Death of talent for intrigue, which baffled the ablest statesmen ciiaries 11. of his day. On his death-bed he admitted that he was a Koman Catholic, and received absolution from a Catholic priest. By his wife, Katharine of Braganza, he had no children ; but he left a large family of natural children, most of whom were raised to the peerage. His heir, therefore, was James, Duke of York, who had married Anne Hyde, daughter of Lord Chancellor Clarendon. In 1662 a most important change was made in the Poor Law by the creation of the Law of Settlement. By this law any labourer, coming to seek work iu a strange parish, might within rj^y^^ j^^^ of forty days be removed back to his own parish, unless settlement, he took a tenement over £10 a year in value, or gave security that he would not become chargeable to the parish rates. The effect of this law was practically to bind the agricultural labourers to the soil of their own parishes, and to prevent them from settling where they could sell their labour to the best advantage. This Act was modified in 1795, but down to 1834 great obstacles were placed by the Poor Law in the way of the circulation of labour. CHAPTER V. James IL, 1685-1689 (4 years). Born 1633 j married \ J^^^| ^^ ff Modena. Chief Characters of the Reign. — Rochester ; Halifax ; the Earl of Godol- phin ; Robert Spencer, Earl of Sunderland ; Monmouth ; Jeffrej^s ; the Marquess of Argyll ; Hough ; Conipton ; Sancroft ; Petre ; Tyrconnel ; Danby ; Henry Sidney ; and Edward Russell. Chief Contemporary Sovereigns. France. Spain. Holland. Louis XIV., Charles II., Stadtholder William of Orange, 1643-1715. 1665-1700. 1672-1702, On his brother's death, James, Duke of York, was at once pro- claimed king. In his first speech to the council he declared that Accession of ^^ would maintain the government, both in Church James II. ^j^jj State, as by law established. James was a very different man from his brother, being both more narrow-minded and more conscientious, and he had the same want of ability to under- stand the wishes of the nation which his father had shown. Still he was an excellent man of business, and had done much to improve the condition of the navy. The new king gave his confidence to his brother-in-law, Eochester, Clarendon's son ; to Halifax, whose speech in the House of Lords had brought about the defeat of the Exclusion Bill ; to Lord Godolphin, a most able financier ; and to Lord Sunderland. James' first act was to order the customs' duties, which had been voted to Charles for fife, to be collected as usual, though they could James' first ^^t be renewed till Parliament met. There was much acts. to be said for avoiding a break, as the intermission of the collection would cause great disorder in trade ; but the act was 1685.] James II. 279 certainly unconstitutional. Besides this revenue, James also received a grant of £67,000 from France. During the early days of the reign Gates, who had been the chief witness against the victims of the Popish Plot, was convicted of perjury. There is no doubt that he richly deserved punishment, and he was sentenced to be flogged, pilloried, and imprisoned for life. Danby and the Roman Catholic lords who remained in the Tower were now released. About the same time, Baxter, one of the noblest of the Noncon- formist ministers, w^as also prosecuted for protesting against the persecution of the Nonconformists, and convicted, after a grossly unfair trial, at which the notorious Judge Jeffreys presided. In May Parliament met. Full use had been made of the king's new powers in the boroughs, and so successful had been Charles' measures, that James said himself that " there were Mutual satis- not above forty members but such as he himself jamfs'aSdMs wished for." Parliament showed itself equally pleased Parliament, with the new sovereign, and voted James all his brother's revenue, and, besides, a new tax on sugar and tobacco. Though James had been allowed to succeed so quietly, Monmouth had no intention of giving up his hopes without a struggle. Accord- indv, he ioined with his fellow-exile, Argyll, to make ° rN.ii TT7111 Argyll's rising-. simultaneous attempts upon Scotland and England. Owing, however, to bad management, Argyll landed first. He found the government well prepared, and his attempt proved a com- plete failure. He himself was captured and executed. Monmouth landed m Dorsetshire, and slowly made his way to the manufacturing district of Somersetshire, where he was popular with Monmouth's the clothiers. By the lower and middle classes he rising, was received with enthusiasm, but he obtained no support from the nobility. He set out towards Shropshire and Cheshire, where he was also popular ; but turned back from Bristol, and by that time the regular troops under Feversham and Churchill, who was after- wards the great Duke of Marlborough, had arrived on the scene. To give his untrained troops the best chance against the regulars, Monmouth attem.pted to surprise the royal camp on Battle of Sedgemoor, near Bridgewater; but by accident his sedgemoor. scheme failed, and his untrained peasants, weavers and colliers, though they showed wonderful courage, were routed without diffi- 2 So The Stuarts. [1685- ciilty by the trained troops. Monmouth himself fled, but was Execution of Captured, and though he begged James for mercy on Monmouth., j^g knees, was executed. Terrible cruelty was shown to the rebels by Colonel Kirke and his soldiers, and Judge Jeffreys was sent to try the prisoners, when his cruelty gained for him eter- The nal infamy as the author of the Bloody Assize. At oo y Assize. ^^^^^ three hundred persons were executed, and eight hundred more were shipped off to the American colonies. For his exploits Jeffreys was made a peer. The failure of Monmouth's rebellion showed clearly what a change had been made by the introduction of a standing army : formerly insurgents could bring into the field as good troops as the king, but now no insurrection had any chance which was not backed by a trained force. The failure of the insurrection gave James great confidence, and he now set about his scheme of securing the ascendency of the Scheme for Catholics. His first step was to remove Halifax from emancipating the Privy Council, and at the same time Jeffreys was made Lord Chancellor. While James was making his preparations, Louis XIV., King of France, revoked the Edict of Revocation of Nantes, which had been granted by Henry IV., and the Ed let upon which the toleration of the French Protestants depended. Thousands of the best work-people in France were expelled. Many took refuge in England, and their arrival strengthened the Protestant feeling of the country. The proceedings of Louis made men watch James with greater anxiety. Even the ParHament showed symptoms of resistance. The chief obstacle to James' employment of Cathohcs was the Test Act, passed in 1673. James beheved that his prerogative James con- enabled him to grant a dispensation to a private tinueshis person, to hold office without having fulfilled its efforts to J- • AT emancipate the Conditions. Accordingly, he gave a commission in cathoncs. ^j^Q ^j.j^y ^^ g.^, Edward Hales, a Catholic, and then, to try the legality of this, had a suit brought against Hales by his coachman for violating the Test Act. At the trial the judges, who, it must be remembered, could at any time be dismissed by the king, gave a decision in his favour, and James, armed with this, gave commissions and preferments to other Eoman Catholics. Among others, Massey, a Eomanist, was made Dean of Christ 1687.] lames II. 281 church, Oxford. James was encouraged to take this course by the way in which the Church and the universities had constantly proclaimed their adherence to the doctrine that resistance to a king was, under any circumstances, unlawful, and he therefore believed that he could make the Church of England join him in favouring the Eoman Catholics. However, to secure his hold The new court over the Church, he illegally set up a new court of asti^ai^com- Ecclesiastical Commission with Jeffreys at its head ; mission, while, to overawe the capital, he formed a camp of thirteen thousand troops on Hounslow Heath. Feeling ,confident in these measures, James now began to put Catholics into all the chief posts. Clarendon, son of the chancellor, was recalled from Ireland, and the lord-lieuten- antcy given to Tyrconnel, a Catholic. At the same time Eochester, who refused to change his rehgion, was removed from the Treasury. In 1686 the Ecclesiastical Commission began by suspending Compton, Bishop of London, and then attacked the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. The Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge was deprived of his office for not granting Oxford and . the degree of M.A. to a Benedictine monk, which he ^^ ^^ ^^' could not legally do. Oxford's turn came next. The king had ordered the fellows of Magdalen to elect Farmer, a Eoman Catholic, their president. They refused, and chose John Hough. The king then ordered them to choose Parker, Bishop of Oxford. They asserted that Hough's election was valid, and upon this the com- mission deprived all the Fellows of their places, and Eoman Catholics were appointed instead. In this way James contrived to alienate, not only the Church of England, but also the universities. In 1687 the king, finding that he could get no help from the Church, changed his tactics and issued a Declaration of Indulgence, by which he suspended the penal statutes against both the Eoman Catholics and the Protestant Non- Noncon- conformists, hoping in this way to ally these bodies *■ ^o^'^^sts. against the Church; and so certain did he feel of success, that he ventured to receive a nuncio from the pope, and to make Petre, an English Jesuit, a member of the Privy Council. If James had merely wished to grant to the Nonconformists and Catholics equal rights with Churchmen, there would have been much in his scheme to be commended ; but it is clear he meant to do more, and that 282 The Stuarts. [les?- tliough the Catholics did not number more than one in thirty of the population, he intended to give them an altogetlier disproportionate power in the State. For two years no Parliament had sat, but James had such con- fidence in the influence of the crown, which had the power of James tries to remodelling the corporations, that he believed it ment f^ourabie possiblc to get a Parliament which would confirm the to Ms views. Declaration of Indulgence. He therefore wrote to the lord-lieutenants of counties, asking them to furnish a list of Catholics and Nonconformists suitable for members of Parliament, and also asking the magistrates whether they avouM support candi- dates who were in favour of his views. Though many of the lord-lieutenants and magistrates were men who had fought for Charles I. in the old wars, they either refused to answer or evaded the questions, and many of them resigned their posts, which were at once filled up by Catholics. Towns which seemed likely to be refractory had their corporations again remodelled. James had now managed to offend the old adherents of his father — the nobility, the country gentry, the universities, and the Church — Failure of ^^^ '^^ ^^^ ^^ ^^^ doubtful what hne would be taken James' "by the Nonconformists. Their treatment by the over the Non- Church since the restoration had been most ex- conformists, asperating, and it could hardly have been wondered at if at this crisis they had made common cause with the king. But the Nonconformists judged the temper of the nation better than the king had done; they saw that the mass of the nation was attached to the Church, and that a free Parliament was certain to reverse James' measures. They also believed that James' proceed- ings, however favourable to themselves at the moment, were only part of a general plan to destroy the liberties of the country. The majority therefore determined to ally themselves with the Church and to trust to the gratitude of Parliament for reward. Accordingly, James' attempt to win them over to his side was a failure. Hitherto the country had borne James' proceedings with tolerable patience, because they believed that he would soon be The succession succeeded by Mary and William, when all would be to the crown, restored ; but now an event happened which made the outlook much more serious. None of the children of James and his 1688.] James II, 283 second wife, Mary of Modena, had hitherto lived, and it was five years since the last had been born, when it was announced that the queen was likely to have a child. If the infant were a boy he would be the heir-apparent to the throne, which would dash to the ground the hopes of Mary and William. Of course he would be educated as a CathoHc, and the present system would be perpetual. Naturally the Protestants were dismayed, while the Catholics showed every symptom of hope. It was under these circumstances that James was reckless enough to put to further test the endurance of the Church. In April, 1687, he issued the second Declaration of Indulgence, and commanded the clergy of the Established Church to committed to read it from their pulpits on two Sundays. To be asked *^® Tower, to publish to their own parishioners this unlawful decree was more than the most strenuous supporter of non-resistance could bear, and seven of the bishops, headed by San croft. Archbishop of Canterbury, drew up and presented to the king a respectful and temperate memo- rial, asking to be excused. " This," said the king, " is a standard of rebellion," and ordered the bishops to be committed to the Tower. Meanwhile the petition was printed and circulated, and James' rash words brought about their own fulfilment. Still James failed to read the signs of the times. On June 10 a son, afterwards the Old Pretender, was born to him ; but ^ . ° ^ ^°^' the king was so foolish as not to ask the Princess Anne, who was in England, or any of the leading Protestants to be present, while the palace was crowded with enthusiastic Catholics. Consequently the Protestants, who had everything to lose by the birth, spread the rumour that the child was not the queen's at all, but had been brought into the palace in a warming-pan ; and James' folly had deprived him of the power of refuting the story, which was widely believed by the Protestants. Three weeks later the bishops were tried for libel. The best lawyers were employed on both sides, everything that could be done by the crown judges Acquittal of to secure a verdict was attempted ; but a verdict of *^® bishops. " Not guilty " was returned, and the shouts of the crowd told how popular was the result. That night all London was illuminated. Still the king would have been comparatively safe had he had the army with him. But his folly had lost him its support. He 284 The Stuarts » [less. had brought his men to Hounslow to overawe the Londoners, Defection of ^^^ ^^ citizens had won over the army. Their camp the army. j^^d been made a picnic-gromid, and the men were filled with popular sentiments. On the day of the bishops' trial James visitod the camp, and as he left it he heard sounds of cheering bursting from all sides. "What is that?" said the king. " Oh, nothing," said an attendant, " except that the soldiers are glad that the bishops are acquitted." "Do you call that nothing? so much the worse for them," said the king, and rode gloomily away. Still the popular leaders felt that they could do nothing unless they could secure a regular army which would keep James' men Invitation to ^ check till a free Parliament could declare the will ■WiUiam of of the nation ; so that very niffht Admiral Herbert Orange left London, carrying a letter to William of Orange, asking him to come over with an army and secure the liberties of the people. This letter was signed, not only by the Whigs Edward Russell, Henry Sidney, and the Earl of Devonshire, but also by the Tory Lumley, by Danby, the minister of Charles II., and by Compton, Bishop of London, and there was no doubt that it expressed the wishes of the nation. It was not, however, easy for William to respond. He had three things to fear. First, that Louis XIV. would do all he could. Difficulties in ^^^ ^^^7 ^'^ warn and help James, but also to stir up ■Wimam's way. William's enemies in Holland to prevent his sailing; second, that if he went to England, it would be thought that he had gone to head a religious war, which would alienate those Catholics who were his allies against France ; third, that, if he went over and won a battle with his Dutch troops over the English, he would rouse the patriotism of the English, and so incline them How they were to support James. Fortunately at this crisis Louis removed. offended the Dutch burghers by passing laws against . their trade, and made them William's firm friends ; the same monarch also quarrelled with the pope, so that the Catholic powers were divided against themselves ; while James, by bringing over Irish regiments, disgusted the English soldiers, and removed the third cause of William's anxiety. Accordingly, the prince made his arrangements, and issued a declaration in which he gave a list of James' bad acts, and declared that, as husband of Mary, he was 1688.] James II, 285 coming with an army to secure a free and legal Parliament, by whose decision he would abide. Hitherto James had been as high-handed as ever. Almost with- out exception the clergy had refused to read the declaration, and he had had a list of ten thousand names prepared to james begins be proceeded against in the Privy Council. But *° retract, when he heard that William was coming he reversed his acts, dis- solved the Ecclesiastical Commission, restored the Fellows of Magdalen College, and removed Sunderland and Petre, the Jesuit, from the council, and restored the charters of London and other towns. William, however, had gone too far to retract. The great lords who had sent the invitation were ready to raise an insurrection in the north. Lord Churchill, afterwards Duke of Marl- _ ' . ^William borough, whose wife was the bosom friend of the invades Princess Anne, sharing the disgust of the army at island, the intrusion of the Irish, had planned a secession in the army and the flight of Anne to the rebels. William, therefore, determined to persevere, and after being driven back once by an adverse wind, he finally sailed on November 2. Even then his plans had to be altered. He had intended to land in Yorkshire, where the northern earls were ready to receive him ; but, the wind being unfavourable he steered for the Channel, and on November 5 liandsat landed at Torbay. This was unfortunate, as the west Torbay. had been cowed by the Bloody Assize. However, it could not be helped, and William directed his march on London. The king advanced his troops to Salisbury, and was preparing for battle when Churchill's treachery defeated his plans. One james after another officers and men slipped over to the deserted, invaders, and Churchill himself presently followed. The Princess Anne deserted her father and joined the northern insurgents. In this state of things James did not know whom to trust. His first act was to send away his wife and the little Prince of Wales. Assured of their safety, he entered into negotiations. Flight of and had actually made arrangements for calling a James. Parliament, when, suddenly changing his mind, he fled in disguise from London, throwing the great seal into the water as he crossed the Thames. His flight relieved William of much embarrassment, and 286 The Stuarts. [less- the prince was by no means pleased when he heard that some fisher- men had captured James mider the idea that he was a smuggler. James was brought back to Kochester, but, every facility being afforded him, he again escaped, and was this time successful in reaching France, where he was received with respect by Louis XIV. While James was at Eochester William arrived in arrives in London, and as the king's flight had left everything liondon. .^ disorder, he at once assembled the peers, all persons who had sat in any of Charles II.'s Parliaments, and the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London, and asked their advice. They advised that a Convention should be regularly elected, which should only differ from a Parliament in being summoned by a man who was not king. In January, 1689, the Convention met. Some members were in favour of James being stiU king in name, with William as regent ; others thought that Mary was queen by the fact of "WiUiam and ° j -^ j Mary become her father's flight. But neither of these schemes being ting and dueen. ^^^gp^-^^ig ^^ William, and Mary most generously giving way, it was determined to settle the crown upon William and Mary, and to draw up a Declaration of Eight which should reaffirm the most important principles upon which the constitution of the country rested. William and Mary then became king and queen. These proceedings are generally known as the Eevolution. The Declaration of Eight, which afterwards formed the basis of the Bill of Eights, is one of the most important documents in English TiieDeciara- history. It brought to a close the great struggle tionof Rig-iit. between the king and the Parliament, which had now lasted nearly one hundred years, by laying down the law on a number of disputed points, all of which during this period had been matters of protest on the side of the Parliament. After stating one by one the chief unconstitutional acts of James II., it proceeded to make the following declarations : — L The pretended power of suspending or dispensing with the laws as assumed of late is illegal. 2. The late Court of Ecclesiastical Commission and aU other such courts are illegal. 3. Levying money by pretence of prerogative without grant of Parliament is illegal. I 1689.] James II. 287 4. Keeping a standing army in time of peace, miless with consent of Parliament, is illegal. 5. Subjects haA^e a right to petition the king. 6. The election of members of Parliament ought to be free. 7. Freedom of speech and debate in Parliament ought not to be questioned in any court or place out of Parliament. 8. Excessive fines must not be imposed, and jurors in cases for high treason must be freeholders. 9. For redress of all grievances and for the strengthening of the laws Parliament ought to be held frequently. 10. William and Mary are declared King and Queen of England, and all who are Papists or who shall marry a Papist are declared incapable of possessing the crown. After the death of both William and Mary, the crown was to go to their children, if they had any. If not, to the Princess Anne and her children ; and, in case of their failure, to the children of William by any other wife. The effect of the Revolution was threefold. In the first place, it destroyed the Stuart theorj^ of the divine right of kings, by changing the order of succession and setting up a king and queen who owed their position to the choice of Parhament. In the second, it gave an opportunity for reassertmg the principles of the English constitution, which it had been the aim of the Stuarts to set aside. In the third, it began what may be called the reign of Parliament. Up to the Revolution there is no doubt that the guiding force in directing the policy of the nation had been the will of the king. Since the Revo- lution the guiding force has been the will of the Parliament. CHAPTEK VI. William and Mart, 1689-1702 (13 years). William, born 1650 ; married 1677. Mary, born 1662 ; died 1694. Chief Characters of the Reign. — George Savile, Marquess of Halifax ; Lord Danby, created Duke of Leeds ; the Earl of Shrewsbury ; the Earl of Nottingham ; Lord Godolphin ; Lord Churchill, afterwards Duke of Marlborough ; Somers ; Herbert, Lord Torrington ; Edward Russell, created Lord Orford ; Charles Montague, Earl of Halifax ; the Earl of Tyrconnel ; General Talmash ; Bentinck, Earl of Portland ; Thomas, Earl of Wharton ; Viscount Dundee. The new king was not likely to be a popular sovereign. Though he was beloved by his intimate friends, his manners were reserved in general society. At ordinary times his demeanour -w-miam's was cold, and those only who had seen him on the character and field of battle were aware of the energy of his spirit. In religion he cared little for outward forms, and was in favour of toleration ; in theology his views were Calvinistic. In foreign politics he was chiefly animated by hostility to Louis XIV., whose ambition he rightly regarded as dangerous to the interests of Eng- land and Holland, and threatening to the balance of power. At home he wished to allay the strife of parties and to unite the whole nation in support of his foreign policy. Mary, on the other hand, was engaging in her character, and as the representative of the direct line of the house of Stuart, her popularity was of great political importance. William's views naturally allied him to the Whigs, who agreed with him that it was better to fight Louis abroad than to give him peace to arrange an invasion of England. At the same time, the king believed that he would do well not to alienate the Tories, by whom, equally with the Whigs, he had been invited to England; so he formed a ministry com- The new posed of the noblemen of both parties, in which ministry. Danby was President of the Council, Halifax Privy Seal, Notting- u 290 The Stuarts. [i689- ham and Shrewsbury Secretaries, and Godolpliin leading member of the Treasury Board, a committee which discharged the duties of the Lord High Treasurer. At the same time that these appoint- ments were made, James' servile judges were dismissed, and twelve new ones appointed in their stead. The Convention was now, without re-election, made into a Parliament. The annual revenue was fixed at £1,200,000, of which about £700,000 was given to the king for the support of the crown, and the rest was voted from time to time according to estimates prepared by the ministers. The first of these sums was called the Civil List. In this way Parliament secured a much firmer hold over the expenditure of the government, and the system has since then been made still more elaborate. In order to weed out all persons disaffected to the The non- government, a new oath of allegiance and supremacy jurors. Tj^as imposed on all place-holders both in Church and State. Seven bishops and about three hundred clergymen, who did not admit the right of Parhament to change the succession, refused to take it, and became, with their lay supporters, the body of non- jurors. They were, of course, deprived of their places. In 1689 the first annual Mutiny Act was passed. In the Declara- tion of Rights it had been declared that it was illegal for the king to The Mutiny keep a standing army in time of peace without the ^^^' consent of Parliament. Since the Restoration, the standing army had been looked upon with great dislike by the Whigs, and it was hardly more popular with the Tories, but the necessities of the times clearly showed that England could no longer afford to be without one. A device, however, was found by which the advantages of a standing army were secured, while danger to liberty was decreased. This plan was to pass the Mutiny Act annually, so that if it were not renewed, the legal authoritj'' of the government over the soldiers would cease. As an additional safe- guard, the money for the army was voted for one year only, so that if Parhament felt any danger it could, by refusing to pass the Mutiny Act or to vote supplies, deprive the king of the force. The Nonconformists had played an important part in the Revolu- The Toleration ^io^) ^^^ ^^x% now rewarded by a bill, passed to allow Act. freedom of worship to Protestant Nonconformists; 1692.] William IIL and Mary. 291 their political disabilities, however, were left untouched, while the position of the Roman Catholics was unaltered. So many persons were liable to prosecution for the share which they had officially taken in James' proceedings, and in the various conspiracies and disturbances of the last two reigns, that a Bill of iheBm Indemnity was brought forward ; but the Whigs tried of indemnity, to introduce many exceptions, and the struggle between them and the Tories became so violent, that William, appalled at the difficulty of governing with such a distracted assembly, was hardly re* strained from returning to Holland. Parliament was then dissolved, and the difficulty was surmounted by an act of grace from the crown, which excluded only the regicides of Charles I. and about thirty others ; this The new number was, for the times, exceedingly moderate. Parliament. In March, 1690, the new Parliament met. In it the Tories had a majority, partly due to the natural reaction against the government, which always follows a great change, and partly to the unfair advantage which the Tories still possessed through the remodelling of the corporations by the last two kings. Hahfax, whose character v^as always that of a dispassionate critic rather than an active politician, then left the government, and the Tory Danby, who had now been created Marquess of Carmarthen, took the lead. We must now turn to the events in Scotland and Ireland. In Scotland the policy of the last two kings had been in complete opposition to the wishes of the people. Episcopacy Events in had been established as the law of the land, and Scotland. no one but an Episcopalian had been allowed to sit in Parliament or to vote at elections. The Presbyterians had been subjected to severe persecution, and during the late reign Catholics had been placed in the chief offices. As was natural, the news of events in England produced in Scotland a violent reaction* A Convention \vas called, whose members were chosen in elections at which I'resbyterians voted without regard to the law. The Whigs, there- fore, had a majority, and with hardly any opposition they accepted William and Mary as king and queen, and restored Presbyterianism. Nevertheless, the standard of James was raised in Scotland by John Graham of Claverhouse, Viscount Dundee, who called the 292 The Stuarts. [I689- Higlilanders to arms. The clans, however, were not unanimous, and when Mackay, WiUiam's general, marched from Perth to assist his friends, he was attacked by Dundee as his van-guard emerged Battle of from the narrow pass of Killiecrankie. In this battle Kuuecrankie. ^^ Highlanders charged the regulars with such violence, that after their first volley the English found the clansmen among them before they could fix bayonets. Taken thus at a disadvantage, they were defeated ; but a chance bullet killed Dundee, and Mackay brought off his troops with great skill. The fall of Dundee discouraged the Highlanders ; the movement was practically without a leader, and the clansmen soon returned to their homes, leaving William and Mary undisputed sovereigns. Measures were then taken to secure the pacification of the Highlands, and in the course of these occurred, in 1692, the The massacre niassacre of Glencoc. This cruel act, which has Of Giencoe. attracted much more notice in modern times than it did at the time, was due to the ill will between the Highlanders and the Lowlanders of Scotland. A proclamation was issued, ordering the Highland chiefs to swear allegiance to King William before January 1, 1692. The chiefs put off submission to the last moment, and one of them, the chief of the M 'Donalds of Giencoe, owing to a series of accidents, contrived to be too late. His enemies took advantage of this to get an order from the English government to " extirpate " the M'Donalds. Sufficient inquiry was not made before the order was given ; and nothing can excuse the treachery with which it was carried into efiect. The soldiers who were sent into the glen lived on the most friendly terms Avith the clansmen, till word was brought that all the passes were secured. Then, in the dead of night, they fell upon their hosts, the greater number of whom were shot or stabbed, and most of those who survived the massacre died miserably of cold and hunger. This cruelty naturally embittered the feelings of the Highlanders against the government. In Scotland the hatred of the people was turned against the government, in Ireland it was directed against English rule. There Events in James' preference for the Catholics made him popular, Ireland. j^^t the land question still rankled in the minds of the people, and the opportunity was taken to attack the English settlers, 1692.] William III. mid Mary. 293 and to make a push for Irish independence. The leader of the movement was James' lord-deputy, Tyrconnel, and assistance was expected from France. The flames spread rapidly over the three southern provinces, and in Ulster the Protestant settlers were fiercely attacked. The Scottish settlers for the most part retired to Londonderry, the Cromwellians to Enniskillen. So favourable did his prospects seem, that James came over and put himself at the head of the movement. His arrival, however, only served to cause disunion, as he had naturally no sympathy with the Irish desire for separation. Meanwhile the Protestants at Londonderry were reduced to terrible straits, as they were blockaded by land, and the outlet to the sea was stopped by a boom. However, by gi-eat exertions the boom was broken, and in July Relief of Londonderry was reheved, after a siege of nearly '^''^^^^^' four months. The same day Colonel Wolseley, with Newtown the men of Enniskillen, defeated a detachment of ^^tier. the Irish army at Newtown Butler, and expelled the rebels from that district. Schomberg, a German Protestant in William's service, now came over to take the command of the troops, while James' men were posted on the Boyne to guard the road from Bel- Battle of fast to Dubhn. In the summer of 1690 WHliam tue Boyne. came over in person ; he crossed the Boyne in the face of the foe, and sending a detachment higher up the river to threaten the enemy's rear, attacked their position in front. Though Schomberg was killed, the manoeuvre was completely successful. James himself hurried early from the field to secure his retreat to Dublin, and his whole army followed in disastrous rout. From Dublin James fled to Waterford, and sailed for France, leaving his supporters to their fate. While James was in Ireland, the French, against whom war had been declared in 1689, had made a great expedition against England. They had been met by a combined fleet Battle of of English and Dutch, the former under Herbert, BeacHyHead. Lord Torrington. Herbert was the man who had brought to William the invitation to come over to England, but he had now become lukewarm, and allowed himself to be defeated at Beachy Head by the French. Teignmouth was burnt; but happily the 2 94 T^^ Stuarts, [i689- French then retired without doing further damage. This defeat, instead of disheartening the Enghsh, roused their indignation. Loyal offers of assistance reached Mary from all sides, and when William returned from Ireland he found himself more firmly seated on the throne than before. The conclusion of the Irish war was trusted to Ginkel, a Dutch- man, and to Churchill, now Earl of Marlborough. Marlborough Conclusion of subdued the south, while Ginkel, forcing the passage tiie Irish war. of the Shannon at Athlone, made his way into Connaught, and won the battle of Aughrim. Limerick was then besieged, and its capitulation brought the war to a conclusion. By this capitulation the Irish troops were allowed to retire abroad under the command of their own officers ; and the Boman Catholics were promised the enjoyment of the same privileges which they had had under Charles II. The Irish Protestants, however, less tolerant than the English government, clamoured against these concessions to their felloW'Subjects. William found himself obliged to yield; the government of Ireland was again restored to the Protestants, and the disabilities of the Catholics were made heavier than before. During the first years of William's reign few people thought that he would be able to hold his own against James and Louis, so timid and crafty men were desirous of standing well with Disaffection , , ., y,^ ' i p it among the both sidcs. Many, therefore, corresponded with nobles. james and the English exiles, not so much with an idea of doing anything themselves to bring James back, as in order to escape punishment if he happened to be successful. Almost all the great statesmen of the day did this, even Marl- borough and Shrewsbury and Russell, who had done as much as any one to set William on the throne. William usually knew of their doing bo, but was not strong enough to take much notice of it. In 1692, however, special attention was drawn to Marlborough's correspondence, and he was dismissed from all his offices. Since 1689 England had been at war with France. The greater part of the fighting took place in the Netherlands, where Louis had War with possessed himself of several strong fortresses, of which France. ^.j^g chief was Namur. William's practice was to go to the wars in the summer, and returnto England during the winter, 1695.] William III, and Mary. 295 at which time Parliament then sat. While William was abroad Mary ruled alone. In the spring of 1692 Louis and James collected a fleet at Brest, and massed a large army on the coast Louis and of Normandy in order to invade England. The danger ''^^^o^^^^^da '^^ was pressing, as in the last naval battle the French England, had been victorious, and the government knew that Russell, their admiral, had been corresponding with James. Fortunately at this crisis James drew up a proclamation, in which he declared that if he were successful he would punish a large number of persons of all classes. This proclamation fell into the hands of the queen, who at once published it with explanatory notes ; and this clever move roused the whole country to indignation. Russell, too, though he was not unfriendly to James, had no idea of allowing an English fleet to be beaten by a French one, and declared his intention to fight though James himself was on board. Consequently, when the EngHsh and French met off Cape La Hogue, Battle of cape nothing could withstand the vehemence of the English ^^ Hogue. attack. The French fleet was utterly destroyed, and the English admiral burnt the French transports which had been collected on the Norman coast, under the eyes of James himself. La Hogue was the greatest naval victory won by the English between the defeat of the Armada and the battle of Trafalgar. Unfortunately, the same year William himself was defeated at Steinkirk, and the next year he was again beaten at Landen. In these battles the English soldiers showed great courage, and though they had not sufficient training as yet to cope with the veterans of Louis, they were gaining the experience which enabled Marlborough to win his victories. In 1694 an expe- dition was sent against the French naval station at Brest; but it was a failure, for the English plans had been be- Treachery of trayed to the French by Marlborough. The French, Mariborougn. therefore, were prepared, and the English met with so warm a recep- tion that they were forced to retire with the loss of their commander, Talmash. This general was the best of the rising men. It is thought that Marlborough was jealous of him, and wished to remove him from his path. If he did, he was successful, for as no one knew of his treachery at the time, William, now that Talmash was dead, again employed Marlborough. In 1695 William formed the siege 296 The Stuarts. ri693- of Namur, which he conducted with such skill that the place fell Fan of Namur '^^ ^P^*® ^^ ^ Louis' efforts ; and this great success Peace of made up for the failures at Steinkirk, Landen, and Uyswick. Brest. Two years later peace was made at Ryswick, by which Louis agreed to give up all the conquests he had made since the treaty of Nimwegen in 1678, and acknowledged Wilham as King of England. This treaty was the subject of great rejoicing in England. We saw that William began by forming a government from the members of both parties. This plan, however, did not work well, Party for the opinions of Whigs and Tories were so different government. ^(^^1^ ^j^gy could not act together. Under these cir- cumstances, Sunderland, the clever but unscrupulous minister of James II., advised William in 1693 to form a united Whig ministry h^ gradually weeding all the Tories out of the government. William took this advice, and carried it out between 1693 and 1695. In that year the Duke of Leeds, formerly Marquess of Carmarthen, was forced to give up his post, and Godolphin, who was a clever financier but cared little for either party, remained the only Tory in the government. William's reign was remarkable for many financial changes. In this department his chief advisers were Godolphin and Montague, The National Chancellor of the Exchequer. In 1693 Montague Debt. originated the National Debt. It had long been the practice for English kings to borrow money on their own security, and Parliament had often been appealed to to pay their debts. William's position, however, was so precarious that he would have had much difficulty in borrowing money, and at the same time it would not have been politic to levy heavy taxes. Meanwhile the expenses of the war were great, and Montague, therefore, devised the plan of borrowing money on the security of the government, so that the money was lent, not to the king, but to the nation, and was, therefore, called the National Debt. This was also useful to the government, in a special way, because the national creditors, fearing lest, if William were deposed, the debt should be repudiated, were eager supporters of the Revolution. In 1694 the Bank of England was established. It was a corpora- tion or company who in that year lent £1,200,000 to the govern- 1696.] William III. and Mary, 297 nient, at the rate of eight per cent, interest. This gave them, with a further sum of £4000 for management, an income ^ , ^ ^ ' Bank of of £100,000 yearly. In return for the loan the com- England pany were also allowed to receive deposits of money and to issue promises to pay on demand, which were called bank- notes. This institution was of great advantage to the country, because persons who had capital felt that they could safely lend it to the bank, while the bank in their turn lent it out to enterprising people whom they could trust, and in this way trade was benefited and both parties were advantaged. The establishment of the bank still further united the mercantile classes in support of the government. In 1696 the country gentry wished to form a Land Bank, in imitation of the Bank ^ Land Bank of England; but, unlike the merchants, the land- projected, owners had very little ready money to advance, and they could not lend their land, so they were never able to get together sufficient capital to start the undertaking. Their failure, however, was a sore disappointment to the Tories. The same year that the Land Bank was projected, the government did a great service to the whole country by renewing the coinage. Latterly this had got into a bad state, partly through Renewal of the illegal coinage of false money, but more because *^® coinage, in those days money was not made as it is now, with a milled or serrated edge, but smooth. It was, therefore, not easy to say at a glance whether a little had not been cut off the edge, and so clipping was very common. This was bad for trade, because no one knew what the value of money was, and as merchants wished to weigh the money before they parted with their goods, business could not be carried on between people at a distance. It was every- body's interest that this should be put right, so in 1696 the govern- ment called in the bad coins, and gave others of the same name, but of the full value, to those who brought them. The nation paid the cost of the difference, and a great boon was conferred on trades of all kmds. The management of this transaction was entrusted to Somers the great lawyer, Locke the philosopher, Montague the financier, and Sir Isaac Newton the astronomer, who was made master of the Mint. The establishment of the National Debt and the Bank of England, and the renewal of the coinage, form an 298 The Stuarts. [i696. epoch in the history of English commerce, and won for the govern- ment the good will of all who were concerned in trade. Until the accession of William III. the great object of Whig statesmen had been to obHge the king to call frequent Parliaments, Triennial Acts ^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^ ^^^^ Spirit that the Triennial Act had passed. \,QQTi. passcd by the Long Parliament. However, since supplies had been voted annually, and the Mutiny Act had to be renewed, there was no danger that Parliament would not meet every year. The new fear was that if the king got a House of Commons to his mind, he would never dissolve it, and so that for long periods Parliament might be out of accord with the country. Indeed, since the old Triennial Act had been repealed in 1664, Charles II. had kept one Parliament sitting for seventeen years without a dissolution. To prevent this, William's Parliament twice passed a Triennial Bill, limiting the duration of Parliament to three years. The first time William refused his consent, but in 1694 he gave it. In consequence of this Act, a general election took place at least once every three years. Ever since the Reformation the government had claimed to regulate the printing and publication of books, with a view to forbid i-ibertyof ^^^^ ^^ might be injurious either to religion or the press. morality, or were likely to spread seditious opinions. Till the meeting of the Long Parliament this duty had been exercised by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and persons who printed unlicensed books had been prosecuted in the Courts of Star Chamber and High Commission. After the dissolution of those courts, the press for a short time was free ; but the Long Parlia- ment itself, alarmed by the flood of pamphlets which inundated the country, again obliged books to be licensed, in spite of the pro- testations in favour of liberty of the press which were addressed to it by Milton in his " Areopagitica." At the Restoration a Licensing Act was passed, by which the whole control of printing was vested in the government, and printing was only allowed at London, York, and the Universities. This Act was renewed for a term of years from time to time, but in 1695 it expired, and Parliament refused to renew it. Since that year there has been complete liberty to publish, but libels have, of course, been liable to prosecution as any other criminal offence. 1696.] William III, 299 During tiie whole reign there were a series of plots. As early as 1691, Viscount Preston, a Roman Catholic, was ^, ^ . ^ ' ' Plots against convicted of treasonable practices. So long as the Mary lived, her popularity was William's security, sovemmen . Most unhappily, she died of small-pox in 1694, and this terrible loss — 'for William had learned to know her worth — not only cast a gloom over his whole life, but also made him much more liable to assassination, for his single life might be thought to stand in the way of a restoration. From that time forward he was in constant danger. In 1696 a plot was arranged by Sir G-eorge Barclay to murder him on his return from hunting, in a lane near Bichmond, There is little doubt that James himself was in the secret, for a large French army was ready on the French shore to cross the Channel as soon as word of William's death was brought. Fortunately the govern- ment heard of the plot, and arrested the conspirators. So great was the indignation of the whole country at this infamous plan, that an association was formed to avenge William's death in case of his murder, and to support the succession of Anne. The share the French had in the attempt determined Parliament to continue the war, whatever happened. Just before the conspiracy was detected. Parliament had passed an important act regulating trials for treason. Up to this time the conduct of these trials had given every assistance . ^ ° '' Act reg-ulatme to the government, and put the accused at a great trials for disadvantage. Till the trial began he was neither informed of the names of the jury, nor of the exact charge which was to be brought against him, and witnesses for the defence were not allowed to be examined on oath. By the new act the prisoner was to have a copy of the indictment and a list of the jury five days before the trial, and his witnesses were to be examined on oath, By the law of Edward VI, two witnesses were necessary for conviction, but the safeguard conveyed by this rule had been narrowed by the crown lawyers to such an extent, that Algernon Sidney was convicted on the evidence of one witness, and the testimony afforded by some unpublished papers found in his desk. By the new law two witnesses were required to one open act, or one to one and another to another open act of the same kind of treation. 300 The Stuarts, [i697- This law, while it secured the safety of innocent men, un- doubtedly made it harder to convict the guilty. Indeed, it was The case of Satirically said that the object of the act was to make Fenwick. treason as safe as possible ; and in the case of Sir John Fenwick, who was tried in 1697, a guilty man nearly escaped through its provisions. Lady Fenwick contrived to convey out of the country one of the two witnesses against him ; but Par- liament was not willing to allow justice to be foiled in this way, BO, as in the case of StralBford, a bill of attainder was substituted for a prosecution at law, and by that process Fenwick was put to death for high treason. One advantage only came to William from Mary's death. Marl- borouo;h became his devoted friend: for now that becomes the Mary was gone, Anne was certam to succeed, and kingsfrieud. ^^^^ Anne, Marlborough's wife had at this time un- bounded influence, so that he saw in her accession the prospect of unfettered power. The peace of Eyswick, which terminated the war in 1697, had a great effect upon William's position, for it removed all fear of a Party French invasion. Next year, 1698, a general election struggles. took place, and a majority of Tories was returned. These men had little sympathy with William ; they were smarting under taxation which had fallen very heavily on the landed gentry, who had not shared with the mercantile classes the recent com- mercial advantages which the government had secured. Moreover, they did not share William's view that it was needful to be on the watch against the ambition of Louis XIV. Accordingly, on the conclusion of peace, Parliament at once reduced the army to ten thousand men, and in 1699, much to William's disgust, the Dutch guards, his favourite soldiers, were sent home. At the same time, attacks were made upon the way in which William had granted to his Dutch favourites the property which had been forfeited by the Irish rebels. William had formerly dismissed his Tory advisers, in order that his ministry might agree with a Whig Parliament; he now recalled the Tories to power. Shrewsbury, Montague, Russell, and Somers were dismissed ; and in 1700 Rochester and Godolphin entered the Cabinet. Meanwhile the question of the succession had again become 1701.] William III. 3^1 unsettled. Anne had had nineteen children ; but of these the last, the Duke of Gloucester, died in 1700, and as the Tiie question succession of her line, which had been reckoned upon ^^ succession. in 1688, had now failed, it became necessary to make a new arrangement. James' reliance on France and his unlucky pro- clamation had done nothing to win him favour; so in 1701 the Parhament, though Tory, passed the Act of Settlement, ii^e Act of sometimes called the Succession Act, by which the settlement. Electress Sophia, wife of the Elector of Hanover, and daughter of Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia, daughter of James I., was recognized as Anne's successor. There were other descendants of James I. who stood nearer to the throne than Sophia, but they were all rejected as Roman Catholics, so that Parliament really chose the fittest person in the royal family, just as the old Witenagemot used to do in the days before the Norman Conquest. In the Act of Settlement several provisions were inserted which had been omitted from the Bill of Rights. By a most important clause, it was enacted that the judges were to be ^^^ provision appointed for life, and were to receive fixed salaries, inserted in and that they could not be removed except on con- viction of some offence, or on an address to the king by both Houses of Parliament. This excellent arrangement continues to this day, and has completely secured the judges from any suspicion of subservience to the policy of the crown. Though the Tories had passed the Act of Settlement, they were not less hostile to William's Whig policy, and in 1701 they impeached the Whig ex-ministers for their share in nie partition the partition treaties. These treaties were the out- treaties, come of a European difficulty. The King of Spain was in poor health, and had no direct heir. One of his sisters, Maria Theresa, had married Louis XIV. ; another, Margaret, married the Emperor Leopold I. Moreover, his aunt Maria was herself the mother of Leopold. It was doubtful whether Maria Theresa, Margaret, or Maria was the true heir of Charles. The claims of these three Princesses were represented respectively by their grandchildren, Philip of France, Joseph, Electoral Prince of Bavaria, and the Archduke Charles of Austria. (See note, p. 302.) 