.1 4*1 • 1 nnr\ ' " v ■ 1 Class___ Rnnk LZ PRESENTED BY X. A MANUAL OF ENGLISH HISTORY, FOR THE USE OF SCHOOLS. by EDWARD M. LANCASTER, PRINCIPAL OF THE STOUGHTON SCHOOL, BOSTON, MASS. NEW YORK •:• CINCINNATI •:• CHICAGO AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1877, by EDWARD M. LANCASTER, ftn the Office of the Librarian of Congrees at Washington. W. D.Joimatofl fi>rtntc5 b$ H. S. JBarnes & Company •fl-lcw L'orl;, 11. 5. H. PREFACE. This " Manual of English History " has been prepared to meet the wants of those schools whose limited time forbids an extended eourse of study. The mere com- mittal to memory of the names of kings and isolated events, however important, is in no proper sense a study of history. There should be enough of explana- tion and detail to make intelligible the relation which one event bears to another, that is, the cause and effect of events. The author has sought, therefore, in the preparation of this Manual, to arrange, in the briefest manner consistent with clearness, the essential facts of English History. The most valuable lesson to be learned by American youth from the history of the Mother Country, is the worth of liberty, civil and religious. The struggle be- tween the king and the people, the one striving to main- tain the Royal Prerogative and the other to secure their Natural Rights, was happily over long before we be- came an independent nation. The principles, estab- lished by the Revolution of 1688, stand an enduring monument of the triumph of the people. Our consti- tution is but the matured product of that long and painful struggle, and a just conception of the one can be gained only by a careful study of the other. If the youth of our land, however few in number, shall be aided, by the use of this brief work, in form- IT PREFACE. ing u juoL estimate of the free institutions under which they live, the highest object of the author will have been accomplished. Among the many works consulted in the prepara- tion of this Manual, special acknowledgments are due to " Knight's Popular History of England," val- uable for its fulness of detail ; and " Green's Short History of the English People," which, in the masterly comprehension and vivid expression of the spirit of English history, stands absolutely without a peer. The author remembers thankfully the assistance of numerous friends. He takes great pleasure in men- tioning the name of his esteemed friend, Henry B. Miner, Master of the Dorchester-Everett School of this city, to whom he is especially indebted for many valu- able suggestions. B. K. L Boston, 1883. KINGS OF ENGLAND. SAXON LINE. HOUSE OP LANCASTER. ... 827— 838—11 838— 857—20 857— 800— 3 8 ( ;ii— 8GG— 6 8G0— 871— 5 871— 901—30 901— 925—24 925— 911—16 941— 948— 7 918- »55- 7 955— 959— 4 959— 975—10 975— 978- 3 978— 1010— 3S 1016—1017— 1 1399—1413—14 1413—1422— 8 1422—1401-39 HOUSE OF YORK. Edward the Elder.. Atbelstan 1461-1483—22 1483. 74 days 1483 1485 — 2 Edward the Martyr TUDOR FAMILY. 1485—1509—24 1599—1547—38 1547—1553— 6 1553—1558— 6 1658—1603—44 1017—1035-18 1035— 1U39— 3 1039—1942— 2 Edward— Saxou.... Harold n— Saxon.. 1042— 1 005-24 1005-1066— 1 STUART FAMILY. NORMAN LINE. 1603—1625—22 1025 1649—24 1006—1087-21 1087—1100-13 lloo— ll;!5-35 1136—1154—19 1949—1660—11 1600—1685—25 1085 1688— 3 Henry I 1089—1702—13 1702—1714—12 PLANTAGENET FAMILY. HOUSE OP BRUNSWICK. 1154—1189-35 1189— 1199— 10 119:4— 1210— 17 1216—1272—56 1272—1397—35 1307—1327—20 1327—1377—50 1377—1399—22 1714-1727-13 1727—1700—33 1700—1820—60 1820— 1830— 1C 1830—1837— 7 1837- 1 (*) NAMES OF KINGS AND LEADING TOPICS Roman Conquest and Occupation — the first four centuries. Saxon Conquest and Heptarchy — the next four centuries. Reign of Saxon Kings and Danish Invasions — the ninth and tenth centuries. Danish Conquest and Reign of Danish and Saxon Kings — the eleventh century. •£ P „,..„,, LEADING TOPICS. ■5 t c5 NAMES OF KINGS William I. — Norman Rule — Saxon Rebellion — The Feudal System. William II. — Beginning of the Crusades — The System of Chivalry. Henry I. — First Charter of Liberties — Union of Saxon and Norman Families — Robert, Duke of Normandy. Stephen — Usurpation — Civil War and Anarchy — Compromise with Henry. Henry II. — Plantagenct Rule— Establishment of Order — Constitutions of Clarendon and Thomas & Becket — Courts of Justice. Richard I. — The Knight and Crusader — Usurpation of John. John — Contest with the Pope — Rebellion of Barons — Magna Chnrta. 3™. Henry III. — Rebellion of Barons —Simon de Montfort — House of Common* £ ?