362 The Stuarts. titol The question was very important, for in Europe the Spanish king possessed Spain, the Netherlands, the kingdom of Naples and Sicily, and the duchy of Milan ; in the New World) the spanisii large dominions in America, such as Mexico, Peru, succession. ^^^^^ ^^^ q^^^ . ^^^ ^^ ^.j^^ ^^^^^ ^f ^gj^^ ^j^g t^hilippine Islands. If the French prince succeeded, it was thought that overwhelming power would be given to France, both in Europe and in the colonies. If the Austrian were chosen, overwhelming power would be given in Europe to the Austrians. England dreaded most the union of the French and Spanish colonies; William himself feared the aggrandizement of France in Europe. Under the circumstances a compromise was agreed on, and the largest share was given to the electoral prince,* whom no one The Partition fe^^^ed. Ilnfortunately he died in 1699, and then a Treaties. j^ew partition was made between the Austrian and ^French claimants, William securing Spain, the Netherlands, and the colonies, for the Austrians, which suited the views of both the English and the Dutch. These arrangements were prudent; but the English Tories disliked England's meddling on the Continent, as they were jealous of increasing the standing army, and did not care for the mercantile motives which actuated the Whigs. They therefore impeached Russell, Somers, and Montague, the leading Whigs, and Bentinck, the king's most intimate friend, for their share in the transaction i They even asked the king to dismiss them from his councils before they had been found guilty. This outrageous demand disgusted the country, and when the Commons, * THE SPANISH SUCCESSION. Philip lir., King of Spain, d. 1621. iPhilip IV., d. 1665. Maria, = Emperor Charles II., Maria {\) Margaret, = Leopold I., = (2) Princess d. 1670. Theresa, = Louis XIV. | of Neuburg, I Electress of Louis, dauphin. Bavaria. J. I Philip Joseph, Archduke (2nd son). Electoral Charles. Prince. 1702.] William III. 303 feeling their mistake, did not appear to prosecute Somers, the Lords declared him acquitted, and the other prosecutions dropped. Before this time the danger which the partition treaties were intended to remove had come to pass. In 1700 Charles of Spain died. The Spaniards had not been consulted in the partition treaties, and they naturally wished their dominions, of which they were proud, to be kept together. Accordingly, at Charles' death, they offered the crown to Louis XIV.'s grandson Philip. On his behalf The French it was accepted, Louis remarking that " the Pyrenees ^"Je^crown*^ had ceased to exist." When Louis poured his troops of Spain, into the Spanish Netherlands the Dutch were alarmed, but the English Tories would not fight for such a remote objects The whole scene was, however, changed by the death of James II* Louis, in spite of the treaty of Ryswick, recognized i,ouis his son as James III. This act of defiance roused recognizes Whigs and Tories alike. William saw that the tide as King of had turned, dissolved Parliament, and the nation England, answered his call by electing Whig members, pledged to support the principles of the Revolution and the Act of Settlement. William instantly dismissed his Tory ministers, and prepared for war. Parliament readily voted supplies, and, to secure the Protestant succession, imposed an oath to uphold it on all who held employment in Church and State. All Europe was arming, and William saw himself about to fulfil the dream of his life by leading a victorious army to the invasion of France, when a fall from his horse broke his collar-bone. Such a slight accident would have been nothing to a strong man, but to one worn with anxiety and work it was fatal, and in a few days the Death of king died. William was a great king, but not a WiUiam. popular one. His manners never won him the affection of the nation, and his far-reaching schemes were appreciated only by a few. In attempting to rule with a free Parliament, he had a difficult game to play, and though a minute examination can find many things to cavil at both in his private life and in his political career, he has the glory of having brought England safely through a great crisis, and also of being the first sovereign to work successfully a Parliamentary government, in the modern sense of that term. CHAPTER VII. An:ne, 1702-1714 (12 years). Bom 1665; married, 1683, Prince George of Denmark. Chief Characters of the Reign. — The Duke and Duchess of Marlborough ; Godolphin; Rochester; Nottingham; Prince Eugene ; Harley, created Earl of Oxford ; St. John, created Viscount Bolingbroke ; Charles Spencer, Earl of Sunderland ; Sir Robert Walpole ; Charles Mordaunt, Earl of Peterborough ; General, afterward Earl Stanhope ; Abigail Hill ; Dr. Sacheverell ; the Dukes of Shrewsbury, Argyll, and Somerset, Chief Contemporary Sovereigns. France. Spain. Louis XIV., 1643-1715. Philip and Charles (rivals). William's successor, Anne, was a very different sovereign. William had towered head and shoulders above most of the states- character of nien of his time ; he had been his own minister of Anne. foreign affairs and his own commander-in-chief, and his wishes had been the principal influence in the policy of England both at home and abroad. Anne, on the other hand, took her ideas from others, and had long been under the guidance of her imperious friend, Marlborough's wife. It was Marlborough, therefore, and not Anne, who really became the ruler of England, and for a long time he Was the guiding spirit both at home and abroad. By inchnation Marlborough was a Tory, and he gave the chief places in the government to Tories. He himself was commander-in-chief. War declared Nottingham was Secretary of State, and Godolphin against France, ^^g ^qj.^ Treasurer. In pursuance of William's plan, war was at once declared against iVance, and England enteted the field as the supporter of Charles of Austria, who claimed the crown of Spain in opposition to Philip of France, the grandson of Louis XIV. The war was carried on both in Spain itself and in the Netherlands. Louis had overrun the Netherlands with his troops, 1706.] Anne. 305 and Marlborough passed over to Holland with English troops to help the Dutch to drive them out. Many of the small states of Germany were on the side of Austria, and were fighting the French on the Rhine, while the Prince Eugene of Savoy was helping the Austrians to prevent the French from seizing Milan. There may be said, therefore, to have been four seats of war. In 1702 Marlborough's great exploit was to capture Li^ge, for which he was made a Duke and received a pension of £5,000 a year. In 1703 he made himself master of the lower course of the Rhine, on which Bonn is the chief fortress, and ,^ ,^ ' . , ' Marlboroug-h a thus secured his communications with his allies on operations the Rhine. The next year, 1704, the Elector of ^ ^°^ ' Bavaria joined the French, who sent a large army, under Tallard, with orders to unite with his forces, and then to terminate the war BATTLE OF BLENHEIM. by capturing Vienna itself. Marlborough, however, divined their plan, and leaving a strong force to watch the Netherlands, he marched with a mixed army of Englishmen and Dutchmen up the Rhine, and joining the Imperial army, under the Margrave of Baden, destroyed the Bavarian forces near Donauwerth. He was then joined by Prince Eugene. The two became firm friends, and they immediately advanced against Tallard. That general and the Elector of Bavaria drew up their forces at 3o6 The Stuarts. [1706. Blenheim, on the Danube. Their line was at right angles to the Battle of river, on which their right, posted in the village of Bienheiin. Blenheim, rested ; their front was defended by a small stream. Tallard commanded the centre and right; the Elector and the French Marshal Marsin led the left. Marlborough threw the bulk of his force against the French centre and left, and beat them, and then passing to the rear of Blenheim cut off" the troops there from their friends, and forced them to surrender. Tallard himself was captured, and the French army was thoroughly ruined. The victory of Blenheim saved Vienna and the cause of the allies, and the English were so proud of the success and so thankful for their relief, that Parliament asked the queen to give Marlborough the estate of Woodstock, near Oxford, and a pension for himself and his descendants. Had Marlborough been beaten at Blenheim, Vienna would almost certainly have been taken; England would have been invaded, and probably the line of James II, restored. The Capture of Same year Sir George Eooke and Sir Cloudesley Shovel Gibraltar. captured Gibraltar, the fortified rock which guards the narrow straits which unite the Atlantic and the Mediterranean — a for- tress which has increased in value to England from that day to this. In 1705 Marlborough was able to take the offensive against the Mariboroug-ii French, who had tried to guard the Netherlands by o^n^sive Constructing a series of defences from Antwerp to ag-ainst the Namur. Marlborough, however, cleverly made his Battle of ^^y through, and the next year, 1706, he again Bamimes. defeated the French at the battle of Eamillies. In this battle, as at Blenheim, the French army occupied a strong position. Their line was formed like a crescent along some rising ground, their left being defended by a marsh. Marlborougii, how- ever, recognizing that, if he could not get across the marsh, neither could the French, concentrated the mass of his forces for an attack on the French right ; and, having the shorter distance to march, he was thus superior at the point of attack, and succeeded in taking from the French the highest point in their position, called the Mound of Ottomond, from which his cannon could sweep the whole of the French hues. The French were forced to retreat precipitately, and as Marlborough was now in a position to take in the rear all the French troops who were further than he was from the French 1706. ] Anne. 307 frontier, they were obliged to evacuate Brussels, Antwerp, and Ghent, and confine themselves to defending the frontier towns, of which the chief were Lille, Tournay, Mons, and Namur. In 1707 there was no great battle; but in 1708 Marlborough and French Efiglish /** Position '"x^ Mai shy Gi ound BATTLE OF KAMILLIES, MAX, 1706. Prince Eugene beat the French, under Vendome, at Oudenarde, and took the great town of Lille. The next year Tournay Battle of fell, and the same year the aUies formed the siege of Oudenarde. Mons. Villars alone among the great French leaders had not been defeated, and he with a large force advanced to raise Battle of the siege. Marlborough met him at Malplaquet. ^aipiaquet. The slaughter was dreadful. The French were fighting behind 3o8 The Stuarts, ti7io. earthworks and fallen trees, but in the end they were forced to retire, and Mons at once capitulated. Lille, Tournay, and Mons were now in the hands of the aUies, and the road to France was open. Meanwhile in Spain fortune had been very fickle. The English leaders there were Charles Mordaunt, Earl of Peterborough, an The war erratic but able man, celebrated for the recklessness in Spain. g^nd rapidity of his movements, and General Stan- hope. In 1705 the allies captured Barcelona, and in 1706 Galway, a French refugee general, with an army of allies, captured Madrid, while Peterborough successfully defended Barcelona ; but in 1708 the allies were beaten at Almanza by the Duke of Berwick, a natural son of James II., and nephew of the Duke of Marlborough, Capture of ^-^d Madrid was recaptured. However, the same Minorca. yg^j. General Stanhope took Minorca, one of the Balearic Isles. In Italy, on the whole, the French had the better, but there seemed little chance of decisive success. Under these circumstances, in 1710 negotiations were entered into at Gertruydenberg. Louis was willing to give up the claims of Ineffectual ^i^ grandson, but the allies actually asked him to agree negotiation, ^q \^^^^ them in expelling him from Spain, and to this the French king would not consent. Accordingly the war went on, and that year Marlborough crossed the frontier and captured Capture of i Douay, a fortress on French soil. In Spain, Stanhope Douay. ^qj^ ^]^q battles of Almenara and Saragossa over the Ai^^nara^nd Spaniards ; but, by a turn of fortune, before the close Saragossa. of the year he was himself defeated and captured by Vendome at Brihuega. Pursuing the policy of Cromwell and Charles II., the English fleet throughout the war had been attacking the French colonies, and, besides annexing Gibraltar and Minorca, we also land towards sccured Newfoundland, and captured the French the colonies, g^ttlement of Acadie, which is now called Nova Scotia. An attack was also made upon Canada, but it was not successful. We must now return for a time to affairs at home. Marlborough Change in the had, as we saw, formed a mixed ministry, but he soon ^^ aXSra-^^ found that on the Whigs alone could he rely for ener- tion. getic support in the war policy ; so he first of all re- placed the strong Tory, Nottingham, by the moderate Tories, Harley 1702.] Anne. 309 and St. John. In 1706 Sunderland, a strong Whig, son of James II.'s minister, and son-in-law of Marlborough, was made Secretary of State. In 1708 even the moderate Tories, Harley and St. John, left the ministry, and Kobert Walpole, afterwards the famous Prime Minister, joined it. In this way the whole character of the adminis- tration was gradually changed. The great event of this period was the Union between England and Scotland. Since the accession of James I., the two countries, except for a short time under Cromwell, had had sepa- xjnion of rate Parliaments, and had, in fact, been independent England and of each other. This arrangement had not worked well, and both countries had something to complain of. The chief grievance of the Scots was, that by the terms of the navigation laws they were not allowed to trade with the English colonies ; on the other hand, the English were afraid that the Scots, by not accepting the Act of Settlement, might at Anne's death separate the two crowns. The Scots, too, feared that if the two countries were united, the Presbyterian Church of Scotland might suffer, and that the laws and customs of their country might be altered. They also feared that they would have to raise additional taxes to pay off the English National Debt. At Anne's accession the Scots were smarting under the failure of the Darien scheme. In ^ _ ^ Failure of 1699 a body of Scottish colonists had been sent out tiie Darien to occupy the Isthm^us of Darien. As the Spaniards claimed the soil on which it was planted, and saw that the colony could only be formed to trade, contrary to Spanish law, with the Spanish colonies, they were naturally hostile. The climate was unhealthy, and the Scots had not the resources to make their station a commercial mart. The scheme failed, and the greater part of the settlers perished miserably. The Scots threw the blame on England, and their rising hostility began to be very threatening. William saw clearly that the true remedy lay in the union of the two Parliaments and the opening of all trade to both countries, and his dying suggestion was that commissioners should Trr-m meet to settle the terms of union. Commissioners, suggestion for accordingly, met in 1702, but no agreement was come to. The Scots were still more annoyed, and in 1703 the Scottish Parliament resolved that Presbyterianism was the only 310 The Stuarts. [1707- true Cliurcli of Clirist in the kingdom, and passed a Bill of Security, Attitude of reserving to the Scottish Parhament the right of re- the Scots. fusing to acknowledge the successor to the throne named by England. At the same time they transferred the right of nominating the great officers of State from the Crown to Parliament. This attitude of the Scots made war probable, so it was met by an act of the English Parliament, introduced by the Whig, Somers, by which it was declared that after Christmas, 1705, Preparations all Scotchmen were to be regarded as aliens. All for war. importation of Scottish goods to England was pro- hibited, and orders were given to re-fortify the border towns. It was now clear that England was in earnest, and the com- missioners again met. The chief difficulties concerned the Church, Terms of the law, and the taxes. On all these points England ^^^°^' gave way, and the Umon was completed in 1707. The Established Church of Scotland, and the Scottish laws and judicial procedure, were secured. To equalize the burdens of the two nations, England paid Scotland £398,000, which was to be used to pay off the Scottish national debt and indemnify the shareholders of the Darien company. The commercial advantages of England were thrown open to the Scots without reserve. The Scots were not to be liable to any taxes which had already been voted by the English Parliament. It was arranged, on the other hand, that the title of the United Kingdom was to be Great Britain. The Scots were to have no separate Parliament, but forty-five members for Scotland were to sit in the House of Commons, and sixteen peers, chosen at each general election to represent the peers of Scotland, were to sit in the House of Lords. No new Scottish peers were to be created. At first the Union was most unpopular in Scotland. Both countries, however, gained by the Union. England was relieved Result of from a great danger ; and while Scottish susceptibili- tiie union. j.jgg ^^ matters of religion and law were fully con- sidered, the advantage which she gained by being allowed to trade with the English colonies was well worth a small sacrifice of senti- ment. The Union made the fortune of Scotland. The rapid growth of Glasgow and of the manufacturing industries of the Lowlands bear testimony to her improved fortune, while in recent years the popularity of Highland scenery which now attracts thousands of 1710.] Anne. 311 Englisli visitors yearly, and the residence of the court at Balmoral, have drawn close the bonds of sympathy between the two nations. The year after the Union the discontent of the Scots encouraged the French to make an attempt to stir up a Jacobite rebellion in Scotland: but the watchfulness of the English cruisers „ ' ° ^ French. prevented the French troops from landing, while the expedition to absence of the Pretender, who was prevented from sailing by an attack of measles, deprived the expedition of its best chance of success. In spite, however, of these great achievements, Marlborough's ministry tost popularity. At first the Whigs gained "Unpopularity power, but gradually the long war tired the patience torougii's of the nation. There was, however, little chance of ministry. displacing them as long as they retained their influence with the queen ; but Harley and St. John, who since their dismissal m 1708 had been the leaders of the opposition, had contrived to replace the Duchess of Marlborough in the queen's affection by Mrs. Abigail Hill, a cousin both of Harley and of the duchess, a Tory and High Churchwoman. Still the ministry, strong in the support of the commercial and middle classes, held its own; but in ^ ' ' Prosecution 1710 they made a great mistake in prosecuting Dr. of Dr. Sacheverell, a strong Tory, who had attacked the government in a sermon preached on " perils amongst false brethren." In this he assaulted the ministry as enemies of the Church. This prosecution made Sacheverell the martyr of the High Church party, and forty thousand copies of his sermon were sold. A great reaction took place in favour of the Tories, Anne „ ^. , ^ ' Reaction in herself attended the trial, and her coach was favourof surrounded by the mob, shouting, " We hope your majesty is for High Church and Dr. Sacheverell." Anne seized the turn of the tide to dismiss her ministers, and replace them by Tories, under the lead of Harley and St. John. Shrewsbury became Secretary of State, and Ormond Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. Marlborough alone was still retained in the command of the army. In 1711, however, the ministry, taking advantage of the indigna- tion caused by the attempt of a Frenchman, named vindictiveness Guiscard, to assassinate Harley, ventured to dismiss towards thefr the Duchess of Marlborough, and then to deprive opponents. 312 The Stuarts. [1713. tlie Duke himself of all his offices. Every effort was made to convict the duke of peculation. It was well known that he was fond of money, and that he had made large sums through per- centages from the moneys that had passed through his hands as commander-in-chief; but he successfully showed that he had done nothing which was hregular, and the crimmal prosecution had to be dropped. At the same time Eobert Walpole, who had supported Marlborough as Secretary at War, was impeached for peculation, and, though his guilt was doubtful, was sent to the Tower. This vindictive attack on their opponents only alienated from the Tories those fair- minded people who had formerly been disgusted by the prosecution of Dr. Sacheverell. The first object of the new ministry was the conclusion of peace ^th France. In this they were opposed by the Whigs and by The Tory the Earl of Nottingham, who, though a Tory, now policy. acted with the opposition. As the price of Notting- ham's aid, the Whigs agreed not to oppose the Occasional Con- formity Bill which the high Tories had long advocated. By the Test and Corporation Act no one could be a member of a corpora- tion, or hold a civil or miKtary office under the crown, unless he had taken the Sacrament according to the English form. Many Nonconformists had no objection to do this once, and then attended their own chapels as usual. This practice was called Occasional Conformity. The Tory majority in Anne's first House of Commons had three times passed a bill to prevent it, but on each occasion the bill was thrown out by the Whig majority in the Peers. It was now brought forward again, and passed both Houses without opposition in 1711. At the close of the year, as the Whigs and Nottingham had a majority in the House of Lords, Anne, by Harley's advice, created Creation of twclvc new Tory peers. This act smoothed the way new peers. ^^ ^j^^ government to the conclusion of peace, but the step naturally created great indignation among the Whig Peers. One of these. Lord Wharton, jestiDgly asked the new comers whether "they voted smgly or through their foreman," as though they had been a jury. Marlborough's place as commander-in-chief was taken by Ormond, but no further movements were attempted, and in 1713 the 1713.1 Anne. 313 war was brought to a conclusion by the Peace of Utrecht. This peace was a compromise. The Archduke had Peace of become Emperor in 1711, so that his accession would ftrecht. have been even more dangerous than that of Philip. Philip of France, therefore, was made King of Spain ; on the other hand, it was stipulated that the crowns of France and Spain should never be united. Austria received the Netherlands, so that their line of fortresses, which were to be partly garrisoned by Dutch troops, might be a barrier between France and Holland. To Austria also went Milan, Naples, and Sardinia. Sicily was given to Savoy. In Europe, England kept Gibraltar and Minorca. In the New World the Spanish colonies were kept by Spain, but England received the valuable monopoly of the slave trade, and the right of sending one shij) a year to trade with the Spanish colonies. England also kept Acadie (now caUed Nova Scotia) and the Island of St. Christopher in the West Indies. Her right to Newfoundland and to the Hudson's Bay territory was also secured. Louis agreed to ac- knowledge the Protestant succession. To these terms Austria and Holland gave their consent. The treaty of Utrecht was thought at the time not to be worthy of England's acceptance, and we behaved badly in not getting better terms for the Spaniards who had fought for Charles and for the Austrians and Dutch. Notting- ham and the Whigs did all they could to oppose its conclusion, but the votes of the twelve new peers carried the day for the court. On the whole the advantages gained by England itself were very real. Having settled this important matter, the Tory leaders had time to consider the policy of the future. Anne's death could not be long delayed, and it became a question whether they „ should support the succession of Sophia, or try to of the bring back the Pretender. There was very little en- thusiasm in the country for either claimant ; so it was quite possible that a determined ministry might turn the scale. It has never been quite ascertained what the policy of the ministry was. The two leaders, Viscount Bolingbroke (formerly St. John) Dissensions in and the Earl of Oxford (formerly Harley), were not the ministry, agreed. The latter was constitutionally timid and fond of com- promise ; the former was bold and enterprising. Possibly all Boling- broke wished, was to make a Tory government necessary to the House 3H The Stuarts, ti7i4. of Hanover. Whatever was their ultimate intention, the ministry- worked hard to secure the ascendency of the Tories. They made Ormond warden of the Cinque Ports, which commanded the south coast, and they dismissed many officers who were known to be devoted to Marlborough. These steps naturally roused the Hano- verian party, and a motion was made in Parliament to ask the electoral prince, Sophia's grandson, who was afterwards George H. to come over and represent his family in England. Bolingbroke then made a bold push to win the Tories by introducing fresh legis- lation against the Dissenters. This was the Schism Act, by which no one was allowed to keep a public or private school unless he was a member of the Church of England, and licensed by the bishop of the diocese. This intolerant measure was passed, in spite of the eloquent protest of thirty- three peers ; but it wrecked the ministry. By birth and education Oxford was a Nonconformist, and he had no sympathy with such an action; and Bolingbroke, finding him hesitate, had him dismissed from the office of Lord Treasurer. It now seemed as if Bolingbroke would have it aU his own way ; but within a few days Anne became dangerously ill. In this crisis _ the Dukes of Shrewsbury, Argyll, and Somerset acted verian sue- together. Shrewsbury, who had as a young man called cession secured. .^ ^ini^m of Orange, was, by then- request, made Lord Treasurer. This move destroyed Bolingbroke's power, and secured the Protestant succession. Oxford had been dismissed on July 27 ; on the 29th Shrewsbury took office ; on August 1 Anne died. The country was thus taken by surprise. If the Tories had prepared any plans, they had had no time to put them into execu- tion ; and immediately the queen was dead, the Whig lords, with Shrewsbury at their head, carried into effect the arrangements which had been prepared to secure the succession of the Protestant heir. Sophia herself had died two months before her cousin; so the successor was her son George, Elector of Hanover, who was proclaimed King of England as George I. Anne, 315 CHIEF WARS, BATTLES, SIEGES, AND TREATIES OF THE STUART PERIOD. (For Battles of the Civil War, see p. 263.) Expedition to the Isle of Rhe 1627 Battle of Newburn 1640 First war with the Dutch 1652-1654 Jamaica taken from the Spaniards 1655 Battle of the Dunes 1658 Second war with the Dutch 1665-1667 Treaty of Dover 1670 Third war with the Dutch 1672-1674 Battle of Sedgemoor 1685 War with the French 1689-1697 Battle of Killiecrankie 1689 Siege of Londonderry Battle of Beachy Head 1690 „ the Boyne ... „ Aughrim 1691 „ LaHogue 1692 „ Steinkirk ... ..; ... ... ... „ Landen 1693 Namur taken 1695 Peace of Ryswick 1697 War with the French 1702-1713 Battle of Blenheim 1704 Capture of Gibraltar Battle of Ramillies 1706 „ Oudenarde 1708 ,, Malplaquet , 1709 Treaty of Utrecht 1713 3i6 The Stuarts, CHIEF GENERAL EVENTS OF THE STUART PERIOD. The Gunpowder Plot 1605 Execution of Sir Walter Raleigh 1618 Thirty Years' War begins in Germany Impeachment revived 1621 Petition of Right 1628 Meeting of the Short Parliament 1640 Meeting of the Long Parliament November 3, First Civil War begins 1642 Second Civil War begins 1648 Execution of Charles I. 1649 Oliver Cromwell becomes Protector 1653 Restoration of Charles II 1660 Cabal Ministry 1667-1678 Exclusion Bill proposed 1679 Habeas Corpus Act passed ... — — Revolution 1688 Xational Debt established 1693 Bank of England founded 1694 Union of England and Scotland 1707 BOOK VIII THE HOUSE OF HANOVEB THE KINGS OF FRANCE SINCE 1714. Louis XIII., 1609-1643. Louis XIV., 1643-1715. Louis (dauphin), d. 1711. Louis, Duke of Burgundy, d. 1712. Louis XV., 1715-1774. Louis (dauphin), d. 1765. Philip, Kinj; of Spain, d. 1746. Philip, Duke of Orleans, d. 1710. I Philip (Regent), d. 1723, great-great-grand- father of Ferdinand of Spain. Charles, King of Naples, Louis XVI., Louis XVIII., Charles X., Louis Philippe, 1774-1793. 1815-1825. 1825-1830, 1830-1848. I abdicated. | Louis XVIL, Grandfather never reigned, of the Count d. 1795. de Chambord, who died without children, | 1884. Count de Duke of Duke Orleans, d'Aumale d. 1842. Paris. THE HOUSE OF STUART. James II., 1685-1688, d. 1701. James IIL (the Old Pretender), d. 1765. Charles Edward (the Young Pretender), d. 1788. Henry, Cardinal, d. 1807. THE HOUSE OF HANOVER. George I., 1714-1727. George II., Sophia = Frederick William, 1727-1760. I King of Prussia. Frederick the Great. Frederick, = Augusta Prince of Wales, d. 1761. of Saxe-Gotha. William, Duke of Cumberland, d. 1765. George III., = Sophia Charlotte 1760-1820. I of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. George IV.» = Caroline 1 820-1 8J7; of Princess Charlotte, d. 1817. Brunswick. Frederick, 'Williani IV., Edward, Duke of 1830-1837. Duke of York, — = Kent, d. 1827. d. 1820. Victoria = 1837- Albert of Saxe-Coburg, d. 1861. Princess Royal = Crown Albert Edward, Duke of Duke of Prince of Prince of Wales. Edinburgh. Connaught, Prussia. I Albert Victor Edward George, CHAPTER I. George I., 1714-1727 (13 years). Born 1660; married, 1682, Sophia of Brunswick. Chief Characters of the Reign. — Viscount Townsliend ; Sir Robert "Walpole ; Earl Stanhope ; Sunderland ; the Earl of Mar ; the Duke of Argyll ; Forster ; Aislabie ; Bolingbroke ; Atterburj'- ; Lord Carteret ; Joseph Addison ; Dean Swift ; Pulteney. Chief Contemporary Sovereigns. France. Sweden. Spain. Louis XIV., d. 1715. Charles XIL, d. 1718. Philip V., d. 1746. Louis XV., d. 1774. Till the arrival of the new king, the government was carried on by the seven great officers of State, and eighteen " Lords Justices." ciiaracteristics In September, George himself arrived in England. of George I. rpj^^ ^^^ j^j^^g j^^^^ many excellent qualities. He was diligent and business-like, kind to his friends and forgiving towards his enemies, and he was universally regretted by the inhabitants ot Hanover. But he was not likely to be a very popular king, for his merits made little show, while his failings were easily seen. He was fifty-four years of age, and therefore not likely to exchange the habits of Germany for those of England ; and he was not able to speak English. As was also natural, he cared more for his old subjects than he did for his new ones. But, when this has been said, the worst has been told ; and George had one great merit which in the eyes of Englishmen ought to outweigh all defects. He thoroughly trusted his ministers, and though he often wished to have his own way in Hanover, he allowed them to do what they thought best in England. Such a king was exactly what England wanted ; for, under George's unostentatious rule, the system of party government which we have seen growing up during the last two reigns took root and became a recognized principle of the English constitution. 1716.] George I. 321 Unlike William and Marlborough, George made no attempt to form a mixed ministry, but at once gave his confidence to the Whigs ; and Townshend, Stanhope, and Walpole The "Whig became the leaders of a new administration. Towns- inmistry. hend was a conscientious but not a brilliant statesman, who had good business qualities, and had distinguished himself as a negotiator. Stanhope had been chiefly known as a general in Spain, where he had been most popular. It is related that he always said " Come on," and not " Go on," to his men. At home he had taken a leading part in the prosecution of Sacheverell. Walpole had dis- tinguished himself as Secretary at War, and his prosecution in 1711 had raised him into the front rank among the Whig leaders. The question at once arose. What was to be done with the leaders of the late nn'nistry, who were accused by the Whigs of having sacrificed English interests by the treaty of Utrecht, Action of the' and of having intrigued to restore the Pretender ? It ^®"w ministry was determined to impeach them; but Bolingbroke leaders of the and Ormond fled to France, and Oxford alone was °^'^* arrested and committed to the Tower. Bolingbroke and Ormond were attainted in their absence. The elections which took place on the accession of George had been the scenes of such riots and disorders that a Riot Act was passed, by which . , , , ^ , 1 ,. TJie I^iot Act. the magistrates were empowered to employ soldiers to break up any mob of more than twelve persons who refused to disperse when ordered to do so in the king's name. This Act still remains in force. The riots were only symptoms of the prevalence of a very dangerous feeling. There is no doubt that Jacobitism, as adherence to the cause of the Stuarts was called, was very ^ T J Dangerous widespread, though in England no insurrection had feeling in the the slightest chance which was not backed by a country, regular army. In Scotland, dissatisfaction with the Union, joined to the usual antagonism of the Highland clans to constituted authority, were thought likely to make a successful revolt pos- sible, and in 1715 the Earl of Mar in Scotland, insurrections and in England, Forster, member for Northumber- i^ the North, land, and the Earl of Derwentwater attempted an insurrection. In Scotland, as usual, the government were able to depend on the Y 322 The Hanoverians. [1715- followers of Argyll, while the discontent of the Lowlanders was not sufficiently strong to overcome their usual suspicion of the Highland clans. Consequently Argyll was able to bar the road from Perth to Stirling, and so to confine the Scottish insurrection to the Highlands. Only a small detachment was sent by Mar to join the English insurgents. Both insurrections failed. Mar Battle of fought a doubtful battle with Argyll at Sherriffmuir, snerrifEmuir. j^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^ of ^^^ ^^^ Argyll still held the road to Stirling, so the real advantage lay with him. The same day the English insurgents were forced to surrender at Preston, After the battle of Sherriffmuir, the Pretender himself came over ; but he brought neither troops nor personal ability to the aid of his followers, and, after a very short stay, he and Mar deserted their army and made the best of their way to France. For their share in the insurrection, Derwentwater and a few others were executed ; Forster escaped from prison. The miserable failure of these insurrections showed clearly that no rising was likely to be successful which was not aided by a George's foreign force. Such an army might be supplied by foreign policy, j^j-ance, Spain, or Sweden, and the foreign policy of George's ministers was chiefly directed to prevent such aid being given to the Jacobite party. France became much more friendly after the death of Louis XIV., which happened in 1715, while the rebellion was going on. His successor was his great-grand- son, Louis XV., a little boy in delicate health, who was under the regency of his cousin, the Duke of Orleans. The next heir to the throne was Philip of Spain, but his succession was barred by the treaty of Utrecht, and Orleans, who hoped to be king himself, was therefore ready to join England in support of the treaty. There was nothing, therefore, to fear from France. Spain was more dangerous, for the Spanish minister, Alberoni, was an able and ambitious man, who was anxious to regain for Spain some of the dominions she had lost at the treaty of Utrecht. Spain's policy was therefore dangerous to both France and Austria, and England and Holland joined with them to form, in 1718, a The quadruple quadruple alliance for the maintenance of the treaty treaty. of Utrecht. Agaiiist this combination Spain was powerless. Open war had never been declared, but Admiral Byng 1717.] George I. 323 had in 1718 destroyed tlie Spanisli fleet, which was threatening Sicily, off Cape Passaro, and the next year the Spaniards landed a small force at Glenshiel, in the Highlands, which was defeated without difficulty. The hostility of Sweden was due to the pur- chase by Hanover, from the Kmg of Denmark, of the districts of Bremen and Verden, near the mouth of the Elbe, which had formerly belonged to Sweden. This enraged the warlike Charles XII., King of Sweden, against George, and he seriously thought of helping the Jacobites by landing an army in Scotland ; but in 1718 he was kiUed during an invasion of Norway, so this danger passed away. At home the chief measure of the government had been the passing of the Septennial Act. By the Act of 1694, Parliament was necessarily dissolved after it had sat three years, r^-^^ septenaial This would have caused a general election in 1717, -^c*- at the moment when the country had just been agitated by rebellion. To avoid this danger, an act was passed prolonging the duration of Parliament to seven years, but not longer. This was intended to be a temporary measure, but it has never been repealed. It was wittily said at the time that a triennial Parliament passed its first year in trying election petitions, its second in discussing measures, and its third in awaiting dissolution. The Septennial Act made the policy of Parliament less fluctuating. It also helped the Whigs to consolidate their power during the longer interval between one general election and another. Its chief effects at present are to give security against violent changes of policy, to secure time for the party passions which a general election kindles to subside, and to give greater independence to the members than they would have if elections Were more frequent. In 1717 the "Whig triumvirate broke up. Differences of opinion arose between Townshend and Stanhope. The latter was the favourite of the king, as he supported George's Hano- ^ , °' ^^ ° Break up of the verian policy, which was the cause of our trouble Whigr trium- with Sweden. This was opposed by Townshend, who, in 1716, ceased to be Secretary of State, and became Lord-Lieu- tenant of Ireland ; and next year Townshend and Walpole resigned altogether. With them retired Pulteney, an admirable speaker, who was a great friend of Walpole. Stanhope then became leading 324 The Hanover ia7is. [1717- minister, with Sunderland and Addison, whose pen had done good service for the Whigs, as Secretaries of State. Stanhope was an able and broad-minded minister. He held the old Whig dislike of religious disabilities, and in 1718 he per- Bepeai of the suaded Parliament to repeal the Occasional Con- occasionai formitv and Schism Acts. He would have liked, had Conformity and '' , /-s t ScMsm Acts, he been able, to have relieved the Koman Catholics from some of their disabilities ; but even a Whig House of Commons was so easily roused by the cry of " The Church is in danger," that this enlightened statesman had to deny himself the honour which such a measure would have conferred upon him. In opposition, Walpole so far forgot his Whig principles as to oppose the repeal of the Occasional Conformity and Schism Acts ; The Peerage but he was better justified in resisting the passage of ■^^^^- Stanhope's Peerage Bill. The object of this bill was twofold. It was intended, in the first place, to prevent the Hanoverian kings from giving peerages to foreigners ; in the second, to make it impossible to create a batch of new peers, in order to override the majority of the House of Lords, as Harley had done in Anne's reign. The bill provided that only six more peerages, beyond the then number of one hundred and seventy-eight, might be created. Extinct peerages were, however, to be filled up, and, to ensure frequent vacancies, the new peerages were to be confined to heirs-male. The bill passed the Lords readily enough, but when it reached the Commons it was stoutly opposed by Walpole. The chief objections to it were, that it made a new restriction upon the prerogative of the crown, and that it removed any chance of bring- ing the peers into agreement with the popular house. Walpole, however, dealt with the matter by asking the Commons how they could pass a bill to prevent themselves and their descendants from being made peers. This argument carried the day, and the bill was thrown out. Had it been passed the rule of the Whig oligarchy, who were then in power, could have been made perpetual, and nothing short of a revolution could have broken down the opposi- tion of the House of Lords if it set itself in resolute opposition to the House of Commons. The same year that saw the rejection of the Peerage Bill witnessed the rise of the South Sea Scheme. The scheme took its origin 1720. The South Sea Scheme, 325 from the success of the South Sea Company. This company had been founded in 1711 by an Act of Parliament, me south sea which gave to it the exclusive right of trading in the scheme. Pacific Ocean, and along the east coast of America, from the Orinoco to Cape Horn. By the treaty of Utrecht the monopoly of the slave trade had been secured for England, and also permission to send one ship a year to the Spanish colonies. The company, therefore, had flourished, and was desirous of extending its business. At that time every one was very anxious about the National Debt, which was not only large in amount, but had been borrowed, when the securit}'' of government was bad, at a very high rate of interest. Accordingly, the company said in effect to the government, " If we can get the fundholders to take shares in our company, in exchange for the shares they now hold in the National Debt, we shall then become your sole creditor, and shall be willing to be content with only five per cent, interest from you, and the share- holders shall have the advantage of the difierence between the interest they now receive from you, and the dividend we hope to declare. Moreover, the having a regular income will be so useful to us, that we will give you a bonus of seven and a half millions, which you can use at once in paying off some of your liabilities." The scheme was thought so likely to benefit the company that the Bank of England brought forward a similar project; but they were outbidden by their rivals, and Parliament gave . ' . _, . Parliament its sanction to the origmal proposal. The important sanctions the question was whether the holders of the National Debt ^° ®°^®" would exchange their stock for shares in the company. It was soon answered in the afSrmative, and so eager was everybody to hold shares in a company which had such a brilliant future, that the value of shares immediately began to rise. Nowadays any one who has savings can readily buy a little three per cent. Government Stock, or take a few shares in a railway or other company ; but in those days investment was not easy, the wealth of the country was increasing, so hundreds of persons flocked to buy South Sea stock, and a £100 share rose to be worth £1000. It was plain that, if five per cent, was the usual rate of interest, the company must make at least fifty per cent, for this price to pay; and, of course, this was most unlikely. 326 George I. [1720- The rage, however, for speculation was so great that other companies came into the field. Some were sensible, and some Rival absurd. One was " for insuring masters and mistresses schemes. against losses caused by the carelessness of servants," another " for a wheel for perpetual motion," and a third " for carrying on an undertaking of great advantage, but nobody to know what it is." The South Sea Company prosecuted some of the projectors of these absurd swindles, and their action opened the eyes of the nation to the recklessness of their own speculation. The shares immediately fell ; every one wished to sell, and no one was willing to buy, and the shares dropped to £135 apiece. There they stayed, which showed that the company was perfectly solvent, for £35 was a very good premium ; but those who had given more lost their money. Terrible ruin ensued, and men and women of every class suffered, while a few who had sold out in time made vast sums. Among these was Walpole. That minister had opposed the bill, but as he had opposed everjilhing else that Stanhope brought forward, his word had not had much weight. His opposi- tion, however, now stood him in good stead, and he was eagerly called on to save the country. A cry was raised against the directors of the company, and an investigation demanded. Then it was found that bribes had been given to many persons about the court and to some members of Parliament to secure the passing of the bill. Stanhope himself was innocent, but in defending himself against the charge of corruption he burst a blood-vessel, and died suddenly. Sunderland had to resign, and Aislabie, Chancellor of the Exchequer, was expelled from the House. The bargain between government and the company was quashed, and after a time trade settled down, and public credit was restored. Walpole now became first Lord of the Treasury and Prime Minister of England. He is the first to whom this title is usually given. As Title of Prime we have seen, at various times different ministers have Minister. \^^^ the chief place. Under the Normans and early Plantagenets it was the Justiciar; under the later Plantagenets, Tudors, and early Stuarts, it was the Chancellor. Clarendon had been the last great Chancellor, and the leader had of late been the Lord Treasurer. It had, however, often been the custom not to appoint a Lord Treasurer, but to place the treasury under the 17S2.] Walpole. 327 management of a board, the members of which were called Lords of the Treasury, and the chairman was called the First Lord. In a similar way we now have a First Lord of the Admiralty. Since the ministers had been chosen from one political party, they had begun to act together much more than before, and this had given them the name of the Ministry ; the leader of which was called the Premier, or Prime Minister. This title is not to be found in English law ; it is merely a title of courtesy. The Premier need not necessarily be the First Lord of the Treasury. In Lord Sahs- bury's ministry in 1885, and again in 1887, he held the post of Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Walpole became Prime Minister in March, 1721. His chief colleagues were Townshend, Pulteney, and Carteret ; of these Towns- hend and Pulteney have been noticed before. Carteret Robert was a peer and a most brilliant speaker ; he also had "W'aipoie. the advantage of knowing German, which gave him great influence with the king. Happily for Walpole, all his gi'eat rivals about this time left the political stage. Stanhope was dead ; Sunderland had already resigned office, and died in 1722 ; Aislabie had been expelled. There were no great statesmen who were not at this time his friends. Walpole himself was a most remarkable man. He was a thorough Englishman, plain-spoken and good-natured, a hard worker but a lover of sport, with a capital knowledge of human nature and of the art of managing men; he knew what he wanted to get and how to get it, and if he found that in- superable difficulties lay in his way, he was wilhng to turn back and to wait for a more convenient season. His great fault was that, like many other able men, he was too fond of keeping power in his own hands, and his jealousy of the interference of other men led to a series of quarrels with all the ablest members of the Whig party. Abroad, Walpole advocated peace as the best security against Jacobite intrigue ; at home, he was in favour of such moderate reforms as were not likely to provoke much opposition. He had no hking for heroic measures, and always went on the principle of letting well alone. The need for this caution was very soon shown by the revelation of a Jacobite conspiracy. The friends of the Pretender had been much elated by the birth of a grandson of James II., who was 328 George /. [1722- afterwards tlie unfortunate leader of the rebellion of '45 ; they also Jacobite beheved that G-eorge was tired of his new power, conspiracy, ^nd the Pretender went so far as to write to the king- and offered to secure him the title of King of Hanover if he would retire in his favour; it was also believed that the country wag irritated by the South Sea Scheme. These hopes, which were quite misleading, encouraged the Jacobites to fresh efforts ; but the government was soon aware of what was going on. Their chief agent, Atterbury, Bishop of Eochester, was arrested and tried before the House of Lords. His guilt was proved, and he was sent into banishment. This blow crushed the Jacobites for a time, and Walpole felt safe enough to allow Bohngbroke to come back ; but his attainder was not reversed, so the great Tory was never again able to sit in the House of Lords. In 1724 the first quarrel between Walpole and his colleagues took place. This time Carteret was Walpole's opponent. The king Quarrel took Walpole's side, and Carteret had to accept the WaipTiiTnd ^^^'^ of Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, just as Townshend his colleagues, had done eight years before. The Duke of New- castle and his brother, Henry Pelham, then joined Walpole. On reaching Ireland Carteret found abundance of work. We saw that by Poynings' law no bill could be introduced into the Irish state of Parhament which had not first passed the English Ireland. council. This deprived the Irish Parliament of ail power of independent legislation ; and in 1719 the Enghsh Parlia- ment passed a statute by which the English Parliament was allowed to pass laws binding on Ireland. This took away even the semblance of independence, and naturally made the Irish very jealous of Enghsh interference. Accordingly, when Walpole, in 1722 granted a patent Renewal of to an ironmaster, named Wood, to coin £108,000 the coinage, worth of copper in order to restore the Irish coin- age, just as that of England had been renewed in 1696, there broke out a fierce agitation. It was not that the new copper coins were to be bad — apparently every care had been taken that the opposite should be the case ; the real grievance was that Ireland had not been consulted in the matter. This feeling was fanned to fever-heat by a series of letters written by Dean Swift, the ablest of the Tory pamphleteers, mider the title of the " Drapier," and 1725.] ^ Walpole. 329 when Carteret arrived he found all Ireland in a blaze. True, how- ever, to his usual policy, Walpole, when he found the The Drapier opposition to be serious, withdrew his scheme, and i^etters, Ireland again settled down into gloomy quiescence. In 1727 the franchise was taken away from all Catholics, so that Protestants alone could either vote at elections or sit as members of the Irish Parhament. Consequently the Dublin Parliament only represented one-sixth of the population of Ireland. In 1725 Walpole quarrelled with Pulteney, another of his colleagues. Pulteney, who had been a great friend of Walpole, was not prepared to efface himself, and he had no puiteney and sooner left office than he began to organize an opposi- "^JgafizTan tion to the minister. Hitherto there had been no opposition, organized opposition in the House ; but Pulteney set himself to revive the old country party which had opposed the court under Charles II. In those days the court party had been Tories ; they were now Whigs ; but this made little difference. There was still great jealousy of the power of the court, and of this Pulteney took advantage. His great ally was Bolingbroke, who saw that he could never regain his lost power so long as Walpole was at the helm ; and these two able men steadily set themselves to form an opposition to the government, both in the House and in the country. In Parliament Pulteney gathered round himself the dis- contented Whigs, who thought they had been ill used by Walpole, and acted more or less in concert with the Tories. Bolingbroke strove to excite the country by attacking ministers in the Craftsman. This paper, which was published daily, was the first i^e regular opposition newspaper. It attacked Walpole "Craftsman." impartially whatever he did. If Walpole advocated peace, it said that he was bent on sacrificing the interests of his country ; if he remonstrated with foreign powers, it declared that he was dragging the country into war. Everything that ingenuity could suggest was made use of against ministers, and soon the country party, who called themselves Patriots, attained formidable dimensions. The centre of the opposition was the court of the Prince of Wales. It was one of the peculiarities of the early . Hanoverian sovereigns that they always quarrelled ofWaies with their heirs. This was not creditable to the ^^ o»»°s^ ^°^' 33° George I. [1727. royal family, but it was a good thing for the country. Had father and son been united, any one who was discontented with the govern- ment of the father would naturally have gone over to the Pretender. As it was, he merely allied himself with the Prince of Wales, so that the rivalry between the two centres of Hanoverian influence was a positive advantage. Pulteney and Bolingbroke flattered the Deatii of Prince, and hoped that when he came to the throne George I. Walpole would be dismissed. Whilst these intrigues were going on George died suddenly in Hanover, in 1727. CHIEF BATTLES, SIEGES, AND TREATIES GEORGE I, AND GEORGE II. Battle of Sherriffmuir ,, Preston ,. ,, Cape Passaro Porto Bello taken Battle of Dettingen ,, Fontenoy ,, Preston Pans ,. ,, Culloden Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle Capitulation of Klosterseven Battle of Plassey „ Carthagena , , ,, Basque Roads ,, Minden Capture of Quebec ... Battle of Lagos ,j Quiberon Bay ,, Waudewasb (George III.) UNDER 1715 1718 1739 1743 1745 1746 1748 1757 1758 1759 1760 Canda^arfl To illustrate the English Conquest English Miles 200 400 CHAPTER n. George II., 1727-1760 (33 years). Born 1683; married, 1705, Caroline of Anspach. Chief Characters of the Reign. — Queen Caroline ; Walpole ; Bolingbroke ; Pulteney ; Carteret ; John and Charles Wesley ; Porteous ; Wil- mington ; Henry Pelham ; William, Duke of Cumberland ; Anson ; Prince Charles Edward ; Cope ; Henry Fox ; William Pitt, after- wards Earl of Chatham ; Pelham, Duke of Newcastle ; Dupleix ; Clive ; Admiral Byng ; the Duke of Devonshire ; Rodney ; Wolfe. The new king, George II., was wholly under the influence of his wife, Caroline of Anspach. This remarkable woman had as great ascendenc}'^ over her husband as the Duchess of Influence of _,,, ^^^ _ . ,, , Queen Marlborough had over Queen Anne; but, as she Caroline. -^^^ more tact in exercising it, she kept it till her death, and during the first ten years of the reign, Caroline, much more than her husband, was the real head of the government. In accordance with his sentiments as Prince of Wales, George's first act was to dismiss Walpole, and to ask Sir Spencer Compton, Speaker of the House of Commons, to take his place. Sir Spencer, however, was so incompetent, that he actually asked Walpole to help him in writing the king's speech. Caroline, who was Walpole's friend, at once pointed out to the king the absurdity of "Walpole . ^ -111 1 retained this. Geoi'ge was convmced by her arguments, and m power. y^\^Q-Q. Walpole himself promised to propose a large addition to the king's annual income, or civil list, the old minister was restored to his place, and the opposition were disappointed. They did not, however, relax their efforts, but did all they could to harass the minister and to win new recruits for their own party. Meanwhile Walpole steadily carried out his old pohcy both at home and abroad. Spain was still hostile to the treaty of Utrecht, 1733.] Walpole, 33^ and in 1726 she induced Austria, which was jealous of Hanoverian influence in Germany, to join her. This movement •waipoie's was met by an alliance made at Hanover between policy abroad. England, France, and Prussia. War ensued ; but Walpole confined England's operations strictly to the defensive, and, an attack of the Spaniards upon Gibraltar having failed, peace was concluded at Seville in 1729. At home, Walpole was not willing his policy to excite a disturbance by doing much for the Non- at home, conformists, as he feared that to do so would only throw the Church into the arms of the opposition; but he began the practice of passing an annual Bill of Indemnity for those who had broken the Test and Corporation Acts. This was not a very satisfactory way of dealing with the question, but it served Waipoie's purpose for the time. In 1730 Lord Townshend left the ministry. He was Waipoie's brother-in-law, and had been his firm friend ; but Waipoie's over- bearing conduct, and his practice of making the House Lord of Lords reject any bills which he did not feel strong ^ea^s^tl^ enough to resist in the Commons, alienated Towns- ministry, hend, and he retired after an open quarrel, and left Walpole supreme. Townshend did not go into opposition, but withdrew to the country, where he devoted himself chiefly to agri- uis work in culture, in which he did great service by encou- *^® coimtry, raging the gi'owth of turnips, a useful vegetable, which can be grown while the soil is recovering after the exhaustion caused by the growth of a crop of wheat, without interfering with the process of recovery. Before Townshend's time such fields were allowed to lie fallow for a year, so that the introduction of the turnip was a real gain to the country. The first success of the opposition was gained in 1733. In that year Walpole brought forward his celebrated excise scheme, by which he proposed to substitute a very small duty ■w'aipoie's and an excise levied at the shops where they were excise scheme, sold, for the large customs duties hitherto levied at the ports on wine and tobacco. By this plan smugghng would be checked, because the reduction of the customs duty would make it not worth while to run the risk of detection ; and also the public would have to pay a less price for their wine, because the cost of articles would be mcreased 334 George II. ii7S3- only by tlie exact sum levied at the shop by government, instead of there being added to it the interest on the tax levied at the port. It Was also believed that the system would encourage importation. The scheme, however, was violently denounced by the opposition, first on the ground that an Englishman's house is his castle, and that liberty would be destroyed if excise officers might at any time call to inspect a man's goods ; secondly, on the ground that Walpole's real object was to create an army of excisemen, who by their votes would turn every election in favour of the government candidate. By these arguments Pulteney and Bolingbroke roused the passions of the mob, and "Walpole, though he could probably have carried it through Parliament, thought it better to withdraw the bill. The changes, however, were introduced gradually without comment, though the fact that, fifty years later it was found that seventy elections depended on the votes of excisemen, shows that the second argument had not been without foundation. In 1736 all Scotland was agitated by the Porteous riots. These tiots, which were of little political significance, arose out of an order The Porteous given by one Captain Porteous to fire upon the mob, riots. at the execution in Edinburgh of a certain smuggler, who had enlisted their sympathy by a brave and successful attempt to secure the escape of one of his fellows. For this Porteous was condemned to die, but Was reprieved by the government ; and the mob, angry at this, broke open the gaol, and hanged him on a barber's pole. For this disturbance the magistrates of Edinburgh were reprimanded, and the city was fined £2000. These events form the groundwork of Sir Walter Scott's novel, " The Heart of Midlothian.'* The most important event of the early years of Gleorge II. was the rise of the Methodists. When this king ascended the throne, Kise of tue ^he chief Nonconformist bodies in England were the Methodists. Independents, the Presbyterians, the Baptists, and the Society of Friends. The members of the Church of England were much more numerous than those Who belonged to these bodies; but the condition of the Church Was far from satisfactory. This was in part due to the alienation which existed between the lower clergy, who were for the most part Tories, and the bishops, who since the accession of George I. had been invariably appointed from the 1739,] Walpole* 335 Whigs. Another cause was the silencing of Convocation, whichj except under the commonwealth, had since the time of Edward I always sat at the same time as Parliament. After the Kestoration, however, Convocation had ceased to vote the taxes of the clergy, and after 1718, when its meetings from the violence of party feeling had become a trouble to the government, it had not been allowed to transact business. Moreover, since the reign of Anne the cause of the Church had been made a mere party cry, and the clergy, not wholly through their own fault, had become partisans. Accordingly there was very little hfe in the Church, and conse- quently religion was falling into decay, both in the country and at the universities. It was under these circumstances that in 1730 a little knot of Oxford men formed themselves into a society which aimed at living a systematic religious life. The heads of this society were two brothers, John and Charles Wesley, and they were soon joined by George Whitefield. From the regularity of their lives they were called by their fellows " Methodists," and the name is still used and honoured by their followers. In 1739 they removed the head-quarters of their society to London, and numbers soon joined them, which before Wesley's death in 1791 amounted to many thousands. At first they regarded themselves as members of the Church of England, but when the clergy refused to allow them to preach in their churches, they began to hold meetings of their own, sometimes in the open air, sometimes in barns, after- wards in chapels of their own, and so by degrees they drifted away from the Church. Four years after Wesley's death their preachers began to administer the sacraments, and then they became a nonconformist body. The rise of the Methodists was a good thing for rehgion, as their example acted upon the Church, and made the clergy more energetic and sincere than they had been before its occurrence. The beginning of Wesley's work, however, attracted little notice, for all eyes were turned upon the great contest which was going on between Walpole and the opposition. Pulteney and contest his friends had been making way both in Parliament 'v^ai^^eTnci and in the country ; but Walpole's position was very t^^® opposition, strong. In those days, when a great many of the boroughs were very small indeed, the chief influence at the elections was in the 336 George IT. ^(^ -tl. [i737_ hands of a few men, and the corruption of many boroughs was so great that seats could be bought and sold. Walpole took full advantage of this to get his friends elected, and when they had taken their seats he secured their allegiance by bribery and patronage. At that time neither the division lists of the House nor the speeches of the members were reported, so that few knew which side members took. Under these circumstances corruption was certain, and Walpole reduced it to a regular system. The first great shock to Walpole's power was the death of Queen Caroline, in 1737. The king, however, remained true to him, but Walpole's the Prince of Wales had united himself to the power siiaken. opposition, and since the rethement of Bolingbroke, who left England in 1734, had been the nominal head of the country party. A more serious danger to Walpole's power than the mere party attacks of the opposition was, however, arising. This was the growth of a hostile feeling between England and Spain. This Hostility ^^^^ity arose out of the colonial poHcy of the two of England Countries. As we saw, Spain had, by the treaty of and Spain. -,-r, i , • ■, ' ./ j ^-^ Utrecht, given the English the privilege of sending one ship a year to trade with the Spanish colonies. This right had been abused by the EngHsh, who had sent out, beside the single ship, a number of tenders, who, keeping out of sight of land, replen- ished the trading vessel with fresh goods. The English colonies, too, were always trying to set up a contraband trade with those of Spain, and the Spaniards tried to stop this by searching English vessels for smuggled goods. This naturally led to quarrels, in one of which a certain Englishman, named Jenkins, had his ear cut oif by a Spanish sailor. Jenkins brought his severed ear home, and used to carry it about wrapped in cotton wool. When asked what his feelings were when in the hands of the Spaniards, he replied, " I commended my soul to God and my cause to my country." The opposition, of course, made the most of this, and accused Walpole of neglecting the interests of the country. Walpole, however, had no mind to go to war. He feared that war with Spain would soon develop into war with France, and War with that, he was aware, would mean the renewal of the Spain. Jacobite intrigue. The opposition, however, had the country and the king on its side, and Walpole, rather than lose office, 174.4.] Walpole — Wilmington — Pelham. 337 allowed himself to be forced into declaring war against Spain. When he heard the bells ringing for joy for this, he exclaimed, " They are ringing their bells now, but soon they will be wringing their hands." At first the war was pretty successful, and Admiral Vernon captured Porto Bello ; but an attack upon Carthagena failed, and the country soon became disenchanted. Of this the opposition took full benefit. They were now led by Pulteney and Sandys in the Commons, and by Carteret in the Lords, and they attacked Walpole without ceasing. To answer them, Walpole was obliged to rely mainly on himself. He had quarrelled with all his old friends, and most of the young men, such as po e s a . Pitt, who was afterwards so famous, had attached themselves to the opposition. StiU he did not despair, and in 1741 motions which were brought forward by Carteret and Sandys in their respective houses were thrown out by large majorities. The next year however, a general election took place, and when Walpole found himself defeated by a majority of sixteen in a question which arose out of the Chippenham election, he resigned all his offices and retired to the House of Lords as Earl of Orford. The fall of Walpole was not followed by a complete change of ministry. His own place was taken by Lord Wilmington, whom we have already known as Sir Spencer Compton. chang-es in tiie Carteret, however, was the moving spirit in the new ministry, administration. Pulteney did not take office, but went to the House of Lords as Earl of Bath, and so lost much of his power. The Duke of Newcastle and his brother Pelham still kept their places In this form the ministry remained for a year; when, on Wilmington's death, Henry Pelham became Prime Minister. Pelham was recom- mended to George by Walpole, who still retained much influence. Carteret's influence steadily declined, and in 1744 he left the govern- ment altogether, soon after succeeding to the title of T^e "broad- Earl Granville. Pelham then formed the administra- 2!?"°^t*^" administra- tion known as the "broad-bottomed," because it tio^- included men who represented every section of the Whig party. At home Walpole's retirement made httle change ; but, abroad, the new government threw themselves vigorously into o ./ Foreign policy the war. Carteret was favourable to George's wish of the new to increase the influence of Hanover in Germany, ^o^^^^^^e^** z 33 8 George II. [i740- and he, therefore, joined in a war which was being waged between Maria Theresa of Austria and the Elector of Bavaria. The Emperor Charles VI. had died in 1740, leaving his dominions to his daugh- ter, Maria Theresa. She was at once attacked by Frederick of Prussia, and afterwards by Bavaria and France. England alone among the great powers took her side. The ministry took into pay a large body of Hanoverians and Hessians, and these, with some English troops, were put under the command of the Earl of Stair; they were soon joined by George himself, and his second son, William, Duke of Cumberland ; while the French forces were led by the Marshal Noailles, who had with him his nephew, the Duke of Grammont. The first fighting of importance took place in the valley of the Main, in 1743. The alhed forces were marching from Aschaflfen- Battie of 1^^1'g ^'^ Hanau, when Noailles secretly sent forward Dettingen. g^ body of troops under his nephew, who crossed the river and seized the defile of Dettingen, through which the English had to pass. Fortunately Grammont's eagerness led him to attack the English before his uncle had time to support him, and con- sequently he suffered a terrible defeat at the hands of the allies, who, led by George in person, drove Grammont's men across the river at the point of the bayonet. This was the last battle in which an English king was present. This victory gave considerable credit to the government, which was increased by the for- Heturnof ° „ ' . , ^ , ^ , Commodore tunate return oi Commodore Anson, who had been Anson. despatched against the Spaniards in 1740. After taking many prizes, both on the coast of South America and the Philippine Islands, he sailed home by the Cape of Good Hope, bringing thirty waggons' load of treasure worth £1,250,000. The next year, 1745, however, was not so fortunate. Tournay, one of the Netherland towns, which, in accordance with the barrier Battle of treaty, was garrisoned by Dutch troops, was being rontenoy. besieged by the French under Marshal Saxe, when a mixed army of English, Hanoverians, Hessians, and Dutch, advanced to relieve it. The two armies met at Fontenoy. The allies were commanded by the young Duke of Cumberland, who was advised by Marshal Konigsegg, and Louis XV. in person was with the French. The English soldiers with the greatest bravery 1745.] Pel/iam. ^^^ forced their way into the very centre of the French army ; but as the Hessians ran away and the Dutch refused to advance, they were obliged to retreat at the moment when victory should have been their o^ti. In consequence, the allies were defeated; but the magnificent advance of the English and Hanoverians was long remembered with pride. Tournay soon afterwards surrendered. As Walpole had always foretold, the English had not long been at war, when the French began to arrange a new insurrection in favour of the Stuarts. In 1744 a large fleet was collected at stuart Dunkirk, but fortunately, at the very moment when insurrection, the troops were on board and everything was ready for an invasion, a terrible storm shattered the French fleet; some vessels sank, others were driven on shore. The expedition was to have conveyed Prince Charles Edward, the eldest son of the Pretender; but the French government, discouraged by the storm, refused to give him further assistance, and accordingly, the next year, he determined to go by himself to Scotland and seek his fortune in the Highlands. He sailed in a smaU brig, but was accompanied by a French man-of war, which carried a supply of arms and ammunition. This vessel, however, was attacked by an English man-of-war, and was compelled to go home ; but Charles, though deprived by this accident of the necessaries of war, arrived safely in the Hebrides. The Highland clansmen refused at first to join in so hazardous an enterprise as a rising without the aid of regular troops, but Charles' entreaties at length prevailed over their prudence, and when he was joined by the gallant Cameron of Lochiel, numbers of Highlanders flocked to his standard. Nature has divided Scotland into three distinct parts; first the northern Highlands, second the central Highlands, and third the Lowlands. The northern Highlands were divided from the central by a chain of lakes, which are now divisions of connected by the Caledonian Canal ; this line is de- Scotland, fended at its south-west point by Fort William, at its centre by Fort Augustus, and at the northern end by Inverness. By a rapid move- ment the Highlanders made themselves masters of Fort WilHam, and so gained the means of marching into the central Highlands. The commander-in-chief in Scotland, Sir John Cope, had, on the first news of the Pretender's approach, been ordered by the 340 George II. [1745- Marquess of Tweeddale, who was Secretary of State, to march into the Highlands. This he did, and was on his way to Fort Augustus, when he learnt that the Highlanders were ready to bar his road at a place called the Devil's Staircase, where the road, in seventeen zigzags, wound its way up the steep side of Corriearrack. On learn- ing this, Cope turned aside for Inverness, thus leaving the road to Edinburgh open, and of this mistake the prince took advantage at once. Before he reached Perth he was joined by thousands of clansmen, and after winning an easy triumph over some Edin- burgh volunteers and a body of cavalry who tried to bar his way at Coltbridge, about two miles from the city, he reached Edinburgh. Meanwhile Cope had taken ship at Inverness and reached Dunbar, where he landed his men and marched towards Edin- Battie of burgh, by the high-road, which ran along the level Preston Pans, ground by the Firth. Charles marched out to attack him, moving his troops along the line of the Lammermuir Hills, until he came opposite to where Cope lay. This forced Cope to change h\s ground, and he formed his forces almost with their backs to Edinburgh and defended in front by a morass. In this position they were attacked in the early morning by the High- landers, who made their way through the morass and charged the king's troops with the utmost violence. The rush of the High- landers carried all before them. The battle is said to have been decided in five minutes ; and Cope himself, riding headlong from the field, was the first to bring to Berwick the news of his own defeat. The battle of Preston Pans, as this engagement was called, gave a great impetus to the rebellion, and a large part of Scotland declared in favour of the Pretender. Charles, however, was by no means satisfied with his success, but wished to push on at once to England. This many of his „ followers were averse to do, but the prince insisted, The prince i i i n i crosses tiie and on November 9 he crossed the border, and in a few days made himself master of Carlisle. Thence he marched by Lancaster to Preston, and thence to Man- chester. His situation then became very serious. The castle of Edinburgh was still holding out for King George. General Wade was at Newcastle, with a considerable army. Cumberland lay at Lichfield, while a third force was being collected at Finchley to 1746.] - PelJiam. 541 guard the capital. Worse than all, hardly any English Jacobites had joined the prince. Since 1715 England had grown prosperous under the Hanoverians, and had no wish to go back to the rule of the Stuarts. But in spite of this Charles still pressed on, and by making a feint in the direction of Wales enticed Cumber- land towards Shrewsbury, and then quickly regaining the London road, which Cumberland had left open, he reached Derby. By this time Wade had advanced to Leeds, so that the rebels were, as it were, m the centre of a triangle, of which Finchley, Shrews- bury, and Leeds were the points. Of the three armies, that at Finchley was probably the worst, and if the Highlanders beat it, no one doubted that London would be at their mercy. The capital was ui a terrible panic at the prospect of a rebel advance. So great was the run upon the Bank of England that the directors were forced to pay in sixpences in order Panic ■ to gain time. The king had placed most of his i-ondon. valuables on a yacht, in case it became necessary to retire to Hanover, and it is even said that the Duke of Newcastle was seriously thinking of declaring for the Pretender. The day when the news came that the Highlanders were at Derby was long remembered as " Black Friday." The best chance for a rebel army is always to advance, and Charles himself was eager to hurry on and try his luck in another battle ; but his officers, frightened by the thought of the terrible position they would be in charies obii ed in case they were defeated, refused to advance to retreat, further, and Charles, much agauist his will, was forced to give orders for a retreat. In spite of the dejection natural to failure, the Highlanders made tremendous exertions, and actually eluded both Cumberland and Wade, and regained the border after a doubtful siege of skirmish at Clifton, near Penrith, which is the last Stirling, serious fighting that has happened in England. Arrived in Scot- land, Charles found himself strengthened by the addition of some recruits, and he thereupon gave orders for the siege of Stirling, and while it was going on he himself defeated at Falkirk Battle of General Hawley, who had marched into Scotland I'aiiurk. at the head of the English forces. At the end of January Cumberland arrived in Scotland, and took 342 George II. [i746- Gommand of the Eoyalists. He had under Mm an excellent army, Cumberland ^"^^ ^^ once set out in pursuit of the rebels. On takes tj^is Charles retreated across the Forth, pursued by command of tiie Royalists Cumberland, and thence to Perth. From there he in Scotland. ^qjq\^q^ towards Inverness, Cumberland still pur- suing; and when they neared that town, Charles, who knew that his army was outnumbered, determined to attempt a surprise. The plan was a failure, as the distance to be marched by the rebels had been underratedj and the Highlanders were forced to retrace their steps Battle of to CuUoden Moor, where they drew themselves up cuiioden. ^^^ waited for the EngHsh to come up. Cumberland ranged his men in two lines, placing the artillery in the gaps between the regiments, and the cavalry on the flank ; and in this position they were attacked by the Highlanders. With impetuous valour some of the clansmen actually forced their way through the first hne ; but the reserve stood steady, and the brave Highlanders melted away before a terrible fire. Charles' army was completely routed, and his men dispersed in all directions. The Pretender himself, after five months' wandering in the High- lands, disguised sometimes as a servant and sometimes as a woman, Charles escapes succeeded in reaching France. Had it not been for to France, j^q courago of Flora Macdonald, who took him with her in disguise, and the devotion of numbers of poor mm and women, who scorned even for a reward of £30,000 to betray their prince, he must again and again have been captured. To his unfortunate followers a vengeance so terrible was meted out that Cumberland gained the title of "the Butcher." Of the more dis- tinguished rebels. Lords Kilmarnock and Balmerino, and Charles Ratcliff, brother of the late Earl of Derwentwater, were executed in 1746, Lord Lovat in 1747, and one victim. Dr. Cameron, so late as 1753. The most stringent regulations were made in order to destroy the power of the Highlanders. They were disarmed, for- bidden to wear the national dress, and the hereditary jurisdiction of the Highland chiefs was abolished by Act of Parliament. A few years later Pitt raised the Highland regiments, which not only conciliated the chiefs, but also changed a source of danger into a means of defence. Dui'ing the rebellion the country had passed through a ministerial 1748. Pelham. 343 crisis. Of the younger members of Parliament, none had distin- guished themselves more than William Pitt and o Pitt and Fox, Henry Fox. Pitt, who belonged to a family which had made money in India, had entered the House of Commons at an early age, and had soon become conspicuous among a crowd of debaters by his mastery over the arts of oratory and sarcasm. In spite of the fact that he was unconnected with any of the great Whig families which at this time monopolized office, he soon attained a high position in the eyes of the country ; for his absolute freedom from mercenary motives gained him much respect in Parliament, while his enthusiastic support of English interests gained him the good will of the people at large. With George, however, he was by no means a favourite, for much of Pitt's popularity had been won by his vigorous opposition to Car- teret's Hanoverian policy, and in particular he had always opposed the taking of Hanoverians and Hessians into English pay. Henry Fox was not so distinguished a man as Pitt, but he was an admirable debater and an excellent man of business, and the opposition of these two young statesmen to the ministry was a very serious matter. Accordingly, at the beginning of 1746, before Culloden had been fought, Pelham determined to offer them office ; and when the king refused to admit Pitt, he and his colleagues resigned. For a time George held out, but the ministry soon returned with Pitt as Vice- Treasurer of Ireland, and a few months later he became Paymaster of the Forces, and at once made good his reputation for disinterested- ness by refusing to receive the usual percentage of the money which passed through his hands. At the same time Henry Fox became Secretary at War. After the defeat of the Pretender the Duke of Cumberland returned to the Continent, but though an excellent officer, he was not a great general, and in 1747 he was defeated _ ..,._^. o ° ' Hostilities on at Lauffeld, and the important town of Bergen -op- the continent Zoom fell into the hands of the French. During this cease, war the English had continued their plan of attacking the French colonies in North America, and in 1745 they took from the French Louisburg, the capital of the Isle of Cape Breton, peaceof aix- at the mouth of the river St. Lawrence. But when la-chapeiie. peace was made, in 1748, at Aix-la-Chapelle, all conquests made 344 George II, [i748- during the war were restored on both sides. By this peace hostilities on the Continent were concluded, and Maria Theresa's right to her dominions was recognized. When peace was restored, Pelham gave his attention to domestic matters. As a follower of Walpole, he had a great interest in finance, and took measures to reduce the National Debt. Pelham ' reduces tiie Most of the debt had been borrowed at high mterest, Nationa e . ^j^^^ ^^ government's credit was bad. The recent defeat of the rebellion had improved the position of the Hanoverians so much, that Pelham was able to offer the government creditors either to be paid off in fall, or to accept three per cent, interest instead of the high rate they then enjoyed. Most of them accepted the lower rate, and the nation benefited by the change. In 1751 Frederick, Prince of Wales, died, leaving a widow and many children, the eldest of whom, Prince George, then thirteen Death of the years of age, became heir-apparent to the throne, Prince of ^^(j ^g^g Created Prince of Wales. Frederick was ■Wales and of Boiin&broke. soon followed by Henry St. John, Lord Bolingbroke, who had tried in vain to recover his lost power by the destruction of the Whig party. In 1752, through the influence of Lord Chesterfield, a change was made in the calendar. The calendar arranged by Julius Csesar, by Change in the not making Sufficient allowance for leap year, had calendar. caused the English date to be then eleven days behind the right time. These days were now omitted after September 2, so that the next day was reckoned as September 14. The legal year was made to begin on January 1, instead of on March 25, as heretofore. A similar change had been made in all Eoman Catholic countries by order of Pope Gregory XIII. ; but England, being a Protestant country, had hitherto refused to do so, and Russia still preserves the Old Style of reckoning. This change was much disKked, and " Give us back our eleven days," was long a popular cry. In 1754 Henry Pelham died. Though not brilliant, he had been a man of great common sense, and when the news of his death Death of ^as told the king, he exclaimed, " Now I shall Pelham. jj^ve no more peace " — a prophecy which proved true. Pelham's place was taken by his elder brother, the Duke of New- castle, who was a greater master of Parliamentary management, 1756.] Pelhmn, Newcastle. 345 but a far inferior statesman. Hitherto Pitt and Fox, though ministers, had been kept out of the Cabinet, as the changes m the inner circle of ministers had begun to be called ; but ministry, in 1755 Fox^ was raised to be Secretary of State, which made Pitt very discontented. In 1756 the Seven Years' War was begun by Frederick of Prussia, for whose overthrow a coalition, in which Russia soon joined, had been made by Austria, France, and Saxony. In this rphe Seven war England joined, partly for reasons connected with dears' "War. Hanover, partly in defence of her colonial interests. As a Protestant prince, Frederick had the sympathy of Hanover ; but the chief cause of our attack upon the French was our rivalry in America and in India. In North America the French held Canada, or the valley of the St. Lawrence, and Louisiana, which then comprised the valley of the Mississippi, and thus the English colonies which lay along the eastern coast were altogether prevented between the from extending their territory west of the Alleghany "English i^ Mountains. Moreover, the French forbade them to North trade with the Indians in the interior, and strictly enforced this rule. In 1754 the French built Fort Duquesne on the Ohio, to be the chief of a ring of forts stretching all along the border, and in consequence there was always bad blood between the rival nations, and whether or not the mother countries were at peace, war more or less regular was always going on between the colonists. In India there was a similar rivalry, though not so open, between the French and English East India Companies. For a century and a half after their foundation these companies had confined 1 GENEALOGY OF THE FOX FAMILY. Sir Stephen Fox, d. 1716. Charles, Stephen, Henry, d. 1713. created Earl of created Lord Holland, llchester. d. 1774. Stephen, second Lord Holland, Charles James Fox, d. 1774. d. 1806. Henry Richard, third Lord Holland, d. 1840. 34^ George II. [i756- themselves to trade, which the English carried on from their three Rivalry factories, Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras, and the between the French from Pondicherry and Trichinopoly. During Prencliand ^ ^ / r- , • , f English in the sccond quarter, however, oi the eighteenth India. century, Dupleix, the French governor of Pondi- cherry, formed a plan for getting rid of the English, and bringing the country under the rule of the French. At this time the whole of India was nominally under the rule of the Great Mogul, who lived at Delhi ; but he had little authority ^T A- ^"^'61' ^^^^ local governors, the nabobs, and rajahs, who were constantly trying to make themselves indepen- dent, just as the feudal dukes used to do in the Middle Ages. Government was so weak, that frequently robbers raised themselves to be independent princes ; and besides, there were a few states which had never been under the rule of the Mogul. Moreover, the natives of these states were divided among themselves ; they spoke many languages, and they had divers religions. Among these rivals war was constantly going on, and quarrels about succession were Dupleix hires frequent, and Dupleix saw that if he got an armed native soldiers, force and hired it out to one side or the other, he might in time become more powerful than any of the native states. Accordingly he drilled a body of Sepoys, as hired native soldiers were called, and began to take part in the quarrels of the natives. This he did successfully, and gained so much power that the English, in self-defence, were forced to imitate his plan. The champion of the English was Robert Clive, who had gone out to India as a clerk, but soon deserted the pen for the sword. He was a man of unconquerable courage, and soon showed himself to be not only an excellent soldier, but as good a diplomatist as Dupleix himself. During the war of the Austrian Succession there had been open war between the French and English traders, and in 1746 the French had captured Madras, which was, however, restored at the peace ; but in 1751 the English and French again found themselves fighting against one another on behalf of the riva^ Nabobs of Arcot. Clive with a small force seized Arcot itself, and there stood a famous siege from a French and native army, in which the English were victorious, and Clive gained a great reputation. \ 1757.] Newcastle — Devonshire. 347 The opening of the Seven Years' War gave the Engh'sh and French colonists a further opportunity of fighting. In 1756 an English force, under General Braddock, advanced Effect of the against Fort Duquesne, but was beaten. The ^^a^on ou? general was killed, and only the bravery of George colonial policy. Washington, a young colonial officer, saved the army from complete destruction. The same year the French stirred up Surajah Dowlah, Nabob of Bengal, to attack Calcutta, which he did so successfully that the greater part of the traders were forced to fly, and the rest, who fell into his hands, were cruelly thrown into the Black Hole of Calcutta, where most of them perished miserably for want of air. Clive was despatched from Madras to retake Calcutta, which he did in 1757. The same year he utterly routed Surajah Dowlah at Battle of the battle of Plassey, in which a thousand English Piassey. and four thousand Sepoys beat fifty thousand Hindoos. The battle of Plassey made the English masters of the rich plain of Bengal, and has always been regarded as the decisive battle in the history of the English in India. Meanwhile in Europe the war had been going badly for England. In 1756 the French attacked Minorca, which the English had taken from Spain in 1708. Admiral Byng, son of the victor x,ossof of Cape Passaro, was sent to relieve it. With more Minorca, discretion than zeal, he refused to engage a French fleet of superior numbers, and Minorca was consequently lost. Byng had shown no want of personal courage, but the country was furious at the dis- aster, and insisted on his being tried by court-martial. This was done. He was found guilty and condemned sentenced to to death, and the government dare not risk their popularity by pardoning him. He was, accordingly, shot. The witty Frenchman, Voltaire, said of his execution, "In England they kill one admiral to encourage the rest." The ministry which failed to save Byiig was not, however responsible for the disaster. On the loss of Minorca, Newcastle had resigned, and his place was taken by the Duke „ 1 . .0, ^^® Newcastle of Devonshire, who made Pitt Secretary of State. and Pitt Pitt's first act was to pass a bill reorganizing the ^^'^^ ^y- national militia. He hoped to give England a sufficient reserve of 34^ George 11. [1757- soldiers to dispense with the hiring of Hanoverians and Hessians ■ — a course which Pitt had always opposed. This view, liow- ever, found no favour with George, and Pitt was dismissed in April, 1757. Devonshire, of course, resigned ; Newcastle was unable to form a ministry without Pitt ; and after almost three months' hesitation the king agreed to receive a government of which New- castle was to be the nominal head, but Pitt the guiding spirit, Newcastle's Parliamentary influence made the government safe, so Pitt was able to give his whole attention to the war. Pitt had great confidence in himself. When he took the reins into his hands the country was dispirited by the loss of Minorca, and Pitt "saves tiie had lost Confidence in its rulers. "I can save the country." country," said Pitt, "and I know that no one else can." He at once diffused his own energy into every department. His clear sight showed him that now was the chance for England to put an end to the rivalry of the French in the colonies, and that the way to do so was to keep the French employed in Europe, while our fleet swept the sea and our soldiers attacked the French possessions in every quarter of the globe. He was only just in time. During the change of government, the Duke of Cumberland had gone out as general to Hanover, and had been defeated at Hasten- beck and forced to surrender at Klosterseven. Pitt at once put the English forces under Ferdinand of Brunswick, one of Frederick's best generals, and helped the brave King of Prussia to hold the French in check by persuading Parliament to vote him a subsidy of £670,000 a year. Meanwhile the English fleet beat the Toulon fleet off Carthagena, and the Brest fleet in Basque roads, so that help could be sent to the colonists, while the French troops in America and India were left without aid. In 1758 Pitt's plan for an American campaign was quite success- ful. Louisburg and Cape Breton were again taken ; Fort Duquesne The American Surrendered to a mixed force of English and colonists, campaign. ^-^^ \\^^ name was changed to Pittsburg; and within a year of Pitt's return to power the whole appearance of the war had changed. The year 1759 was even more successful. Kodney bombarded Havre at the mouth of the Seine, while Guadaloupe, a rich sugar island in the West Indies, was captured; Ferdinand of Brunswick defeated the French in the great battle of Minden ; 1760.] Newcastle. 349 French fleets were destroyed at Lagos and oflf Quiberon Bay ; while, to crown all, Canada was captured. Walker ib-BotUall siu. "Wolfe's operations at Quebec. The capture of Louisburg and Cape Breton had opened to the English the mouth of the St. Lawrence, and Pitt followed up his success by ordering Greneral Wolfe to go on and attack capture of Quebec, the capital of Canada, which stands on the Quebec, river St. Lawrence, in the angle formed by its junction with the Charles river. Quebec was well fortified, and a strong French army was posted below the town, between the rivers Charles and Mont- morency, in a strongly entrenched camp. This camp Wolfe found impregnable, so re-embarking his men he took them up the St. Lawrence, and, taking advantage of a dark night, landed them above Quebec. There they found themselves at the foot of the table-land on which Quebec stands. With great difficulty they made their way to the top, up an inchne so steep that trees could hardly grow on it, and when morning broke, Montcalm, the French commander, saw the EngHsh drawn up on the heights of Abraham close to Quebec. This disconcerted all his plans. In haste he led his forces across the Charles river, formed them with their backs to Quebec, and attacked the English army. The EngHsh won. Wolfe was killed in the fight, but before he died he knew that his men were victorious. Montcalm was mortally wounded during the retreat, and died the day after the battle. This victory laid Canada at the feet of England, completely destroyed the French power in North 350 Geoj'ge II, [1760. America, and gave the future of that continent into the hands of the English colonists. Within a year a similar victory destroyed the French hopes in India. In 1760 Colonel Eyre Coote, commanding an English force, Battle of t)eat a French army at the battle of Wandewash, near Wandewasii. Madras. In this battle no Sepoys were engaged, but only European troops. Hitherto the natives had thought the French to be better soldiers than the English, but the battle of Wandewash changed their opinion, and inclined them to favour the English as the winning side. These two battles, Quebec and Wandewash, may be regarded as having decided the long rivalry between the English and French in America and^ Asia respectively, and mark an epoch of the very first importance in the growth of the English empire. Deatii of I^^ ^^ midst of these victories old George II. died George II. suddenly, in his seventy-seventh year, and was succeeded by his grandson, George III. Several good sayings of George II. are remembered. When some one told him that Wolfe was mad, he replied, " I wish he would bite some of the other generals." CHIEF GENERAL EVENTS OF THE TIME OF GEORGE /. AND GEORGE II. ■Riot Act passed .. 1715 Septennial Act passed .. 1716 Peerage Bill defeated .. 1719 South Sea Bubble .. 1720 Walpole Prime Minister .. 1721 Excise Bill proposed .. 1788 Calendar reformed .. 1752 Militia reorganized For battles, see p. 330. Walker &^ Boutall sc. PART OF NORTH AMERICA TO ILLUSTRATE ITS SETTLEMENT BY THE ENGLISH AND FRENCH, THE CONQUEST OF CANADA AND THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. CHAPIER m. Geoege III., 1760-1820 (60 years). Bom 1738 ; married, 1761, Charlotte Sophia of Mecklenburg- Strehtz. Chief Characters of the Reign (First part). — William Pitt, Earl of Chatham ; the Earl of Bute ; George Grenville ; John Wilkes ; the Marquess of Rockingham ; Edmund Burke ; the Duke of Grafton ; Charles Towns- hend ; Lord North ; George Washington ; General Burgoyne ; Lord Cornwallis ; Sir George Savile ; Lord Rodney ; General Eliott ; Lord Shelburne ; William Pitt the younger ; Charles James Fox ; the Duke of Portland ; Warren Hastings. Geoege III. was at his accession twenty-two years of age. He had many advantages over his two predecessors. He was a Character of thorough Englishman, and, as he said himself, he George III. a gloried in the name of Britain." He spoke English as his native tongue, and he was fond of all things in which Englishmen delight ; but his character had many defects. Unfor- tunately, his education had been neglected. He had not been trained in broad views, which would have raised him above party feeling, as an English king should be. His chief tutors had been Tories, and their views were opposed to those of the great Whig ministers who had just made England so glorious. Moreover, he had been set against the system lately in use, by which the king chose his ministers from that party which was most powerful in Parliament. He wished to name his own ministers and to choose his own policy. In short, he wanted not only to reign, but also to govern. In his dislike to the rule of the Whig ministers George was by no means alone. Since the accession of the Hanoverian kings, Power of the ^lie chief power had really been in the hands of a Whig families, few Whig families, who had been very jealous of 1V60.] Newcastle. 353 admitting even such able Whigs as Pitt and Fox into their ranks. The power of these families rested partly on the memory of their achievements, partly on tlie influence which they had acquired in Parhament. In those days many of the boroughs which sent members to Parliament were exceedingly small, some because they had deca^^ed since members were first given to them, some because they had always been small and had been created in order that they might be under the influence of the crown. Such places were called rotten boroughs. The power of nominating their Rotten members was usually in the hands of the crown or of . ^orougias. some neighbouring landowner, or was sold to the highest bidder. A few years later than this, it was asserted that 200 members of Parlia- ment were returned by places with less than 100 electors, and that 357 members were nominated by 154 patrons. Walpole and the Pelhams had organized the Whig party so thoroughly by the use of the crown influence, that the Whig families were able to pursue their own course without regard to the wishes of the king, as was shown by their forcing Pitt upon George II. This system George meant to attack, for he wished to break up party and to govern by men, and he hoped to have the sympathy of the great body of electors, who had little more influence than he had himself. On his accession, however, George found in office the Pitt and Newcastle administration, which was so strong in the country through the victories of Pitt, and so powerful in The Pitt and Parliament through the influence of Newcastle, that Newcastle its position seemed almost impregnable. George's tion broken up. first step was to get Lord Bute, a Scottish Tory, who had managed his household, made Secretary of State. A favourable chance soon led to Pitt's retirement. He had information that Spain was coming to the assistance of France, and wished to declare war at once; but as he was unable to move his colleagues, he resigned in disgust. As Pitt foretold, Spain herself declared war, and the result of the delay was to lose us an excellent chance of attacking the Spanish fleet. This incident increased Pitt's reputation in the country. Newcastle's resignation soon followed that of Pitt. It had been his practice to use the crown's power of promoting to office as a means of keeping together the Whig party ; but George insisted, as was 2a 354 Geors:e III. [itgs- legally his right, in making these appointments himself ; so New- castle, finding his power midermined, sent in his resignation. In this way the king, within two years of his accession, broke np the glorious Whig ministry of Pitt and Newcastle, and replaced it by another, under the premiership of Lord Bute, a man of no political experience whatever, who was simply a personal friend of the king. Bute became Prime Minister in 1762. The war against Spain was fairly successful. Following Pitt's plan, we attacked her colonies and took Havannah, the capital of Cuba, and Manilla, the capital of the Philippine spanisii Islands ; but George and Bute had no heart in the colonies. ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^ i^^^ could to terminate it, without much regard to the interests either of England or her allies. In 1763 peace was made at Paris between England, Peace of ar s. •p^.g^^^g^ Spain, and Portugal. England secured Canada, Tobago, Dominica, St. Vincent, and Granada; but we gave up Martinique, to which we had been selling £300,000 worth of goods a year, and also Havannah and Manilla. Pondicherry, taken in 1761, was also restored to the French. The King of Prussia, whose efforts in Germany had enabled Pitt to gain his successes in the colonies, was abandoned and his subsidy withdrawn. The terms of this treaty were universally condemned by the Whigs ; but Henry Fox changes '^^^■i who had gone over to the side of Bute and the Bides. king, managed, by bribery and corruption of all kinds, to secure a large majority for it in the House of Commons. For this service he was raised to the peerage as Lord Holland, while the peers who opposed him were deprived by the court of their lord-lieutenancies, and private persons of all ranks who dared to support the Whigs were turned out of the posts which they held under the crown. These acts, however, only raised a storm of Buteobngedto indignation against the court, and when Bute pro- resign, posed to pay for the war by a tax on cider, he en- countered such a flood of abuse that he was forced to retire from office. Though Bute retired from office, he had still great influence with the king, so that the witty Lord Chesterfield said " that the pubhc still saw Lord Bute through the curtain, which, indeed, was very transparent." The king replaced Bute by Pitt's brother-in-law, George Gren- 1763.] Bute- ■ George Gre?iville. 355 ville,! who brought with him Lords Egremont and Halifax. By this time George had succeeded in organizing in the House of Commons a party called the king's ministry, friends, who were not attached to either Whigs or The king's Tories, but voted with or against the king's ministers friends, exactly as they were ordered by the king himself. This manoeuvre on the king's part made government almost impossible. The only way in which it could have been defeated was by the united action of the Whig party, which was still the most powerful body in Parlia- ment. This, however, was impossible, because their great success in the last reign had divided the Whigs into sections. Some followed Pitt ; others obeyed the Marquess of Rockingham ; a third section was led by the Duke of Bedford; and a fourth followed George Grenville. These sections could never make common cause, so the king was able to defeat them in detail. For a time Grenville held his own by the support of the king's friends, and an attempt was then made to get Pitt to join him. This failed, so an alliance was made with the Bedford party, which secured Grenville's ascendency till 1765. Grenville was not a successful minister. He was a man of routine, and not a statesman. His first error was the prosecution of Wilkes. John Wilkes, a clever but profligate prosecution of man, had stated, in No. 45 of his magazine, the North '^°^^ Wiikes. Briton, that the king's speech contained a lie in reference to the 1 THE PITTS AND GRENVILLES. Hester, Countess Temple, = Ricliard Grenville. I W. Pitt, created Earl of Chatham. = Hester Grenville. Earl George Grenville, Temple, d. 1779. = Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Wyndham. John, Earl of Chatham. William Pitt, Prime Minister 1783-1801, 1804-1806. born 1712, Prime Minister 1763-1765, d. 1770. Earl Temple (king's agent in 1783). William Wyndham Grenville, created Earl Grenville, Prime Minister 1806-7, d, 1834. 356 George III. ri764- King of Prussia. Every one knows that the king's speech is written by the king's ministers ; but George chose to regard Wilkes' accusation as a personal affront to himself, and insisted that he should be prosecuted. The action itself was a mistake, but the ministers were also wrong in the way they did it. They arrested Wilkes on a general warrant, i.e. a warrant which specifies no name, but allows the officers to arrest on suspicion. Moreover, they had no right to arrest Wilkes at all. A member of Parliament could only be arrested for treason, felony, or breach of the peace, and of none of these was Wilkes accused. By these errors the government contrived to put Wilkes in the right, and to enlist popular sympathy in his favour. Wilkes, under Habeas Corpus Act, claimed to be released, and Chief Justice Pratt at once ordered him to be so, on the ground of his privilege as a member of Parliament. Wilkes and the printers then sued the king's messengers for illegal imprisonment under a general warrant, and were successful in obtaining damages. The commons, however, voted No. 45 to be a seditious expeUed from libel, and expelled Wilkes from the house for having Parliament, ^^.-^^gj^ ^^^ pubKshed it. 'This high-handed act, which showed that Parhament was no longer the guardian of the people's rights, but the agent of the king, caused riots to be made in Wilkes' favour ; but, of course, there was no remedy against an Act of Parliament. Grenville's next blunder was his attempt to tax the American colonies. On the surface there was much to be said for this course. The late war had freed the colonies from fear of atSmpt^?o'tax France, and it seemed only fair that they should the American p^y ^j^gjj. g^are of the expenscs. Again, England was the only country which did not tax its colonies. Eome, Carthage, Spain, Portugal, Holland, and France had all done so, and there seemed no reason why England should be an exception, especially as she had had to add largely to her debt to pay for a war in their defence. On the other hand, the colonists were not unwilling to pay their share, but, like other Englishmen, they claimed not to be taxed except through representatives, and no members for the colonies sat in the English House of Commons. However, in 1764 Grenville passed an Act imposing customs duties on the American colonies, and gave notice that it was to be followed by a Stamp Act. At the same 1766.] George GnnvUle — Rockhigham. 357 time, he irritated the colonies by trying to put a stop to the prac- tice of trading with the Spanish settlements, in which our colonists had long indulged to the great annoyance of the Spaniards. The news of these measures caused great excitement in America, and no less than six of the thirteen colonies protested against The 'Stamp Act the Stamp Act; but in spite of this the act was passed. passed. B3'' the Stamp Act the government was able to levy a tax on all such transactions as giving receipts, cashing cheques, and leaving money by will. This is done by means of a stamp which is bought from the government and attached to the document, without which the transaction is illegal. This was the first attempt of the government to levy an inland revenue as distinct from customs. The colonists met this law by obstinately refusing to use the stamped paper. Things were in this state when Grenville left office in 1765. He had never been a favourite at court, as his long speeches bored the king, and George soon made an excuse for dismissing him. The king then applied, through his uncle the Duke of Cumberland, to Pitt ; but the negotiations broke down. The duke next addressed the Marquess of Rockingham, and he and his friends The agreed to form a government. As, however, they ^dmSStr™ were opposed by the other sections of the Whigs, and tion. had to rely for support on the king's friends, they were necessarily very weak. Under these circumstances the Rockingham Whigs only held office for a year ; but during that time they repealed the Stamp Act, and also passed a resolution declaring general warrants to be illegal. While repealing the Stamp Act, however, they were careful to pass an act stating that England has authority over the colonies both in legislation and taxation. The repeal of the Stamp Act was mainly carried through the efforts of Edmund Burke, the wisest statesman of his time, in whom Rockingham had great con- fidence, and of Pitt, who made a magnificent speech, in which he pointed out that the trade of America was worth £3,000,000 a year to England, and that we were risking this sum for a miserable pittance. In spite, however, of the support which he gave to the govern- ment in this case, Pitt was no good friend to Rock- ingham. Like the king, Pitt was no admirer of party government in the strict sense of the term ; but always advocated, 35S George III. ti^ee- as the Patriots had done in the time of Walpole, the formation of a government which should include all sections of opinion. The Eockingham party was so small, that Pitt now saw his chance of effecting a coalition against it, and so in 1766 he united with the king to turn out Rockingham. A strong government was then formed under the Duke of Grafton, one of Rockingham's Secretaries of State, as nominal head, and Pitt himself took the office of Lord Privy Seal, and went to the House of Lords as Earl of Chatham. Great things were hoped from this administration, but it was unlucky from the first, and in the end turned out a complete failure. Pitt's removal to the Upper House was a mistake. It weakened his power, as he could no longer sway the House of Commons by Pitt becomes his eloquence, and it lost him his title of the "Great and*re«re?i^o Commoner," in which he had gloried, and deprived private life, him of some of his reputation for disinterestedness. Worse than that, he had hardly assumed power when he fell ill. How ill he was will never be known, but he first refused to see his colleagues, and then to answer letters, and finally retired to Bath, and took no share in public business. Left thus without a head — for Grafton had neither influence nor ability — the ministry had no fixed policy, and soon fell into complete disorder. In the teeth of Pitt's declaration, Charles Townshend, the Chan- cellor of the Exchequer, put a number of small cus- Taxes on . . American toms duties on American imports, the total produce imports. ^£ which taxes was only estimated at £40,000. This action revived the irritation which had been appeased by the repeal of the Stamp Act, and as the government was still insisting upon the scheme of stopping smugghng, ill feeling reached a high pitch. Soon after passing this measure Townshend died, and was succeeded by Lord North. Shortly afterwards Lord Chatham recovered, but his first act was to resign his post. In England the ministry went equally wrong. In 1768 there was a general election, and Wilkes was elected by the county of Middle- Wiikea sex. The king was determined that he should not re-elected. \^^^q ^jg ge^t, and the government, under Iiis influence, ordered Wilkes to be arrested as ah outlaw for his former libels. Riots so violent followed that in London alone twenty people were killed by the soldiers, and Wilkes became the hero of the mob, who 1769.] Grafton — North. 359 at this time were tliorouglily discontented with the state of affairs. The fact was that George's scheme was beginning to bear its fruits. He had now successfully wrested the government from the hands of the Wliig leaders, and had got a ministry which would do what he wished ; but unfortunately he had not the abihty to be a successful despot, and the more personal power he had the more things went wrong. The government, under his guidance, became thoroughly unpopular, as was shown by the pubhcation in 1769 of the first of "The letters of Junius," which appeared in the •■ ine Letters Pullic Advertiser. The real name of their author °^ Junius." was never ascertained, though it is now generally thought that they were written by Sir Philip Francis, then a clerk in one of the government offices. They attacked the government in coarse and violent language, but with biting sarcasm and admirable skill, and they were read all over the country. Not satisfied, however, with preventing Wilkes from taking his seat, the Commons, under the lead of the king's friends, actually tried him for a new libel, expelled him from the wiikea House, and ordered a new election for Middlesex. ^^^g^^oiJe."* Of course Wilkes was re-elected ; but the Commons held him incapable of sitting, declared the election void, and ordered a new one to be held. Again Wilkes was re-elected, and then at the fourth contest the Commons actually Again declared that his opponent. Colonel Luttrell, had been re-elected, chosen, though he had only gained 296 votes to 1143 given to Wilkes. This concluded the contest for the moment, but the attacks which poured in upon Grafton from all sides were so violent that he retired, and his place was taken by his Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lord North, a man of great administrative ^^^,^ North ability and an excellent debater, but wholly under the becomes Prime king's influence. George had, in fact, succeeded in reducing the government to the ideal at which he had aimed, while the clever use he had made of the crown influence had gained him such a following in the House that his opponents were almost powerless. It was evident by this time, from the reception of " Junius' Letters," that the House of Commons had become very un- publication of popular, and the Commons were, therefore, more than debates. ever jealous of any publication of their debates, which had been 3^0 George III. [1771^ distinctly declared to be a breach of privilege in 1728. In spite of this declaration the debates had been surreptitiously reported under false names, under the title, for instance, of " Debates in the Par- liament of Lilliput," a name taken from "Gulliver's Travels." Of late, however, this disguise had been thrown off, and in 1771 the Commons made a vigorous attempt to prevent the practice, by ordering the arrest of one of the printers. The man was a liver}^- man of London, and denied the authority of the House, and he was backed by the authorities of the city, who arrested the messenger of the Commons and brought him before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, one of whom was Wilkes. By them the printer's quarrel was taken up, and the Commons were foiled. Since that time the publication of debates, though still asserted to be a breach of privilege, has gone on with only occasional interruptions. The first act of the new ministry was an attempt to conciliate the colonies by withdrawing all the customs duties except that on tea, A ^4. ^j. which was retained in order to show the right of Attempt to , ... concmate the Parliament to tax the colonies. This might have satisfied the colonists at first, but their views were now enlarged, and it was the principle, and not the money, that they now cared about. In 1773 Lord North passed an act which altered the government of India, and, to help the East India Company, he allowed it to bring certain tea, duty free, into Eng- Repressive ^^^^^Ij ^"^^ ^0 export it to America, subject only to measures the small dutv enforced there. However, when the against the American tca-ships reached Boston, they were boarded by a CO onists. ]3ody of colonists disguised as Indians, and the tea was flung into the water. This lawless act roused the government to vigorous action, and to punish the people of Massachusetts, of which Boston was the capital, two acts were passed, by the first of which the Constitution of Massachusetts was annulled, and the colony put under the absolute power of the crown; by the second the custom-house was taken to New Salem, which was much the same as removing the trade of Liverpool to Preston, or that of London to Gravesend. The object was to ruin the Boston merchants bj'- preventing goods being landed there. This action brought matters to a crisis, for all men who understood colonial feeling knew that the colonists would rather fight than submit. Unfortu- it^-s.j North. S6i natel}^, the mass of Englishmen were profoundly ignorant of the colonies. There had for a long time been little emigration from England to America ; there was very little passing to and fro, for in those days the voyage took six weeks ; and Parliament refused to pay attention to the warnings of Chatham and Burke, the only statesmen who were really competent to advise in the matter. After these repressive measures had been passed, the other colo- nies came to the assistance of Massachusetts, and a Congress was summoned at Philadelphia which was attended by ^ ^.^^ representatives from all the states but Georgia, which unite against; had only been founded in 1732. One of the leaders ^^ ^^ of Congress was George Washington, who had distinguished himself in the old war against the French. He said he would himself raise a thousand men to help the men of Boston. Meanwhile the Massa- chusetts assembly, instead of dispersing, as ordered by the governor, had kept together, and withdrawn to Concord, where it began to raise troops and to collect supplies. In 1775 an attempt to seize these led to the first fighting at Lexington, and in it the colonists, who were excellent irregular soldiers, got the advantage, and soon afterwards seized Bunker's Hill, which was so situated that it com- manded Boston. From this they were expelled by the English, but at a great sacrifice of life, and then the war began in real earnest. The colonies were divided into three groups — the northern or New England colonies comprising Massachusetts, Khode Island, Con- necticut, and New Hampshire, which were in origin ^^^ \,\iXQQ Puritan ; the central. New York, Pennsylvania, New groups of Jersey, and Delaware, lay near the Hudson and Delaware rivers, on territory much of which had originally been Dutch, but had been settled by English colonists since 1664; and the southern, Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia, which were slave-holding states. The first danger the English had to fear was a general rising of their American states ; but an invasion of Canada by the colonists proved a failure, for such fair laws had been given to the French settlers that they remained true to their allegiance. , Tliis danger being averted, the English applied themselves to the conquest of the New England states ; but in this Declaration of they failed, for George Washington, who had been independence. 362 George II L 11776- appointed commander-in-chief by the colonists, seized Dorchester Heights, which completely commanded Boston, and Sir Wilham Howe was forced to withdraw. Encouraged by this event. Congress boldly declared the United States to be independent of England, and drew up a constitution for their goA^ernment. The English then changed their base of operations to New York, and tried to secure the lines of the Hudson and Delaware, in order to cut the states in two. In this they were partially successful, for they drove Washmgton from Long Island and New York, and in 1777 they beat him at Brandywine Eiver, and took Philadelphia, the capital of Pennsylvania. To make their victory complete, it was arranged that General Burgoyne should march from Canada down the river Hudson, and join hands with General Clinton, who was to advance from New York. Unfortunately, Chnton was so slow that Burgoyne, Defeat at when he had advanced about half-way, found himself Saratoga. surroundcd by an overwhelming force, and was obliged to surrender at Saratoga Springs. The disaster at Saratoga was the turning-point of the war. Hither- to it had been thought either that England would easily beat the France, Spain colonists, or that a reconciliation would be effected, and Houand But now France, believing that the colonists would reco!?nize the . independence be Successful, in order to revenge herself upon England meiica. £^^ ^j^^ j^^^ ^^ Canada, recognized the independence of the States, and was joined by Spain in 1779, and by Holland in 1780. England thus found herself face to face, not only with her revolted colonists, but with the three great naval powers of Europe, and from that moment her chance of success was small. When France joined the colonists, some of the Whigs, under the Duke of Kichmond, advised that we should ourselves acknowledge Chatham the independence of our colonies ; but this view was inSndenJe distasteful to Burke and Chatham, who had all along of America, adviscd Conciliation — especially to Chatham, who had done more than any other statesman to build up the empire in America, and was aghast at the idea of it being so soon ruined. Death of ^0 strong was his feeling on the subject, that while Chatham. opposing the Duke of Richmond in the House of Lords, he fell down in a fit on the floor of the House, and was carried home only to die. Chatham's protest, however, was so far successful 1780.J Noi'th. 363 that the war, which was now as much against France as against the colonies, was continued. Meanwhile, the disasters into which the king's government was plunging the country had aroused a spirit of opposition. Opinions differed as to the best means of bringing the ad- Economical ministration of the country into accord with the ^men^ary " wishes of the people. Some thought that the remedy reform, lay in diminishing the king's command of money, others in taking away members from the rotten boroughs and giving them to populous towns and to counties. These two schemes were called, respectively, Economical and Parliamentary reform. The first was advocated by the Eockingham Whigs, whose spokesman in the House of Commons was Edmund Burke ; the second, by Lord Chatham and his friends. The king and Lord North had most influence in the small boroughs, while Eockingham relied upon the counties, and Chatham on the large towns, especially on London. In 1780 the advocates of economical reform received great support by the presentation of a petition from the freeholders of Yorkshire, demanding a reduction in the salaries of Great York- officials and the abolition of sinecure offices, which shire petition, had simply been used as means of bribery. No less than twenty- three counties supported the Yorkshiremen, and Burke was en- couraged the same year to bring in a bill for economical reform, which, however, failed to pass. Thwarted in this way. Dunning brought forward a motion " that the power of the crown has increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished," and carried it by a majority of 233 to 215. Next year Burke brought in another bill for economical reform, but was again defeated by the government. Meanwhile the party who favoured Parliamentary reform were not idle. The first motion on the subject was made by Sir F. Dashwood, a Tory, in 1745, in the midst of the Jacobite re- projects for bellion. It was so ill timed that nothing came of it, reform, but in 1770 Lord Chatham suggested the giving of a third member to each county ; and in 1776, Wilkes, who had been allowed to take his seat in 1774, brought forward a motion on the subject, which was lost without a division. In 1780 the Duke of Eichmond introduced a bill into the House of Lords providing annual Parlia- 364 George III. utSo- ments, manliood suffrage, and electoral districts, but was of course defeated. These abortive attempts served the purpose of keeping, the reform of Parliamentary representation before the country. In 1778 the gradual awakening which was shown in the agitation for economy and the proposals for reform was also manifested by the passing of a measure introduced by Sir George saviie's Savile, a member for Yorkshire, for the relief of the thTreHef o^ Roman Catholics from some of their disabilities. By tiie Roman it the laws Were repealed which forbade their priests to say mass, or their laymen to acquire land by purchase. Unhappily, these very proper concessions raised a storm of excitement in the country, in which the anti-Catholic feeling was still very strong. Anti-Popish riots at once occurred The Gordon ii^ Scotland, and in 1780, when Lord George Gordon, riots. President of the Protestant Association, presented a petition to Parliament against concession to the Roman Catholics, a. riot broke out in London, in which the prisons were opened, chapels gutted, and property destroyed to such an extent as probably London had not witnessed since Cade's rebellion in 1450. For nearly four days the rioters had possession of the streets, and it was only the firmness of the king himself, who insisted that the soldiers should fire on the mob, which prevented the disaster from being still more terrible. These riots, moreover, were of great importance afterwards, for when the French Revolution broke out and disorders occurred in Paris, orderly f)eople thought of the Gordon riots, and determined that, come what might, such things should not again occar in London. A vivid description of these riots is given in Dickens' " Barnaby Rudge." All this time the ministers had been doing their best to hold their own in Europe and America. As soon as Spain joined the war, Siege of ^ great attempt was made, by a united army and fleet Gibraltar. Qf French and Spaniards, to take Gibraltar ; but Governor EHott nobly defended his charge, and by burning the enemy's batteries by means of red-hot shot, kept his assailants at bay. In 1780 Admiral Rodney defeated the Spanish fleet off Cape St. Vincent, and threw supplies into Gibraltar, which with this assistance managed to hold out until the siege was finally raised. In America, however, Washington was so formidable that in 1783.] North — Rockmgha7?t. 365 1778 we were obliged to evacuate Philadelphia, and make New York our head-quarters, and remain for the most part ^^^ English on the defensive. In 1780 a gloom was cast over evacuate the whole army by the sad fate of Major Andre, an English officer, who had been ordered to negotiate with Benedict Arnold, an American general, who offered to desert his countrymen. Andre had gone at night to the American lines in uniform, but when day broke he was persuaded to change his clothes, and, being captured within the American lines without his uniform, was hanged, as a spy. Arnold deserted, but did little good to his new friends. In 1780 it was determined that part of the army, under Lord Cornwallis, should leave New York and land at Charleston, in South Carolina, and try to secure the Southern States. At first Cornwallis was successful, and Lord Kawdon won the battles of Camden in 1780, and of Guildford in 1781. He then marched along the coast towards New York, much as Burgoyne had tried to do along the Hudson river, but was hemmed in at surrender at 1 York Town by General Greene, and, as the English York Town, fleet was not at hand, was forced to surrender. This great disaster brought the fighting on land to a virtual close, but the English still continued the naval war against the three European states. Eodney was fortunate enough to take St. Eustatia, a rich West Indian Island, from the Dutch, but tlie French soon captured it, and in 1782 the Spaniards seized Minorca. It seemed as if England had not only lost the command of the sea, but was going to be stripped of her colonial empire. Under these circumstances Lord North would gladly have made peace, but George clung obstinately to war. The House of Commons, however, was less obdurate. When the Resignation of news of the loss of Minorca came. North's majority i^ord North, dwindled rapidly, and in March he resigned, after an administration of twelve years. Lord North was succeeded by a docking-ham's ministry composed of members of the two chief Whig second parties. Kockingham was Prime Minister, and brought "^^^^ ^^' with him the son of Lord Holland, Charles James Fox, who had established his reputation as one of the greatest debaters in the House of Commons, Lord John Cavendish, Burke, and Sheridan. Chatham's friends were represented, by Lord Shelburne, Secretary 366 George III. ti78s. of State, Lord Camden, formerly Chief Justice Pratt, and Dunning. Lord Kockingham also offered a post to William Pitt, second son of Lord Chatham, who, though only twenty-three, had made a great name in the House ; but it was declined. In accordance with Whig principles, the operations against the Americans were discontinued; but against France, Spain, and Neg-otiations Holland war was waged as before. Fortunately, for peace. Rodney, in April, defeated the French admiral, Count de Grasse, in the West Indies, and in September General Eliott beat off a grand attack of the French and Spaniards, and the siege of Gibraltar, which had lasted three years, was abandoned. These victories much improved the prospects of a satisfactory peace, for which negotiations were set on foot. Rockingham's second administration carried out the plan of economical reform, which his party had so long advocated in Economical opposition. By a bill brought in by Burke for the reforms, reform of the civil list, the private expenditure of the crown was carefully regulated. It was divided into eight classes, and reductions were made to the extent of £72,000 annually, by abolishing useless offices. At the same time, an act was passed excluding persons who held contracts to supply the government with any articles, from sitting in the House of Com- mons, by which a frequent means of indirect bribery was abohshed. Another act forbade revenue officers to vote in elections, and as it was shown that no less than 11,500 officers were electors, and that seventy elections depended on their votes, this was a great blow to the influence of the crown. At the same time William Pitt, in pursuance of the principles of his party, Pitt's motion ' ^ . p t^ t r jj for Pariiamen- brought forward a motion lor Parliamentary reform ; tary reform, -y^^^^ though Fox was in its favour, reform had never been favoured by Burke, and the motion was rejected by 161 to 141 — figures which show that it received very considerable support. By another resolution all the former proceedings in connection with Wilkes' election for Middlesex were expunged from the journals of the House of Commons. During the American war matters in Ireland had reached a very state of critical state. We saw how the Irish Parhament Ireland. simply represented the Protestants, who were an 178S.3 Rockingham— Shelburne. 367 insignificant minovity of the people of Ireland, and how the right of legislating for Ireland had been completely secured for the English Parliament by the Act of 1719. The Protestants also complained that, while the native Irish manufacture of frieze was unmolested, the attempt to introduce the English woollen trade had been repressed since 1699, while the Ulster linen industry had not been encouraged. This state of things caused great discon- tent, as was shown b}^ the agitation against Wood's halfpence ; but, on the whole, Ireland had been quiet until the outbreak of the American war, and even till the colonists were joined by European states. To ^vithstand this formidable coalition the English were obliged to withdraw many of their troops from Ireland, and in 1779 their place was taken by Protestant volunteers, who were allowed to enrol themselves, and to whom the government furnished arms. Encouraged by the example of America, the volunteers soon formed the notion of using their arms as the Americans had done, to secure concessions for their country, and so for- The midable was their attitude that in 1780 the English volunteers. Parliament, which had already made some slight concessions, annulled a great many of the restrictions on Irish trade. En- couraged by this success, the volunteers supported Grattan, a member of the Irish Parliament, in drawing up a Qrattan's Declaration of Eight, demanding legislative inde- Declaration pendence for Ireland. This was accepted by the Irish ParHament in April, 1782, and the Enghsh Parliament passed measures by which the Act of 1719 was repealed, and Poynings' Act was so far modified that the Irish Parliament became independent. In July, 1782, the Marquess of Rockingham died. From the outset, the division in the ministry between Rockingham, Fox and Burke, who had the confidence of Parliament, and Lord Shelburne, who was the favourite of the king, had be^omes^Sfme been very marked. Fox and Burke would have had Minister, the Duke of Portland for Premier, and when George appointed Shelburne, Fox resigned and Burke followed him. Shelburne formed an administration from Chatham's followers, and those of the Rockingham Whigs who had not followed Fox and Burke, and 368 George IIL [i783. he boldly gave the post of Chancellor of the Exchequer and leader of the House of Commons to young WilHam Pitt. The negotiations for peace- having been successful, England acknowledged the independence of the United States, and in 1783 a Treaty of formal peace was concluded at Versailles between Versailles, England, France, Spain, and Holland. By this treaty England gave up Minorca to the Spaniards and Tobago to the French, but for the most part the foreign possessions remained as before. Nothing, however, could make up to England for the loss of her American colonies, and as these have increased and multi- plied mainly through emigration from England herself, the importance of their separation from England has become more and more clear. In the matter of trade we have never done so much with them as we used to do when they were under our flag. When the United States were our colonies, they consumed per man more than £1 worth a year of Enghsh goods. They have never done so much since, and now consume per head about lOs. worth. Even before the preliminaries of peace had been settled, Shel- bume found himself exposed to the attack both of his old opponents and of his recent colleagues. No one had been forced to more unsparing in his denunciation of Lord North resign. ^|^^^ -p^^^ ^^^ yg^. -p^^ ^^^ Burke united with Lord North in order to turn out Shelburne. Nothing equal to this Tbe coalition coalition for inconsistency had ever been seen in the ministry. English Parhament, and both king and nation were wroth at the unnatural alliance. But in the House of Commons Fox and North had a large majority, who carried amendments in the address to the crown proposed by the government in 1783 ; and on February 24 Shelburne resigned. To no one in the kingdom was the coalition more distasteful than to George himself. He looked on North as a deserter, and on Fox as a personal enemy, whom he had himself driven from office in 1774. However, after vainly attempting various unsuccessful combinations, the king was forced to give way, and after thirty-seven days' interval the coalition ministry came into power, with the Duke of Portland as nominal Prime Minister, Fox and North being the Secretaries of State. The king, however, had no intention of allowing this arrangement to be permanent, and he found an opportunity of striking at the 1783.] Porttand. 369 coalition when they brought in their East India Bill. "We saw that the victories of Plassey and Wandewash had shown india under the superiority of the English and their Sepoys over ^i^di^^* the native soldiers and the French troops respectively^ Company. In 1760 Clive came home, but in his absence Major Munro, in 1764, defeated the Nabob of Oude at Buxar and entered Allahabad. In 1765 Clive returned to India, and he made the East India Company rulers of an extensive territory by taking over, by a deed granted by the Great Mogul, the districts of Bengal, Orissa, and Behar, which had been governed by the Nabob of Bengal. The Nabob was not deposed, he was only pensioned, and the government was still conducted in his name, but the Enghsh company were the real rulers. Though they had thus, accidentally as it were, become rulers, the object of the East India Company was still to make money. With such an object as the end of government, it is no A ,\ \ r 1 • I, Miserable wonder that corruption and oppression everywhere condition of prevailed ; and the new rule became a curse to the ® iiatives. natives. Famine followed famine, and the Ganges was sometimes choked with corpses. At last stories of these deeds reached Eng^ land, and the natives found a strong advocate in Edmund Burke, who, whether the victims were colonists, Irish, or Hindoos, was always on the side of the oppressed. Clive, undoubtedlj'-, did what he could to put down corruption ; but the forces against him were too strong, and Parliament, urged by Burke, determined to take the matter in hand . A commission inquired into the case, and in 1773 Lord North passed his Eegulating Act, by which the three presidencies of Cal- cutta, Madras, and Bombay were united under the governor-general of Bengal ; and "Warren Hastings, Reg^uiatiner who was then president of the Bengal council, was ° ' made the first governor-general. The governor was to be assisted by a council, and a high court of justice to administer English law was also created. The new governor-general was a man of very gi-eat abilitj''j thoroughly versed in all the Indian arts of intrigue, warren and on the whole he administered the affairs of Hastings, the company with great success. The greatest danger to the 2b Zio George III. ri-rs^ company's power arose from the ambition of Hyder All of Mysore, a robber chief, who had raised himself to independence, and threatened to overwhelm Madras. Hastings was driven to the last extremity to defend it, but in 1781 Hyder Ali was defeated by Sir Eyre Coote at Porto Novo — a name which recalls the old Portuguese settlements. To supply money for the struggle, and also to pay the company's dividend, Hastings had been forced to most unprincipled acts : he had lent English troops for hire to the Nabob of Oude, and he had by force and cajolery obtained large sums from the Eajah of Benares, and also from the Begums or Princesses of Oude. When the news of Hastings' high-handed proceedings became known. Parliament was again called on to interfere, and had a good Bill for dealing Gxcuse for doing SO, for in spite of all Hastings' witii the efforts the company was on the verge of bankruptc3^ East India Accordmgly, the coalition ministry drew up a bill by ompany. -^i^Jch the management of the commercial affairs of the company was to be left to the directors; but political affairs were to be put under a board of seven persons nominated by Parliament for four years, and afterwards by the crown. So far as the bill affected the natives, it was good, for it had been drawn up by Burke; but the bill was not judged on its merits. The opposition saw that its effect would be to give the present majority in Parliament the whole control of East Indian patronage, and, in fact, would provide them with a gigantic engine of patronage with which to secure their ill-gotten power. Under these circumstances tlie bill was so distasteful to the king, to the opposition, and to the East India Company itself, that George ventured on a course which in itself Avas highly unconstitutional; for when the bill came on for second reading in the Lords, he authorized Pitt's cousin. Lord Bejectionof Temple, son of George Grenville, to say that '•' who- the India Bill, ever voted for the India Bill was not only not his friend, but would be considered by him as an enemy." This in- fluence secured the rejection of the bill, and the king, overjoyed by his success, demanded the seals from the coalition officers that very night. The coalition ministiy was dismissed on December 18, and on December 23 it was announced that William Pitt had formed 1784.] Portland. — Pitt, 371 a government from the king's friends, and from the old followers of Lord Chatham. Then a great struggle ensued. ,„^ • IT! ?» T istrueeieto George had made up his mmd to dissolve Parliament, place pitt but he did not wish to dissolve until the conduct of the coalition had been thoroughly understood by the country. On the other hand, Fox and North wished to drive Pitt from office as soon as possible. But against all their eloquence Pitt stood firm. It was in vain that the old ministers joked Pitt on his age, and laughed at "a kingdom trusted to a schoolboy's care." In vain they petitioned the king to form a strong government, and threatened not to vote the supplies or to pass the Mutiny Act. It was soon seen that Pitt's was the winning side. The lords supported him, the merchants of the city of London, who had been the staunch friends of his father, sent him an address. His friends in the House steadily increased, and at last, on March 8, a motion of Fox against the ministers was carried by one vote only. Two days afterwards the Mutiny Bill was passed, and on the 25th Parliament was dissolved. The election which followed was a signal triumph for Pitt and the king. No less than one hundred and sixty of the friends of the coalition lost their seats, and the wits of the day called them "Fox's Martyrs" The new Prime Minister was a wonderful man. From his boy- hood he had been trained to be a statesman, and circumstances had given him the opportunity while he was still pittand young enough to make use of it. Moreover, Pitt was the king-, the first premier since the beginning of the reign who had possessed the confidence of both the king and the nation, and consequently business was done with an ease and celerity which for a long time had been unknown. To his delight George found that his young minister in the main agreed with his own views, and had so much administrative talent that he could safely be entrusted to carry them out by himself. Consequently the popularity of George steadily increased. For the first twenty-three years of his reign he was undoubtedly very unpopular, for he was regarded as the author of the unpopular acts of the government ; but he now began to get credit for Pitt's success, and the feeling of the nation under- went a complete change. ,. One of Pitt's first acts was to pass an India Act. By it he 372 George III. ti784- created a board of control, whicli was to be appointed by the Pitt's India government of the day. This board was to have '^^^^ supreme control over the civil and military adminis- tration of the Company. All the patronage, however, was to be left in the hands of the Company, but the crown reserved a right of veto ill the case of appointments to the chief offices. This settlement satisfied both the Company and the country, and remained in force till 1858. In 1785 Warren Hastings came back from India, and the next year Burke moved his impeachment before the House of Lords for Impeachment ^"^^^ crimes and misdemeanors, especially on the of Warren charge of injustice to the Eajah of Benares. On Hastings. . . ,, .. -r^... ,. , . . exammmg the evidence, Pitt found it impossible to defend Hastings in many respects, but he remained neutral, and Burko and Sheridan had the chief management of the prosecution, assisted by Sir Philip Francis, the supposed author of "Junius' Letters," who had been a member of Hastings' council, and had done his best to thwart him. The trial lasted six years, for the lords rarely sat to hear evidence. In the end Hastings was acquitted ; but the trial was a good thing, as it diffused much knowledge about India, and was a warning to other officers not to follow Hastings' footstep e. Since Pitt's Act and Hastings' trial, the civil service of India has been very different from what it was before. The officials have set before themselves a high standard of duty to the natives, and have reckoned among their numbers some of the noblest of Englishmen. Pursuing his own and his father's pohcy, Pitt advocated the reform of Parliament, and in 1785 he proposed to disfranchise thirty-six Pitt's reform rotten boroughs, and to give the members to the scheme. couiities and to London. The motion, however, was not agreeable to the king, and was thrown out by 248 votes to 174. It was, however, as a financier that Pitt achieved the most striking success. He had had an excellent training in political Commercial economy, the science which tries to explain the policy. process by which wealth is created and distributed, on which subject a great deal of light had lately been thrown by the publication of Adam Smith's " Wealth of Nations." This book had taught that all nations would benefit by a free exchange of their goods, whereas it had been the practice of governments to discourage 1788.] PitU . 373 their people from buying from other nations, for fear that they would reduce the stock of gold in the country. The new plan was called Free Trade. Pitt adopted it, and in 1786 he made a commercial treaty with France, by which both countries lowered their customs duties, and so made a step in the direction of free trade. This treaty was a good thing for both countries. Trade increased, and even the revenue reaped the benefit ; for as there was less smuggling under the new law than under the old, the customs duties amounted in the aggregate to a larger sum. In 1785 Pitt attempted to apply the same system to the trade between England and Ireland; but the English merchants were so hostile to the measure that he had to abandon the greater part of it, to the loss of „ ^ . ° ^ ' Scheme for both countries. Pitt next brought forward a scheme paying off the for paying off the National Debt. It was very com- plicated, but as at bottom it consisted in raising extra taxes each year in order to pay the debt, it left the country as before, and after a time it was abandoned, though not till 1828. The feeling which prompted the impeachment of Hastings led also to an inquiry into the horrors of the slave trade, and in 1787 an association was formed for its total abolition. This Inqiury about could not be done at once, but m 1788 a bill was the slave passed for the better regulation of slave-ships, and ^^ ®* the next year, through the efforts of Wilberforce, Fox, and Burke, resolutions condemning the slave trade itself were introduced. The country was completely absorbed in Pitt's useful reforms, when an event happened which suddenly threatened to deprive Pitt of his power, and to place Fox and Burke The kins in office. As early as 1765 the king had been becomes threatened with madness, and in 1788 he became "^sane. completely insane. The case was a difficult one. The natural person to be regent was the Prince of Wales, but the prince was very unpopular. In 1772, at the instance of TheHoyai the king, the Royal Marriage Act had been passed, Miarriag-e Act. by which all the descendants of George II. were forbidden to marry without the consent of the reigning sovereign. Of this act the prince had taken advantage to marry Mrs. Fitzherbert, a Roman CathoHc, which by the Bill of Rights would have forfeited the 374 George III. [i789. crown had the marriage been legal. As it was, he could plead the Royal Marriage Act against the legality of his own marriage. This action was universally disapproved. Moreover, the prince had Unpopularity Contracted immense debts, and was addicted to oftiieprmce. gambling. More important, however, than all, he was attached to Fox, and it was well known that his first act as regent would be to dismiss Pitt, and make Fox Prime Minister; and Fox, eager for power, declared that the heir-apparent had an inherent right to assume the reins of government. In these difficult circumstances Pitt behaved very well. He did not refuse to make the prince regent, but he declared that Parliament alone could give The king bim the title, and that Parliament had the right to recovers. jg^y (Jown the Conditions on which he should hold it. Happily, before anything was settled the king recovered, and he and Pitt became more popular than ever. Good fortune as well as good management had attended Pitt. Without any effort on his part, his ministry gained the benefit of Commercial a great wave of commercial prosperity. Before the pro^erity. j-eigQ of George HI., and for nine years into it, England had been chiefly an agricultural country, and had exported corn. She had some manufactures, chiefly woollen and cotton, but her trade in them was not considerable. However, in the latter half of the eighteenth century a great change took place. Arkwright applied the invention of roller-spinning, by which a strong thread was spun by passing through revolving rollers, instead of by the slow method of the spinning-wheel; then Plargreaves devised a spinning-jenny, by which many threads could be spun at once ; and finally, Crompton combined the two inventions in his mule. Hardly had this been done, when Mr. Cartwright, a clergyman, invented a power-loom, in which machinery did what human hands had had to do before. Soon after this had been done, Watt's improved steam-engine was used instead of water-power to drive the new machines. The demand for new machinery caused a great demand for iron, which could now be obtained cheaper than formerly, in consequence of the use of pit coal instead of charcoal in smelting it ; while Brindley's introduction of canals, and Telford's improvements in road-making, facilitated the exchange of goods and the bringing of materials to the districts where they were wanted, 1789.] Pitt. 375 These improvements in the arts were of more vakie to England than the discovery of the richest gold-mine. Fortmiately for England, in this country the coal-mines and the iron-mines lie near too-ether, and give every facility for the construction of machinery and the carrying on of manufactures. The energy of her sons was not slow to avail itself of a new source of wealth, and within a very few years the nation, which had thought herself ruined by the loss of her American colonies, had started upon a career of wealth, which enabled her to support without ruin a contest to which the American war had been a trifle. CHIEF GENERAL EVENTS UNDER GEORGE III,, 1760-1789. Prosecution of Wilkes for No. 45 of the North Briton ... East India Company acquires the administration of Bengal Stamp Act passed ... First of " Junius' letters " Middlesex Election dispute Open publication of Parliamentary debates begins Lord North's Regulating Act for India Lord George Gordon riots Independence of the United States acknowledged Trial of Warren Hastings begins 1763 1765 1769 1771 1773 1780 1782 1788 CHIEF TREATIES^ BATTLES, AND SIEGES, 1 760-1 789. Treaty of Paris 1763 Battle of Buxar ... ,, Lexington „ Bunker's Hill Surrender at Saratoga Siege of Gibraltar Battle of Porto Novo Surrender at Yorktowu Rodney's victory over Count de Grasse Peace of Versailles , :.. ... ... 1764 ... 1775 ... 1777 1779-1782 ... 1781 ... 1782 ... 1783 CHAPTER IV. THE WARS OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION". Chief Characters of the Time. — Pitt ; Fox ; Burke ; Priestley ; Paine ; Napoleon Buonaparte ; Lord Howe ; Sir John Jervis ; Lord Nelson ; Admiral Duncan ; Sir Sidney Smith ; Lord Edward Fitzgerald ; Lord Cornwallis ; Lord Castlereagh ; Addington, afterwards Lord Sidmouth ; Lord Grenville ; George Canning ; Lord Mornington, afterwards Marquess Wellesley ; Sir Arthur Wellesley, afterwards Duke of Wellington ; the Duke of Portland ; Wilberforce ; Lord Liverpool ; Perceval ; Sir John Moore ; Sir Francis Burdett ; William Cobbett. Chief Contemporary Sovereigns, France. Emperor. Prussia. Russia. Louis XVL, exe- Francis II., Frederick Alexander I., cutedl793. 1792-1805. William IIL, 1801-1825. Republic, 1792-1794. Emperor of 1797-1840. Directorate, 1794-1799. Austria, Consulate, 1799-1804. 1805-1835. Napoleon, Emperor, 1804-1814. Louis XVIIL, 1814-1824. The contest to which we referred in the last chapter arose out of the French Eevolution, an event of such importance that it forms as great an epoch as the Reformation, and of such Importance of ° ^ .,,,.. tiie French far-reaching consequences that we are still hvmg eve u ion. ^j^^jgj, ^^ influence of the movement. Roughly- speaking, this revolution means the revolt of Europe against the privileges left by feudalism. Though the movement began in France, all European countries in the last quarter of the eighteenth century- retained in their customs much that was feudal in origin. This system had been the framework of society in the Middle Ages, and had then been most useful; but by degrees society took a new 1789.] _ PiU, 377 form, and then its uses disappeared, while, unfortunately, its abuses remained. In no country were these abuses so bad as in France. There society was divided into the privileged and the imprivi- leged, who were to one another as one to thirty. The privileged, who included the nobles and clergy, had almost all the wealth of the country, but paid hardly any of France' taxes ; the unprivileged had to pay for both. In ^^^^^^v^^ each manor or seigniory the lord of the manor or seigneur had certain rights over his tenants. These tenants were not like English farmers; they did not hire their lands from the landowner by bargain, but they held the land perpetually, subject to certain services which they had to perform. They were, in fact, in the same position as the villeins in the time of Edward III. In England these services had been commuted for money payments, but in France they had still to be performed. Such was the corvee^ a service done by working on the roads, which was made very oppressive. Again, the seigneurs had the sole right of hunting and shooting on the manor. In England, if there is much game on a farm, the farmer will not offer as much rent for it as if there were little ; but in France the services and dues remained the same whether there was much game or little. The seigneur, too, might keep a dovecot with thousands of pigeons, which preyed on the peasant's fields, so that a man had to sow his field three times in order to get a crop. In the towns all trades were in the hands of corporations or guilds, who would not let any one else enter into business unless he paid money to become one of their members. In the army, no one except nobles might be officers. In the Church, no one but a noble had any chance of rising to be more than a poor cure or parish priest. All the best places were kept for the nobles. So that in both the country, the towns, and the professions the poor and middle classes were prevented from doing the best for themselves. Every one who wanted to rise was met and rebuffed by privilege. At the very time when this was the case, writers like Eousseau and Diderot were preaching a doctrine of universal liberty and equality, and all France was stirred with enthusiasm for the rebellious American colonists. It is impossible to conceive a, much greater contrast, but this 378 George III, [X7»9. state of things miglit have gone on for a long time had not the finances of the country got into a state of terrible state of "^ ° Prencii confusion. Nothing could be worse than the way finances. .^ which the taxes were collected. Usually they were farmed to speculators, who gave the government a lump sum for the tax, and then collected as much as they could. Every province, such as Normandy, Champagne, or Provence, had its own system of custom-houses on the frontier, and tlie result was to prevent trade at home by making it too expensive to take goods from one place to another. Moreover, the English, by taking the French colonies, had ruined their foreign trade, and consequently the country was getting poorer and poorer, and less able to bear the taxes. On the other hand, expenses were increasing. Louis XIV. and Louis XV. had both fought useless wars, in which they spent a great deal and gained little or nothing, while the court was the most extravagant in Europe, and the luxury of the courtiers was a terrible contrast to the misery around them. When a man's expenses increase and his income diminishes, it is merely a question of time when he will become bankrupt ; and the same thinsr is true of a country. At last a meeting A meeting of tbe States- was held of the chief men of France to consider what enera ca e . j^^^g^ j^g done, and they recommended the king to call a meeting of the States-General. This body was something like an English Parliament, and had representatives of the clerg}'', the nobility, and the commonalty elected throughout the country. But the three estates sat in separate houses, so that the king had always been able to play off two of the houses against the third. However, when the estates met at Versailles, in May, 1789, the Tiers Etat, or The Tiers Commons, refused to do business unless all the estates Etat obtain gat in One house. After some difficulty they carried in the National their point, and as their numbers were equal to those Assembly. ^^ ^^ other estatcs together, and some of the nobles and clergy took their side, they had a majority in the National Assembly, as the united body was called. While this was going mi- T^ . t- on, the mob of Paris stormed the Bastille, which The Pans mob ' ' storm the answers to the Tower of London, and insurrections broke out all over the countiy, in which many nobles were ill-treated, their manor-houses burnt, and their feudal rights 1789.] Pitt. 379 set at defiance. By an act of the National Assembly all privileges were abolished, and after a time titles of nobility were done away, and the lands of the Church forfeited. For the government of the country a constitution similar to that of England was set up, to which the king gave his consent. Un- fortunately, the new constitution worked badly. The „, •^ ' . . . *' The new king, who was himself well intentioned, was ill constitution advised. The chief nobles and clergy left the country, and tried to persuade Austria and Prussia to invade France, and to reinstate them in their privileges ; and finally the king himself, in 1791, fled from Paris, but had the misfortune to be recaptured and brought back to virtual imprisonment. Meanwhile the Legislative Assembly, which had succeeded the National Assembly, had fallen under the influence of the Corporation of Paris and of the Jacobin Club, which contained the most advanced men of the revolutionary party. Mirabeau, the ablest of the old members of the Tiers Etat, had died, 1791; and finally, when Austria and Prussia united to invade France, a fresh revolution occurred. The Tuileries, TheTuiieries where the king and queen were, was stormed by the stormed, mob ; a frightful massacre was made of the imprisoned Koyalists ; and France having been declared a republic, Louis was made a close prisoner. The invasion of Austria and Prussia was foiled by the cannonade of Valmy in September, 1792 ; but the The king- exasperation caused was so great that power rapidly executed, fell into the hands of the most revolutionary party, and in January, 1793, Louis XVI. was executed. When the news of the Revolution first reached England most people sympathized with it, because they thought that France was merely going to do what England had done in the seventeenth century, and that the two countries -^hthe^ would be better friends under similar institutions „ French i. Revolution. than they had formerly been, when one was a despotism and the other a constitutional monarchy. In thinking thus of the Revokition the English made a mistake, because our struggle had been a political one between the king and the Parlia- ment, and had not been complicated in England by the existence of a privileged class ; whereas in France the political question was secondary, and tliQ struggle between the privileged and unprivi- 380 George III. [1790- leged classes was of the first importance. The first to perceive this was Burke, who in 1790 quarrelled with Fox because the latter expressed sympathy with the movement, and at the close of the same year he published his "Reflections on "Befiections the French Eevolution," in which he foretold that ontiieFrencii ^^^ movement would result in the complete destruc- Re volution. ' _ ... tion of society in France, and the rise on its ruins of a military despotism. This book, of which thirty thousand copies were rapidly sold, completely altered the impressions of Englishmen, and henceforward the upper and middle classes were filled with terror of a similar revolution in England. This fear was quite groundless, because such privileges as those which had caused the trouble in France hardly existed in England, and the king was exceedingly popular ; but Burke's followers would be satisfied with nothing less than war against France, while at home they resisted all kinds of reform, and were ready to take the severest measures to put down an imaginary conspiracy. This feeling soon showed itself in Parliament. So early as 1790 Fox's motion for the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts was ^« ., thrown out by 294 votes to 105, and the subject was Effect of the '' ' i m • -« «-. panic on not resumed for nearly forty years ; while in 1791 a ar lamen , -j^Q^jy. ^f Birmingham rioters destroyed the house of the celebrated Dr. Priestley, because he had arranged a dinner in celebration of the taking of the Bastille. The next year Thomas Paine, who was kno^vn to sympathize with the French, was tried and found guilty of seditious writing ; and in 1793, for the better prevention of the spread of French opinions, an Alien koX. was passed, giving the government power to supervise foreigners resident in England, and, if necessary, to remove them. Meanwhile Pitt had not been carried away by the prevailing desire of a war with France. He was honestly anxious for peace, _.,^ , . and in 1790 he succeeded in settling a quarrel with Pitt desirous ° ^ of maintaining Spain about Nootka (now St. George's) Sound, with- peace., ^^^ recourse to war; and even in 1792, so great was his confidence in peace, that Pitt, in bringing forward his budget, .^^ declared he had good hopes of peace being main- Goes on with ^ / p -i - p his domestic tained. He also pursued his course of domestic reform, reforms. supported a bill for the abolition of the slave trade. 1795.] Pitt. 3^1 and in 1792 helped Fox to pass a libel bill, by wliicli juries were allowed to say, not only whether a hbel had been published, but also whether the publication was a libel. Previously the judges had claimed to determine what was libellous, so that this Act was a great safeguard to liberty. However, in 1793, after the death of Louis, Pitt was forced into war, and after that further repressive measures were passed, and reform became more impossible than ever. The p^^t forced same year the Traitorous Correspondence Act was to declare passed, while in 1794 Habeas Corpus Act was sus- ressive pended for the first time since 1745, and continued measures in abeyance for eight years ; and this measure was passe backed up in 1795 by a Treasonable Practices Bill, and a Seditious Meetings Bill, so that it was quite truly said that, because French- men had abused their liberty. Englishmen were deprived of theirs. On the other hand, the friends of Parliamentary reform urged that the real way to put a stop to discontent was by enlarging the interest of the people in the constitution; but Motion for Grey's motion for Parliamentary reform was opposed ^'r^f^m ^^^ by both Burke and Pitt, and was tiirown out by a opposed, large majority. In Scotland, Muir, Palmer, and others were indicted for sedition and condemned to transportation, but in London the juries acquitted Home Tooke and some of his friends, who were accused of treason, and gradually the country recovered confidence. When the war against France began, it was thoroughly popular in England, and it is certain that Pitt was far behind the rest of the country in eagerness to attack France. The unani- popularity of mity of the country is shown by the fact that a resolu- *^® ^^^' tion brought in by Fox to condemn the war was lost by 270 to 44. In carrying on the war, Pitt followed the example of his father, and attacked France on land, by sea, and in the colonies. On land he did not attempt a great deal, but it was necessary for him to do something in support of his allies, the European powers and the French Royalists, who had raised insurrections in Brittany and the south of France, and for this purpose he several times despatched Enghsh troops to the Continent. Like his father, however, he believed that he could do France most damage by subsidizing her Continental enemies while he made war upon her by sea, and to this 38a George III. tiTos- end he made large grants. In 1793 England, Spain, Holland, Austria, The coalition ^^^ Prussia formed the first coalition against France, against and the same year troops were despatched to aid the allies in Holland, and to assist the royalists of Toulon. Neither of these expeditions was very successful. We succeeded in destroying the French fleet at Toulon, but had to abandon the har- bour, because cannons were placed in such a position as to command its entrance ; while the king's second son, the Duke of York, who commanded the troops in Holland, was actually defeated at Bois- le-Duc. At Toulon Napoleon Buonaparte, a young Corsican officer in the French service, distinguished himself by the energy with which he rallied the troops and pushed them to the front. In naval warfare, however, we did better. At sea the French laboured under the disadvantage of having one of their best harbour^^, Toulon, on the Mediterranean, and their other, Brest, on the Bay of Biscay, while their harbours on the British Channel were not large enough to admit very large vessels, and had again and again been bombarded by the English. We saw that in 1793 the Toulon fleet had been destroyed ; and in 1794, on June 1, Lord Howe gained a gi'eat victory over the Brest fleet. These two successes for a time disabled the French ; but in 1795 France was joined by the Dutch and the Spaniards, and then the position became very serious. The next year the French planned a great expedition to Ireland, but fortunately the fleet was dispersed by a storm, and only a few vessels reached Bantry Bay, which they left without landing. This was perhaps the most serious danger which the English had run, for a French landing in Ireland might have raised a formidable insurrection in that country ; but in 1797 Sir John Jervis and Commodore Nelson defeated a combined' fleet of French and Spaniards off Cape St. Vincent on St. Valentine's Day, while Admiral Duncan destroyed the Dutch fleet off Camper- down in October. Notwithstanding these successes, the year 1797 was a most critical year, for between these two battles, mutinies occurred in the fleets Mutinies in ^t Spitliead and the Nore. The chief grievance of the the fleets. Spithead sailors was that their pay had not been raised since the time of Charles II., and that the pursers kept back large sums out of their earnings. But, on a promise that their 1^97.J Pitt. 383 grievances sLoiild be seen to, tbey returned to tlieir duty without difficulty. The mutiny at the Nore was more serious, because some of the sailors were infected by republican ideas ; but when they found that they had no support on shore, they gradually gave in, and at no time offered to take then- ships over to the enemy ; indeed, these very sailors formed the greater part of those who won the battle of Camperdown, The destruction in turn of the fleets of France, Spain, and Holland gave us complete command of the sea, and so enabled us not only to take Trinidad from the Spaniards in 1797, and Ceylon and Cape Colony from the Dutch in 1795, but also enabled our ships to sweep the commerce of these nations from the sea, and to bring thousands of rich prizes into English ports. In spite, however, of these great successes, Pitt would have been glad to discontinue the war had there been a prospect of durable peace. The expenses of the Avar had been exceed- Expenses of ingly heavy, and not only had Pitt been obliged to the.war. leA^y very heavy taxes, but also to make large additions to the National Debt, and in 1797 he was obMged to draw so much money from the Bank of England, that it had to be allowed to stop paying for notes in cash. These sacrifices weighed very heavily upon all classes, and the price of provisions of all kinds nearly doubled. Wheat, for instance, which before the war had rarely cost more than 5O5. a quarter, cost in 1795, 8O5., and in 1801, 1285. Unhappily wages, though they rose a little, did not increase in the same pro- portion. For instance, a carpenter's wages in 1795 were 25. ^d. a day, and in 1800 they were only 2s. lOc?. In 1801 a labourer whose wages were 95. a week, could remember the time when Distress in for 5s. wages he could buy provisions which now cost *^® country, him 26s. hd. In consequence there was a great increase of pauperism, and in 1796 the bad practice was begun of allowing the guardians to supplement the wages of able-bodied men out of the rates. Con- sequently wages ceased to rise, for the farmers, of course, paid the same as before, and any increase had to come out of the pockets of the ratepayers. Moreover, when the war began, every one expected that it would be very short, because France was believed to be bankrupt. This proved to be a mistake ; for France got rid of her debts by simply repudiating them, while she got plenty of ready 384 George TIL [1793- money by selling the lands of the nobles and clergy, and by issmng a paper coinage, and indeed, except at sea, seemed stronger than ever. All these things made Pitt very desirous for peace, but unfor- tunately the French were still eager for war. After the execution The Reign ^f the king, power passed into the hands of the of Terror. Jacobins, who first destroyed the power of all the upper classes, committing such atrocities that their rule is known as the Reign of Terror, and then quarrelled among themselves. The result was a series of conspiracies, in which one after another the leading Jacobins were killed. Danton was executed in 1794, and Robespierre perished the same year. The fall of Robespierre, the last of the Jacobins, was brought about by a union of the survivors of the middle classes to put a stop to the reign of the mob. They estabhshed the Directorate, or rule of five directors, and thus made a step towards a return to absolute rule. Before long an attempt was made to overthrow this government, but the directors appealed to the army, and called in the aid of Napoleon Napoleon Buonaparte, who had distinguished himself Buonaparte, ^i Toulon, and with his help crushed the rebels. In reward for his services, Buonaparte was made general of the French army in Italy, where in 1796 he conducted a most brilliant campaign against the Austrians and Piedraontese, whom he com- pletely defeated, while Moreau, the most distinguished of the French generals in the north, was successful in Germany. These successes filled the French with a thirst for military glory, and though Pitt attempted to negotiate with the directors, the war went on as before. By this time Buonaparte had begun to aim at setting up a military despotism in France, and had already begun to interfere in the government, but, his schemes being not yet ripe, he persuaded the Napoleon's Directorate, in 1798, to send him to Egypt with a large Egyptian army. This expedition opened up before Napoleon's mind a long career of glory. He hoped, when he had conquered Egypt, either to make his way by Syria to Constan- tinople, or possibly, emulating the triumphs of Alexander, to make vast conquests in Asia, and to penetrate even to India itself. By this means he designed to make France supreme on the shores of the Mediterranean, and to carry out the schemes of Dupleix by. 1739.] Pitt 385 expelling the English from India and making that country a depen- dency of France. At first his plans were successful ; tlie Toulon fleet, with Napoleon on board, escaped from the harbour, while Admiral Nelson, who was guarding it, had been driven away by a storm, and sailed to Malta. At that time this island was in the hands of the Knights of St. John, who had held it since 1526. It was strongly fortified, and might have held out for months, but treachery delivered it to the French, who were thus enabled, with- out loss of time, to make their way to Egypt. Meanwhile Nelson finding that the French had escaped, and guessing their purpose, had gone to Alexandria ; but not finding the French there, he went to Sicily for provisions. Before he returned, Buonaparte had landed his forces, and beating the Mamelukes, as the race of soldiers who ruled Egypt was called, in the battle of the Pyramids, he made him- self master of Cairo. When Nelson for the second time reached Egypt, in August, 1798 he found the French fleet drawn up in Aboukir Bay, in the form of a crescent, one end of which was close to a promontory r^j^g battle which formed one side of the bay. Nelson ordered of the Nile, his ships to sail between the end of the French line and the shore, and so to attack the ships from the land side. This manoeuvre was completely successful, and of the thirteen French ships that begun, the action no less than eleven were lost, and the other two were subsequently captured. Nelson himself was wounded, and the French admiral, Brueys, was killed. The effect of the battle of the Nile on the French expedition to Egypt was tremendous. Napoleon, with the best of the French armies, was completely cut off from France, while the victory itself revived the hopes of the allies, and caused the formation of the second coalition ^, ' The second against France. Buonaparte, however, was not to coalition be diverted from his scheme. In 1799 he invaded Prance. Syria, but was stopped by the fortress of Acre, which Buonaparte commanded the road along the coast. Acre was i^"^^'^®^ Syria, stoutly defended by the Turks, assisted by Sir Sidney Smith, who placed two ships of the line in such a way as to command Buona- parte's trenches, and also landed sailors to defend the breach. This assistance completely foiled Buonaparte, and though he defeated an army of Turks who tried to relieve the town, his 2c SS& George III. [1799- storming parties were again and again repulsed, and at last lie was forced to give up his scheme of Eastern conquest and to return to Egypt. Buonaparte always said of Sidney Smith, "That man made me miss my destiny." Meanwhile an immense army of Austrians and Russians was preparing to invade France, and was joined by an English expedi- Napoieon sets ^^°^ under the Duke of York ; but though they were up a new at first successful in every encounter, their plans were spoilt by the defeat of their centre at Zurich, which saved France from invasion. By this time Napoleon, having defeated a Turkish army in Egypt, had abandoned his troops and made his way to France, where the disasters of the directors, contrasted with the story of his achievements, had enhanced his reputation. He soon succeeded in eifecting the overthrow of the directors and setting up a new government, of which he was the head, with the title of First Consul, and he very soon contrived to make the central government as despotic as it had been in the days of the kings, though of course' the old privileges were not restored. In the war. Napoleon continued the success which Massena had begun at Zurich. Moreau defeated the Austrians at Hohenlinden, while he himself, suddenly crossing the Alps by the St. Gothard Pass, came down in the rear of another army of Austrians who were besieging Genoa, and beat them at the battle of Marengo. After these defeats Austria made peace, and England was left to continue the war single-handed. In 1800 England captured Malta, which we still retain, and in 1801 Abercrorabie, with an English army, defeated the Tiie armed French at the battle of Alexandria, and their army neutrality, jj^ Egypt was forccd to surrender. Meanwhile Eng- land's method of carrying on the war at sea, in which she not only insisted on seizing all French goods which were being carried in neutral ships, but also as far as possible put a stop to any trade with France, had excited the ill will of the neutral states- Russia, Sweden, Denmark, and Prussia — who formed what was called an armed neutrality. It was greatly feared that this was only a step towards joining France, so in 1801 Nelson attacked the Danish fleet in Copenhagen harbour, and destroyed or captured the greater part of it. This victory resulted in the dissolution of the armed neutrality. 1802.J Pitt, 387 By this time both France and England were tired of war. Napoleon had little hope of destroying the power of England in the MediteiTanean, while the English, now that they had taken most of the French colonies, could do little against her on peace of land without allies. Peace, therefore, was concluded Amiens, at Amiens in 1802, by which England restored her conquests, and agreed that Malta should revert to the Knights of St. John. Before the treaty of Amiens was made, however, Pitt had ceased to be Prime Minister. The causes of his fall arose from events in Ireland, and to these we must now go back. After Events in Lord Kockingham's concessions in 1782, the Irish Ireland. Parliament had been independent,, but as it was composed only of Protestants, though the franchise had been restored to the Roman Catholics in 1793, it could not be said to represent the Irish people. The French Revolution caused great excitement in Ireland, and a conspiracy was soon set on foot to try and bring about a cata- strophe there. There were then three distinct parties in Ireland — the Catholics, forming at least seven-tenths of the nation, who wanted emancipation from their disabilities and a share of political power ; the Protestants, who, under the name of Orangemen, were furious at the bare mention of concession to the Catholics, but who were themselves anxious for Parliamentary reform, and the removal of the corrupt means by which government secured its influence in Parliament; and the Revolutionists, or United Irishmen, who included both Catholics and Protestants, and who were eager to over- throw the government altogether and establish a republic under the protection of France. Placed in the midst of such opposing factions, the English lord-lieutenant hardly knew how to act. It was impossible for him to take any step without offending one party or the other, and he therefore had to confine himself to watching the movements of the conspirators. As we saw, the French expedition to Ireland in 1796 failed ; but the republicans, under the leadership of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, Arthur O'Connor, and Oliver Bond, organized an me Irish independent insurrection. At the beginning of 1798, insurrection, they were suddenly arrested by order of the government, and Lord Edward defended himself so vehemently that he was mortally wounded. In spite of the capture of their leaders, the insurrection 388 George III. [i798- broke out, and in the south-east of Ireland, in the neighbourhood of Wexford, obtained considerable proportions. There the insurgents posted themselves on a strong position at Vinegar Hill, from which they were only driven by General Lake after a regular battle. When the insurrection was all over, a small hodcy of French troops landed in Mayo, and, after defeating some militia and yeomanry at Castlebar, were forced to surrender to the regular troops. After this another French squadron arrived off the coast, in which was Wolfe Tone, the founder of the United Irishmen, who had acted as agent for the rebels in Paris. This squadron was met by some English ships, who captured the greater part of it. Tone was taken prisoner and condemned to death, but he saved himself from execution by suicide. This rebellion convinced Pitt that the best solution of the Irish difficulty was to unite the two Parliaments. He hoped to make the Union a blessing to Ireland by coupling it with the emancipation of the Catholics, who might, he thought, safely be members of the United Parliament, where they were sure to be in a minority, though he dare not grant them this favour in an Irish Parliament, where they would have a majority. The proposition of a union, however, was most distasteful to the Irish Protestants, who were the virtual rulers of Ireland, and Pitt was only able to carry his measure through the Irish Parliament by a degrading system of bribery. By the terms of the Union Ireland ceased to have a separate Parliament, but sent to the United Parlia- ment of Great Britain and Ireland four bishops to sit in the House of Lords, twenty-eight representative peers elected for life, and one hundred commoners. Irish peers were allowed to be elected members of the House of Commons. Free trade between the two countries was established, and it was arranged that Ireland should only pay £2 of taxes for every £15 paid by England. As was to be expected, a union so effected was very unpopular, and in 1803., Emmett, a Dublin barrister, who had been engaged Emmett's ^"^ ^^ rebellion of 1798, formed a new conspiracy. conspiracy. A slight outbreak followed, which was easily sup- pressed, and Emmett and some of his friends were convicted and executed. Lord Cornwallis, the lord-lieutenant, Lord Castlereagh, his 1803.] Pitt—Addingion, 389 chief secretary, and Pitt all regarded the passing of an Act of Parlia- ment for the relief of the Catholics as part of their bargain witt Ireland, and wished further to remove the grievances connected with the collection of tithe, and to endow the Koman Catholic clergy. In 1801 Pitt proposed to the king a measure for the relief of the Catholics ; but George III., being under the impression, quite wrongly, that he could not consent to such a measure ' • 1 . 1 • 1 • • -, -. 1 . 1 Measure for without violatmg his coronation oath, and bemg also tiie relief of thoroughly averse to the concessions, opposed him. ^^^ <^^*^oiics. Pitt and his friends left the government, and the whole scheme for coupling the Union with the redress of Irish grievances fell to the ground. Pitt was succeeded by Addington, Speaker of the House of Commons, whose chief colleague was Lord Hawkesbury, afterwards Earl of Liverpool. It was this ministry which concluded the treaty of Amiens. As usual, war between England and France was accompanied by trouble in India. Hyder Ah, the old enemy of Plastings, had been succeeded by his son, Tippoo Sahib. The French Trouble republicans regarded Tippoo as their ally, called him *^ India. Citizen Tippoo, and even established a Jacobin Club- in Ms capital, Seringapatam. This conduct, of course, led to a war, and in 1799 the governor-general. Lord Mornington, directed General Harris to invade Tippoo's territory and capture Seringapatam. This was done, and Tippoo himself was killed in the assault. Part of his territory was annexed, and part was restored to the old Hindoo dynasty. Lord Mornington's policy was to conclude treaties with the native princes, by which they agreed to receive a British resident, who, while domestic affairs were left in their own hands, directed their foreign poh'cy. This forward movement aroused the fear of the Mahratta chiefs, who ruled over territories which extended from Delhi to the Deccan. These chiefs were usually at war with one another, but they now united together under Scindia and Holkar, and expelled the Peishwah, who was grand-vizier to the head of the race, and nominally ruler. The Peishwah made a subsidiary treaty with Lord Mornington, who sent his brother. Sir Arthur Wellesley, who had distinguished himself at the taking of Seringapatam, to attack them from the south, and General Lake from the north-east. Wellesley won the battle of Assaye, and Lake that of Laswaree, which reduced the Mahrattas 39© George III, [isos- to subjection, and forced them to conclude subsidiary treaties with the English. After this success the Mogul at Delhi became the pensioner of the East India Company, which brought almost the whole of the Granges Valley and Southern India directly or indi- rectly under the Companj^'s sway. The treaty of Amiens was little better than a truce, and Napoleon had no intention of allowing it to be more. He did not pause for _, ^ a moment in his ambitious schemes, but tried to Presh. ^ _ ' declaration increase French influence in Switzerland and Italy, ^ ^' and sent agents, under the name of consuls, to England and Ireland, whose real object was to make themselves acquainted with the resources of these countries and the chance of their successful invasion. Even while he was engaged in these intrigues, he continually complained of the attacks made upon him in the English press, and demanded restraints upon its liberty. The English government prosecuted a Frenchman named Peltier, who had broken the law, but they refused to alter the law itself. Even more serious were the disputes about Malta, which was still occupied by the English. Napoleon was determined to regain it, if possible ; but the English demanded to retain it for ten years, and this demand led to a declaration of war. The new war, which lasted from 1804 to 1814, was quite different from the former one. The old war had been an attack of the monarchies of Europe upon the French Republic. In the new one, France, under Buonaparte, was the aggressor, and Europe was on the defensive. When the war began, the great fear was that England would be invaded before the other nations of Europe could come to her assistance, and to meet this danger large additions were made to the army and the militia, and large bodies of volunteers were raised. No sooner had the war begun than there was a general wish that Pitt should come back to power. But by this time Addington had ■e,-.Li. • grown fond of his place, and was by no means willing Pitt again ^ _ tf i J o becomes Prime to give Way. Accordingly, Pitt, Fox, and Grenville, who had been Pitt's foreign secretary, united to oppose the ministry, and in 1804 Addington was forced to resign. Pitt then became Prime Minister, but the king refused to receive Fox, and as Grenville would not take office without him, Pitt was obliged to rely upon some of his personal friends and some of 180S.] Addington — Pitt 391 Addington's followers, so that his ministry was by no means strong. Its chief members were, Pitt's old colleague, Henry Dundas (now Lord Melville), the Duke of Portland, and Lord Hawkesbury ; and within a year Addington himself came back as Lord Sidmouth« Moreover, Pitt promised the king that he would not revive the Catholic claims. Shortly after Pitt became minister, Buonaparte, who had managed to reconcile the French to absolute pow^r by creating a belief in plots, under which pretence he had contrived to Napoleon's banish his old rival Moreau, and to bring about the ^conauesf^ death of the Duke d'Enghien, a member of the royal of England, family of France, had had himself proclaimed Emperor, and wished to signalize his accession by the conquest of England. To secure the assistance of her navy, he allied himself with Spain ; and Pitt, following out his old policy, set about forming a third coalition, of which England, Austria, and Russia were to be the chief members. Napoleon's plan was to send his fleet to the West Indies, in hopes of enticing Nelson thither ; if successful, it was at once to return to Europe, and, uniting with the Spanish fleet, was to sail for the Channel. At Boulogne Napoleon himself collected an immense army, which he hoped, by the aid of his fleet, to transport to England in Nelson's absence. At first Napoleon's plan was successful. Admiral Villeneuve escaped from Toulon, joined the Spanish fleet, and reached the West Indies, pursued by Nelson. There he should Failure of have met the Brest fleet, but that had been unable *^® p^^^- to break the blockade ; he therefore returned full speed to Ferrol, in Spain, near Cape Finisterre. But by this time the English had learnt his movements, and off Ferrol he met a small English squadron, under Sir Robert Calder. Calder's fleet was only about half the size of that of Villeneuve, so that he was only able to take two Spanish vessels ; and VOleneuve escaped into Ferrol. Thence he sailed to Cadiz, and meanwhile the greater part of the English fleet was collected at Brest, so that Napoleon's whole plan completely failed. Indeed, as soon as Napoleon heard that Villeneuve had gone to Cadiz, he broke up his camp at Boulogne and marched against Austria. After a short stay in England, Nelson again started in pursuit 392 George II L [I805- of Villeneuve, and at last found him o£F Cape Trafalgar. In the Battle of battle, Nelson, employing the same plan as Rodney Trafalgar. ^^^^ ^gQ(j against De Grasse, and Duncan against the Dutch at Camperdown, formed his vessels in two columns at right angles to the enemy's line, and, sailing upon them in this way, he broke their line in two places and threw them into confusion. The manoeuvre was completely successful ; the whole of the French and Spanish fleet was either sunk, captured, or forced to take refuge in Cadiz, where the French vessels fell into our hands at a later time. Deatii of Unfortunately, Nelson, whose brilliant uniform made Nelson. jjijj^ ^ mark for the enemy's balls, was killed by a rifle-shot. Happily, death did not come to him till his work was complete. Trafalgar had finished what the victories of the 1st of June, St. Vincent, and the Nile had begun. The English fleets were now supreme on every ocean, England and her colonies were safe from invasion, and her merchants could traffic in security on every sea. Had the coalition been as successful on land. Napoleon's career might have ended in 1805; but unfortunately the Austrians and Disaster at Russians were utterly defeated at the battle of Austeriitz. AusterHtz, and this disaster destroyed all hope of concludiag the war at present.- Soon after Austeriitz Pitt died, worn out by anxiety and hard work. It has been Death of Pitt. ., , \ t , -n -. i • said that Austerhtz killed mm; but he was too great a man for that. Except for the battle of Trafalgar, his ministry had been unfortunate. His best friend, Lord Melville, had been impeached in Parliament and forced to resign, in conse- quence of some irregularities which had been found in the accounts of the navy. His health was utterly failing him, and in January, 1806, just after the news of Austeriitz reached England, he died. Though Pitt did not live to defeat Napoleon, he had filled his countrymen with the determination not to be beaten. His last public speech concluded with the sentence, "England has saved herself by her exertions, and the rest of Europe will be saved by her example." Pitt's place was taken by a coalition ministry, under Lord Grenville and Fox, in which an attempt was made The ministry ' /.n • -t n ,. of "All the to unite the ablest men of all parties, and for this Talents." j-eason it was called the ministry of "All the Talents." 1807.] Pitt — Grenville. 393 Its leaders hoped to make a satisfactory peace with Napoleon, and to carry on the progressive measures which had been checked by the French Revolution. In the first of these hopes they were disappointed. Fox, who when in opposition had always thrown the blame of the war on the English government, now found too late that Napoleon was the real offender; with the best intentions he opened negotiations with the emperor, but found him th f f quite impracticable, and he had hardly been convinced of his mistake, when he followed his great rival, Pitt, to the grave, in 1806. At home, however, government was more successful, and before he died. Fox had the satis- condemning- faction of helping to pass a resolution condemning tiie slave the slave trade, on which an act, passed in 1807, for its abolition was founded. Hitherto the efforts of Wilberforce and his friends, though they had the good will of Pitt, had been foiled by the House of Lords. Abroad, the great event of the year 1806 was the battle of Jena, in which the Prussians, who had selfishly refused to help Austria and Russia in 1805, and so had been mainly respon- Battle of sible for their ruin, were completely crushed, and for Jena. some years the Prussian monarchy could hardly be said to be independent. After Jena, Napoleon issued his famous Napoleon's Berlin Decrees, by which he forbade France and all ^®^i™ decrees, her allies to trade with England, and declared all English ports to be in a state of blockade. By this means he hoped, though he had no navy, to strike a heavy blow at English trade, on which he knew that our strength depended. In return England issued The Orders the Orders in Council, by which she forbade any trade ^'^ council, to be carried on with French ports, or with ports occupied by French troops. The Berlin Decrees did not do England much harm, as Napoleon had no means of enforcing them ; but the English, having the command of the sea, were able to effectively blockade the Mediterranean, the Baltic, and the French ports, and practically to sweep from the sea the commerce of France and her allies. Un- fortunately, the enforcement of the Orders made us the enemies of neutral states, such as Sweden, Denmark, and the United States, who wished to trade with France, and led to quarrels which soon involved us in war with the United States. 394 George HI. riso?- In 1807, besides abolishing the slave trade, the ministers brought forward a measure for allowing Roman Catholics to hold the higher commissions in the army, as they already might the lower ; but this revived all the old hostility of the king, and they were obliged to The Duke withdraw it. As they refused to bind themselves of Portland not to bring forward the subject again, they were Prime dismissed. Their place was taken by the Duke of mister. Portland, w^ho as a young man had been premier of the coalition formed by Fox and North, and in 1794, frightened by the French Revolution, had led a great secession of moderate Whigs into Pitt's camp. Portland was now both a Tory and also an opponent of the claims of the Catholics, and his administration was formed on these principles. The chief members were Perceval, Chancellor of the Exchequer; Canning, Foreign Secretary; Lord Castlereagh, War and Colonial Secretary ; Huskisson, Secretary to the Treasury. As it was thought that new ministers must have given a definite promise to the king not to revive the claims of the Catholics, a motion was introduced " that ministers ought not to bind themselves by any pledge as to what advice they shall give the king ; " but it was lost. Soon afterwards Parliament was dis- solved, and the electors showed their sympathy with what George had done by returning a large anti-Catholic majority. Since the failure of Fox's negotiations the war had been going on as before ; but the EngHsh had not been engaged in any operations Continuation of great magnitude. In 1806 General Stuart, who of the war. ^j-jj ^ small English force was defending Sicily against the French, landed in Calabria, and defeated the French general, Regnier, in the battle of Maida. In 1807 it was learnt that the French had again formed the design of seizing the Danish fleet, Naval so an expedition was sent against Copenhagen, which operations, bombarded the city, captured the fleet, and also took the island of Heligoland, which forms a convenient station for a fleet, watching the mouth of the Elbe. In pursuance of our usual colonial policy, we again seized the Cape of Good Hope in 1806, and in 1807 expeditions were sent against the Spanish colonies of Buenos- Ayres and Monte Video. These expeditions were failures. Monte Video was captured; but General Whitelocke, who commanded at Buenos-Ayres, managed to entangle his troops in the streets, and 1808.] Portland. 395 finally was farced to surrender and to give up Monte Video, as the price of freedom. Three years later, in 1810, we took from the French the island of Mauritius, which we still hold. Meanwhile Napoleon, though he had been nearly defeated by the Kussians at the battle of Eylau, had routed them at the battle of Friedland. This victory led to the treaty of Tilsit, Napoleon's by which Eussia joined France against England. By ^c^onquest^ this time Napoleon had extended his system of ex- of Portugal, eluding English goods to every important European country except Portugal, and his next step was, in alliance with Spain, to form a plan for conquering that country, which he hated as England's firm ally, and partitioning it. Accordingly, a French army under Junot invaded Portugal, and forced the royal family to take refuge in their colony of Brazil. Napoleon's plan, however, now began to unfold itself; for, under pretence of supporting Junot, he Designs managed to place French troops in command of all °^ ^va.va.. the important military posts in the north of Spain. Unfortunately, the King of Spain and his eldest son were at variance. Napoleon contrived to induce each of them to give up his claim, and he then forced the Spanish grandees, whom he summoned to Bayonne, to choose his elder brother, Joseph Buonaparte, whom Napoleon had already made King of Naples, to be their sovereign. French troops then escorted Joseph to Madrid, and took possession of the Spanish towns ; but before long a rebelhon broke out, in which the Spanish army took part. A French army was forced to surrender at Baylen ; and in 1808 Joseph abandoned Madrid, and all Spain, except that part which lay close to the Pyrenees, was evacuated. This successful insurrection, which had gained the first great success which had been won over the French on land since the bednninff of the war, and which had been gained, not Expedition , -, . .7,1 • !.• c under Sir by kings and their armies, but by an insurrection ot Artiiur the people, roused the enthusiasm of Europe; and Weiiesiey. Canning immediately despatched an expedition under Sir Arthur Wellesley, the victor of Assaye, to attack Junot, who was now com- pletely cut off from France, and force him to surrender. Wellesley landed at Mondego Bay, north of Lisbon, and marched down the coast, defeating on his road a small force of French at Roriga. While encamped on the sea coast at Vimeira, Junot marched out 1808.] Portland, 597 from Lisbon to attack him ; Welleslej^, however, defeated him in such a way that at the end of the action the Enghsh were in a position to cut off Junot's retreat. Unfortunately, during the battle two other generals arrived, both of whom were senior to Wellesley, and therefore had a right to take the command ; they agreed to march on Lisbon, but wished to wait for reinforcements, and while they were hesitating, Junot asked for an armistice. The Convention of Cintra was then arranged, by which a ' -^ The the French agreed to completely evacuate Portugal, convention- on condition that their troops were transported to ° ^^ ^^' France. As these terms gave the English the great advantage of securing Portugal and all its fortresses without further fighting, they were agreed upon. Strangely enough, these very solid gains were not appreciated in England, where the French troops were expected to arrive as prisoners of war, and the ministry was obliged to satisfy pubHc opinion by holding a court-martial on the generals. They were acquitted, but Sir Arthur Wellesley alone was employed again. The French troops had now been expelled from the whole of the peninsula, except the district that lay round St. Sebastian, where the road from France enters Spain. But in December sir Joim Napoleon himself took the command, and in three ''^tiie French*^ weeks defeated the Spanish troops, captured Madrid, «■* corumia. and dispersed the Spaniards in every direction. Upon this Sir John Moore, who had taken command of the English troops, advanced from Salamanca towards Burgos, and by striking at the French line of communications forced Napoleon to concentrate for its defence, and gained time for the Spaniards to recover. When this had been effected, Moore, whose army was far too small to encounter Napoleon's whole force, retreated to Corunna.; and Napoleon, having entrusted the pursuit to Soult and Ney, returned to France, taking some of his best troops with him. When Moore reached Corunna he found that the fleet, which had been ordered to come round from Lisbon, had not arrived ; and he therefore had to prepare for battle, for the French were close behind him. In the fight Battle of Moore himself was killed, but the English won, and corunna. succeeded in effecting their embarkation without molestation. Although during the war the English had fought no battles with the French comparable to Napoleon's great victories, still Alexandria, 398 George III. [isos- Maida, Vimeira, and Corunna showed tliat the English had lost none of the qualities "which had won Agincourt and Blenheim, and encouraged the ministry to enter upon the war on a larger scale. Accordingly, Sir Arthur Wellesley was soon despatched to resume the command in Portugal, w^hich the French generals were sirArtiiur ^°^ threatening. When he arrived, Soult was at •WeUesiey Oporto, at the mouth of the Doaro ; and Victor and the command Joseph were in the valley of the Tagus, confronted by m Portugal. 1^^ Spanish army. Wellesley began the campaign by attacking Oporto in such a way that he threatened to hem Soult up in the angle which the Douro makes with the sea ; but Soult abandoned his baggage and guns, passed by forced marches round the right wing of the English, and made his way to Salamanca, where he reorganized his army. Then, trusting to promises of Spanish support, Wellesley advanced into the valley of the Tagus, and joined the Spaniards. The allied armies were attacked by the Battle of French at Talavera. In this battle the allies were Taiavera. victorious ; but Soult, who had reorganized his army with wonderful rapidity, made his way from Salamanca into the valley of the Tagus, and appeared in Wellesley's rear. In this . ^ predicament Wellesley was obliged to cross the Tagus Spaniards ^ jo o defeated and escape to Portugal by forced marches ; while the Spaniards, who shortly afterwards were foolish enough to encounter the French by themselves, were utterly routed at Medellin. For the victory of Talavera Wellesley was made Vis- count Wellington. The year of Talavera was also remarkable for witnessing the largest and most unsuccessful English expedition that had been Disastrous made since Bannockburn. To help the Austrians, ^^^^ainst^ whose territory Napoleon had again invaded, an expe- Antwerp. dition was planned against Antwerp. No less than forty thousand soldiers were employed, but the arrangements were as bad as bad could be. The command was given to a holiday general. Lord Chatham, the elder brother of Pitt; no proper means were taken to ascertain the state of Antwerp, or the nature of the country in which the army was to operate. Consequently the soldiers were landed on the fever-stricken island of Walcheren, at the mouth of the Scheldt. They took Flushing, but instead of 1808.] Portland — Perceval. 399 pushing forward at once to get into a more healthy cHmate, they delayed so long, that while the French were able to complete the defences of Antwerp, the English were utterly prostrated by disease, to withstand which, though almost within sight of England, they had hardly the most simple medical appliances. The result, of course, was a complete failure, and the army was withdrawn after effecting absolutely nothing. Naturally none of the ministers were willing to take responsi- bihty for so gross a blunder, and Canning, the Foreign Quarrel Secretary, demanded that Castlereagh, the Secretary c^mi^gTnd for War, should be removed from that post. Their castiereagh. mutual recriminations led to their resignation and ultimately brought about a duel. The Duke of Portland, who had long been failing, was quite unequal to cope with such a difficulty, and resigned, and his place was taken by Mr. Perceval, who made Lord Perceval's Liverpool War and Colonial Secretary, and the Mar- ministry. quess of Wellesley, formerly Lord Mornington, Foreign Secretary. Both Lord Palmerston and Robert Peel, afterwards Prime Ministers, had places in the government. A year later Ceorge III., The king whose malady had returned, became permanently perma^ntiy insane, and accordingly a Regency Bill, modelled on insane, that proposed in 1788, was passed, and the Prmce of Wales became regent. Napoleon, having closed the campaign of 1809 by the great victory of Wagram, by which he forced the Emperor of Austria to make peace, and to give him in marriage his daughter, Napoleon the Archduchess Marie Louise, the niece of Marie attention^ Antoinette, was now able to give his full attention to Spain, to Spain. Accordingly, he sent one of his best generals, Massena, with a large force to invade Portugal. Wellington had anticipated the danger, and had constructed across the peninsula formed by the meeting of the Tagus and the Atlantic, the celebrated lines of Torres Vedras, behind which he proposed to withdraw with the English and Portuguese troops, while he hoped to starve the French into retreat by destroying all the provisions on which they could subsist. This plan was completely successful. When Massena invaded Portugal, Wellington slowly retreated before him, carrying off or destroying the crops as he retired. Only once at Busaco he 400 George III. tisii- fought the French, and gained a victory which encouraged the Portuguese without leading him to abandon his plan. It was not till he was within a few days' march of the lines that Massena heard of their existence ; but when he saw them he recognized that they were impregnable, and as soon as his provisions were exhausted withdrew into winter quarters. At the beginning of 1811, the first English success was a victory won by Sir Thomas Graham, who came out of Cadiz to attack Wenington ^^ French, who were besieging that town. Graham in Portugal, ■^on the battle of Barrosa, but then, owing to the concentration of the French, was obliged to retire. Wellington was soon able to follow up his success, and in May, 1811, had cleared Portugal of the French except the garrison of Almeida, which guards the northern road on the Portuguese side, and corresponds to Ciudad Eodrigo on the Spanish. He also formed the siege of Badajoz, which on the southern road corresponds to Ciudad Eodrigo on the northern ; Elvas, which corresponds to Almeida, being already Battles of in his hands. The sieges of Almeida and Badajoz Fuentes ]^ ^^ ^^ battles of Fuentes d'Onoro and Albuera. dOnoroand. AiiDuera. In the first Wellington commanded in person, and foiled the French attempt to relieve Almeida, which was evacuated during the battle. In the second Beresford, who was a very brave man, but a general of httle skill, was very nearly defeated, and, indeed, was only saved by the bravery of his soldiers from a great disaster. The French, however, in spite of their defeat, soon appeared in such numbers that the siege of Badajoz had to be raised. Henry IV., King of France, had long ago said, "In Spain, if you make war with a small army, you are beaten ; with a large one, ■Wellington's you are starved." The great advantage Wellington in^Portugai possesscd was that the French, who lived on the and Spain, plunder of the country, could never for long keep a large army together — after a time they always had to disperse it ; while Wellington, whose troops were chiefly provisioned from England, was able to keep his army much better in hand, and by rapidity of movement make up for his want of men. In this way^ at the beginning of 1812, Wellington suddenly stormed Ciudad Rodrigo, and a few months later Badajoz, while General Hill seized 181S.] Lord LiverpooL 401 the bridge of Alcantara over the Tagus. These successes gave him the northern and southern gates of Spain, and enabled him to communicate readily between the two banks of the Tagus. His next step was to invade Spain along the northern road. This led to the battle of Salamanca, in which he defeated Battle of Marmont, and even took Madrid. He then attempted Salamanca, the siege of Burgos, but, as in the case of Sir John Moore's advance, an attack in that quarter led to the concentration of the whole French army, and he was forced to retreat again to the frontier, and the French retook Madrid. Meanwhile important changes had occurred in England. In 1812 an attempt had been made to induce Lord G-renville, the successor of Pitt, and Lord Grey (formerly Mr. Grey), the changes in successor of Fox, to join the ministry. The plan the ministry, broke down ; but the Marquis Wellesley (formerly Lord Morning- ton) who had taken the post of foreign secretary in order to support his brother, left the government, and his place was taken by Lord Castlereagh. This nobleman was not a man of large views, but he was thoroughly in earnest about the war, and to his determination its ultimate success was in a large measure due. Hardly had this change been made, when Perceval was assassinated by a merchant named Bellingham. Negotiations were again opened with Wellesley and Canning, and also with Grey and Grenville, but they came to nothing, and Lord Liverpool (formerly Lord Hawkesbury) became Prime Minister. Castlereagh kept his place as foreign secretary, while Sidmouth took charge of home affairs. On the whole these changes were favourable to Wellington, in whose success the country was at length beginning to beheve, and fortunately the same year Napoleon undertook his Napoleon's disastrous expedition to Kussia. Following Welling- disastrous ^ . o t) expedition ton s tactics at Torres Vedras, the Russians, instead to Russia. of fighting on the frontier, steadily withdrew, drawing Napoleon after them ; and though they were beaten at the great Battle of battle of Borodino, they did not make peace, but Borodino, burnt their old capital, Moscow, to prevent Napoleon from wintering there. Under these circumstances Napoleon, like Massena, had no course but to retreat, and as winter had now set in, his trained army was utterly ruined ; and for the future he had to rely upon raw 2d 402 Geors:e III, nsis- ccnscripts or on soldiers drawn from the army of Spain. Naturally- all Europe took advantage of his misfortune. Prussia joined Russia, and the French were driven back to the line of the Elbe. It was under these circumstances that Wellington began the campaign of 1813, Sending Sir Thomas Graham forward with the The campaign left wing to threaten the French communications with of 1813. France, he himself led the centre along the Burgos road, while Hill with the right advanced by the valley of the Tagus. This plan forced the French to abandon in succession Madrid and Burgos, and finally Wellington drew his whole force together at Battle of Vittoria, and attacked the French in such a way that vittoria. Graham with the left seized the road behind them, while he and Hill engaged them in front. The result was the total rout of the French, who were forced to hurry across the frontier, throwing garrisons into St. Sebastian and Pampeluna, which guarded the roads to France, just as Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz had guarded those into Spain. These were next attacked, and in spite of a great effort of Soult to relieve them, which resulted in the battle of the Pyrenees (July), St. Sebastian was the Pyrenees, stormed in September, and Pampeluna soon affcer- Napoieon wards was starved into submission. The same year, ^'^ ^^ ' in Germany, Napoleon had been fighting an unequal warfare against his numerous foes. At Liitzen and Bautzen in the month of May, and at Dresden in August, he was with difficulty Battle of victorious ; but when the whole force of Austria was Leipzig:. thrown into the scale against him, he was completely defeated at the battle of Leipzig (October 16-19), and forced to retire across the Rhine. Next year France was invaded on all sides. On the north, Russians, Prussians, and Austrians poured across the frontier ; while Welling- ton, with a force of Enghsh, Spaniards, and Portuguese, invaded made his way into the old Enghsh province of Gas- on an sides. ^^^^^ rpj^^ ministry also sent a small British force to join the Prussians in Holland, but it was unfortunately defeated in an attempt to take Bergen-op-Zoom. Meanwhile Napoleon was fighting for his throne with all his old genius ; but the odds were too much for him, and while he was winning victories at a distance, the allies stolidly continued their advance on Paris, which they entered 1814.] Lord Liver pooL 403 in March, and forced Napoleon to resign. While the allies were thus successful in the north, Wellmgton had been Napoleon carrying all before him in the south. He had defeated ^ forced to resifiTi the French in a series of battles, of which Orthez is Battle of the chief, and had completely destroyed Soult's line orthez. of defence, finally defeating that general at his last stronghold, Toulouse. Unfortunately, this battle was fought after Battle of an armistice had been made at Paris ; but the slow Toulouse, travelling of news in those days prevented the intelligence from being known. After the fall of Paris it was arranged that Napoleon should with- draw to Elba, and make way for the restoration of the Bourbons. As the little dauphin, who after his father's death had 1 1 1 1 -A T Napoleon been styled by the Koyalists Louis XYII., was dead, withdraws the new king was Louis XVIII., the brother of Louis XVI., who had spent most of his time in England. A treaty was made with the new sovereign, called the First First peace Peace of Paris. By this treaty France was allowed °^ Paris, to keep the boundaries which she had had in 1792, with some additions. England kept Malta, Ceylon, the Cape Colony, and Mauritius. After this, the allied sovereigns paid a state visit to the prince regent in England, while a congress of statesmen was held at Vienna to settle again the map of Europe. At Vienna, England was represented by Lord Castlereagh, who on the whole worthily supported the cause of justice against some of the allied sovereigns. However, before their deliberations were ended, news was brought that Napoleon had escaped from Elba, that he had landed in France, and that Louis XVIIl. had taken refuge in Brussels, while Napoleon had again taken the title of Emperor. This disastrous intelligence caused the revival of the coalition, and arrangements were made for a general invasion of France. To anticipate this movement. Napoleon determined Arrangements to lose no time in invading Belo:ium, which was fo^ag-enerai ° ° ' invasion defended by Wellington with a mixed army of Eng- of France, lish, Dutch, and Belgians, and by Blucher with an army of Prussians. Napoleon hoped to separate these armies, and then to penetrate between them to Brussels. The great object of the allies, therefore, was to keep close together, so that one might help the other in case 404 Georsre III. [1815. of attack; but they made the mistake of spreading their troops too much, so the rapidity of Napoleon's movements at first gave him the advantage. He contrived, with two-thirds of his army, to beat the Prussians at Ligny, while the English at Quatre Bras were just able to hold their own against the other* third, but were not strong enough to help the Prussians. Napoleon's right course OPERATIONS OF "WATERLOO. was either to crush the Prussians, or to fall with his whole army on Wellington, but he lost time, and the allies were able to retreat almost unmolested. The English and Prussians withdrew respectively to Waterloo and Wavi-e, while Napoleon despatched one-third of his army, Battle of under Grouchy, to hold the Prussians in check, and Waterloo. ^^pt two-thirds to attack Wellington. Wellington, however, arranged his troops so that his best men held three advance posts — the Chateau of Hougomont, and two sets of farm- 1815.] Lord LiverpooL 405 buildings on the slope of a slight valley — while his main body was arranged behind the brow of the rising ground in the rear. The strength of this position enabled him to hold out against all Napoleon's attacks till Blucher, who had left a fourth of his force to resist Grouchy, brought up the other three divisions to his support, and ranged his forces at right angles to Wellington's left flank. Thus forced to fight two armies at once, Napoleon made a desperate effort WATEKLOO AT KOON. to break through the English line, but the steadiness of the English guards in the centre foiled him, and at the ver}'' moment when this occurred, the Prussians seized his main line of retreat. The con- sequence was that his army was completely dispersed, almost all his baggage and artillery falling into the hands of the allies. Napoleon himself fled first to Paris and then to Eochefort, where he surrendered himself to the captain of an English Napoleon's man-of-war. By the common consent of Europe he fli&iit. was conveyed to the distant island of St. Helena, where he died in 1821 . After Napoleon's flight, Louis XVIII. was again restored, and the second treaty of Paris was made. By this the fortresses of the northern frontier of France were to be occupied by the allies for five years ; a money The second treaty of Paris. 4o6 George IIL [1815. indemnity was to be paid ; and all the works of art which Napoleon had barbarously stolen from their owners were to be restored. Prussians Fre7ich VKAXliJiLOO AT SEVEN P.M. While the allies were in Paris, the Emperors of Russia and Austria The Holy ^^^ the King of Prussia formed what was called the AUiance. Holy Alliance, which was nominally intended to bind them to act together according to the principles of Christianity ; in reality it was intended as a league to give mutual assistance for the repression of democratic doctrines. France and Spain subse- quently joined it, but Lord Castlereagh refused England's consent. The formation of the Holy Alliance is very important, because it shows that these absolute sovereigns knew that, though they had crushed Napoleon, they had not put down the prin- Importance ^ ' •' ,. , r. -, -, i • i of the Holy ciples of liberty and of equality before the law, which lance. -j^^^ been the central ideas of the French Revolution Besides the spread of those principles to every country in Europe, 1815.] Lord Liverpool. 407 there had also arisen through the French wars the idea of nationality. Since the fall of feudalism in the fifteenth century, sovereigns had dealt with their dominions as if they were estates to be bartered or sold at the will of their owners ; but the treaty of Vienna was the last which was framed solely upon this principle, and since then the notion that people of the same nation ought to be under the same political rule has been the guiding influence in European politics — a principle of which the union of Germany under the Emperor William, and that of Italy under Victor Emmanuel, have been best examples. During the latter part of the French war England had been unhappily engaged in a war with the United States, which had arisen out of the irritation caused by the Orders in Council. The Orders themselves had actually tiieirnited been revoked when the war broke out in 1812, but states, the slowness of news in those days made this concession too late to prevent war. The fighting was for the most part at sea, and was indecisive. On the Canadian Lakes the English suffered a reverse, and though one of their expeditions took Washington, another against New Orleans was unsuccessful. This most unsatisfac- tory war was brought to a close in 1814 by the treaty of Ghent, and happily it did not produce any permanent estrange- Treaty of ment between England and her former colonists. Ghent. After 1815 almost forty years passed before England was engaged in a European war, and during that time attention will have to be given to domestic affairs. It will be well here to take a short survey of the condition of the empire. On the accession of George III. England had held in Europe, Minorca and Gibraltar ; in America, Canada, condition of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and the *^® empire. American colonies, with Jamaica, Barbadoes, and a few other West Indian islands ; in Africa, St. Helena ; and in Asia, Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta. The follies of the American war lost us the North American colonies and Minorca. During the French war we gained in Europe, Malta and Heligoland ; in Africa, Cape Colony, Ascension, and Mauritius ; in the West Indian islands we secured Trinidad and Tobago, and on the mainland British Guiana. In India, by 1815, we had made ourselves masters of large tracts of 4o8 George III. tisis. territory on the Ganges and Southern India, and the island of Ceylon, while we were indirect rulers of all south of the Himalayas except Scinde, the Punjab, and Nepaul. On the other hand, by peaceful means we had secured a claim to the great islands of Australia and New Zealand, and had founded regular colonies in New South Wales and Tasmania. Indeed, by this time England had almost completed the project of forming a great colonial empire, of which the lines had been laid down by the colonizing of Virginia, the formation of the East India Company, and the seizure of Jamaica by Cromwell. The years which passed between the battle of Waterloo and the death of George III. were times of great depression in all branches Distress whicii ^^ industry. During the war, in spite of the sacri- fouowedthe fices which England had made, trade had been general peace. i i i n • i • Cause of ©n the whole nourismng, though the workpeople depression. j^g^(j suffered from the low rate of wages and the high price of provisions, and it had been hoped that the restoration of peace would bring with it a period of great prosperity. Instead of this, no sooner had peace been declared than bad times began. The depression of manufacture was in part due to revival of continental industry, which deprived England of the practical Poreig-n monopoly which she had enjoyed during the war, competition, ^^(j gQ diminished the market for our manufactured goods. Trade was also affected by the uncertainty which existed ■Unsteadiness i^i the money market, owing to the large number of prices. Qf bank-notes which had been issued by the Bank of England since Pitt had allowed it to suspend money payments in 1797. These notes had become part of the coinage of the country, but it had always been understood that money payments were to be resumed at the peace, and the uncertainty as to the demand for gold prevented prices from becoming steady. Quite independently of this, there was much distress in some districts in consequence of the rapid substitution of machinery for hand-labour, which, Hiots against though it causcd a great demand for new workmen^ machinery, threw the oM hands out of work, and resulted in riots against machinery, which broke out first in Nottinghamshire in 1811. The rioters called themselves Luddites, after a poor idiot who had once in a fit of passion broken a stocking frame, i8i5.]i Lord Liverpool, 40 ^ and the destruction of machinery was for many years very common in the manufacturing districts. The depression of trade affected in its turn the prosperity of agriculture. During the war agriculture had been extremely prosperous. The price of corn had been as a rule tProsperity of about double what it had been before the war, for ^^duJng^^ not only had the population and wealth of the the war. manufacturing districts increased, but also no corn had been shipped to England from the Continent, so that the British farmers had had the whole benefit of the demand. This had resulted in many commons being reclaimed, and quantities of waste land being brought under cultivation, and the employment, therefore, of a very large country population. When peace came, it was feared that the introduction of foreign corn would result in a rapid fall in its price, and that the change would bring about a terrible disaster in the country districts through the failure of farmers and the sudden fall in the demand for labour. Accordingly, in 1815 a corn law was passed, prohibiting the introduction of foreign corn until the price of wheat had risen to 80s. a quarter. This price stood midway between com law the price of wheat before the war and its highest passed, price during its continuance. It was thought that for the future the price of wheat would not vary much from 8O5. This calculation was wi'ong. The high price expected encouraged _, _ . the reclamation of land and the improvement of agriculture, and the consequence was that the price of wheat first rose and then steadily tell. In 1815 the season was good, and the average price of wheat was 635. a quarter; in 1817 the season was bad, and the average price was 965. a quarter, and would have been much more, had it not been for foreign competition, which began when the price reached 8O5. The price then steadily fell, till in 1822 the average price was only 45s. If the harvest were good, farmers had plenty to sell, but the price was i^ good and in low in proportion to their rents; if bad, they had t»ad seasons., little to sell, and foreign competition prevented them from selling that little at a monopoly price ; so that good years and bad were alike disastrous to the farming interest — a state of things which naturally led to the ruin of numbers of farmers, and to multitudes 410 George III. [I817- of labourers being thrown out of work by the contraction of the area of cultivation. This widespread distress caused much discontent both in the manufacturing and agricultural districts. In those days the poor _ ^ had no votes, and therefore could not feel secure that Discontent in town their interests would be represented in Parliament. and country, rpj^gjj. discontent, therefore, smouldered, and in the hands of the more violent took the form of disaffection. Terrified Fear of ^7 ^^ French Kevolution, the government were revolution, exceedingly ready to believe rumours of plots and conspiracies, and undoubtedly there was a widespread feehng in England that the country was in a very dangerous condition. Of this disaffection, the first symptoms were the Spa Fields Kiots, in which the mob attempted to plunder the gunsmiths' shops, and Outbreaks and the insulting reception which met the prince regent tbfdStSsed ^^6^ ^^ opened Parliament in 1817. Alarmed by districts. these occurrences. Parliament at once suspended the Habeas Corpus Act; and Lord Sidmouth, who was then Home Secretaiy, issued a circular to the lords-lieutenant of counties, authorizing magistrates to apprehend persons accused of libellous publications, by which were meant any writings in which govern- ment was attacked. The same year the unemployed workmen of Manchester organized a march of some of their number to London, to lay their case before the prince regent. These men were pro- vided with blankets, in which they intended to sleep, from which the movement was called the " march of the Blanketeers." None, how- ever, of those who set out got far on the journey. The same summer occurred the Derbyshire insurrection, in which some misguided men, encouraged, there is no doubt, to some extent by informers in the employ of the government, attempted an armed rising, which was, of course, quickly suppressed, and the ringleaders were executed. Similar troubles occurred both in the manufacturing and agricultural districts, and broke out at intervals till the revival of trade restored prosperity to the country. Among the more sensible members of the working classes discon- _ .yg ^^j. tent with the state of the country took the form of Parliamentary desire for Parliamentary reform, and the agitation for this, which had almost died out during the war, was 1819. Lord Liverpool, 411 renewed both in and out of Parliament. In Parliament reform was advocated by Sir Francis Burdett, and out of it by William Cobbett, one of the most vigorous of all our writers of popular English. In the House of Commons several motions on the subject were brought forward by Sir Francis Burdett, while in the manufacturing districts the inhabitants of large unrepresented towns, such as Birmingham, Manchester, and Leeds, were loud in their demand for a share in the government of the country, and large meetings of the working class, often attended by riots, were held all over the country. These meetings alarmed government, and proclamations were issued against seditious meetings, which, by stifling legitimate agita- tion, only added to the discontent. Just after these ^he st. Peter's proclamations a meeting was called in St. Peter's ^ieid meeting. Field, Manchester, for the purpose of petitioning for Parliamentary reform. The meeting was densely crowded by deputations from all the neighbouring districts, who marched in procession with flags flying, accompanied by their wives and children. The size and enthusiasm of the meeting seem to have quite disconcerted the magistrates, who, finding that they could not easily arrest Mr. Hunt, the leading orator, actually ordered a body of cavalry and yeomanry to charge the unarmed crowd. The result was a scene of frightful confusion; men, women, and children were trampled under the horses' feet, or cut down by the swords of the soldiers. Several persons were killed outright, and numbers were injured. The government supported the magistrates in holding that the meeting was illegal, and secured the conviction and imprisonment of Mr. Hunt and some of the leaders, on a charge of conspiring to alter, the law by force and threats. Parliament, in its turn, supported the ministers, and passed the celebrated Six Acts, by which the use of arms, training in mihtary exercises, and the holding of unauthorized meetings and assemblies were forbidden, and at the same time regulations were made by which newspapers were controlled, and the publication of blasphemous and seditious libels was made more difficult. These Acts were quite in accord with the fears of the upper classes, but there was never any real danger of revolution. The Acts, however, were strongly condemned by the Whigs, and Lord John Russell, who was then coming forward as their leader, 41^ Geors:e III. L1820. tried to call attention to what lie considered the true course, by- proposing resolutions in favour of Parliamentary reform, which, however, were not carried. It was in the midst of these difficulties that George III., who had Death of lo^^g ^^^cn quite incapable of even understanding what George III. ^g^g going On around him, passed away in January, 1820, at the great age of eighty-one. He was succeeded by the regent, under the title of George IV. CHIEF GENERAL EVENTS BETWEEN 1789 and 1820. Outbreak of the French Revolution 1789 Habeas Corpus Act suspended Mutinies at Spithead and the Nore Union of Great Britain and Ireland ... Orders in Council issued Slave-trade abolished New Corn Law Six Acts passed 1794-1802 ... 1797 ... 1800 ... 1807 ... 1815 ... 1819 CHIEF BATTLES, SIEGES, AND TREATIES (i 789-1820) Lord Howe's victory of June 1 Battle of Cape St. Vincent „ Camperdown ... „ the Nile Siege of Acre Battle of Copenhagen Treaty of Amiens Battles of Assaye and Laswaree Battle of Trafalgar Peninsular War begins ... Battles of Eoriya and Vimeira ,, Oporto and Talavera Lines of Torres Vedras Battles of Fuentes d'Onoro and Albuera Storming of Badajoz and Ciudad Rodrigo Battle of Salamanca ,, Vittoria „ Orthez and Toulouse „ Waterloo 1794 1797 1798 1799 1801 1802 1803 1805 1808 1809 1810 1811 1812 1812 1813 1814 1815 CHAPTER V. Geoege IV., 1820-1830 (10 years). Born 1762 ; married, 1795, Caroline of Brunswick. Chief Characters of the Reign. — Lord Liverpool ; the Duke of Wellington ; Lord Castlereagli ; Peel ; Canning ; Huskisson ; Lord Goderich ; O'Connell. f^hief Contemporary Sovereigns. France. Louis XYIIL, d. 1824. Charles X., expelled 1830. IIaedly had the new king ascended the throne, than the last of the conspiracies, which are to be classed with the outbreaks of Spa Fields and Derby, was discovered. This was the Cato cato street Street Plot, which was arranged by Thistlewood — conspiracy. a man who had formerly held a commission in the army, but had become filled with the sentiments of French republicanism. His associates were butchers and draymen. The notion of these deluded men was to murder all the ministers while they were dining at Lord Harrowby's house, and then set up a provisional government. The scheme of the plot was as cruel as it was absurd. The plan was made known to the government, and the conspirators having been arrested at the last moment, Thistlewood and four others were executed, and the rest transported. The Cato Street Conspiracy was the last flicker of disaffection. Changes in the ministry brought about hopes of reform. The Hopes of resumption of cash payments for bank-notes on de- better days, mand, which had been arranged for by Peel's Act of 1819, came into operation soon afterwards. Trade was thus placed on a healthier basis, and in a short time the country was again prosperous. The accession of George IV. brought about a difficulty in regard to the queen. When quite a young man, George had married Mrs. Fitzherbert, a Roman Catholic lady, a legal marriage with 414 George IV, 1820- whom would "by the Bill of Eights have forfeited the crown. Marriage -^^ i* "^^^5 ^J ^^® Royal Marriage Act (see p. 373), with Mrs. Mtz- ^j^^g marriage was illegal. Presently the king wished Herbert. ^ ^ / "^ the prince to make a legal marriage, and arranged ^c^roifneTf* for him an alliance with Caroline of Brunswick, whom Brunswick, j^g married in 1795. This marriage naturally turned out unhappily, and after the birth of the Princess Charlotte the pair separated, and the princess lived away from the court, and in 1814 went to the Continent. Meanwhile the Princess Charlotte was growing up, and was Marriage and married to Prince Leopold of Saxe Cobm'g; but a pSfce^s°ciJlr- y®^^ afterwards, in 1817, she died, after giving birth lotte. to a dead child. The whole country was thrown into consternation, for neither the prince regent nor his three brothers, the Dukes of York, Clarence, or Kent, had any legitimate children. The Duke of York was already married, but had no family; so now the Dukes of Clarence and Kent also married, and the daughter of the Duke of Kent, Princess Victoria, born in 1819, became, after her uncles and father, heir to the throne. While the Princess of Wales had been abroad, stories had reached England of improprieties in her conduct, and many thought she was unfit to be recognized as Queen of England, omitted from Accordingly, when her husband became king, her e 1 \irey. YiS^vn^ was omittsd from the Liturgy, and an attempt was made to prevent her from leaving the Continent. With great courage, however, she insisted on coming to England ; and the Bin of Pains ministers upon that, by the king's wish, brought in a and Penalties, gjn q{ Pains and Penalties, to divorce her from her husband and deprive her of the title of queen. The introduction of this bill was most unpopular ; for the great mass of the people looked upon her as an injured woman. The bill, however, never got further than the House of Lords, which it passed by a small majority ; it was not brought into the Commons, where the queen's friends were the strongest. The evidence, however, which was brought forward Death of the m support of the bill was so strong, that the queen's QLueen. popularity sank, and shortly afterwards, broken-hearted at being refused admission to Westminster Abbey on the occasion of the king's coronation, she died. 1822.] Lord Liverpool. 41 1 Soon after the death of George III. it became clear that the panic caused by the French Eevolution was beginning to pass away, and that the country wished again to enter upon the s3miptoms of path of progress, from which Pitt had been diverted new progress, by the outbreak of the war. Various signs showed this. In 1821 a bill for the relief of the Catholics was passed by the Commons, but thrown out by the Lords. Grampound, a corrupt borough, was disfranchised, and its two seats were given to the county of York. In the ministry itself changes were made ; several members of the Grenville party were admitted, and Peel, the son of a cotton- spinner, whose sympathies were with the middle classes rather than with the aristocracy, succeeded Lord Sidmouth as Home Secre- tary; but the greatest change that was made in the Cabinet was caused by the suicide of Lord Londonderry, formerly Castlereagh in 1822. Castlereagh, who was a man of the most amiable character in private life, had little sympathy with public opinion or with pro- gress. He had passed most of his life in fighting the castiereagn-s cause of the minority against the majority, and his character, iron will had been the most powerful instrument in bringing to a successful conclusion the coalition against Napoleon. In England he was a strong upholder of repression, and abroad, though he refused to entangle England in the policy of the Holy Alliance, his sympathies were against any extension of the principles of liberty and equality. Though an excellent man for the work he had done, he was probably a bar to the coming in of a new era, and the joy which hailed his death, though it was bitterly cruel to the memory of a kindly and well-meaning man, expressed clearly the feeling of the public on the matter. His successor at the Foreign Office was a very different man. George Canning was full of generous sentiments, and though he never for a moment lost sight of English interests, it canning's was understood that his sympathies were v/ith the policy, people, and that where possible he would give them a helping hand. He soon showed that this was the case. During the war with France, the Spanish colonies of South America had thrown off their dependence on the mother country. This was a great ad- vantage to England, as it opened the trade with them, and 41 6 George IV, [i82a- Canning declared that no European power should help Spain to reconquer them, and fully recognized their independence. In 1826, when Spanish and French troops proposed to enter Portugal in order to overthrow the constitution which the Portuguese had set up, Canning forbade the step, and despatched English troops to the Tagus with such promptitude that the threat was withdrawn. When the Greeks broke out into revolt against Turkey, Canning's skill prevented Eussia from taking the opportunity to seize Con- stantinople, and on the other hand secured the Greeks fair play in their struggle with their oppressors. While Canning was thus introducing new methods into English foreign pohcy, progress was being made at home. We saw that in Progress at ^^® early part of Pitt's administration four ques- home, tions had been to the front — Parliamentary reform, the rearrangement of the customs duties, the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts, and the removal of the disabilities of the Eoman Catholics. Each of these questions had become more complicated during the years which had since passed. In the days of Pitt the central idea of ParHamentary reform had been to give the seats of the rotten boroughs to the counties, but The reform within the last forty years the whole problem had question. changed by the rise of the great manufacturing towns. The introduction of spinning and weaving by machinery, and the use of steam as a new motive power, had altered the character of the country. Up to 1790, England, we may say roughly, had been an agricultural country; it had since been rapidly changing into a manufacturing one. This was a great revolution, and the massing together of great bodies of operatives and manufacturers in such places as Birmingham, Manchester, and Leeds, brought into being a new and powerful public opinion which was as yet wholly un- represented in Parliament. It was becoming plain that the old system of representation, which gave all the power to the counties and ancient boroughs, was out of date, and would have to be modified in some way. The next question, that of the rearrangement of the customs and of the laws regulating industry, had also been complicated by the The free trade introduction of the coni laws, which had made auestion. agriculture by far the most powerful of the protected 1823.J Liverpool. 417 industries, dnd also by the rapid change in the industries of the country which followed the introduction of machinery and steam. This question of duties was the first to be dealt with. Huskisson, who became President of the Board of Trade in 1823, was an enhghtened follower of the commercial policy of Huskisson's Pitt, and he at once set to work to help manufactures policy, by reducing the taxes which were levied on the introduction of raw materials, such as silk and wool ; at the same time he largely modified the Navigation Acts by which goods were forbidden to be brought to England in any but English ships, or, in the case of European countries, in vessels belonging to the countries from which the goods came. Now that we wanted to do a large trade with North and South America, these restrictions had become insufferable. He also repealed the Act by which the wages of the Spitalfields weavers were fixed by the magistrates, abolished the restrictions on workmen travelling from one part of the country to another in search of work, and all laws directly controlling the combinations of either masters or workmen. These measures gave a great impetus to trade, and unfortunately the sudden burst of prosperity led to much overtrading, and to the formation of bubble companies such as those of Revival of 1720. The natural result was a terrible panic in 1825, trade, when many of these companies failed, and numbers of banks were ruined. A period of bad trade followed, during which riots occurred in the manufacturing districts, and much machinery, which was still thought by the workmen to be at the bottom of any misfortune was destroyed. The question of Catholic Emancipation had long been of first-rate importance. It had overthrown Pitt's first administration and also that of Grenville, and under Lord Liverpool it had catiioiic been made an open question, i.e. one on which ministers question, might differ in opinion. Accordingly, Canning and Castlereagh, as followers of Pitt, had always favoured the Catholics, while Liverpool, Sidmouth, and Eldon had been against them. The question had, however, assumed a more serious shape since it had been taken up by the popular Irishman, Daniel O'Connell, who had in 1823 formed the Catholic °'^°^^^"- Association to advocate the CathoHc claims. This association 2e 41 8 George IV. [I825- assumed vast proportions— levied a subscription from all Catholics, which was known as the " Catholic rent," and almost superseded the government of the country. Accordingly, in 1825, the Association was suppressed for three years, but a rehef bill was immediately introduced by Sir Francis Attempts at its Burdett, which passed the Commons by a large settlement, majority. In the Lords, however, it was met by a violent opposition, headed by the Duke of York, who spoke against it most strongly, and it was accordingly rejected — an act which was probably in accord with the wishes of the great mass of the country, who were in this respect more narrow-minded than the unreformed House of Commons. Undeterred by this failure, the Cathohc Association was again started in an altered form, and the agitation was continued in Ireland as vigorously as ever. Meanwhile the ministry was becoming more and more disunited. Except in opposition to reform of Parliament, there was hardly any subject on which they agreed, and when Lord Liver- Lordxiiver ° pool fell ill, and resigned in 1827, the inevitable break- ^°°^' up took place. Canning became Prime Minister, and was supported by some of the Whigs, especially by Brougham. On Canning's ^^ ^ther hand, the Duke of Welhngton, Lord Eldon, ministry. r^^A Peel resigned their posts. Huskisson continued at the Board of Trade, Lord Palmerston continued Secretary at War, and Lord Goderich became War and Colonial Secretary. This ministry promised further progress, and it was thought certain that Death of i* would in a short time be joined by the leading Whigs, Canning'. f-Qj. -^hom, In fact, places had been kept, but unhappily it was completely ruined by the death of Canning, which happened within four months of his becoming premier. Abroad, Canning's chief attention was given to Greece. With great skill he arranged Battle of joint action between England, France, and Russia Navarino. for the pacification of that country. This arrange- ment led to an attempt to prevent the Turkish fleet from coming out of the harbour of Navarino in order to unite with an Egj^ptian contingent in an attack upon the Ionian Islands. This led to a battle, in which the Turks were completely defeated ; but the incompetence of the new ministers was unable to follow out Canning's other object of holding Russia in check, and in con- 1829.] Canning — Goderich — Wellington. 419 sequence the czar's troops advanced into Turkey and were very near taking Constantinople, and in 1829 only the interference of England and France succeeded in securing Turkey the humiliating treaty of Adrianople. After Canning's death, Lord Goderich was for a few months prime minister ; but he was quite unfitted for the post. The mem- bers of his ministry quarrelled among themselves, and in January, 1828, he resigned his post, so the plan of a progressive Torj"- Whig ministry failed. The king then asked the Duke of Wel- lington to become Prime Minister, who formed an administration of Canningites and Tories, of which Peel was Home Secretary and Leader of the House of Commons, Huskisson Duke of Colonial and War Secretary, and Palmerston Secretary ^^pii^°^: at War. The first event under the new administra- Minister, tion was the passing, without much opposition, of a motion of Lord John Russell's for the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts, by which Nonconformists were admitted to full political rights. The same year an unsuccessful attempt was made to transfer the members for Penryn and East Retford to Manchester and Birmingham. The case of East Retford brought on a quarrel in the government; for Huskisson, who had voted in favour of the transfer, resigned, and was followed by Lords Palmerston and Dudley, Lamb (afterwards Lord Melbourne), and other Canningites, whose places were filled by Tories. Hardly had this been done, When the Catholic question assumed a most alarming aspect. O'Connell himself was put up to contest the county of Clare against Vesey Fitzgerald, the new „, •^ ° J o J Election of President of the Board of Trade. He was elected by o'Conneii for an enormous majority, and nothing prevented him from taking his seat except his inability to take the necessary oaths, which as a Roman Catholic he could not do. The three years having now expired, the Catholic Association was revived, and the aspect of Ireland became so threatening, that Wellington was convinced that nothing but civil war could preserve the disabilities. This calamity he was not prepared to face, and accordingly he and Peel made up their mind that the disabilities must be repealed. When Parliament met in 1829, the king's speech recommended it to consider the removal of Catholic disabilities, and, as a preli- 420 George IV. [1830. minary measure, an act was passed suppressing the Catholic Asso- ciation. The kinar, however, now declared that, like Repeal of the , . „ , , , n . ,. , , . . Catholic dis- his father, he had conscientious scruples to giving abilities. j^-g (3Qj^gg^^ ^q ^j^q \y^\ but, upon Wellington and Peel threatening to resign, he agreed to give way, and the bill was then passed, by which the Roman Catholics were allowed, instead of taking the customary oaths, to make a declaration that they would do nothing to injure Church or State. They were only excluded from the offices of Regent, Lord Chancellor, and Viceroy of Ireland, and from the exercise of Church patronage. At the same time that this bill passed, the Irish Cliange . . ... in tiie Irish franchise in counties was raised from forty shillings anc se. ^^ ^^^ pounds, as it was thought that, now that Roman Catholics could be elected, the lower franchise would result in a complete exclusion of Protestants. Unfortunately, the repeal was deprived of much of its grace by not including a special clause allowing O'Connell to take his seat without re-election. The ungraciousness of this, coupled with the raising of the franchise, robbed the act of its conciliatory character. « .* *• * O'Connell was, of course, re-elected, and soon began a Agitation for ' ' ' o repeal of the new agitation for the repeal of the Union, which went * ' on for many years. In June, 1830, George IV. died, and as the Duke of York had died in 1827, he was succeeded by the Duke of Clarence, with the title of William IV. It has been said of George IV. that " he was a bad son, a bad husband, a bad father, a bad subject, a bad monarch, and a bad friend." With excellent abilities, he employed his talents solely for his own gratification, and when he died was the subject of almost universal contempt. CHIEF EVENTS UNDER GEORGE IV. AND WILLIAM IV. Test and Corporation Acts repealed 1828 Catholic Disabilities repealed 182? Reform Bill passed 1832 Slavery abolished 1833 New Poor Law 1834 Municipal Reform Act 1835 CHAPTEE VI. William IV., 1830-1837 (7 years). Born 1765; married, 1818, Adelaide of Saxe Meiningen. GMef Characters of the Reign.— Esixl Grey; Lord Brougham; Lord Althorp; Lord John Eussell ; Wellington; Peel; Stanley, after- wards Earl of Derby ; Lord Melbourne ; Lord Palmerston, Chief Contem'porary Sovereign. France. Louis Philippe, 1830-1848. The new king was ranch more popular than his brother ; he had the manners of a sailor, cared little for state but much for popularity, and was believed to be in favour of reform. The new elections were favourable to the reformers, and at the same time a great impulse was given to popular enthusiasm by a successful revolt of the French agamst their despotic king, Charles X., and the establishment of a popular government under his cousin, Louis Philippe, Duke of Orleans, who took the title of King of the French. This revolution reminded men of the English Ke volution of 1688, and was thought to augur well for the triumph of the middle classes in this country. However, before Parliament met, the beginning of perhaps the most striking revolution of the age was made by the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Eailway. This great opening of the step, which was due to the application of the steam- ^iverpooi and . n -, Manchester ' engine to the draggmg of heavy carriages along the Railway, tram-lines which had long been in use, was mainly due to the mgenuity and determination of George Stephenson, a north-country workman, who thereby made himself a name as one of the greatest engineers of the age. The importance of the new step was recog- nized by a pubhc opening, in which the Duke of Wellington and other ministers took part, and unhappily Mr. Huskis- ■Deg.fh. of son, who had just been reconciled to the duke, was ECusMsson. knocked down by a passing engine, and died of his mjuries. The 42 2 William IV. tisso- application of steam-power to navigation preceded the railway by some years, and in 1803 Fulton, an American, successfully con- structed a working steam-ship, and in 1838 the Atlantic was crossed by steam-power only, for the first time. When Parliament met, the Duke of Wellington roused a great deal of feeling by declaring that the House of Commons needed no Wellington's reform. There were a great many people who agreed declaration ^-^-i^ 'Kmi, and many more who thought that a reform against reform. ' •> ^ o rit ofthe ^hould be Carefully considered, and should preserve old system, as much as possible of the good features of the old system of representation. The great merits of the old plan were that on the whole it had worked well, that, in spite of its anomahes, it had very fairly represented the feelings of Englishmen, and that it bad produced a body of statesmen who could compare in administrative ability, in rectitude and in eloquence, with those of any country in the world. Even the rotten boroughs had had their advantage in enabling leaders to introduce to political life young men of ability, and both the Pitts, Burke, Fox, Canning, Huskisson, and many others had gained their first seats in Parliament through this channel. Against this, however, it was to be said that many large and important towns were wholly unrepresented, that large and populous counties had the same number of members as small ones, and that the landed interest was over- represented, out of all proportion to the manufacturing. The great difficulty, however, in the way af moderate reform was the fact that reform had been postponed so long. At the close Difficulties of ^^ ^^® ^^^^ century the Rockingham Whigs and King's reform. friends had defeated Pitt's efforts in this direction; Canning had always been opposed to Parliamentary reform ; and lately the Lords had defeated Lord John Russell's attempts to gradually transfer members from corrupt boroughs to the large manufacturing centres. The consequence was that nothing but a sweeping measure of reform would satisfy the country, and the Duke's ill-considered expression caused a storm of indignation. However, before any resolution on the subject was brought in, the liord Grey's government were defeated on a motion connected ministry. ^\\}a. the Civil List, and the Duke immediately re- signed. Upon this, Lord Grey, who had long led the Whigs in the 1831.] Grey. 423 House of Lords, was seat for. He formed a ministry out of the old Whigs, with some followers of Canning and Grenville. The chief members were Brougham, who became Lord Chancellor; Lord Althorp, Chancellor of the Exchequer; Lord Melbourne, Home Secretary ; Lord Palmerston, Foreign Secretary ; Lord John Russell, Paymaster of the Forces; and Mr. Stanley, Colonial Secretary. Lord Grey had stipulated that reform should be a Cabinet measure, and in March, 1831, the Reform Bill was introduced by Lord John Russell, who had long been the champion of reform in the Lower House. The bill was based upon the new principle of symmetry. It was proposed to disfranchise sixty-two boroughs with less than two thousand inhabitants, and to take away one member rpiie proposed each from forty-seven boroughs of only four thousand i5,eform Biii. inhabitants. These members were to be divided among the large towns — of which the most important were Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Wolverhampton, and Sheffield — among the thickly populated districts of the metropolis, and among the larger counties. With regard to the right of voting, the qualification in towns was for the first time to be made uniform, and given to all householders paying a yearly rental of ten pounds. In the counties the right was to be given (in addition to the old forty-shilling freeholders) to all copy- holders to the value of ten pounds a year, and to leaseholders for twenty-one years, whose rent was over fifty pounds. The Bill passed the second reading by a majority of 302 to 301, but when its clauses were being considered in committee of the House, an amendment, introduced by General Gas- Bin defeated in coyne, that the members for England and Wales committee, ought not to be diminished, was carried against the government by 8. Ministers, however, felt that the enthusiasm in the country was rising, and they therefore persuaded the king to dissolve Parliament in person, before the Lords were able to carry an address to him against dissolution. The result of the election showed that ministers were right. " The Bill, the whole Bill, and nothing but the Bill," ^. , ,. ' ' ° ' Dissolution was the cry of the Reformers, and the Tories were and general beaten all over the country. The Reform BiU was now carried, on its second reading, by no less than 136 votes, and 424 William IV. [I832- after many weeks of discussion in committee, during wMch the Second biu ^^^^ ^^ ®^^^ "borough was vigorously contested, the carried in the third reading was passed by 345 to 236. However, tiirown out by when the Bill reached the Lords, the opposition was tbe Xiords. gtrong enough to secure its rejection, and it was thrown out by 199 to 158. Its rejection caused the utmost indignation. Many of the peers and bishops were insulted by the populace. At Birmingham the bells were muffled and tolled ; at Nottingham the castle was fired; at Bristol the mob, infuriated by drink, got complete possession of the city, released the prisoners, set fire to the Mansion House and the Bishop's Palace, and for three days gave themselves over to every kind of excess. In December, Parliament again met, and the Bill was carried in the Commons by a majority of two to one, and was again sent up Third bin ^° ^^ Lords. In the Upper House the second carried in the reading of the bill was carried by nine votes only, and Hostility of the it became clear that the feeling of the House was Lords. g^ijj against the measure. Under these circumstances the excitement in the country became intense. No less than 150,000 Agitation in persons met at Birmingham to support the measure. the country, j^^ ^g^g seriously proposed that no taxes should be paid until the Bill had been passed. Everything presaged the coming of a revolution. In spite of this, the lords in committee carried by 35 a resolution adverse to the Bill. No course appeared open except to attack the House of Lords or to create new peers Resignation of in Order to form a Whig majority, as Harley had done the ministry, jn 1711. As the king rcfuscd to do this, ministers resigned. Upon this the king sent for the Duke of Wellington and implored him to help him; but the Duke, though with his usual courage he expressed himself willing to make an attempt, found that his followers refused to support him. Accordingly Earl Grey Passage of the Came back again, and the king consented, if necessary, ■^^^^- to create new peers. This threat forced the lords to withdraw their opposition, and in June, 1832, the Eeform Bill passed the Lords by 106 votes to 22. The Bill as it stood did not differ very much from that which had The Reform been introduced by Lord John RusselJ. One hundred Act of 1832. ^j^(j fort^^-three members were taken away from small 1833.] Grey. 425 borouglis ; of these, sixty-five were given to the counties, two members each to Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, and eighteen other large towns, including the metropolitan districts, and one member each to twenty-one other towns, all of which had been previously unrepresented. The right to vote was as originally pro- posed, except that, by the Chandos clause, farmers occupying land rented at £50 a year were enfranchised. Bills of a similar character were then passed for Scotland and Ireland. The number of members for Scotland was increased from forty-five to fifty-three, and in Ireland from one Scotland and hundred to one hundred and five. In both countries Ireland, the franchise in towns was made the same as in England, but in Ireland the rights of the forty-shilhng freeholders which had been taken away in 1828 were not restored. The two great points in the English Eeform Bill were, first, the introduction of a uniform franchise, which had never before existed, each town having had rules of its own; and secondly, ^^^^^ fe^xyx the transference of power from the agricultural to of the the manufacturing districts. A line drawn from Hull to Bristol will, roughly speaking, divide these districts; and, with very few exceptions, all the disfranchised towns lay to the south and east of this line, and all the enfranchised to the north and west of it. The equalization of the franchise, of course, gave the chief power to the most numerous class of voters, that is to the house- holders living in houses between ten and twenty pounds. It de- stroyed to a great extent the influence of the aristocracy in the boroughs, but they still retained theh influence in the counties. When the Keformed Parhament met, it was found that the Tories had only secured 172 seats, while the Whigs having carried aU before them in the new constituencies had 486. A period -^^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^ of great legislative activity followed. In 1833 an act Reformed . Parliament. was passed for the emancipation of the West Indian slaves. The slave trade had been prohibited in 1807, but the sugar plantations of the West Indies had continued to be worked by slaves, who were a valuable property to their owners. In 1833 an act was passed by which slavery was to cease from August, 1834, and compensation was given to the slave-owners to the amount of £20,000,000. As a step between slavery and absolute freedom, the 426 William IV, [isss- slaves were to work for their masters as apprentices for seven years, which were afterwards reduced to four. It was also arranged that the duty on sugar grown by free labourers should always be less than that on sugar grown by slaves — a bargain which has not been carried out. At home some important reforms were made. By one Act, passed 1833, an annual grant of £20,000 was made in aid of elementary education, which had hitherto been en- tirely conducted by the Church and other religious and philanthropic bodies. By another Act, introduced by Lord Ashley (afterwards Earl of Shaftesbury") in 1833, the Fa.ctoryA.cts. ^ / ' employment of children under nine years of age in factories was forbidden. This practice had sprung up since the introduction of machinery, to the great injury of the children's health and the ruin of their education. The Act has been extended from time to time, and in 1847 Fielden's Act limited the work of all young persons and women to ten hours a day. In 1834, by the Poor Law Amendment Act, the administration of the poor law was Poor law reformed, and a stop put to the practice of granting amended. systematic outdoor relief in the case of able-bodied men, which had had such disastrous effects in the rural districts. This change from the old system to the new was, however, the cause of great hardship to the poor, who had been trained for years to rely on their parish pay to eke out their wages, and good as it was for the nation as a whole, it created much discontent among the working classes. An important Act was passed in 1833 for the reform of the Irish Church, by which two archbishoprics and eight bishoprics were suppressed, and a commission was appointed to administer superflu- ous revenues. At the same time a severe Coercion Act was passed, on the ground that in 1832 no less than nine thousand crimes, arising out of the disturbed state of the country, had been com- mitted. An Act was also passed in 1833 to compensate the Irish clergy for the loss of tithe which they had experienced through the resistance to its collection. In 1835 the tithes were commuted. The Irish Church question led to a difficulty in the ministry. Ministerial Mr. Stanley (afterwards Lord Derby), Sir J. Graham, changes. ^nd two Others, disagreed with Lord Grey, and left 1835.] Melbourne — Peel — Melboiwne. 427 the ministry. Before long they began to act with Sir Robert Peel, and took a high place in the Tory party. Meanwhile the Conservatives, as the followers of Peel had now begun to call themselves, to distinguish them from conservative men of the type of Lord Eldon, were gaining ground reaction, under the able Parliamentary leadership of Peel, and the tide of enthusiasm which had carried along the reform ministry beginning to abate, a reaction was setting in. This soon showed Disunion in the itself in the form of disunion in the ministry. Grey ^J^aSorof differed with Althorp, the leader of the House of Lord Grey. Commons, about renewing the Irish Coercion Act. Althorp sent in his resignation, and G-rey, who was now an old man, retired His place was taken by Lord Melbourne, an able but eccentric man, who had no enthusiasm for energetic reforms. This state of things encouraged the king to believe that there was a LordMei- Conservative reaction, and as he had for a long ^'^f^t-f^]^^^ time gi'own heartily tired of his ministers, he took ^ing dismisses the opportunity of Lord Althorp's going to the tiieWhigs. House of Lords on his father's death, to dismiss them and call the Duke of WeUington to take office. The Duke advised that Peel should be Premier. This Peel accepted. The Duke of Wellington became Foreign Secretary; Lord Lyndhurst, Lord Chancellor; Lord Aberdeen, War and Colonial Secretary; and dissolved Parlia- sir Robert ment. In the electian the Conservatives gained i*eei's ministry, nearly one hundred seats, but the Whigs were still in a majority of 107. Sir Robert Peel had announced himself in favour of steady progress, but he was continually defeated by the Liberals ; and when Lord John Russell carried a resolution for applying the surplus revenues of the Irish Church to general moral and religious purposes, the same question upon which Mr. Stanley had left Lord Grey's ministry, he resigned. Lord Melbourne then liord came back to office, with Lord John Russell as ^econd^ ^ Home Secretary and Lord Palmerston Foreign ministry. Secretary. His first measure of importance was the Municipal Corporation Act, passed in 1835. Hitherto the governing bodies of Municipal towns had for the most part been close bodies which reform. 428 William IV, iisss. filled up vacancies in their own ranks ; by the new Act all town councils were elected by the ratepayers, and in their turn elected the mayor and aldermen. This arrangement made quite a revolution in the Hfe of provincial towns ; it gave an education in the practice of self-government, and it removed many abuses. The Corporation of London was powerful enough to get itsel exempted from the provisions of the Act, and a few others from their insignificance escaped notice. By another Act the tithe question in England was settled. Hitherto rectors and vicars had collected their tithe, sometimes in kind, sometimes in accordance with a composition Tithe auestion. ^ arranged between the parson and the tithe-payers. This was very irritating, especially to Nonconformists. By the new Act the tithe was commuted into a rent-charge, calculated according to the average price of corn for the seven preceding years. In 1836 the circulation of newspapers was much increased by the duty upon tl^em being reduced to one penny. the duty on The same year the House of Commons began to newspapers, p^i^j^g]^ ^^^ Q^^^^n division lists, in this way giving accurate information to their constituents of the votes of their Publication of members. This and the publication of debates, division lists, allowed in 1771, have done as much as anything else to diffuse political knowledge throughout the country and to keep up an intelligent interest in the doings of Parliament. The next year, 1837, the genial old king died, and his niece. Death of the ^^ daughter of the Duke of Kent, succeeded to ^^^- the throne by the title of Queen Victoria. CHAPTER VII. Victoria, 1837- Bom 1819 ; married, 1840, Albert of Saxe-Coburg. Chief Characters of the Eeign. — Lord Melbourne ; Sir Eoberfc Peel ; Lord John, afterwards Earl Russell ; Lord Palmerston ; the Earl of Aber- deen ; Lord Stanley, afterwards Earl of Derb}^ ; Daniel O'Connell ; Eichard Cobden ; John Bright ; W. E. Gladstone ; Benjamin Disraeli, created Earl of Beaconsfield ; Lord Hartington ; W. E. Forster ; C. S, Parnell ; the Marquess of Salisbury. Chief Contemporary Sovereigns. Russia. Italy. France. Prussia. Nicolas, Victor Emmanuel, Louis Philippe, "William, 1825-1855. King of Sardinia, 1830-1848. 1861-1871. Alexander II., 1849. Republic, Emperor in 1855-1881. King of Italy, 1848-1852. Germany, Alexander III., 1861-1878. Louis Napoleon, 1871- 1881- Humbert, 1878- Emperor, 1852-1870. Republic, 1870- The new queen, who had come of age at eighteen little more than a month before the death of her uncle, had lived in great privacy before her accession, but the impression she made on her first appearance was most favourable, and a hopeful feeling spread through all ranks of a prosperous and happy reign. In 1840 the queen married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg, her cousin, who made her an excellent husband, and devoted himself to advance the moral and intellectual well-being of the people among whom he came to live. Her succession dissolved the connection between England and Hanover which had existed since 1714, as the Salic law, by which no woman could reign, was the rule in that country, separation and her uncle, the Duke of Cumberland, became ^^°™- s:anover. its king. The loss of Hanover, however, did no harm to England. 43 o Victoria. i837- Its possession brought us neither honour nor profit, but, on the other hand, was a constant source of danger lest we should be dragged into German politics. A much more serious loss than that of Hanover, however, threatened to couple with disaster the accession of the new queen. Canada Canada was thoroughly disaffected. The difficulty question, there arose mainly from the difference between the French and English population. The Canada Act of 1774 had given the same government to all Canada, but had secured special privileges to the French ; but Pitt's Act of 1791 had divided Canada into two parts. One of these. Lower Canada, was inhabited almost exclusively by the descendants of the French ; the other. Upper Canada, by English and Scotch settlers, and by loyal Americans, who had crossed over into Canada when the United States became independent. Each of these states had a separate governor and legislature. This plan had not worked at all well. There were constant difficulties in both states between the legislature and the executive government, in which the English government supported the executive, and in 1837 Lower Canada broke into a revolt, which was easily suppressed by Sir J. Colborne. The Melbourne ministry then sent out Lord Durham, the ablest of the younger members of the Whig party, as special commissioner Lord Durham's "^^^^ Unlimited powers. In dealing with the ring- mission.i leaders of the rebellion, he, in order to avoid the excitement of a trial, banished them by his own authority to Ber- muda, and denounced death against them in case they should return. This act was approved in the colonj^, but it was attacked in the House of Lords by Lord Brougham, who had been irritated by not being again made chancellor on the return of the Melbourne ministry; and Lord Melbourne cancelled the ordinance. Lord Durham at once resigned, but his plans were carried into effect by his successor, Lord Sydenham. The Act of 1791 was reversed, and the two Canadas united in a legislative union, and the way was paved for a Federal union of all the North American colonies. Canada has since been conspicuous for its loyalty to Ihe English crown. The weakness which Lord Melbourne's government showed in the 1839.] _ Melbourne. 431 case of Lord Durham was thoroughly characteristic of a ministry which pleased no one, but to which there was no -weakness of obvious successor. Sir Kobert Peel had no majority, Melbourne's and Lord Durham, the only man outside the official ministry, followers of Lord Melbourne who was strong enough to take a line of his own, was dying. This state of things was most exasperating to the ardent reformers, and resulted in the growth of agitation in the country. This agitation had two objects, and was conducted by two quite different classes of men — the manufacturers who wished to abohsh the corn laws, and the Eadicals who wished for further Parliamentary reform. The Eadicals had looked on the Reform Bill of 1832 with very different eyes to the Whigs. To the Whigs it had been a measure which was to settle the constitution of Parliament for xhe policy of at least a very long time ; to the Radicals it was only *^® Radicals, a step in the right direction. Accordingly, when the Radicals found that the first fervour of reforming zeal had died away, and that the Melbourne administration was little if any more energetic than a Conservative government, they began to agitate for further Reform. Their wishes were embodied in a Charter, in which they de- manded (1) universal suffrage, on the ground that every grown-up man had a right to a vote ; (2) vote by ballot, to secure the voter from intimidation ; (3) annual Parliaments, to secure the dependence of members on the wishes of their constituents ; (4) payment of members, in order to enable poor men to leave their work if elected ; (5) the abolition of the property qualification, by which no one could sit unless he had a certain amount of property (this rule, as a matter of fact had long been evaded) ; and (6) equal electoral districts, in order to make the value of each man's vote as nearly equal as possible. The advocates of this scheme, who were called Chartists, were of two kinds. Those who were in favour of force were called Physical Force Chartists, those in favour of agitation only, Moral ^j^e chartist Force Chartists. The leaders were Feargus O'Connor, ag-itation. a member of Parliament, and Hetherington, Vincent, and Lovett, working men. The Chartists held large public meetings, which sometimes, in the agitated state of the country, led to riots, and in 1839 an attempt at rebellion was made at Newport, in South Wales, 432 Victoria. [i839* under the lead ot Mr. Frost, a magistrate. This was, of course, easily suppressed, and some of the leaders were transported ; but the agitation continued for years, and roused great enthusiasm among the unrepresented classes. The other movement in favour of free trade in corn had its origin in the wants of the manufacturers, who saw that one effect of the The free trade ^^^^^ \^'^'& was to keep bread at a higher price than it movement, would have been had foreign corn been allowed to be imported free of duty, so that foreigners might, whenever they could, undersell the English farmers in the home market. This artificial raising of the price necessarily increased the hardships of the unemployed workpeople whenever there were bad times in the manufacturing districts, and had the effect of making the interest of the manufacturing population hostile to that of the country districts, which depended for their prosperity on the con- dition of agriculture and the amount of employment which could be given on the land. The manufacturers, therefore, set on foot the Anti-Corn Law League, whose most active spirits were Richard Cobden and John Bright, both manufacturers and men of great eloquence, and they set on foot a crusade against the corn laws, which they carried on in the manufacturing districts. While the country was thus being agitated by Chartism on one side, and the anti-corn law agitation on the other, the Melbourne Resig'nation of ministry was in the last stage of weakness. In the the Whigs, general election on the queen's accession, the Con- servatives had 310 members. In 1839 the government only carried a bill for suspending the constitution of Jamaica, in which island there had been constant trouble since the Act of 1833, by five votes. Upon this Lord Melbourne sent in his resignation, and Sir B. Peel attempted to form a ministry, but was foiled by an unexpected difficulty. It had always been the chamber practice at court that the personal attendants of ques ion. ^^^ sovereign should be of the same way of thinking as the ministers, and therefore that when a ministry resigned the household should resign too. This had been easy in the case of a king, but it was not so easy in the case of a queen, who naturally objected to have her domestic circle broken up ; and Lord Melbourne had made it stiU more difficult by putting the most confidential 1841.] Lord Melbourne — Sir Robert Peel. 433 places into the hands of the wives and sisters of his own colleagues. Sir E. Peel naturally wished that these should be changed, but, as the queen objected, he gave way, and threw up the task of forming a ministry. Melbourne thereupon came back Return of liord again ; but his ignominious return, as it was said, Melbourne. " behind the petticoats of the ladies of the Bedchamber," was of small advantage to his party, for the Whigs were weaker than ever. The only important event of their ministry at home was the adoption by Kowland Hill of the penny postage scheme in 1839, which quite revolutionized the postal arrangements of the country, and not only conferred an immense boon on all classes, but also gave a vast impetus to the prosperity of the country by the increased facilities it offered to business. In the colonies, the last years of William IV. and the early years of Queen Victoria were of considerable importance. In 1836 South Australia was first colonized, its capital taking the progress of the name of Adelaide from the queen of William IV. colonies The next year Natal was founded by Dutch settlers, who had made their way north from the Cape of Good Hope. At first they were independent, but in 1841 Natal was placed under English rule. In 1839 we acquired Aden, which is to the entrance of the Bed Sea what Gibraltar is to the Mediterranean. The same year New Zealand was first permanently colonized. In 1841 Sir R. Peel carried a vote of want of confidence in the ministry by one vote. Parhament was dissolved, and in the general election the Conservatives, carried by the reaction General which had shown itself since 1832, secured 367 seats, ®faii oTtS*^ giving them a majority over the Whigs of 86. Lord "Wiiig's. Melbourne was at once defeated, and resigned oflSce. The resignation of Lord Melbourne brings to a close the period which followed imme- diately on the passing of the Reform Bill. Many important measures had been passed, but the enthusiasm had died out. The defection of the Chartists and the independent wishes of the Anti-Corn Law League had weakened the Whigs. On the other hand, the great repu- tation of Sir R, Peel as a financier, a department in which the Whigs were believed to be weak, was a tower of strength to the Conserva- tives in the towns, while the fear of the abolition of the corn laws was the mainstay of the Conservatives among the farmers. 2 P 434 Victoria, [i84i- The part which Lord Melbourne had had to play since the accession of the queen was a most difficult and important one, for upon him liord fell the duty of teaching her the conduct of business Melbourne's ^^ ^^ functions of the Sovereign in the working of influence on o '-' tiie aueen. the constitution. This Lord Melbourne, in spite of his want of tact in the arrangement of the household, is admitted to have done with great skill, and for it the nation will always owe a debt of gratitude to his memory. The chief members of Sir E. Peel's ministry were the Duke of Wellington, who led the Lords ; Lord Lyndhurst, Lord Chancellor ; Lord Aberdeen, who was Foreign Secretary ; Lord Stanley, War and Colonial Secretary ; and Sir J. Graham, Home Secretary. Mr. Gladstone was Vice-President and afterwards President of the Board of Trade. The first concern of the new government was with Indian affairs. Since the Mahratta war of 1803, the British territories in India Progress of ^^^ made great progress. In 1813 we conquered India, Nepaul, a territory which lies close to the Himalaya mountains. In 1818 we put down the Pindarries — bands of profes- sional robbers who infested the territory of the Great Mogul. In 1819 we acquired Singapore, an island which commands the Straits of Malacca. In 1824 we made war upon Burmah, and took Ran- goon and the surrounding territory on the coast, leaving the district of Upper Burmah, annexed in 1885, mdependent. In 1826 we took Assam. These annexations made our connection with India more that of rulers than ever, and when the East India Company's charter was renewed in 1833, the trade with India and China was Keformoftlie \ rm /-, i East India thrown Completely open. The Company, however. Company. ^^^ preserved its position as a political body, and continued to govern India, subject to the Board of Control which Pitt had established, twenty-five years longer. Meanwhile the steady advance of Russia in Central Asia had begun to excite fear that she would intrigue against us in India, if Russians in ^nly as a counterpoise to our well-understood hostility Afghanistan, ^o her designs on Constantinople; and when, in 1838, it was learnt that a Russian envoy had been received at Cabul, the capital of Afghanistan, the country which includes the great towns 1844.J Sir Robert Peel. 435 of Herat, Cabul, Ghuznee, and Candahar, commanding the apr proaclies to India on the north-west, a demand was sent to Dost Mahomed, Ameer of Afghanistan, that he should be dismissed. As the Ameer refused, Enghsh troops invaded the country and captured Ghuznee, Candahar, and Cabul. Dost Mahomed sur- rendered, and Shah Sujah was set up in his place, pirst Afghan Unfortunately, the English leaders at Cabul allowed "^^^" themselves to be outmtted by Akbar Khan, Dost Mahomed's son, and agreed to retreat to the frontier under a safe conduct. This was broken, and of the whole army only one man, ^. Dr. Brydon, survived the attacks of the enemy and retreat from . CabvQ. the bitter cold of the Afghan winter, and reached Jellalabad, at the mouth of the Khyber Pass, where he found General Sale still holding out. To wipe away our disgrace, new armies were sent into Afghanistan, which recaptured Candahar and Cabul. After all Dost Mahomed was restored. Hardly was the Afghan war over, when a misunderstanding with the Ameers of Scinde, the territory which lies at Annexation of the mouth of the river Indus, caused an invasion of ^ * ' Meeanee and their territory by Sir Charles Napier. The Ameers' Hyderabad, troops were beaten in the battles of Meeanee and Hyderabad, and their land added to the Company's territories in 1843. The war against Scinde was quickly followed by one against the Sikhs, who occupied the Punjab, a district of five -.1 f. 1 • f n • 11 mi ■ First Sikli -war. rivers, all of which now into the Indus. Their power- ful army threatened the peace of the surrounding districts, and as they refused to disband we attacked and defeated Aiiwai and them in the great battles of Aliwal and Sobraon, in _ ° ^f?.^,' , ° ' Second Sikh 1846. Three years later war again broke out. The war. Sikhs were defeated at ChiUianwallah and Goojerat, and the Punjab was annexed by the Company in 1849. Meanwhile at home the first years of Sir R. Peel's ministry were not marked by any events of first-rate importance. Free church In Scotland a great secession took place from the °^fOTmed!^^ established Presbyterian Church, and the seceders i843. formed the Free Church of Scotland. In Ireland ^^ Maynooth Sir R. Peel did a gracious act by passing a bill to grant increase the yearly allowance which had been made 43 6 Victoria. [i842- since 1795 in aid of the maintenance of tlie Eoman Catholic College of Maynooth, where Irish priests were usually educated. Mr. Gladstone left the ministry because he had previously written against such a measure. Sir K. Peel also devoted great attention to finance, and in his budget of 1842 followed the policy of Pitt and Huskisson by taking the duty oflf a very large number of small articles, for which he substituted an income tax for a limited period. The great question of the day, however, was that of the com laws. The real difficulty was, how to make things as easy as possible for Corn law the manufacturers without ruining the agriculturists auestion. -j^y throwing vast tracts of arable land out of culti- vation. Since 1815 various schemes had been tried to this end, and in 1842 Sir R, Peel arranged a sliding scale by which the duty on foreign corn varied exactly according to the price in England, so that it could be introduced as soon as ever it would pay to sell it. Lord John Russell, who was now the leader of the Whigs, was imderstood to be in favour of a fixed duty of eight shillings in the quarter, which, as it would always be the same, would be more likely to make trade steady. However, the free-traders Cobden and Bright still agitated for total repeal, and in 1845 they were assisted by the terrible catastrophe of the Irish famine. For years the Irish had learnt to rely upon the potato for their main support, and in that year the potato crop failed. It was certain Tiieirisii that 1846 would be a year of famine, and it seemed famine. intolerable that the price of corn should be kept up by artificial means. Accordingly Peel made up his mind that the corn Peel ciianges ^^'^'^ must go, and offered to resign his post, feeling that Ms mind. ^g g^j- ^j^g general election the mamtenance of the com laws had been one of the promises of the Conservatives, he was not the right person to propose their repeal. Lord John Russell, however, failed to form a government, because Lord Grey (son of the former prime minister) refused to sit in the Lord John Cabinet if Lord Palmerston, who had alarmed the "^tcfform^^^ Whigs by his vigorous action in foreign policy, was ministry. aUowcd to be Foreign Secretary. Lord Stanley, who refused to have anything to do with the repeal of the com laws, was not prepared to form a government. 1848.] Sir Robert Peel — Lord John Russell. 437 Sir R. Peel therefore remained in office as the only possible minister, and replaced Lord Stanley by Mr. Grladstone, who came back as a free-trader. In 1846 Peel carried a measure for the total repeal of the corn laws. The effect of corn laws tliis was to at once lower the price of corn, and as ^^ ^^^^' soon afterwards there was a great revival of the prosperity of the comitry, the blow was not felt by the agricultural population with as great severity as they had expected; *^ effect, while the knowledge that bread is always as cheap as possible is a great preservative against popular outbreaks in tune of bad trade. It could not be expected, however, that the agricultural interest would easily forgive Peel for having, as they thought, betrayed them. Accordingly they formed a separate party in Anger of the the House of Commons under the lead of Lord George ag-ricxuturists. Bentinck, with Mr. Disraeli as their chief spokesman. This party denounced Peel with all their might, and when in consequence of the disturbed state of Ireland caused by the famine it was necessary to re-enact the Arms Act, they jomed the Whigs defeat in voting against it, and Peel was driven to resign Lordjoim office. Upon this Lord John Russell became Prime ^^^seu Prime Minister, with Lord Palmerston as Foreign Secretary. The year 1848 was marked by revolutions in almost every capital in Europe. In France the government of Louis Philippe was over- thrown and a Republic established, of which Louis Ti^e year of Napoleon Buonaparte, nephew of Napoleon the First, revolutions, was afterwards elected president. Similar disturbances occurred in Italy, Germany, and Austria, and a great impetus was given to the desire of both Germany and Italy for national unity, and to the aspirations of all nations after popular government. England's share in the upheaval was a rebelhon in Ireland and a great Chartist demonstration. After O'Connell had secured the removal of the disabilities of the CathoHcs he at once began an agitation for the repeal of the Union and in spite of the reform of the Irish Church, the o'Conneirs re- settlement of the tithe question, the reform of Irish P^ai agitation, municipal boroughs, and other Irish legislation, he contmued to agitate under the governments of Lords Grey and Melbourne. In the time of Su- R. Peel the movement reached formidable dimensions ; 438 Victoria. 1843 O'Connell's word was law in Ireland, and lie had a large following in the House of Commons. Some of his supporters in Ireland were eager to have recourse to arms, but O'Connell, rightly appreciating the uselessness of this, forbade it, and his authority was sufficient to Prosecution of secure the putting off without disturbance of a huge o'ConneU. mcetuig at Tara, which had been forbidden by the government. O'Connell, however, had gone so far that he was prosecuted by the government, and convicted in 1844. Though the sentence was set aside on the ground of a legal error, O'ConneU never recovered his influence ; but the failure of his Outbreak of Constitutional agitation exasperated the younger rebellion. members of his party, and preparations for rebellion were soon begun. The leaders advocated rebelhon in the United Irishman newspaper, and when outbreaks occurred on the continent the excitement in Ireland became very great. Government, how- ever, prosecuted the leaders, and secured the conviction and transportation of Mitchel, the editor of the United Irishman. This action disconcerted the conspirators, and in 1848 the actual rising, which was led by Mr. Smith O'Brien, a member of Parlia- ment, was a complete failure. In London, the Chartists organized a great demonstration on Kennington Common, from which they intended to march in Great Chartist procession to Westminster, and to present a monster meeting-. petition to Parliament. Great fears were raised that this would result in a riot, and as wild rumours were afloat of the number of armed Chartists who were ready for rebellion, military precautions were taken by the Duke of Wellington, and numbers of special constables were sworn in. The whole affair turned out a farce. The procession was never formed. The petition, when presented, was found to contain numbers of fictitious and absurd names, such as the Duke of Wellington, Prince Albert, and Punch, and society soon regained its confidence. The subsidence of the Chartist agitation for reform was soon followed by the taking up of the question in Parliament itself, and in 1851 Mr. Locke King carried against the government Reform taken . , . ° , „ ^, . . ^ . up in a motion tor making the franchise in counties the ar lamen . ^2ime, as that in boroughs. On this Lord John Russell resigned; but as Sir R. Peel had died in 1850, and Lord Stanley 1853.] Lord John Russell— Earl of Derby. 439 could not form a government, Lord John consented to resume office. In 1849 a great step was taken in the history of the British Empire by the grant of Parhamentary institutions to the Australian colonies. This grant has been extended by degrees Parliaments to other colonies, and has been of the utmost im- Australian ^ portance in securing to the colonies the control over colonies, their own affairs to which such flourishing and loyal communities are justly entitled. The same year the navigation Repeal of the laws, which had been modified by Huskisson, were ^^^aws.'"'' altogether repealed. In the year 1851 the first of the series of great exhibitions was held, chiefly through the influence of Prince Albert. Great Hopes were aroused in some quarters that wars Exuibition. would soon be unknown, and that commercial rivalry would engross the energies of all nations to the exclusion of military ambition. However, in December the same year Louis Napoleon took advantage of the unpopularity of some acts of the Kepublican deputies, and of the popularity of the name of coup d'Etat Napoleon among the soldiers and the peasantry, to j^f^JJ^^^^^ overthrow the repubhc which he had sworn to defend, and to secure absolute power for himself. A year later he took the title of Emperor of the French. It was generally believed that the new emperor would try to repair the disasters of his uncle, by winning military success over Russia, Austria, and Prussia, and especially that he Fears of Frencii would attempt to avenge Waterloo. Accordingly, ambition. Lord John Russell brought in a bill to strengthen ourselves by reorganizing the militia. To part of this bill Lord Palmerston, who had been compelled to resign his office of Foreign Secretary in consequence of a letter he had witten to Louis Napoleon without the consent of his colleagues, objected, and he succeeded in defeating the government. On this Lord John again resigned, Resignation of and the post of Premier was taken by Lord Stanley, ^Ru'^sg^e^ii!'' who had now succeeded his father as Earl of Derby, i^ord Derby's and ]Mr. Disraeli became ChanceUor of the Exchequer. ^^^^ ministry. This government, however, did not last long, for Mr. Disraeh's budget 440 Victoria. [1852- was so severely criticised by Mr. Gladstone, that Lord Derby was defeated. A coalition ministry was then formed by a union between the followers of Sir E. Peel, of whom the chief were Lord Aberdeen, the Duke of Newcastle, Sir J. Graham, Mr. Sidney Aberdeen's Herbert, and Mr. Gladstone, with Lord John Russell minis ry. ^^^ Lord Palmerston. In this government Lord Aberdeen was Premier, Mr. Gladstone Chancellor of the Exchequer ; Lord John Russell was for a few weeks Foreign Secretary, but in 1853 was succeeded by Earl Clarendon and Lord Palmerston, to whose foreign policy the Peelites objected, took the Home Office. At home Mr. Gladstone continued Peel's financial policy of remitting taxation as far as possible and so securing the advantages of free-trade. THE OPERATIONS IN THE EAST, 1854-6. It is not, however, for their home pohcy that the Aberdeen government is famous; the chief event of their time was the Origin of the Russian War, into which we entered as the allies of Russian war. YY2.rx'^Q and Turkey. Fear of Russian intrig-ues against the Turkish empire was the cause of the war. The Czar demanded that the Sultan should acknowledge his right to protect the Christian subjects of Turkey. This would have made Russia all-powerful in Turkey, and England and France supported the Sultan in his refusal. Unfortunately, Lord Aberdeen's ministers 1856.] Lord Aberdeen — Lord Palmers ton. 441 failed to make Russia understand that they meant what they said, and that war would follow if their demands were not regarded. The Emperor of the French was desirous of fighting the Russians as the ally of England, and the feebleness of the ministry allowed England to be dragged into a war of which neither we nor the Czar Nicolas were desirous. The Russians began by attacking the Danubian provinces of Turkey, and after they had been driven back by the Turks, the English and French decided to invade the Crimea Outbreak in order to destroy the great Russian arsenal of ^^ ^^ ^.^ Sebastopol, which was to the Black Sea what Ports- the Crimea, mouth is to the English Channel. On landing, the aUies, under Lord Raglan, defeated the Russians at the battle of ° ' . Alma. the Alma, September 20, and then formed the siege of Sebastopol by sea and land. The attempts of the Russians to reheve it led to the battles of Balaclava on October 25, and Inkerman on November 5, in which the allies were Balaclava, again victorious ; but the severity of the winter and inkerman. the miserable arrangements of the home government made the siege a much longer operation than had been expected. The disgraceful mismanagement of the war by Lord Aberdeen and some of his colleagues, caused Mr. Roebuck to bring forward in the House of Commons a motion for a committee to inquire into its cause. This led to the resignation of the ministry in January, 1855. Lord Palmerston, in whose vigour every one behoved, then became head of a Whig ministry. The new . . 1 ., Lord ministry pushed on the siege vigorously. A railway Paimerston's was made from Balaclava to the camp, and supplies ^ ^i^is ry. of all kinds were sent out in abundance. In the spring Sardinia joined the alliance, and in September, 1855, Sebastopol fell. Besides invading the Crimea, the English fleet had bombarded some of the Russian ports in the Baltic, but without much success, while in Asia Minor the Russians took Kars from the Turks. Neither side saw any chance of inflicting fatal loss on the other, and in 1856 peace was concluded at Paris. By that Results of the peace Russia was bound not to refortify Sebastopol '^^^• nor to keep men-of-war in the Black Sea. These conditions were repudiated by Russia in 1870; but the result of the war was to cripple her resources for some time. 442 Victoria. [i856- The war witli Eussia was followed by a difficulty with Cliina. The Chinese were very hostile to European traders, and the first war with them had occurred in 1839. This had CMnese wars. ^^^^^^^ -^ ^^^ cession of Hongkong to England, and the opening of several other ports to our trade. In 1856 the Chmese, quite legally, seized the Arrow, a vessel of the kind known as a lorcha, which was flying the English flag. This led to a quarrel with the Chinese Custom House officers, m which the Enghsh were in the wrong, and war followed. The conduct of Lord Palmerston was vigorously attacked by the Peelites, by Lord John Eussell, by the Conservatives, and by Cob den and Bright, who had become the leaders of the Manchester school of politicians, who disapproved of Lord Palmerston's vigorous assertion of the rights of Englishmen on this and other occasions. On being beaten in the House of Commons Palmerston requested the queen to dissolve Parhament, and the country gave him a large majority. Before the war with China had gone far, the country was startled by the news of a mutiny among the Bengal sepoys in India. The Causes of the causes of the outbreak were numerous. Much excite- indian mutiny, ij^ent had been caused by Lord Dalhousie's annex- ation of Oudh, from which many of the Bengal sepoys came. There was a widespread but unfounded fear among the natives that the English intended to introduce Christianity by force and to put an end to their cherished practices and superstitions. There was a prophecy that the English rule should only last for one hundred years, and that time had now elapsed since the battle of Plassey. Lastly, the authorities had served out rifle cartridges, the bullets of which were wrapped in greased rags. This grease was said by the natives to be made of cow's fat and hog's lard, and as the Hindoos reverenced the cow, while the Mohammedans detested the hog, the result of the mixture was to irritate both the Hindoos and the Mohammedans. Accordingly, the Bengal sepoys broke into revolt, murdered their officers, seized Delhi, where they set up as leader the descendant Outbreak of of the Great Mogul, and tried to raise a national the mutiny, rebellion. The English army, however, at once besieged Delhi, which prevented the mutiny from spreading, while other parties held out at Lucknow, the capital of Oudh, and at 1858. Lord Palmerston — Lord Derby. 443 Cawnpore on the Ganges. Lower down the river the English never lost the upper hand. Unfortunately, Cawnpore was taken before relief came, and a terrible massacre followed. Lucknow held out till General Havelock forced his way in and reinforced the garrison. After great exertions Delhi was captured, mainly OAving to the fidelity of the recently conquered Sikhs, which enabled Sir John Lawrence, the commissioner of the Punjab, whose admirable rule had in four years completely won over the Sikhs, to send large reinforcements to the besiegers of Delhi. This success broke the neck of the mutiny. Soon Sir Cohn Campbell arrived from England with reinforcements, and though very severe fighting followed, especially at the final relief of Lucknow, the country was at length reduced to quiet. Since the mutiny the proportion of English to native soldiers has been much larger than before. The result of the mutiny was to bring to an end the long and great career of the East India Results of the Company. A bill was passed transferring its powers mutiny, to the Crown, which administers them through a Secretary of State in England and a Viceroy or Governor-general in India. In 1858 Lord Palmerston's government was defeated on a Conspiracy to Murder Bill, which had been brought in in consequence of the discovery that a plot made by Orsini, an Itahan, conspiracy to to murder the Emperor of the French had been con- ^Murder Bin. trived in England. It was thought that Lord Palmerston had shown too much deference to the wishes of the French, against whom the English were irritated on account of the vainglorious and threatening language of the French military officers. In consequence of the fear of invasion, large bodies of volunteers were formed volunteers after the model of those at the beginning of the formed, century, and these have since become a most important part of our system of national defence. Lord Palmerston was followed by Lord Derby, who again m.ade Mr. Disraeli his Chancellor of the Exchequer. By them a Reform Bill was introduced, which attempted, while extend- ^ ^^ ^ , ' . . Lord Derby's ing the franchise, to give greater weight to education second and thrift by giving votes to graduates and school- ""^^ ry. masters, holders of savings in the public funds and savings banks. These were stigmatized by Mr. Bright as "fancy franchises," /|44 Victoria. 0.858- and on tlie defeat of the bill, Lord Palmerston again became Prime Lord Minister, with Lord John Eussell as Foreign Secre- ^^ second''^ ^ ^^'^li ^^^ ^^^ Grladstone, who had the reputation of ministry. being the greatest financier of the day, and who now ranked as a Liberal, Chancellor of the Exchequer. This government brought in a Reform Bill, but soon dropped it ; and as neither Lord Palmerston nor the Conservatives wished for reform, the subject was not brought forward except by private members for several years. Tn 1860 Cubden negotiated a commercial treaty with France, similar to that made by Pitt in 1786, by which both countries agreed to lower their customs duties with a view to the promotion of commerce. In 1861 the duty on paper was abolished, and as the tax on newpapers themselves had been repealed in 1855, the press has since this date been untrammelled by taxation. During Lord Palmerston's government, however, several very important events happened abroad. In Northern Italy, in 1859, ^ France ioined Sardinia in expelling the Austrians Formation of "^ jt o the kingdom from Lombardy, w^hich was efiected by the battles of ^ ^" Montebello, Magenta, and Solferino ; and in the South Garibaldi freed Sicily and Naples. These countries, with Tuscany and Parma, joined Sardinia, whose king, Victor Emmanuel, was in 1861 proclaimed King of Italy by an Italian Parliament, the States of the Church and Venice being still in the hands of the Pope and Austria respectively. In 1861 a war broke out between the Northern and Southern States of North America, which threatened to result in the division Civil war in tiie of the United States into two hostile commmiities. X7nited States. ^ ^^^ ^^^ England and the European States re- mained neutral. In spite, however, of our neutrality, a cruiser, the Alabama^ was built at Birkenhead for the Southern States, and allowed to leave the harbour. This act was regarded by the Northerners as an infringement of our neutrality, and caused great irritation, which was not allayed till 1872, when Mr. Grladstone's Government submitted the matter to arbitration, and we had to pay £3,000,000 as damages. In the end the North triumphed, and the integrity of the Union was preserved mainly through the in- domitable perseverance of President Lincoln and the military skill of General Grant. Dm^ing the war the slaves of the Southern 1863.] Lord Falmerston, 445 States were declared to be free, and since tlien the negroes of the United States have had the same rights as their fellow-citizens. The same ministry saw a distinct step taken in the direction of German unity. Ever since 1814, when Germany had risen against Napoleon, many of the best statesmen of that country progress of had wished to see her united into one people, instead German unity, of being divided into a number of small and often hostile states; but the opposition of the small courts to any idea of extinction was a great bar to progress in this direction. In 1834, however, a move was made by uniting all Germany into a ZoUverein or Customs Union; and the revolutionary year of 1848 gave a further impetus to the question. So long, however, as Austria was the leading State nothing could be done, and France viewed with jealousy any change which was likely to make Germany stronger ; but m 1861 William I. became King of Prussia, and made Prince Bismarck his chief adviser. This great statesman saw that German unity could be effected by makmg Prussia the leading State, and he steadily worked for that purpose and encouraged the idea of German unity. Up to 1864, however, Austria and Prussia were on fair terms, and in that year they took from Denmark war against the provmces of Ilolstein and Schleswig, which were Denmark. German by nationality, but had long been in Denmark's hands. Two years later, however, in 1866, they quarrelled, and a war ensued between Prussia and a few of the North German States, against Austria, who was supported by Hanover, Bavaria, victory of Saxony, and the South Germans. In this war Prussia /^sTr^^a^^d was completely victorious, owing to the genius of her i^er aUies. great general, Moltke, and the advantage given by the possession of a breech-loading rifle, and completely defeated the Austrians at the battle of Sadowa. The result was to exclude Austria from inter- fering in Germany proper, and to place Prussia, as Bismarck intended, at the head of the German nation. At the end of ^^^^^3^^^^^^ this war Italy acquired Venice by treaty, but Borne by itaiy. still remained under the rule of the Pope. In 1861 the queen had the misfortune to lose her Deatii of Prince husband, the Prince Consort, who had long been her ^^^""^^^^^ chief adviser. In 1863 the Prince of Wales was the Prince of married to the Princess Alexandra of Denmark. 446 Victoria. [i865- Tlie death of Lord Palmerston in 1865 was tlie end of a period which may be said to have begun in 1835 with the first ministry of Death of liord Sir R. Peel. During it many most valuable measures ai^^be^nning ^^^ \)Q,Qis. passed and many reforms instituted. It had of a new period, seen the establishment on a large scale of our railway and steamboat systems, the introduction of the penny post and the telegraph, the advance of all forms of education, and the formation of a widespread public opinion. This opinion had latterly taken the shape of a desire for further Parliamentary reform, and it was universally expected that the death of Lord Palmerston would be followed by a movement in that direction. Accordingly, the new Prime Minister, Earl (formerly Lord John) Eussell, framed a Reform Bill, which was introduced by Mr. Gladstone. This bill was a moderate measure, and consequently second pleased nobody. It was disliked by Mr. Bright and ministry. ^^ Radicals because it did not go far enough, and by the Conservatives and moderate Whigs because it went too Mr liowe's f^^' ^^^ •^^- Robert Lowe, a Whig, went so far as ease. to form a group of members to oppose it. These discontented Whigs were likened by Mr. Bright to the followers of David in the cave of Adullam, and were hence called the Lord Derby's Adullamites. They were strong enough to enable Mr. third ministry. pigraeH to defeat the bill, and Lord Derby upon that came into office with a Conservative government, of which Mr. Disraeli was leader in the House of Commons. Reform had now been attempted in vain by private members and by both Whig and Tory governments. There was a strong feeling; that the question ought to be settled, espe- The Reform ° . . f , . ^. auestion cially as large meetmgs m the country and riots m settled. Hyde Park showed that the unenfranchised classes were thoroughly in earnest in their demand for votes. Accordingly, the government determined instead of merely lowering the fran- chise from £10 to £6 as had been proposed, to settle the matter once for all by giving a vote to all householders in towns. This course was not popular with many Conservatives, and Lord Cran- bourne (afterwards Marquess of Salisbury) and Lord Carnarvon i-esigned office ; but it was supported by the Liberals, and a bill to this effect was successfully passed in 1867. At the same time 1871.] Lord Derby — Disraeli^Gladstone. 447 the franchise in the counties was given to all £12 householders, and a partial redistribution of seats was effected, by which, following the method of 1832, many members ^°anS°se^ were taken from ancient but small boroughs and m towns, given to rising towns or to populous counties. Meanwhile the state of Ireland had begun to attract attention. The armed outbreak of 1848 had proved a failure ; but the large part taken by Irishmen in the American war had serious state filled the leaders of disaffection with the hope of of Ireland, getting Irish soldiers from America; and accordingly, Stephens, who had taken part in the rising of 1848, formed the Irish penian Eepublican Brotherhood, the members of which are Conspiracy, generally known as Fenians. The attempt at armed insurrection completely failed, but numerous outrages were perpetrated both in England and Ireland. Accordingly, Mr. Gladstone, who was now regarded as the leader of the Liberal party, declaring that it was unjust to Ireland to main- tain the Irish Church, determined to disestablish it. Gladstone's In this he was supported by the Liberal party, and ^^^^^ PoHcy. he carried a resolution in favour of disestabhshment against the government. In the general election which followed. General the Liberals, as had been the case in 1832, secured a Election, large majority, having 128 votes more than their opponents, and Mr. DisraeH, who had become Prime Minister on Lord Derby's retire- ment through ill health, immediately resigned. The new ministry, of which Mr. Gladstone was Premier, Mr. Lowe Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Mr, Bright President of the Board of Trade, was pledged to extensive reforms concessions both in Ireland and England. In the former it *« Iceland, disestablished and partially disendowed the Irish Church, passed a Land Bill, giving Irish tenants the power of selling their tenant- right and unexhausted improvements to the incoming tenant, which it was hoped would permanently assuage the ill-feehng which had existed between landlord and tenant in that country, and attempted unsuccessfully to estabhsh a new system of Irish university education. In England Mr. Forster proposed, in 1870, an Education Act, by which School Boards were to be elected, where neces- Reforms sary, by the inhabitants of parishes and boroughs, "^ England, 448 Victoria. [i87i- with a view to filling up at the expense of the ratepayers any deficiencies in the supply of elementary education which had been already provided by the philanthropy of the clergy or other benevolent persons. The University Test Act, passed in 1871, allowed Nonconformists and Catholics to take their degrees at Oxford and Cambridge universities. A Ballot Act, by which secret voting in elections was secured, was passed in 1872. An Act cre- ating a Supreme Court of Judicature including all those courts which from time to time had sprung out of the old Curia Eegis, such as those of Queen's Bench, Common Pleas, and Chancery, was passed in 1873. In 1871 the queen, by the advice of the govern- ment, cancelled the Koyal Warrant by which officers in the army bought and sold their commissions. Abroad, the great events were the Franco-German war of 1870- 71, during which, after a series of defeats, Louis Napoleon was forced to surrender at Sedan and dethroned; Paris orei&n airs. ^^^ taken ; all Germany was united under the rule of the Kmg of Prussia, who took the title of German Emperor ; and France lost the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, which, like Sleswig and Holstein, were claimed by Germany. After the fall of Napoleon France again became a republic. Duiing the war the Itahans took Eome, which became the capital of united Italy, and so brought to an end the temporal repudiation powcr of the Popc. The English ministry secured of tiie Black ^^ neutrality of Belgium, which had been guaranteed S3Q£L CX3/US6S of tiie Treaty in 1839; but Eussia having declared her intention of Pans. ^^ again placing men-of-war on the Black Sea, the Treaty of Paris was set aside in her favour. In 1874 Mr. Gladstone suddenly dissolved Parliament, proposing if replaced in power to abolish the income-tax. A ConservatiA'-e General reaction, however, similar to that which followed the Election. ^^^^ Eeform Bill, had set in, and the Conservatives ministry. having gained a majority of forty-eight over all the other parties, Mr. Disraeh returned to power. A period of stagna- tion in legislation followed the reforming zeal of Mr. Gladstone, and the chief interest of the nation was given to foreign politics. The state of the Christian provinces of Turkey had again become very serious, and not only did Herzegovina break out into revolt, 1880.] Earl of Beaconsfield. 449 but also Servia engaged in open war with Turkey. The great dan- ger was, that Russia would use these troubles as an opening for pushing on her usual designs against ^^^«^ aflfairs. Constantinople, and the Turks, afraid of this, put down a new revolt which broke out in Bulgaria with terrible cruelty. This outrageous conduct was denounced by Mr. Gladstone with the utmost violence, and for a time the country was filled with indignation against Turkey! MeanwhHe, as had been expected, Russian troops crossed the Danube and invaded Turkey, and, in spite of a brave resistance from the Turks, seemed to be on the point of seizing „ /-^ . ,. 1 rn " xtusso-Turkisli Oonstantmople. To prevent this the Earl ef Bea- War. consfield (formerly Mr. Disraeli) despatched an English fleet to Constantinople, brought India sepoys to Malta, and made it clear that England would oppose the occupation of that city by the Russians. The matter was settled by the Berlin Treaty, by which the provinces which Turkey had oppressed were separated from her, but, to prevent their being too much under the power of Russia, were divided into two provinces, in one of which the governor was to be appointed by Turkey. Trouble next occurred in India. In 1876 the queen took the title of Empress of India, by which it is meant that she has the same position as was claimed before the mutiny by secon. Af.i.an the Orreat Mogul. Russia, checked at Constantinople, ^ar. began to press forward in Asia, and in 1878 sent an envoy to Cabul exactly as she had done in 1838. War followed, and the English forces took Cabul and Candahar, placed a new ameer on the throne and forced him to concede certain places along the frontier which made us much stronger than before. Unhappily, the envoy, Cavag- nari, who was sent to represent England at Cabul, was murdered m a popular outbreak, and we were agam obliged to invade the country and retake Cabul and Candahar. Meanwhile in Ireland, in spite of Mr. Gladstone's concessions, a demand had been springing up for an Irish Parliament, under the name of Home Rule, and a Land League had been formed on the model of the Catholic Association ^^IfTm of O'Connell, to secure further concessions to the Iceland, tenants. This promised very serious difficulty in the immediate future, and Lord Beaconsfield, when Parliament was dissolved in 2 G 450 Victoria. [isso- 1880, pointed out the danger. However, Mr. Gladstone had raised General ^ great wave of indignation against the foreign and Election. domestic policy of Lord Beaconsfield in a series of Defeat of the eloquent speeches delivered by him in the course of Conservatives. ^ visit to Scotland, and he found himself returned to power by the large majority of 106 over the Conservatives. Some Irish members, however, who numbered sixty, kept aloof from either party, and declared themselves, under their leader, Mr. Parnell, the enemies of any English government. Mr. Gladstone accordingly became Prime Minister, with Mr. Forster Irish Secretary, Lord Granville Foreign Secretary, Lord Hartington Secretary of State for India, and Mr. second Chamberlain President of the Board of Trade. He ministry. began a further course of Irish legislation, passing, liand Act. in 1881, the Irish Land Act, by which rents in Ireland, instead of being settled, as elsewhere, by contract between landlord and tenant, were fixed for fifteen years in advance by a tribunal called a Land Court. At the same time he passed First Coercion ^ "^^^7 Severe Coercion Act, and imprisoned Mr. Act. ParneU and many of the Irish leaders for advising the tenants not to pay any rents at aU. After a time Mr. Parnell Second was released, upon which Mr. Forster resigned. The Coercion Act. ^^-^ Secretary, Lord Frederick Cavendish, was murdered immediately on his arrival, and another and severer Coercion Act was then passed. Abroad, Mr. Gladstone, after some unsuccessful fighting, restored practical independence to the Transvaal, a Dutch settlement in Interference in South Africa which had been annexed by Lord Egypt. Beaconsfield, and withdrew the English troops from Candahar. In 1882 he interfered in Egj^t, in which country France and England had for some time exercised a dual control, and suppressed a movement which had been set on foot by an officer named Arabi, with the object of securing influence for the army and native Egyptians. In this interference the forts of Alexandria, which were in Arabi's hands, were bombarded, and Arabi himself defeated by General Wolseley, at the battle of Tel-el-Kebir. While the English army was in Egypt an insurrection, headed by a reli- gious adventurer styled the Mahdi, broke out in the Soudan, a 1886.3 Gladstone — Lord Salisbury — Gladstone. 451 province on the Nile, which had long been in the possession of Egjrpt. On the defeat of an Egyptian army led by General an Enghshman, the English Government ordered the cjordon. Khedive to abandon the Soudan, and sent General Gordon to effect the peaceful withdrawal of its garrisons. The Mahdi, however besieged General Gordon at Khartoum, and the government sent out an expedition to rescue him, but delayed so long that Gordon was taken and killed before assistance arrived. New South Wales sent a contingent to assist England, which took part in the opera- tions, and Canadian boatmen were employed on the Nile. Meanwhile the Liberals, who had long advocated the extension of household suffrage to the counties, passed a bill through the Commons for that purpose. The bill, however, was Household rejected by the Lords, who thought that a plan ^^^nth^e^ for redistribution of seats ought to be submitted at counties, the same time. The rejection of the bill caused some agitation in the country; but after a time a conference was compromise agreed upon between the leaders of both parties, LibeSl^and and a joint scheme of redistribution was adopted, Conservatives, which continued the change begun in 1832, and also, by splitting up large constituencies into several divisions returning one member each, attempted to secure the rights of minorities. This bill was agreed upon, but before it had passed, the Gladstone administration was defeated on the Budget, and on Fail of the the resignation of Mr. Gladstone, Lord Salisburv came Gladstone "^ *' adminis- into power. In the General Election which followed tration. in the autumn of 1885, the Conservatives and „ ^°^<^ Salisbury' Liberals were nearly equally balanced in the English ministry, towns, but the Liberals secured a majority in Scotland, General Wales, and among the newly enfranchised coimty voters ; while Ireland returned a large majority of Home Rulers. The actual numbers of parties were, Liberals 332, Conservatives 250, Home Rulers 86. When Parliament met, Lord Sahsbury's government was defeated on an amendment to the change of Address, and Mr. Gladstone became Prime Minister government, for the third time. It was soon announced that the Prime Minister had determined to adopt a Home Rule policy in Ireland, and in April, 1886, he brought forward two bills dealing with Ireland. 453 Victoria. \iqqq- The first of these proposed to alter the Act of Union of 1800 by- enacting (a) that a Parhament should sit in Dublin for the consider- The Home ation of all Irish matters which were not reserved for Rule Bill. the Imperial Parliament at Westminster ; (6) that the Irish members and Irish peers should cease to sit in the Imperial Parliament except when the constitution of the Irish government was under revision ; (c) that the executive government of Ireland should be responsible to the Irish Parliament ; (d) that Ireland was still to be regarded as part of the United Kingdom, and should pay a contribution to imperial expenses ; (e) that the control over foreign affairs, the army and navy, and the regulation of the Irish customs duties should be reserved for the Imperial Parliament. The second bill was a Land Act, by which it was proposed that Tiie a sum of money should be advanced to Ireland with Land Act. >;5^hich to purchase for the tenants the estates of the Irish landlords at a valuation based upon the judicial rents fixed in accordance with the Land Act of 188L These proposals caused a division in the Liberal party, and Lord Hartington, who had refused to join Mr. Gladstone's government, Mr. Chamberlain, and Mr. George Trevelyan, both of the Home whom had resigned on the production of the bills, Rule Bill, joined ^itli j^j, Goschen and Mr. Bright in resisting Mr. Gladstone's scheme. The result was that the Home Rule Bill was rejected by 341 votes to 311. Mr. Gladstone at once advised the queen to dissolve Parliament, and appealed to the country General ^0 support his proposals. The result of the elections election. ^^g ^q gjye ]y[j.^ Gladstone 278 followers (including 85 Irish Home Rulers), and to the Unionists 391 (318 Conservatives and 73 Liberal Unionists). Upon this Mr. Gladstone resigned, and Lord Salisbury again came into power, supported by the Conservatives and by the Liberal members of the Unionist party. The fiftieth year of the reign of Queen Victoria forms a very good place for the close of this little survey of the history of the English nation. We have seen the struggle for liberty carried on between the king and the feudal nobles, we have seen it continued by the sturdy country gentlemen of the seventeenth century, and carried in 1688 to a successful conclusion in the establishment of the British constitution. Since that date we 1887.] Lord Salisbury. ^^^ have seen the gradual progress of the country, though retarded by the French Revolution, carried a step further by the admission in 1832 of the middle classes to the vote; and stiU later, by the changes of 1867 and 1885, we have seen every householder, both in town and country, entrusted with a share in the government of his country. During the same period it has been our lot to relate the expansion of Britain from a little island on the coast of Europe into the centre of a world-wide empire, many of whose self-governing colonies are far larger than the whole empire was at a time when many thought that it had reached the highest pinnacle of glory, and whose largest dependency, India, is as large in area and population as the greater part of Europe itself. No other country in the world can look back upon such a long career of advancement in liberty, and at the same time of almost unbroken success as a conquering and colonizing people. Let us hope that the English of the future may not be unworthy of their ancestors— a hope which every boy and girl in the coimtry may do something to make good; and let it be truly said of us, as was untruly said of some of ^ the Eoman emperors, that we have successfully united two things — Empire and Liberty. CHIEF GENERAL EVENTS SINCE 1837. Penny Post introduced 1839 1846 1849 1851 1854-1856 3857 1867 1869 1870 1871 Title of Empress of India assumed by the Queen .. 1876 Third Reform Bill " ^gg^ Home Rule proposed by Mr. Gladstone 1886 Corn laws abolished ... Navigation laws abolished Great Exhibition Russian War Indian Mutiny Second Reform Bill ... Irish Church disestablished Education Act passed ... University Tests abolished 454 Victoria, CHIEF WARS, BATTLES, SIEGES, AND TREATIES SINCE 1837. First Afghan War 1838-1842 First China War 1841 Scinde War. Battles of Meeanee and Hyderabad ... 1843 First Sikh War 1845-1846 Battles of Aliwal and Sobraon 1846 Second Sikh War 1849 Battles of Chillianwallah and Goojerat Russian War 1854-1856 Battles of Alma, Balaclava, and Inkerman 1854 Treaty of Paris 1856 Second China War 1856-1860 Treaty of Berlin 1878 Second Afghan War 1878-1880 Zulu War 1879 Egyptian War 1882 Soudan War 1884-1885 Siege of Khartoum 1884-1886 APPENDIX. THE DE LA POLES. William de la Pole, of Kingston-upon-Hull. Michael de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, Minister of Kichard II., d. 1388. Michael, restored to his Earldom in 1399, d. at Harfleur, 1415. Michael, 3rd Earl, William, killed at Agincourt, 1415. Duke of Suffolk, Minister of Henry VI, , impeached and murdered 1450. John de la Pole, = Elizabeth, sister of Duke of Suffolk, d. 1491. Edward IV. John, Edmund, Richard, Earl of Lincoln, Duke of Suffolk, killed at Pavia, killed at Stoke, 1487. surrendered title of Duke 1525. for that of Earl, 1493, executed 1513. CO =^ c^i -M CO CM ^ ^ ^ '^ CQ C^OC^C^ INDEX Abbeville, 116 Abercrombie, General, 386 Abhorrers, 274 Aboukir Bay, 385 Abraham, Heights of, 349 j Acadie, 308 Acre, 77, 385 Addington, Prime Minister, 389, 390 (see Sidmouth) Addison, Joseph, 324 Adelaide, 433 Aden, 433 Adrianople, 419 Adullam, Cave of, 446 "Advancement of Learning," 230 Afghanistan, 434, 449 Agincourt, 145, 146 Agricola, Julius, 9, 10 Aidan, St., 17 Aids, 50, 83 Aislabie, 326, 327 Aix la Chapelle, 343 Alabama, the, 444 Albany, Duke of, 139, 140 Albemarle, Duke of (see Monk), 267 Alberoni, 322 Albert, Prince, 429, 439, 445 Albuera, battle of, 400 Alcantara, 401 Alen§on, Count of, 147 Alexandra, Princess, 445 Alexandria, 385 ; battle of, 386 Alfred, King, 24-26 , son of Ethelred II., 31, 32 Alien Act, 380 Aliwal, battle of, 435 Alma, battle of the, 441 Almanza, battle of, 308 Almeida, 400 Almenara, battle of, 308 Alnwick, 50, 74 Alsace, 448 Althorp, Lord, 423, 427 Ameer of Afghanistan, 435, 449 Ameers of Scinde, 435 American Settlements begun, 240 Amiens, 387, 390 Andre, Major, 365 Angles, 12, Anglia, East, 13, 17, 19, 24, 25, 27, 31 Anjou, 153 Anjou, Francis, Duke of, 213 , Geoffrey of, 57, 59, 61 , Henry of (1), 61, 62 (see Henry II.) , Henry of (2), 213 , Margaret of, 153, 157, 158, 159, 160, 161, 162 , Rene of, 153 Anlaf, 30 Anne of Denmark, 224 Anne, Queen, 285, 287, 300, 301; reign 304-314 ; character, 304 Anselm, 51, 53, 55 Anson, 338 Anti-Corn Law League, 432, 433, 436 Antwerp, 398, 399 Aquitaine, 123 Arabi, 450 Archbishop, 21, 22 Arcot, 346 Ardriagh, 72 Argyll, Duke of, 314, 322 , Marquess of (1), 252, 256 , Marquess of (2), 279 " Areopagitica," 298 Arkwright, 374 Arlington, Lord, 268-271 Armada, Spanish, 215-217 Army, standing, 265, 276, 287, 290 Arnold, Benedict, 365 Arragon, Ferdinand of, 176, 177, 180 , Katharine of, 177, 179, 183, 186, 187 Arran, Earl of, 210 Arras, 151 Arrow, lorcha, 442 Arthur, King, 28 , Prince, 177 " Articles, Six, 190, 196 , Thirty-nine, 208 Articuli Super Cartas, 98 Arundel, 49 , Archbishop, 130, 131, 138, 142, 143 , Earl, 130 Aryan, 4, 5, 7, 23 Ascension, Island of, 407 Ascough, IBishop, 154, 155 Ashdown, 24 Ashley, Antony, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, 268—272 275 . Lord, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, 426 Aske, Eobert, 189 Index, 459 Assandun, battle of, 30 Assaye, battle of, 389 Assize of arms, 75, 97 of Clarendon, 72 of Northampton, 72 Athelstan, 27, 28 Atherton Moor, battle of, 248 Attainder defined, 157 Atterbury, Bishop, 328 Audley, Lord, 157 Aughrim, battle of, 294 Augustine, 15, 16 Augustinian Canons, 187 Aulus Plautius, 8 Auniale, William of, 86 Austerlitz, battle of, 392 Australia, 408, 433, 439 Austria, 231, 301, 302, 305, 313, 322, 338, 345, 379, 382, 386, 391, 398, 402, 445 , Charles of, 301, 304, 313 Avalon, Hugh of, 78 Avignon, 125 Babington, 215 Bacon, Sir F., Lord Verulam, 230, 232 , Sir N., 212 Badajoz, 400 Bagnal, Sir H., 217 Balaclava, battle of, 441 Balliol, Edward, 112 • , John, 101, 102 Ballot Act, 448 Bam borough, 49 Banbury, 160, 247, 249 Bank of England, 296, 383, 408, 413 Bannockburn, battle of, 107 Baptists, 259, 267 Barbadoes, 407 Barbarossa, Frederick, 75 Barcelona, 308 Barclay, Sir George, 299 Barnet, battle of, 161 Barons, 45, 46, 48, 49, 54, 61, 73, 82, 103 Barrosa, battle of, 400 Basque Roads, battle of, 348 Basques, 5 Bastille, 378 Bastwick, 239, 242 Bates, 227 Battle, trial by, 72, 84, 131 Bautzen, battle of, 402 Bavaria, 305, 338, 445 Bayeux, 153 Baylen, 395 Bayonne, 124, 395 Baxter, R., 279 Beachy Head, battle of, 293 Beaconsfield, Earl of (see Disraeli), 449, 450 Beauge, battle of, 148 Beaton, Cardinal, 192 Beaufort, Cardinal Henry, 143, 144, 149, 150, 152, 153 , Edmund (1), 153, 155, 156, 157 , Edmund (2), 161 Beaufort, Jane, 150 , John, 152 Beauforts, 130, 141, 151 Becket, Thomas, 67, 69, 70, 71 Bedchamber Question, 433 Bede, 18 Bedford, 25, 27, 86 , John, Duke of, 140 149-151 Behar, 369 Belgium, 403, 448, Belleme, Robert of, 54, 55 Bellingham, 401 Benares, Rajah of, 370, 372 Benedictine Monks, 187 Bengal, 369, 442 Bentinck, Earl of Portland, 302 , Lord George, 437 Beresford, Marshal, 400 Bergen-op-Zoom, 343, 402 Berkeley Castle, 109 Berlin decrees, 393 , Treaty of, 449 Bermudez, or Bermuda, 229, 430 Bernicia, 13, 14 Berwick, 107, 112, 241 , Duke of, 308 Bible, 126, 190, 225 Bigod, Roger, 103 Birinus, 17 Birmingham, 411, 419, 423, 424 Bishops, 21, 22 , election of, 22, 55, 82, 185 , Seven, 283 Bismarck, 445 Black Death, 119, 120 Black Friday, 341 Blackheath, battle of, 174 Black Prince, 117, 120, 122, 123, 126 Blackwater, battle of, 217 Blake, Admiral, 257 Blanchetaque, 116, 144 Blanketeers, march of the, 410 Blenheim, battle of, 305 Blois, Stephen of, reign, 59-62 ; character of, 59 Bloody Assize, 280 Bloreheath, battle of, 157 Blucher, Marshal, 403, 405 Boadicea, 9 Bocland, 22 Bohemia, Anne of, 130 , Elector of, 182 , John, king of, 176 Bohun, Humphrey, 103 Bois-le-duc, battle of, 382 Boleyn, Anne, 186, 187 Bombay, 267, 346, 369, 408 Bond, Oliver, 387 Bonn, 305 Bonner, Bishop, 204 Booth, Sir G., 262 Bordeaux, 124 Borodino, battle of, 401 Boroughbridge, battle of, 108 Boroughs, rotten, 353, 422 460 Index. Boston, 360-362 Bosworth, battle of, 167 Both well Brigg, battle of, 273 , Lord, 211 Boulogne, 192, 198, 391 Bourbon, house of, 223, 318 Bouvines, battle of, 82 Boyne, battle of, 293 Braddock, General, 347 Bramham Moor, battle of, 140 Brandenbiirgh, Elector of, 182 Brandon, Charles, 180 Brandy wine, battle of, 362 Brazil, 395 Breakspear, Nicolas, 73 Brest, 295, 348, 382, 391 Breteuil, Roger of, 45 Bretigny, Peace of, 122 Breton, Cape, Isle of, 343, 348, 349 Bright, Mr. J., 432, 436, 442, 443, 446, 447, 452 Brihuega, battle of, 308 Brindley, 374 Bristol. 109, 160, 248, 424 , Earl of, 234 British names, 14 Britons, 13 Brittany, Arthur of, 79, 80 , Duchy of, 115, 149, 173 •' Broad bottomed ministry," 337 Brownists, 209 (see Independents) Brougham, Mr., created Lord, 418, 422, 430 Bruce, David, 110, 118, 122 , Edward, 107 , Robert, 101 , Robert (younger), 104, 107, 111 Brueys, Admiral, 385 Brunanburh, battle of, 27 Brussels, 307, 403 Brydon, Dr., 435 Brythons, 7, 8, 11, 14, 17 Buckingham, Edward Stafford (1), Duke of, 163-166 , Edward Stafford (2), Duke of, 183 , George Villiers (1), Duke of, 230, 232, 234-236 , George Villiers (2), Duke of, 268, 270, 271 Buenos- Ayres, 394 Bulgaria, 449 Bunker's Hill, battle of, 361 Buonaparte, Joseph, 395, 398 Louis Napoleon, 437 ; Emperor, 439, 441, 444, 448 , Napoleon, 382, 384,385 ; first Consul, 386; Emperor, 391-393, 395, 397, 399- 405 Burdett, Sir F., 411 Burgos, 397, 402 Burgovne, General, 362 Burgundy. Charles, Duke of, 160, 161, 176 , John, Duke of, 147, 148 , Margaret, Duchess of, 160, 173 , Mary of, 176 Burgundy, Philip, Duke of, 174, 176, 179 Burke, Edmund, 357, 361, 363, 365-370, 372, 373, 380 Burley, Simon, 129, 130 Burmah, 434 Burton, 239, 242 Bury St. Edmund's, 153 Bnsaco, battle of, 399 Bute, Earl of, 353, 354 Buxar, battle of, 369 Bye Plot, 225 Byland Abbey. 109 Byng, Admiral (1), 322 , Admiral (2), 347 Cabal, 268-270 Cabinet, the, 268, 272, 296, 327 (see Council) Cabot, John, 177 Cabul, 434, 435, 449 Cade, Jack, 154, 155 Cadiz, 215, 217, 234, 391, 392, 400 Caedmon, 18 Caen, 115, 153 Cffiisar, Julius, 6, 7, 8, 13, 344 Cairo, 385 Calabria, 394 Calais, 118, 124, 145, 156, 162, 205 Calcutta, 346, 347, 369 Calder, Sir R., 391 Calendar, 344 Cambridge, Richard, Earl of, 144 Cambridge University, 448 Cambuskenneth, battle of, 104 Camden, battle of, 365 , Lord, 366 (see Pratt) Cameron, Dr., 342 , of Lochiel, 339 Campbell, Sir C, 443 Camperdown, battle of, 382 Camulodunum, 9 Canada, 345, 349, 351, 353, 361, 362, 407, 430, 451 Candahar, 434, 435, 449 Canning, George, 394, 399, 401, 415, 416, Prime Minister, 418 Canterbury, 16 Canute, 30, 31 Cape Colony, 383, 403, 407, 433 La HoKue, 295 Capel, Lord. 255 Caractacus, 9 Carberry, battle of, -211 Carlisle, 49 Carmarthen, Marquis of (see Leeds), 291 Carnarvon, 100 , Earl of, 446 Caroline of An^pach, 332, 336 of Brunswick, 414 Carr, Robert, 229, 230 Carteret, Lord, 327-329, 337, 343 Carthagena, 337 , battle of, 348 Carthaginians, 6 Cartwright, 374 Index. 461 Castile, Blanche, 84 , Eleanor of, 104 , Isabella of, 176 , Joanna of, 176 Castlebar, 388 Castlereagh, Lord, 388, 394, 399, 401, 403, 406,415 Catesby, 226 Catholic (see Roman Catholic) Association, 417, 418, 420 Cato Street Plot, 413 Cavagnari, 449 Cavendish, Lord F., 450 , Lord J., 365 Cawnpore, 443 Cecil, Robert, Earl of Salisbury, 217, 225, 228 , Robert, Marquess of Salisbury, 446 ; Prime Minister, 451, 452 , William, Earl of Burleigh, 208, 212, 214, 217 Celts, 4, 11 , Missionaries, 17 Ceylon, 383, 403, 408 Chalgrove Field, battle of, 248 Chalon, 96 Chamberlain, Mr., 450, 452 Chambers, Alderman, 236, 239, 242 Chancellor, 56, 87, 90, 326 Chancery, Court of, 98, 259 Chand(js clause, 425 Charles L, 228 ; visits Madrid, 232 ; reign of, 233-254 ; character of, 233 II., 246 ; in Scotland, 257 ; at Worces- ter, 257 ; reign of 264-277 ; character of, 264, 277 the Great, 19, 31 v.. Emperor, 176, 182, 183 v., of France, 123 VI., 141, 148, 150 VIL, 150, 151 X.,421 Edward, 339-342 , river, 349 Charleston, 365 Charlotte, Princess, 414 Charter, Great, 83, 86 , Henry I.'s, 53 , people's, 431 Charters, confiirmation of, 103 Chartists, 431, 432, 433, 437, 438 Chatillon, battle of, 156 Chaucer, Geoffrey, 126 Cherbourg, 154 Cheshire, 44, 50, 131, 140 Chester, battle of, 14, 16, 18 Chesterfield, Earl of, 344, 354 Chichester, Sir A., 228 Chillian wallah, battle of, 435 Chippenham, 25 China, war with, 442 Christianity, introduction of, 15, 16, 17 Chronicle, Anglo-Saxon, 26 Church of England, connection with Rome, 184, 185 ; Elizabeth's settle- ment of, 208 ; 243, 253, 259 ; at Restora- tion, 266 Cintra Convention, 397 Cistercian monks, 187 Ciudad Rodrigo, 400 Civil jury, 72 Clare election, 419 Clarence, George, Duke of, 160 162 , Lionel, Duke of, 127, 128 . Thomas, Duke of, 142, 148 , William, Duke of, 414, 420 {see William IV.) Clarendon, Assize of, 72 , Council of, 70 , Earl of (1) (Edward Hyde), 264, 267, 268 , Earl of (2), 281 , Earl of (3), 440 Code, 267 Claudius, Emperor, 9 Claverhouse, John Graham of, Viscoun Dundee, 291 Clement VIL, 183 Clergy, exactions from, 50 ; trial of, 69, 7o ; reluse to pay taxes, 103 ; unpopu- larity of, 125 ; reform of, 185 ; state of 334, 335 Clericis Laicos, Bill of, 103 Cleves, Anne of, 190 Clifford, Lord (1), 157 , Lord (2), 158 , Lord (3), 268-270 Clinton, General, 362 Clive, Robert, Lord, 346, 369 Clugniac monks, 187 Coalition against France, 1st, 382 ; 2nd, 386 ; 3rd, 391 ; 4th, 402 , against the ministry, 368, 390 Cobbett, William, 411 Cobden, Richard, 432, 436, 442, 444 Cobham, Lord (Sir John Oldcastle), 143 , Lord, 217, 225 Coercion Act, 426, 450 Coinage, debasement of, 191, 198; re- newal of, 68, 218, 297 Coke, Edward, 230, 232 Colborne, Sir J., 430 Colchester, 9, 253 Cologne, Archbishop of, 181 Colonial Empire, begun, 229 ; state of, 407 Colonies, loss of American, 356-362, 365, 368 Columbus, 177 Commonwealth, 255-263 Compton, Bishop, 281, 284 , Sir Spencer (Lord Wilmington), 332, 337 Comyn, the Red, 104 Concord, 361 Conservatives, numbers of, 427, 433, 451, 452 (see Tories) Constable, 189 , tlie, of France, 145 Constaminople, 177, 178, 384, 416, 419, 449 462 Index, Control of Purse, 115, ] 28, 268 Conventicle Act, 266, 267 Convention Parliaments, 263, 264, 286 Coote, Sir Eyre, 350, 370 Cope, Sir J., 339, 340 Copenhagen, battles of (1), 386, (2) 394 Copyholders, 120, 151, 423 Corblesdale, battle of, 256 Corn-laws, 409, 416, 432, 433, 436, 437 Cornish Rebellion, 174 Cornwall, Richard, Earl of, 88, 90 Cornwallis, Lord, 365, 388 Corporation Act, 266, 267, 380, 416 ■ Municipal Act, 427 Corriearrack, 340 Corunna, battle of, 397 Council, Ordinary, 56, 74 ; Great, 56, 91, 144, 241 ; Privy, 175, 272 ; of the North, 190 ; of State, 255 Counties Palatine, 44 Country party, 270, 329 Courtenay, Edward, Marquis of Exeter, 191 Courts, Law, 56, 74, 83, 98, 175, 209, 448 ; High Commission, 209, 239, 243 ; Star Chamber, 175, 239, 243 Coutance, Bishop of, 77 Covenant, Scotch, 240, 249, 252 Covenanters, 256, 273 Coventry, 155, 157, 161, 212 Craftsman, 329 Cranbourne (see Lord Salisbury), 446 Cranmer, Archbishop, 186, 196, 204 Crecy, battle of, 116, lit Crevant, 150 Crompton, 374 Cromwell, Henry, 259, 262 , Oliver, 241, 248, 251, 253, 256, 257 ; Protector, 258-262 , Richard, 262 , Thomas, 187, 190 Cropredy Bridge, battle of, 249 Crouchback, meaning of, 106 Crusades, 51, 52, 75, 76, 77, 92 Cuba, 354 Culloden, battle of, 342 Cumberland, William, Duke of, 338, 340- 343, 348, 357 , Duke of, 429 Curia Regis, 56, 57, 74, 448 Cuthbert, 18 Cyprus, 77 Dacre, Sir T., 154 Dalhousie, Lord, 442 Damme, battle of, 81 Danby. Lord, 270-272, 279, 284, 289, 291 (see Carmarthen and Leeds) Danegeld, 29 Dane-law, 25, 26, 27 Danes, 4, 23, 27 (see Northmen) Danton, 384 Dare, Jeanne, 150, 151 Darcy, 189 Darien Scheme, 309, 310 Darnley, Lord, 211 Dartmouth, 161 Dashwood, Sir Francis, 363 David, King of Scots, 111, 112, 118, 122 , of Wales, 100 , St., 17 Debates, publication of, 359, 360, 428 De Breaute, Falkes, 86 Burgh, Hubert, 85-87 Deccan, 389 Declaration of Eights (English), 286 ; (Irish) 367 Deddington, 107 De Grey, Bishop, 81 De Heretico, Comburendo, 138 Deira, 13, 14 Delhi, 346, 389, 442, 443 D'Enghien, Duke, 391 Denmark, 386, 393, 394, 445 Deorham, or Dyrham, battle of, 14 Derby, Bolingbroke, Earl of, 127, 130, 131, 132 (see Henry IV.) , Earl of (see Stanley) ; Prime Minister, 439 and 443 and 447 Derbyshire Insurrection, 410 Dermot, 73 Derwentwater, Earl of, 321, 322 Despenser, Hugh (father), 1U8, 109 , Hugh (son), 108, 109 Dettingen, battle of, 338 De Vere, 129, 130 Devonshire, Duke of, Prime Minister, 347, 348 Diderot, 377 Digges, Sir Dudley, 234 Directorate, 384, 386 Directory (Service Book), 252 Disraeli, Mr., 437, 439, 443, 446 ; Prime Minister, 447 and 448 (see Beaconsfield) Dominica, 354 Dominican Friars, 188 Domremy, 150 Donauwerth, battle of, 305 * Doncaster, IGl Doomsday Book, 46 Dorchester Heights, 362 Dost Mahomed, 435 Douay, 308 Douro, river, 398 Dover, 33, 37 ; Treaty of, 269 Drake, Sir F., 214-216 " Drapier's Letters," 328, 329 Dresden, battle of, 402 Drogheda, 256 Druidlsm, 8 Dudley, Edmund, 175, 179 , Lord, 419 , Lord Guildford, 200, 203 , Lord Robert, 212 (see Leicester) Duke, title of, 119 Dunbar, first battle of, 102 ; second battle of, 256 Dunchurch, 226 Dundalk, battle of, 107 Dundas, Henry (Lord Melville), 891, 392 Index. 463 Dundee, Viscount, 291, 292 Dunes, battle of, 261 Dunkirk, 261, 267 \ Dunning, 363 Dunstable, 86 Dunstan, 28, 29 Dupplin, battle of, 112 Duquesne, Fort, 345, 346, 348 Durham, 44, 118 , Lord, 430, 431 Dutch, war with, 25?, 267, 270, 362, 382, 394 ! Ealdorman, 21, 22, 28 Ear], 28, 31, 43, 44 East India Bill, Fox's, 370 ; Pitt's, 372 East Retford, 419 Ecclesiastical Commission (James II.' s), 281, 285 reform, 185, 186 Economical reform, 363, 366 Edgar, 28, 29 Atheling, 35, 37, 42, 43 Edgecote, battle of, 160 Edgehill, battle of, 247, 248 Edict of Nantes, 280 ', Edinburgh, 106, 192, 257, 340, Edington, battle of, 25, 154 Edith, 33, 34 Edmund, 28 Ironside, 30, 31, 35 Edred, 28 Edric, Streona, 30, 31 Education Grant, 426 ; Act, 447 Edward the Elder, 26, 27 the Confessor, 31, 32 ; reign of, 33- 35 ; laws of, 54 I., 91, 92 ; reign of, 96-104 ; character of, 96, 97 11., 100, 103; reign of, 105-110; character of, 105 III., 109 ; reign of, 111-126 IV., 157, 158 ; reign of, 159-162 ; policy of, 162 v., reign of, 163-165 VI., 187 ; reign of, 194-200 , son of Henry VI., 156, 158, 161 , Black Prince, 117, 120-123, 126 Edwin, King, 16, 23 , Earl, 35, 36, 42, 43 Edwy, 28, 29 Egbert, 19, 23, 24 Egfrith, 19 Egremont, Lord, 355 Egypt, 384-386, 450, 451 Eikou Basilike, 255 Elba, 403 Elections, control over, 226, 227 Eldon, Lord, 417, 418, 427 Eliot, Sir John, 234, 235, 237 Eliott, General, 364, 366 Elizabeth, 186, 202-205 ; reign of, 207-219 ; policy of, 208, 209 Ellandun, battle of, 19 Elvas, 400 Ely, 43, 92 Emma, 30-32, 34 Emmett, 388 Empson, 175, 179 England, geography of, 6 English race, 4, 12 Eric, 31 Erin, 7 Erse, 1 Escuage (scutage), 68, 69, 83 Essex, kingdom of, 14, 19, 20 ; shire, 27, 31 , Robert Devereux, Earl of, 217, 218, 246, 248-251 , Robert Devereux, Earl of (son of former), 230, 237 , Arthur Capel, Earl of, 272 Ethandun, battle of, 25 Ethelbald of Mercia, 19 of Wessex, 24 Ethelbert of Kent, 16 of Wessex, 24 Ethelfleda, 26, 27 Ethelred I., 24, 26 II., 29, 30, 31, 32 Ethelwald, 26 Ethelwulf, 24 Eugene, Prince, 305-307 Eustace of Boulogne, 33 , son of Stephen, 62 Evesham, battle of, 92 Exchequer Court, 56 Excise, 265 ; scheme, 333, 334 Exclusion Bill, 273, 274 Exeter, 197 Eylau, battle of, 395 Factory Acts, 426 Fairfax, Lord Ferdinand, 233, 248, 249 , Sir Thomas, 248-251, 253, 256, 262 Falaise, 74, 76 Falkirk, first battle of, 104 ; second battle of, 341 Falkland, Lord, 241, 244, 249 Famine, English, 108 , Irish, 436 Farmer, 281 Fastolf, Sir John, 150 Fawkes, Guy, 226 Favourite, meaning of, 105 Felix, 17 Felton, 236 Fenians, 447 Fenwick, Sir J., 300 Ferdinand of Arragon, 176, 177, 180 of Brunswick, 348 of Styria, 231 Ferrar, Bishop, 204 Ferrol, battle oif, 391 Ferry Bridge, battle of, 159 Feudal dues, 50, 83, 227, 265 Feudalism, 46, 376 Feudal tenants, 46, 53, 68, 83 Feversham, Lord, 279 Field of Cloth of Gold, 182 464 Index. Fielden's Act, 425 Finisterre Cape, 391 Fins, 5 Fire of London. 268 Fisher, Bishop, 187 Fitz-Gerald, Lord Edward, 387 , Maurice, 73 , Vesey, 419 Fitz-Gilbert, Richard, 73 Fitzherbert, Mrs., 373, 413 Fitz-Osbert, W., 78 Fitz-Peter, G., 78, 79, 82, 87 Fitz-Stephen, Robert, 73 Five Mile Act, 266, 267 Flambard Ranulf, 50, 51, 53, 54 Flanders, 82, 96, 103, 113, 114 Flodden, battle of, 179, 180 Flushing, 398 Folkland, 22 Fontenoy, battle of, 338 Forest, 47 ; reclamation of, 237 Forster, T., 321, 322 , W. E., 447, 450 Forty shilling freeholders, English, 151, 423 ; Irish, 420, 425 Fosseway, 9 Fountains Abbey, 187 Fox, Henry (Lord Holland), 343, 344, 354 , Charles James, 365, 367 ; joins North, 368, 371, 373, 374, 380, 390, 392, 393 France, treaties with, 122, 148, 162, 173, 180, 182, 209, 237, 261, 269, 272, 300, 313, 322, 343, 354, 368, 373, 387, 403, 405, 441, 444 , war begun with, 46, 81, 89, 101, 112, 123, 143, 162, 179, 192, 205, 235, 294, 304, 338, 345, 362, 381, 390, 403 and Scotland, 102, 112, 118, 148, 179, 192, 210, 311, 322, 339 and Ireland, 382, 387, 388 Francis L, 180, 182 IL, 210 , Sir Philip, 359, 372 Franciscan Friars, 188 Frederick, Prince of Wales, ''336, 344 , Elector, 228, 231, 232 the Great, 338, 345, 348, 354 Free Church of Scotland, 435 Fi-eemen, 83 Friars, 188 Friedl md, battle of, 395 Frobisher, 214, 216 Frost. Mr., 432 Fuentes d'Onoro, battle of, 400 Fulford, battle of, 36 Fulton, 422 Furness Abbey, 187 Fyrd, 21, 26, 36, 74 Gael, 7 Ganges, 369, 390 Gardiner, Bishop, 202, 204 Garibaldi, 444 Gascony, 89, 90, 112, 114, 119, 120, 156, 402 Gascoyne, General, 423 Gaveston Piers, 105-107 Gaunt, John of, 124-131 General Warrant, 356 Genoa, 386 George L, reign, 320-330; character of, 320 IL, 314, 329; reign, 332-350 III., 344; reign of, 352-412; cha- racter of, 352 IV,, 373; regent, 399, 410; reign, 413-420 ; character, 420 Georgia, 361 Germans, 4 Germany, 445, 448 Ghent, 114, 407 Ghuznee, 435 Gibraltar, 306, 364, 366, 407 Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 214 Gildas, 12 Giukel, 294 Gladstone, W. E., 434, 436, 437, 440, 444, 446; Prime Minister, 447, 448, 449; Prime Minister, 450 and 451, 452 Glanville, 73, 77 Glencoe, 292 Glendower, Owen. 139, 140 Glenshiel, 323 Gloucester, city of, 161, 248 , Gilbert, Earl of, 91, 92 , Hadwisa of, 79, 80 , Humphrey, Duke of, 149, 150, 152, 153 , Richard, Earl of, 90 , Robert, Eail of, 60, 61 , Thomas, Earl of, 127, 129 Goderich, Lord, 418, 419 Godwin, 31, 32, 33, 34 Godolphin, Lord, 278, 290, 296, 301, 304 Goidels, 7, 8, 11, 14, 17 Good Hope, Cape of, 177, 383, 394, 407 Goodwin, 226 Gocjerat, battle of, 435 Gordon, Lord G., 364 , General, 451 Goschen, Mr., 452 Goths, 4 Grafton, Duke of, trime Minister, 358, 359 Graham, Sir James, 426, 434, 440 , John, Viscount Dundee, 291, 292 , Sir Thomas, 400, 401 Grammont, Duke de, 338 Graiiipound, 415 Gianada, 354 Grand jury, 71 Remonstrance, 244 Grant, General, 444 Granville, Earl, 450 Gr.isse, Count de, 366 Gra'tan, 367 Gravelines, battle of, 205 Great Intercourse, 174 Rebellion begun, 246 Greece, 4, 416, 418 Index. 465 Greene, General, 365 Gregory the Great, 15 Vil., Hildebrand, 45 XIII., 344 Grenville, George, Prime Minister, 354- 357, 370 , Lord, 390; Prime Minister, 392, 401, 415 Grey, Lady Jane, 180, 200-203 Lady Katharine, 207, 219 ', Mr. (Earl) Grey, 381, 401; Prime Minister, 422, 423, 424, 426, 427 , Lord, son of above, 436 of Groby, Lord Ferrers, 160 , Sir Eichard, 163-165 ^ Grossetete, 88 Grouchy, General, 405 Guadaloupe, 348 Gualo, 85 Gniana, 230, 407 Guienne, 69, 101, 109; lost, 156 , Eleanor of, 61, 67, 77, 79, 80 Guildford, battle of, 365 Guilds, 195 Guinegaste, battle of, 179 Guiscard, 311 Guise, Mary of, 210 Guises, 210 Gunpowder Plot, 226 Gutenberg, 178 Guthrum, 24, 25 Habeas Corpus Act, 273, 356, 381, 410 Hadrian, Emperor, 10 IV. (Nicolas Breakspear), 73 Hainault, Jacqueline, 150 , Philippa,. Ill, 118 Hales, Sir E., 280 Halidon Hill, battle of, 112 Halifax, Charles Montague, Earl of Hali- fax, 296, 297, 300, 302 , George Savile, Marquess of, 272, 278, 280, 289, 291 , Lord, 355 Hamilton, Duke of, 253, 255 Hampden, J., 240, 241, 245, 248 Hampton Court, 253 Conference, 225 Hanover, 320, 323, 345, 429, 445 Hanoverian troops, 338, 339, 343, 348 Hardicanute, 31, 32 Harding, S., 187 Harfleur, 144 Hargreaves, 374 Harley, 309-314, 424 (see Oxford) Harold I., 31, 32 II., 33-37, 47 , Hardrada, 36 Harris, General, 389 Hartington, Marquess of, 450, 452 Hastenbach, battle of, 348 Hastings, battle of, 37 , Lord, 164 , Warren, 369, 370, 372 Hatfield, battle of, 16 Hatton, Sir C, 212 Havannah, 354 Havelock, General, 443 Havre, 348 Hawarden Castle, 100 Hawkesbury, Lord, 389, 401 (see Liver- pool) Hawkins, Sir J., 214, 217 Hawley, General, 341 Hazelrig, 245 Hedgeley Moor, battle of, 159 Heligoland, 394, 407 Hengist's Down, battle of, 24 Henrietta Maria, 232, 234, 239, 245, 248 Henry I., 48 ; reign of, 53-57 ; character of, 57 IL, 61, 62; reign of, 67-75; cha- racter of, 67 III., reign of, 85- 92 IV., 127, 130-132 ; reign of, 138-142 IV. (of France), 217, 224, 407 v., 139, 142; reign of, .143-148; character of, 148 VI., 148 ; reign of, 149-158 ; cha- racter of, 156 ; 159, 161, 162 VIL, 165, 166; reign of, 172-178; character of, 172 VIII., 177 ; reign of, 179-193 ; cha- racter of, 193 ; 194 ; Prince of Wales, 228 Heptarchy, 14 Herat, 435 Herbert, Admiral, 284 (see Torrington) , Sidney, 440 Hereford, Humphrey Bohun (1), Earl of, 107, 108 (Bolingbroke), Earl and Duke of, 132 (see Henry IV.) , Humphrey Bohun (2), Earl of, 103 , Milo, Earl of, 60 , Roger of Breteuil, Earl of, 45 Hereward, 43 Hertford, 27 , Earl of, 192, 194 (see Somerset) Herzegovina, 448 Hessians, 338, 339, 343, 348 Hetherington, 431 Hexham, battle of, 159 Hibernians, 7 Hill, Abigail, 312 , General (Lord), 400, 402 , Rowland, 433 " Histriomastlx," 239 Hohenlinden, battle of, 386 Holkar, 389 Holland, 260, 269, 305, 322, 362, 382 (see Dutch) , Earl of, 255 , Lord, 354 (see Fox, Henry) Hollis, 245 Holmby House, 252, 253 Holmes, Sir R., 267 Holstein, 445 Holy Alliance, 406 I Home Rule, 449, 451, 452 2h 466 Index. Hongkong, 442 Hooper, Bishop, 294 Hopton, Sir R., 248 Hospitallers, Knights, 188 Hotham, Sir J., 246 Hough, 281 Hougomont, 404 Hounslow Heath, 281, 284 Howard, J., Lord 164 ; Duke of Norfolk, 166 , Lady K., 190, 191 , Lord, of Effingham, 216, 217 Howe, Lord, 382 , Sir W., 362 Huguenot, 210, 235, 280 Hull, 246, 248, 249 Humble Petition and Advice, *261 Hundred described, 20 Hungarians, 5 Hunt, Mr., 411 Huscarls, 36 Huskisson, Mr., 394, 417, 418, 419, 421, 422, 436, 439 Hyde, Anne, 277 , Edward (see Clarendon), 241, 244, 249 Park Riots, 446 Hyderabad, battle of, 435 Hyder Ali, 370, 389 Iden, 155 Impeachment, 126, 231 Impositions, 227 Indemnity, Acts of, 264, 291, 333 Independents, 209, 251, 252, 259, 266 India, 177, 229, 269, 345 ; Clive in, 346, ,347; 350, 369; Warren Hastings in, 369-371 ; Lord Mornington in, 389 ; .434,:435 ; Mutiny in, 442, 443; 449 ■■' Act, Pitt's, 371, 372 Bill,. Eox's, 370, 371 ^ — Civil Service, 372 , Empress of, 449 i Indulgences Declaration, first, 270 ; second, 281 ; third, 283 ' Indus, river, 435 Jnkerman, battle of, 441 Innocent III.,, 81 Interdict, 81 Inverlochy, battle of, 252 Ipswich, 180, 182 Ireland, races of, 7, 72, 73, 217, 228, 259 ; conversion, of, 17 ; Norman settlement in, 72, 73, 107, 131, 173; Poynings' Act, 328, 367 ; conquest of, 217, 228 ; settlement in Ulster, 228 ; Wentworth in, 238, 244 ; Cromwell in, 256, 259 ; trade of, 268, 367, 373, 388; James II. in. 292-294 ; Drapier's letters, 328 ; declaration of right, 366, 367, 372 ; Grattan's Parliament, 387 ; Orangemen and United Irishmen, 387 ; French in- vasions of, 381, 388 ; rebellion in, 388 ; union with England, 388; Emmett's rebellion, 388; Daniel O'Connell in, 417, 420 ; Repeal agitation, 427 ; Rebel- lion in, 438; Fenians in, 447 ; Mr. Glad- stone's legislation, 447, 450 ; Home Rule agitation, 449, 450, 451, 452 Irish Church reformed, 426, 427; dis- established, 447 Famine, 436 Land Acts ('70) 447, ('81) 450 Irishman, United, 438 Irishmen, United, 388 Ironsides, 251 Isle of Wight, 253, 270 Italy, 4, 176, 178, 183, 305, 384, 437, 444, 445, 448 Ivernians, 7, 8, 11, 17 Jacobin Club, 379, 384, 389 Jacobites, 321-323, 326, 339-342 Jamaica, 261, 407, 408, 432 James L, 211, 218, 219 ; reign of, 224-232 ; character of, 224 II., 267, 269, 270, 273, 275, 276, 277 ; reign of, 278-287 ; character of, 278 ; 293-295, 299, 303 I. (Scotland), 141, 150 IV. (Scotland), 177, 179, 180 V. (Scotland), 192 Jargeau, battle of, 151 Jellalabad, 435 Jena, battle of, 393 Jenkins' ear, 336 Jerusalem, 52, 75, 11 Jervis, Sir .J., 382 Jews, 76, 98, 99 John, 73, 75, 76, 78; reign of, 79-84; character of, 79, 80 of Gaunt, 124-131 Jones, General, 256 Joyce, Cornet, 253 Judicature, High Court of, 448 Jumiege, Robert of, 33, 34 June 1, battle of, 382 " Junius," letters of, 359 Junot, Marshal, 397, 398 Jury, Civil, 72 , (iJrand, 71 ■ , Petty, 71 Justices, Itinerant, 71, 83 of the Peace, 9S Justiciar, 56, 87, 90, 326 Justus, 16 Jutes, 12, 13 Kars, 441 Katharine Grey, 207, 219 Howard, 190, 191 of Arragon, 177, 179, 183, 186, 187 of France, 148, 165 Parr, 191 Kenilworth, 92, 107, 109 Kennington Common, 438 Kent, County of, 154, 159 , Duke of, 414 , Joan of, 128 Index, 467 Kent, kingdom of, 12, 14, IS , Nun of, 189 Ket, 197 Keymis, 230, 231 Khartoum, 451 Khyber Pass, 435 Killiecrankie, battle of, 292 Kilmarnock, Lord, 343 Kilsyth, battle of, 252 Kimbolton, Lord, 245 (see Manchester) King, powers of, 21, 22 King's friends, 355, 422 Kirke, Colonel, 280 Klosterseven, 348 Knaresborough, 249 Knighthood enforced, 97, 98 , distraint of, 237, 243 Knight service, 53, 68 Knox, John, 210 Konigsegg, Marshal. 338 Kymry, 14 Laeoukers, Statutes of, 120 La Broye, 117 Lake, General, 388, 389 Lamb, Mr., 419 (see Melbourne) Lambert, General, 257, 262, 265 Lancaster, Duke of (1), 119 ■ , Duke of (2) (see John of Gaunt) 125-131 — Duke 01 (3) (see Henry IV.), 132 , Henry, Earl of, 101 , Thomas, Earl of, 106, 107, 108 Land Bank, 297 League, 449 Landen, battle of, 295 Lanfranc, Archbishop, 42, 44, 45, 48, 50 Langside, battle of, 211 Langton, Archbishop, 81, 82, 84 , Simon, 84 Lapps, 5 Laswaree, battle of, 389 Lateran Council, 71 Latimer, Bishop, 204 , Lord, 126 Laud, Archbishop, 236, 237, 239, 240, 242, 251 Lauderdale, Lord, 268, 270 Lauffeld, battle of, 343 Lawrence, Sir J., 443 Learning, new, 178 Leeds, Duke of (see Danby), 296 (Kent), 108 (Yorkshire), 159, 411, 423, 424 Legislative Assembly (French), 379 Leicester, 27, 166, 184 , Earl of (see Montfort) , Robert Dudley, Earl of, 212, 214, 217 Leigh ton. Dr., 239 Leipzig, battle of, 402 Leith, 139, 192 Leofric, 31, 33, 34, 35 Leopold, Prince of Saxe-Coburg, 414 Lewes, battle of, 91 Lewes, Mise of, 91 Lexington, battle of, 361 Leyden, 229 Libel Acts (Fox's), 381 Liberals, or Whigs, 427, 433, 451, 452 Licensing Act, 298 Lichfield, 19 Liege, 305 Lignv, battle of, 404 Lille" 307 Limerick, 294 Lincoln, 84, 85 , Al)raham, 444 , John de la Pole, Earl of, 166, 173 Lindiswaras, 13 Lisbon, 397, 398 Lisle, Lord (Warwick and Northumber- land), 192 Liverpool, Earl of, Prime Minister, 401, 417, 418 Llewelyn, 91, 99, 100 Lochleven, 211 Locke, J., 297 Locke King, Mr., 438 Lollards, 125, 130, 138, 143 London, 9, 16, 27, 30, 37, 61, 78; for barons, 82; for Simon de Montfort, 91 ; 128, 143, 155 ; for the Yorkists, 160 ; 161, 195, 202 ; growth of, 229 ; 238 ; supports Long Parliament, 245 ; 246, 248, 249, 253, 268, 269; supports Shaftesbury, ■ 275; against James IL, 283; 335, 341,. 360 ; supports the Pitts, 371 London Bridge, battle of, 155 Londonderry, 293 Longchamp, William, 76, 77 Long Island, battle of, 362 Lord-Lieutenant, 245, 246 Lords, House of, constitution and powers of (see Magnum Concilium, and Par- liament), 113, 126, 141, 156, 243 ; abolished, 255; Cromwell's, 261,, 31,0, 312, 323, 388 Lords Ordainers, 106 Lorraine, 448 Losecoat Field, battle of, 161 Lostwithiel, battle of, 249 Louis Vn, 61 VIII. , 84 IX., 90 XL, 162 XII., 180 ■ XIII. 223 XIV.',' 264, 269-272, 280', 284, 2M- 298, 300, 301, 303, 308, 322, 378 XV., 322, 378 XVL, 379 XVII., 403 XV1IL,403, 405 Philippe, 318, 421, 437 Louisbourg, 343, 348 Louisiana, 345 Louvain, Adela of, 53 Lowe, Robert, 446, 447 Lovat, Lord, 342 468 Index. Lovel, Lord, 173 Lovett, 431 Lowestoft, battle off, 267 Lucknow, 442 Lucy, R. de, 73 Luddites, 408 Ludlow, 157, 164, 192 Luttrell, Colonel, 359 Latzen, battle of, 402 Luxembourg, Jacquetta of, 1 51 Lyndhurst, Lord, 427, 434 Lynn, 84 Lyons, Council of, 88 Macdoxald, Flora, 342 Macdonalds, 292 Machinery, 374, 417 Mackay, General, 292 Madras, 346, 369, 370, 407 Madrid, 308, 396, 397, 401, 402 Magenta, battle of, 444 Magna Carta, Great Charter, 83, 8G, 91 Magnum Concilium, Great Council, 56, 91, 144, 241 Magyars. 5 Mahdi, 450 Mahrattas, 389 Maida, battle of, 394 Maidstone, 253 Main, Plot, 225 , river, 338 Maine, 46, 61, 80, 153 Malcolm (1), 28 (2), 31 (3), 45, 49, 50, 53 (4), 68 Maldon, battle of, 29 Malplaquet, battle of, 307 Malta, 385-387, 390, 403, 407, 449 Manchester, 10, 27, 410, 416, 419, 423, 424 Mandeville, William, 73 Manilla, 354 Manorial System (English), 119, 128, 197 ; (French), 376, 377 Mantes, 46, 115 Mar, Earl of, 321, 322 March, Edmund, Earl of, 127 , Edward, Earl of, 157 , Roger, Earl of, 129 Marche, Count de la, 80, 88 Marengo, battle of, 386 Margaret of Anjou, 153, 157, 158, 161, 162 of Scotland, 101 Tudor, 177, 180, 211 Maria Theresa of Austria, 338, 345 of France, 302 Marie Antoinette, 399 Marie Louise, 399 Marlborough, Duchess of, 304, 311 , Duke of (see Churchill), 294, 295, 300, 304-311, 314, 321 Marmont, Marshal, 401 Marseilles, 5, 6 Marshall, Richard, 88 Marshall, William, Earl of Pembroke, 85, 86 Marsin, Marshal, 306 Marston Moor, battle of, 250 Martinique, 354 Mary I. (England), 183, 199, 200 ; reign of, 201-206 II. (England), 271-273, 286; reign of, 289-299 of Modena, 283 Queen of Scots, 192, 195, 196, 207, 209-211,213,215 Tudor, 180, 200 Maserfield, battle of, 17 Massachusetts, 240, 360, 361 Massena, Marshal, 386, 399-402 Massey, 280 Matilda, Lady of the English, 57, 59-61 , wife of Henry I., 53, 54, 57 , wife of Stephen, 59, 61 , wife of William the Conqueror, 42 Maupertuis, 120 Maurice, Bishop, 53 Mauritius, 396, 403, 407 Maximilian, 176, 180, 181 Mayence, 181 Mayflower, 229, 240 Maynooth Grant, 436 Mayo, 388 Meaux, 148 Medellin, battle of, 398 Melbourne, Lord, 419, 422 ; Prime Minister, 427, 430, 431, 432, 433, 434. Melville, Lord (Henry Dundas), 391, 392 Merchants, forbidden to make grants, 124 Mercia, kingdom of, 12, 14, 16, 17, 19,20; district of, 24-27, 30; earldom of, 31, 34, 35, 43 Merton, Walter de, 96 Methodists, 334, 335 Middleham, 157, 160 Milford Haven, 166 Militia, 21, 74, 75, 97, 98, 245, 347, 390 Minden, battle of, 348 Minorca, 308j 347, 348, 365, 367, 407 Mirabeau, Count, 379 Mirabel, 80 Mise of Amiens, 90 of Lewes, 91 Mississippi, river, 345 Modena, Mary of, 283 Mogul, 346, 369, 390, 442, 449 Moleyns, Bishop, 154, 155 , Lord, 154 Moltke, Count, 445 Mompesson, Sir G., 232 Monasteries, 29, 58, 187, 188 Mondego Bay, 396 Monk, General (Albemarle), 259, 262, 267 Monmouth, Duke of, 274-276, 279 Monopolies, 218, 238 Mons, 307, 308 Graupius, 9 Montagu, Marquess of, 161 Index. 469 Montague, Charles, Earl of Halifax. 296, 297, 300, 303 Montcalin, Count, 349, 350 Monte Bello, battle of, 444 Video, 394, 396 Montereau-sur-Yonne, 148 Montfort, Simon de, 89-92 Montgomery, Roger of, 49, 54 Montmorency, 349 Montrose, Marquess of, 252, 256 Moore, Sir J., 397 Moot, Shire, 21, 56, 71 Morcar, 34-36, 42, 43 Mordaunt (Earl of Peterborough), 308 More, Sir Thomas, 184, 187 Moreau, General, 386, 392 Mornington, Lord, 389 (see Wellesley) Mortimer, Edmund, Earl of March (1), 127 , Edmund (2), 139 , Edmund (3), 145 , Edward, Earl of March, 157, 158 (Edward IV.) , Roger E., of March, 129, 131 , Roger, Lord, 108, 109, 111 Mortimer's Cross, battle of, 158 Mortmain, Statutes of, 97 Morton, Cardinal, 165, 166, 175 Morton's Fork, 175 Moscow, 401 Mountjoy, 228 Mousehold Hill, battle of, 197 , Robert, 49 Mowbray, Thomas, Earl of Nottingham (father), 130, 131 (see Norfolk) , Thomas, Earl of Nottingham (son), 140 Muir, 380 Musselburgh, 195 Mutiny Act, 290, 298 , Indian, 442, 443 of the Fleet, 381, 382 Mysore, 370, 389 Najara, battle of, 123 Namur, 296, 307 Nantwich, battle of, 249 Naples, 444 Naseby, battle of, 251 Navarino, battle of, 418 Navarre, Berengaria of, 77 National Assembly (French), 378, 379 Debt, 296, 325, 326, 344, 373, 383 Nationality, idea of, 407 Navigation Acts, 257, 268, 417, 439 Nectan's Mere, battle of, 19 Nelson, Lord, 382, 385-387, 391, 392 Nepaul, 434 Nesbit Moor, battle of, 139 Netherlands, trade with, 96, 113, 173, 174, 176 ; revolt of, 210 Neville, Archbishop (1), 118 , Archbishop (2), 129, 130 , Lord, 126 NeviU's Cross, 118 Newark, 84, 225, 252 New Brunswick, 407 Newburn, battle of, 241 Newbury, 1st battle of, 249; 2nd battle of, 251 Newcastle, 50, 252 , Pelham, Duke of (1), 328, 337; Prime Minister, 344, 347, 348, 353, 354 , Pelham, Duke of (2), 440 , William Cavendish, Earl of, 248-250 New College, 182 Newfoundland, 214, 313, 407 Newmarket, 253, 276 New Orleans, 407 New Plymouth, 229 Newport, in Isle of Wight, 254 , in Wales, 431 New Salem, 360 New South Wales, 408, 451 Newton, Sir Isaac, 297 Newtown Butler, battle of, 293 New York, 260, 267, 361, 362, 365 New Zealand, 433 Ney, Marshal, 397 Nicolas, Czar, 440 Nile, battle of, 385, 392 Nithing, 49 Noailles, Marshal, 338 Nobles (see Barons), 53, 175 Nonconformists, 209 ; under Charles II., 266, 267, 269, 270, 274 ; under James II., 281, 282; 290; under Anne, 312, 314 ; under George I. and II., 324, 333, 335 ; 419, 448 Nonjurors, 290 Nootka Sound, 380 Nore, Mutiny at, 382 Norfolk, 14, 201 , Hugh Bigod, Earl of, 74 , John Howard, Duke of, 166 (Lord Howard) , Ralf Guader, Earl of, 45 , Roger Bigod, Earl of, 103 , Thomas Howard, Duke of (1) (Earl of Surrey), 179 . Thomas Howard, Duke of (2), 193 , Thomas Howard, Duke of (3), 212, 213 , Thomas Mowbray, Duke of, 131 Normandy, 26, 33, 35, 42, 55, 61; lost, 80; 147, 153 , Emma of, 30, 31 , Robert of, 45, 48, 52-55 Norris, Sir J., 217 North, Lord, 358; Prime Minister, 359, 360, 363, 365, 3(18, 369, 371 , Revolt of the, 212 North America, 177, 214, 345 Northampton, Assize of, 72 , battle of, 157 , Treaty of. Ill North Briton, 355 Northmen, 2.{-26, 28, 29 (see Danes) Northumberland, Duke of, 199-202 (see Lisle and Warwick) 2h3 470 Index. Northumberland, Henry, Earl of (1), 139, 140 , Henry, Earl of (2), 157, 158 , Henry, Earl of (3), 164, 165 , Percy, Earl of, 118 Northumbria, kingdom of, 12, 14, 16-19, 24, 26, 27 ; earldom of, 31, 34, 35, 43 North-West Passage, 214 Norway, 29-31, 100, 216, 323 , Maid of, 101 Norwich, 197 Nottingham, 27, 247, 424 , Earl of, 290, 305, 309, 312 Nova Scotia, 308, 313, 407 Noy, 238, 340, 239 Nun of Kent, 189 Gates, Titus, 273, 279 O'Brien, Smith, 438 Occasional Conformity, 312, 324 O'Connell, Daniel, 417, 419, 437, 438 O'Connor, A., 387 , Feargus, 431 Odo of Bayeux, 42, 44, 49 Offa, 19, 23 Oldcastle, Sir J., 143 O'Neal, Earl of Tyrone, 217 Oporto, battle of, 398 Orange, William, Prince of, 272-274, 281- 286 (see William III.) Orangemen, 387 Ordeal, 21, 71, 84 Orders in Council, 393, 407 Orford, Lord (1) (see Russell, Edward) , (2) (see Walpole) Orissa, 369 Orleans, 150, 151 , Duke of, 147, 152 Orleton, Bishop, 109 Ormond, Duke of (1), 256 , Duke of (2), 311, 312, 314, 321 Orsini, 443 Orthez, battle of, 403 Orwell, 109 Osborne (see Danby and Leeds), 270 Ostmen, 72 Oswald, 17 Otho, Legate, 88 Otterburn, battle of, 139 Otto, Emperor, 82 Ottoman Turks, 5, 177 Ottomond, mound of, 306 Oude, 369, 442 , Nabob of, S'Sg, 370 .Princesses of, 370 Oudenarde, 307 Oxford, 61, 90, 248, 249, 251, 275 , Earl of (1), 129, 130 , Earl of (2), 166, 175' , Earl of, 312-314, 320 (Harley) , Provisions of, 90 University, 448 Patne, 380 I'ains and Penalties, Bill of, 414 Palatinate, 182, 228, 231 Palmer, 381 Palmerston, Lord, 399, 418, 419, 423, 427, 436, 437, 439, 440 ; Prime Minister, 441, 442, 443, 444, 446 Pampeluna, 402 Pandulf, 86 Papal power, origin of, 15, 16, 18 ; regu- lated, 45, 81 ; exactions, 86, 88, 103, 124, 130 ; defined, 184 ; abolished, 185 ; revived, 203 ; end of in England, 208 Paper Duty, 444 Paris, 16, 115, 122, 149, 402, 403 , Treaties of, 354, 403, 405, 441 Parker, Matthew, Archbishop, 208, 212 , Bishop, 281 Parliament, Powers and Constitution of (see Witenagemot and Magnum Con- cilium), 89, 91 ; Model, 102, 108 ; two houses of, 113; 124, 128, 141, 151, 184, 226, 227, 235, 286, 301, 353, 366, 388, 425, 446, 451 ; Parliamentary Reform, 363, 364, 372, 410, 416, 422, 423, 446, 451 Parliaments (special), the Mad, 90; de Montfort's, 91; the Model, 102; the Good, 106 ; the Merciless, 130 ; the Shrewsbury, 131 ; the Short, 241 ; the Long, 241, 263 ; the Rump, 253, 258, 262 ; Barebones, 258 ; first Convention, 263 ; Oxford, 275 ; second Convention, 286 Parma, Duke of, 215 Parnell, C. S., 450 Parr, Katharine, 191, 196 Partition Treaties, 301, 302 Passaro, Cape, battle off, 323 Paston, John, 154 Patay, battle of, 151 Patrick, St., 17 Paullinus, 16 Pavia, battle of, 182 Peasant revolt, 128 Pecquigny, Treaty of, 1 62 Pedro the Cruel, 122, 123 Peel, Sir Robert, 399, 413, 415, 418-420, 426 ; Prime Minister, 427, 431-438 Peelites, 440, 442 Peerage Bill, 323 , Irish, 388 , Scottish, 310 Peers, creation of, 312, 424 Peisbwah, 389 Pelham, Henry, 328, 337 ; Prime Minister, 337, 343, 344 (see Newcastle) Peltier, 390 Pembroke, 253 , Herbert, Earl of, 160 , Jasper Tudor, 158 , William Marshall, Earl of, 79, 85, 8fl Penda, 16, 17, 19 Penn, 260 Penruddock, 260 Penryn, 419 Index, 471 Perceval, 394 ; Prime Minister, 399, 401 Percy, Earl of Northumberland (1), 118 , Earl of Northumberland (2), 157 , Henry, Earl of Northumberland, 139, 140 , Henry (Hotspnr), 140 , Thomas, Earl of Worcester, 139 Ferrers, Alice, 126 Peter des Eoches, 82, 85-88 , St., 18 the Hermit, 51 Petition and advice, 261 of Right, 235 Petitioners, 274 Petre, 281, 285 Petty jury, 71 Philadelphia, 361, 362, 365 Philip Augustus of France, 75 of Burgundy (I), 148-151 of Burgundy (2), 174, 1 76 ^ IV., of France, 101 . VI., 112, 114-117 ■ II., Spain, 202, 203, [205, 207, 208, 210, 213-215,217 of France, King; of Spain, 302, 303, 313, 322 of Orleans, 322 Philiphaiigh, battle of, 252 Philipot, 128 Picts, 11, 12 Pilgrimage of Grace, 189 Pinkie, battle of, 195 Pitt, William (father), 342-344, 347, 348, 350, 354, 358 (see Chatham) , William (son), 366, 368 ; Prime Minister, 371, 373 ; Reform Scheme of, 373 ; commercial policy of, 373 ; 374, 380, 381, 383 ; Irish policy, 388, 389 ; Prime Minister, 390, 392; 415, 417, 430, 436, 444 Pittsburg, 348 Pius v., 212 Plague, Great, 268 Plantagenet, Edward, 173, 174 Plassey, battle of, 347, 369, 442 Poissy, 115 Poitevins, 82, 86, 88, 89 Poitiers, battle of, 120, 121 Poitou, 61, 82, 89 Pole, Edmund de la. Earl of Suffolk, 174, 179 , Henry, Lord Montacute, 191 , John de la, Earl of Lincoln. 166, 173 , Michael de la. Earl of Suffolk, 130, 131 , Reginald, 191, 203, 204, 206, , William de la, Duke of Suffolk, 153, 154 Poll-tax, 128 Pondicherry, 346, 354 Pontefract, 250 Poor laws, 218, 219, 277, 382, 426 Pope, 15, 18, 35, 45, 52, 70, 81 ; exactions of, 86, 88, 103 ; a peacemaker, 120 ; 124, 172, 182-185, 212, 444, 448 Popish Plot, 273 Porteous Riots, 334 Portland, Duke of. Prime Minister, 367. 368, 391, 394, 400 Porto Bello, 337 Novo, 370 Portugal, 268, 279, 354, 395, 397, 398, 416 Poundage, 227, 234-236, 242, 246 Poynings' Act, 174. 328 367 Praemunire, Statute of, 124, 130, 152, 183. 184 Pratt (Camden), 356, 366 Prayer-book, 196, 199, 208, 252,; pro- sciibed, 259, 266 , Scottish, 240 Pre-emption, 84, 265 Premonstratensian canons, 187 Presbyterians, 209, 225, 251, 253, 258, 259, 266 (see Nonconformists) Press, freedom of, 298 Preston, battle of, first, 253; second, 322 Pans, battle of, 340 , Viscount, 299 Pretender (old), 283, 285, 303, 311, 321, 327, 328, 339 (young), 327, 339, 340-342 Pride, Colonel, 253 Priestley, Dr.. 380 Prime Minister, title of. 326, 327 Private grants forbidden, 124 Privy Council (see Ordinary Council), 175, 272 Protestantism, 190, 193, 195, 204, 208 Protestants (French), 210, 234, 280 (German), 231 Provencals, 88 Provence, Eleanor of, 88 Provisions of Oxford. 90 , Provisors, 87, 124, 130, 184 Prussia, 345, 379, 393, 445 , Frederick of, 3U, 354, 356 , William of, 407, 445, 448 Prynne, 239, 242 Publication of debates, 359, 428 Pulteney, William, 323, 327, 329, 330, 334, 335, 337 Punjab, 408, 435, 443 Purchase in the army abolished, 448 Puritans, 209, 2)2, 217, 218, 225, 226, 243 (see Nonconformists) Purse, control over the, 115, 128, 147, 162, 227, 235, 268, 286, 290 Purveyance, 83, 84, 265 Pym, 232, 235, 241, 242, 244, 245, 249 Pyrenees, 303, 396 , battle of, 402 Pytheas, 5, 6 QuADEUPLE Alliance, 322 Quatre Bras, battle of, 404 Quebec, 349, 350 Radcot Bridge, battle of, 130 Radicals, 431 472 Index. Raglan, Lord, 441 Railways opened, 421 Raleigh, Sir W., 213, 214, 225, 228, 230, 231 Ralf Guader, 42, 45 Ramillies, battle of, 306, 30t Ratcliff, Charles, 342 , Earl of Derwentwater, 321, 322 Eathmines, battle of, 256 Ravenspur, 131, 161 Rawdon, Lord, 365 Reeve (shire, borough, and town"), 20, 21 Reform Bills (English), 423, 446, 451 ; (Scotch), 425, 446, 451 ; (Irish), 425, 446, 451 Regency, 149, 373, 399 Regent (George IV.), 399-412 Reginald, 80 Regnier, General, 394 Regulating Act (Indian), 369 Reign of Terror, 385 Eelief, defined, 50, 53 (see Feudal dues) Renard, 202 Repeal of the Union, 420, 437 Retainers explained, 141, 155, 166, 174, 175 Revenue, King's (see Feudal dues), 227, 265, 290, 366 officers, 366 Revolution (English), 287 (French), 376-379, 384 Rhe, Isle of, 235 Rheims, 151 Rich, Edmund, 88 Richard I., 73, 75 ; reign of, 76-78 ; cha- racter of, 78 II., 126 ; reign of, 127-132, 138 IIL, 161, 164; reign of, 165-167; character of, 167 , King of the Romans, 90 Richelieu, Cardinal, 234 Richmond, Duke of, 362, 363 , Henry of, 165, 166 (see Henry VII.) Ridley, Bishop, 204 Ridolphi, 213 Riot Act explained, 320 Ripon, 108 Rivers, Anthony, Lord Woodville (son), 163, 164 , Richard Woodville, Earl (father), 1650 Rizzio, 211 Robert, Duke of Normandy, 45, 48, 49, 52-55 III. of Scotland, 140 of Belleme, 42, 45 of Jumieges, 33, 34, 35 Robespierre, 383 Rochet'ort, 405 Rochelle, 123, 234, 235 Roches, Peter des, 82, 85, 86, 87, 88 Rochester, 16, 49, 286 , Lord, 278, 281, 300 Rockingham, Marquis of, 355 ; Prime Minister, 357, 358, 363, 365-367 Rodney, Lord, 348, 364, 366 Roebuck, Mr., 441 Rogers, 204 Rollo, 26 Roman Catholics, under Elizabeth, 208 209, 212, 213, 217 ; under James I., 225, 226, 232; under Charles II., 269, 270, 273; under James II., 280-283 287, 291; disabilities of, 364, 389, 394, 416, 417, 419; removed, 420, 448 Roman towns, 9 Romanized Britons, 2 Romans, 4-6, 8-12 Rome, 15, 31, 183, 445, 448 Rooke, Sir George, 306 Root and Branch Bill, 243 Roriga, battle of, 396 Roses, wars of, begin, 156 Rouen, 115, 147, 151, 153 Roundaway Down, battle of, 248 Rousseau, 377 Rowton Heath, battle of, 252 Roxburgh, 107 Royalists, 246 Royal Marriage Act, 373, 374, 414 Rumbold, 276 Rump Parliament, 253 ; expelled 258 ; restored, 262 Runnymede, 82 Rupert, Prince, 247-250, 267 Russell, Edward, 284, 294, 295, 300, 302 , Lord, 197 , Lord John (Earl), 411, 419, 422- 424, 427, 436; Prime Minister, 437- 440, 445 , William, Lord, 272, 276 Russia, 345, 386, 391, 401, 406, 416, 418, 434 ; war with, 440, 448, 449 Ryswick, 296, 301 Sacheverell, Dr., 311 St. Alban's, battle of, first, 156 ; second, 158 St. Eustatia, Island of, 365 St. Gothard, Pass of, 386 St. Helena, Island of, 271, 405, 407 St. John, Henry (Bolingbroke), 309, 311, 313, 314, 321, 328-330, 344 St. John, Knights of, 188, 385, 387 St. Lawrence, river, 345, 349 St. Mary's Clyst, battle of, 197 St. Peter's Field, 411 St. Pol, Count of, 151 St. Quentin, battle of, 206 St. Sebastian, 397, 402 St. Vincent, battle of, first, 364; second, 382 — , Island of, 354 Saintes, battle of, 89 Saladin, 75, 77 Tithe, 75 Salic Law, 112, 429 Salisbury, 46, 167, 285 Countess of, 191 Craggs, 256 Index. 473 Salisbury, Richard, Earl of (1), 150 Richard, Earl of (2), 155-158 Robert, Earl of, 217, 225, 228 Robert, Marquess of, 446 ; Prime Minister, 451, 452 Roger, Bishop of, 56, 59, 60 WilUam, Earl of, 82 Sancroft, Archbishop, 283 Handwich, battle off, 84, 85 Saragossa, battle of, 308 Saratoga, 362 Sardinia, 313, 444 Savile, George, Marquess of Halifax, 2Tl, 278, 280, 289, 291 , Sir George, 364 Savoy. 305, 313 , Boniface of, Archbishop, 88 Savoy, Duke of, 261 , Peter of, 88 Sawtre, W., 138 Saxe, Marshal, 338 Sax:e-Coburg, Albert of, 429, 439, 445 , Leopold of, 414 Saxons, 12, 13 Saxony, 445 , Elector of, 182 Say, Lord, 155 Scandinavia, 22, 45 Scarborough, 107, 108 Schism Act, 314, 324 Schleswig, 445, 448 Schomberg, Marshal, 293 Scinde, 435 Scindia, 389 Scotland, geography of, 339 ; races of, 7, 13 ; connection with England, 27, 28 ; homage done by kings of, 31, 45, 49, 68, 81, 84, 100, 101; kings of, captured, 74, 118; invaded by English, 45, 102, 104, 106, 107, 112, 139, 164, 256 ; suc- cession, questions of, 100, 109 ; allies with France, 102, 112, 118, 148, 180, 192, 195; Reformation in, 210; Elizabeth and, 210, 211 ; Charles I. and, 240, 241 ; revolution in, 291 ; union with, 227 ; 309, 310, 435 Scots invade England, 60, 74, 108, 118, 148, 179, 241 ; join the Parliament, 240 Scrope, Archbishop, 140 , Lord, 145 Scutage, 68, 69, 75, 83 Sebastopol, 441 Sedan, battle of, 448 Sedgemoor, battle of, 279 Seditious Meetings Act, 380 Seine, river, 114, 115 Selby, battle of, 249 Selden, John, 232, 241, 242 Self-denying Ordinance, 252 Senlac, battle of (Hastings), 37 Separatists, 209, 229, 246 Sepoys, 346, 347, 350, 442, 449 Septennial Act, 323 Seringapatam, 389 Servia, 449 Settlement, Act of, 301 (Irish), 268 Sevenoaks, battle of, 155 Seven Years' War begins, 345 Severn, river, 166 Seville, Peace of, 333 Seymour, Lady J., 187 , Lord, 194, 195 Shaftesbury (Antony Ashley Cooper), first Earl, 268-275 XLord Ashley), seventh Earl, 426 Sharp, Archbishop, 273 Sheffield, 423, 424 Shelburne, Lord, 365; Prime Minister, 367, 368 Sheridan, T. B., 365, 372 Sheriff, 21, 71, 80, 90, 234 Sheriffmuir, battle of, 322 Ship-money, 239-241, 243 Shiremoot, 21, 56, 57, 71, 83, 91 Shirley, 227 Shovel, Sir C, 306 Shrewsbury, 19, 139, 247 , battle of, 139 , Charles Talbot, Earl, then Duke of, 290, 294, 300, 314 , John Talbot, Earl of, 152, 156 Sicily, 77, 88, 323, 444 Sidmouth, Lord (Addington), 389-391, 401. 410, 415, 416 Sidney, Algernon, 276, 299 , Henry, 284 , Sir Philip, 215 Simnel, Lambert, 173 Siward, 33, 34 Six Acts, 410 Slave-trade, 214, 313, 323, 373 ; forbidden, 393 Slavery, abolition of, 425, 432 Slavs, 4 Sluys, battle of, 114 Smith, Adam, 372 , Sir Sidney, 385, 386 Sm3n'na Company, 229 Solemn League and Covenant, 240, 249, 252 Solferino, battle of, 444 Solway Moss, battle of, 192 Somers, Lord, 298, 300, 302, 303, 310 Somerset, Duke of, 314 , Duke of, Edmund (1), 153, 154, 156 , Duke of, Edmund (2), 161 , Duke of, John, 152 , Seymour, Duke of, 192, 194-199 Somme, river, 115, 145, 162 Sophia of Hanover, 301, 313, 314 Soudan, 451 Soult, Marshal, 397, 398, 402 South Sea Scheme, 324, 325 Southwold Bay, battle of, 270 Spa Field Riots, 410 Spain, 122, 176, 205 (see Philip IL); Spanish match, 227, 228, 231, 232, 260 ; Spanish succession, 301, 313, 336, 354, 362. 380. 396 474 Index. Spanish colonies, 213, 260, 313, 325, 336, 354, 415 Spencer, Charles JEarl of Sunderland, son), 309, 326, 327 , R. (Earl of Sunderland, father), 272, 278, 296 Spitalfield weavers, 417 Spithead, mutiny of, 382, 383 Spurs, battle of, 179 Stafford, 167 , Edward, Duke of Buckingham, 183 , Henry, Duke of Buckingham, 163- 166 , Sir H,, 154 , Sir W., 155 , Viscount, 273 Stair, Earl of, 338 Stamford, 27, 161 Bridge, battle of, 36 Stamp Act, 356, 357 Stanhope, General, 303 ; Earl, 321, 323, 324, 326, 327 Stanley, Lord, 164, 166 -, Mr., 423, 426; Lord, 434, 436 (Earl of Derby); Prime Minister, 439, 440, 446 , Sir W., 175 Star Chamber, 174, 175, 238, 239, 243 States-General (French), 378 Steinkirk, battle of, 295 Stephen of Blois, reign of, 59-62; cha- racter of, 59 Stephens, 447 Stephenson, George, 421 Stigand, Archbishop, 35, 42, 44 Stirling, 104, 107, 341 Stoke, battle of, 173 Stoney Stratford, 164 Strafford, Earl of (Wentworth), 235-23 ^ 240-242 Stratford, John, Archbishop, 114, 115 , Robert, 114 Strathclyde, 14, 28 Straw, jack, 128 Strode, 245 Stuart, Arabella, 225 , General, 394 • , Henry, Lord Darnley, 211 Subsidy, 234, 236, 241 Succession Act, 301 Suffolk, 14 , Charles Brandon, Duke of, 180 , Dukes of (see Pole, de la) , Henry Grey, Duke of 203 Sunderland, Earl of (1) (see Spencer) , Earl of (2) (see Spencer) Surajah Dowlah, 347 Surrey, 154 , Lord (1), 179 (see Howard) , Lord (2), 193 (see Howard) Sussex, county of, 154 , kingdom of, 12, 14, 16, 17, 19, 20 Sweyn, 30, 31 Swift, Dean, 328, 329 Switzerland, 390 Swynford, Katharine, 131, 142 Sydenham, Lord, 430 Syria, 385 Tacitus, 9 Taillebourg, battle of, 89 Talavera, battle of, 398 Talents, ministry of the, 392 Tallard, Marshal, 305, 306 Tancred, 77 Tangiers, 267 Tara, Hill of, 438 Tasmania, 408 Tavistock, 242 Teignmouth, 293 Tel-el-Kebir, battle of, 450 Telford, 374 Templars, Knights, 110, 188 Temple, Lord, 370 , Sir W., 272 Tenchebrai, battle of, 55 Test Act, 270, 280, 333, 419 , Universities', 448 Teutons, 4 Tewkesbury, battle of, 161 Thegns, King's, 22, 56 Theodore, Archbishop, 18 Therouenne, 179 Thirty Years' War begins, 231 Thistlewood, 413 Thor, 15 Throgmorton, 213 Thurkill, 31 Tiers Etat, 378 Tilsit, Treaty of, 396 Tintern Abbey, 187 Tippermuir, battle of, 252 Tippoo Sahib, 389 Tithe Commutation Act, 428 Tobago, 354, 368 Toleration Act, 290 Tone, Wolf, 388 Tonnage and Poundage, 227, 234, 236, 243 Tooke, Home, 381 Torbay, 285 Tories (Conservatives), 274, 300 ; num- bers of, 425, 427, 433, 447,448, 451, 452 Torres Vedras, 399-401 Torrington, Earl of (Herbert), 284, 293, Tostig, 33, 34-36 Toulon, 382, 384 Toulouse, 68 , battle of, 403 Touraine, 61, 75, 80 Tournay, 307, 308 .^^ Towns, 9, 10, 27, 58, 76 ; represent in Parliament, 91 ; support the Yorkists, 160 ; and the Parliament, 246 Townshend, Charles, 358 , Viscount, 320, 323, 327, 328, 333 Towton, battle of, 159, 160 Trade, 6, 7, 58, 84 ; with Flanders, 96, 113, 173, 174 ; with the East, 229, 257, 267, 296, 297; Indian, 346, 354; ex- pansion of, 374; depression of, 408, 409 5i7 Index. 475 Trading companies, 229 Trafalgar, battle of, 392 Traitorous Correspondence Act, 381 Transvaal, 450 Trastamare, Henry of, 122, 123 Treason Act, 124 trials, 199, 299 Treasonable Practices Act, 381 Treasurer, 56, 326, 327 Trevelyan, Sir Gr., 452 Treves, Archbishop of, 181 Trial, method of, 71 (see Treason trials) Trichinopoly, 344 Triennial Act, first, 242 ; second, 298, 323 Trinidad, 382 Triple Alliance, 269, 270 Troyes, Treaty of, 148 Tudor, Jasper, Earl of Pembroke, 158 , Owen, 165 Turanians, 5 Turuey, 177, 416, 413, 4L9, 440, 441, 448, 449 Company, 239 Tuscany, 444 Tutbury, 212 Tyler, Wat, 123 Tyrconnel, 281, 293 Ulster, 228, 293 Ulverston, 173 Uniformity, Act of, first, 196; second, 208 ; third, 266 Union of England, and Wales, 192; of England, Wales, and Scotland, 310 ; of Great Britain and Ireland, 388 United States (see American Colonies), 229, 362, 368, 393, 407, 444, 445 United Irishman, 438 Utopia, 184 Utrecht, Treaty of, 313, 322 Uxbridge, negotiations at, 251 Valence, William of (1), 88 , William of (2). 88, 90 Valmy, battle of, 379 Valois, Philip of, 112 Valparaiso, 214 Van Artaveld Jacques, 114, 118 Vane, Sir Henry, 260, 265 Van Tromp, 257 Vasco de Gama, 177 Vaudois, 261 Venables, 260 Vendome, Marshal, 307, 303 Venice, 444 Verneuil, battle of, 150 Vernon, Admiral, 337 Versailles, 368, 378 Victor Emmanuel, 408, 444, 445, 448 Victoria, 414; reign of, 429-452 Vienna, 305, 306, 403 Villars, Marshal, 307 Villeins, 119, 120, 128, 377 Villeneuve, Admiral, 391 Villiers, George, Duke of Buckingham (1), 230, 232, 234-236 , George, Duke of Buckingham (2), 268-271 Vimiero, battle of, 396, 397 Vincent, 431 Vinegar Hill, battle of, 388 Virginia Company, 230 founded, 214, 230, 231, 361 Vittoria, battle of, 402 Voltaire, 347 Volunteers, 390, 443 (Irish), 367 Wade, General, 340, 341 Wagram, battle of, 399 WagstafF, 260 Wakefield, battle of, 158 Walcheren, Island of, 398 ^Vales, Prince of, title of, 100 ; crest of, 117 , races of, 7 ; Christianity of, 16, 17 ; takes Edward the Elder as Lord, 27, 34, 44, 49, 92 ; conquest of, 99, 100, 132, 166 ; united to England, 192 Wallace, W., 104 Waller, Sir W., 248, 249, 251 Wallingford, 37, 62 Walls, Roman, 9, 10 Walpole, Sir Robert, 309, 312, 320, 323, 324, 326 ; Prime Minister, 327-329, 332- 337 Walsingham, Sir Francis, 212 Walter, Hubert, Archbishop, 77-80 Waltheof, 45 Walworth, 128 Wandewash, battle of, 350, 369 Warbeck, Perkin, 173, 174 Warenne, Earl, 102 Warrington, battle of, 253 Warwick, Guy, Earl of, 106, 107 , Richard Neville, Earl of, 155-158, 160, 161 Wash, the, 8, 84 Washington, 407 , George, 347, 361, 362, 364 Waterloo, battle of, 404, 405 Watling Street, 9, 10, 25, 37, 156 Watson, 225 Watt, James, 374 AVavre, battle of, 404 Wellesley, Sir A., 389, 397, 398 ; Lord Wellington, 400-402 (see Duke of) , Marquess of (Mornington), 389, 399, 401 Wellington, Duke of, 403, 404, 418; Prime Minister, 419, 420, 422, 424, 427, 434, 438 Welsh, 11, 49, 81, 102; at Crecy, 116; 132 Wentworth, Sir T. (Strafford), 235-237, 240-242 Wesley, Charles, 335 , John, 335 Wessex, 12, 14, 16, 19, 20, 24, 25, 27, 30, 31, 37 476 Index. Western counties, revolt of, 196, 197 Westminster, courts fixed at, 83, 98 Wexford, 256 Weymouth, 161 Wharton, Lord, 312 V> higs (Liberals), 274 ; sections of, 355 ; numbers of, 425, 427, 433, 447, 448, 451, 452 Whitby, 18 Whitefield, 335 Whitehall, 254 Whitelocke, General, 394 Wigan, battle of, 253 Wilberforce, 373, 393, 425 Wilkes, J"., 355, 356, 358-360, 366 Wills, 54 William I., 34-37 ; reign of, 42-47 ; cha- racter of, 42, 47, 48 n., reign of, 48-52 ; character of, 48 IIL, 271-275, 282, 284-287; reign of, 289-303 ; character of, 289, 303 IV., 414; reign of, 420-428; cha- racter of, 421 L, of Prussia, 407, 445, 448 Clito, 57 Fitz-Osbern, 42 of Valence (1), 88 ^of Valence (2), 88, 90 , son of Henry I., 57 - the Lion, 74, 101 Wilmington (Sir Spencer Compton), 332 ; Prime Minister, 337 Wilton, battle of, 24 , Lord Grey de, 225 Winceby, battle of, 249 Winchester, 53 Winwidfleld, battle of, 17 Witena-gemot, 21, 22, 35, 37, 56, 91 (see Magnum Concilium and Parliament) Woden, 15, 22 Wolfe, General, 349, 350 Wolseley, Colonel, 293 ■ , Lord, 450 Wolsey, Cardinal, 180-185 Wolverhampton, 423 Worcester, 247 , battle of, 257 Wulfhere, 19 York, 9, 18, 108, 190, 212, 241, 246; siege of, 249, 250 , Edmund, Duke of, 127, 131, 138 , Frederick. Duke of, 382. 386, 414, 418, 420 , J^ichard, Duke of (1), 145, 152-158 , Pdchard, Duke of (2), 165, 173 Yorkists, 169, 160 Yorkshire Petition, 363 Zurich, 386 Zutphen, 215 ^°--^^ a ^^ '^O .-iO.