* — Prince Edward and the Holy Land. r = Edward I. — Conquest of Wales — War with Scotland — Arbitrary Taxation jf o Forbidden. "■"" Edward II. — War with Scotland— Rebellion — Deposition of Edward. Edward HI. —War with Scotland — War with France for the Crown— Chiv- ^ ^ airy and the Black Frince. j§ .3 Richard II. —Wat Tyler's Rebellion — Chaucer— Wickliffe and the First s ,® Reformation. £" Henry IV. — House of Lancaster — Rebellions — Persecution of Reformers. " "™ Henry V. — Reformation Suppressed — Conquest of France — The Navy. Henry VI. — Joan of Arc and the Loss of France — Jack Cide's Rebellion — Wars of the Roses. ^f Edward IV. — House of York — Wars of the Roses — William Caxton and the Art of Printing. Edward V. — Usurpation of Richard, Duke of Gloucester Richard III. — Wars of the Roses ended with the death of Rlohard at Rosworth. NAMES OF KINGS AND LEADING TOPICS. vii NAMES OF KINGS LEADING TOPICS. Henry VII. — Tudor Family — Union of York and Lancaster — Simncl awl Warbeek — Discovery of America — Revival of Learning. — . Henry VIII. — Catherine of Aragonand Cardinal VVolsey — Progress of Learn- | = ing — Separation from Rome and the Reformation. fj g Edward VI. — Reformation Continued — Duke of Northumberland and Lady <* ° Jane Grey. Mary — Reconciliation with Rome and Persecution of Protestants — Philip of Spain — Calais. Elizabeth — Church of England — Mary, Queen of Scots — Philip and the Armada — Maritime Supremacy — Great Names. James I. —Stuart Family — Union of Crowns — Gunpowder Plot — Transla- tion of the Bible — Settlement of America. Charles I. — Illegal Taxation and Civil War — Petition of Right — Trial and Execution of Charles. = i, The Commonwealth.— The Monarchy Abolished and Commonwealth Established— is J; Cromwell and the Protectorate. § S Charles II. — The Restoration — Plague and Fire — Habeas Corpus Act — •o Popish and Itye House Plots. James II. — Monmouth's Rebellion — Attempt to Restore Catholicism — The Revolution. William and Mary. — Rebellion in Ireland — War with France and Peace oi Ryswick — Bill of Rights — English Constitution. Anne. — War of Spanish Succession and Peace of Utrecht — Union of England and Scotland — The Augustan Age of English Literature. 5 . George I. — House of Brunswick — The Elder Pretender — The South Sea g ^ Scheme. =) H George II. — Walpole and his Policy — War of Austrian Succession and Peace o ° of Aix-la-Chapelle — The Younger Pretender — Seven Years' War — William Pitt— India. George III. — Peace of Paris — Canada — American Revolution — French Revolution — Second War with the United States. George IV. — Independence of Greece — Catholic Emancipation Act. William IV. — Reform Bill of 1832 — Abolition of Slavery. Victoria. — Repeal of the Corn Laws — the Navigation Acts — and the Lawi c _ against Jews. Passage of Laws disestablishing the Irish Church — | £» extending the Elective Franchise — substituting the Ballot for open 5 •£ voting — and founding a System of Public Schools. Wars with China ^ <3 and the Opening of Ports — the Crimean War — the Sepoy Rebellion — Civcl War iu the United States and the Alabama Claims. GENEALOGICAL TABLE. SAXON LINE. Egbekt. Ethelwolf. 1 » I I I Ethelbald. Ethelbert. Ethelred i. Alfred. DANISH LINE. 8WF.YN. Canute I. I Edward the Elder, athelstan. Edmund. Edred, Harold. Edwy. Edgar. Canute II. Edward the Martyr. Ethelred II NORMAN LINE. William the Conqueror. Edmund Ironside. Edward the Outlaw. I Margaret. Robert. William II. Henry I. Adela. Matilda. Stephen. Edward the Confessor. Earl Godwin. I Harold II. Matilda. Henry II. Union of Saxon and Norman Familie* Richard I. Cteur de Lion. Geoffrey Arthur. Eleanor. Murdered by John, John. Henry III. I Edward I. I Edward II. I Edward III. GENEALOGICAL TABLE. IX Edward III. I Bdward, the Black Prince. RICHARD II. Lionel, Duke of Clarence. i Philippa. I Mortimer. I John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. I Edmund, Duke of York Edmund Mortimer, Sari of March. Anne I Henry IV. Henry v. I HENRY VI. Furl of Richard, Somerset. Karl of Cambridge. Duke of Edward IV. Union of second and Somerset. Richard. fourth branches. | _J ' I Richard III. Edward V. Richurd. Elizabeth. The Smothered Prince*. Union of York ami Lancaster. Margaret. Henry VII Henry VIII. MABY, Daughter of Catherine Of Aragon. Elizabeth, Daughter of Anne Boleyn, Edward VI. S071 Of Jane Seymour. Margaret Mary, married James IV. | of Scotland. Frances. | I James V. Jane Grey. I Mary, Queen of' Scots. James I. I Charles I. Elizabeth. Charles II. Mary. Anne. James II. (James. X Charles. / The Pretenders. Union of Stuart and Nassau. Mary married Prince of Natsau William III. Sophia married Elector of Hanover. George I. George II. I Prince of Wale*. George IIL Geobob IV. William IV. Duke of Kent. I Victoria. THE BRITISH EMPIRE. The British Empire includes the Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and all its colonies and dependencies, having a population of more than 250,000,01)0, and an area of more than 8,300,000 square miles. EUROPEAN. The British Islands, the Channel Islands, Malta, Gozo, and Gibraltar. ASIATIC. British India, Ceylon, Aden, Malacca, Singapore, Prince ot Wales' Island, Hong-Kong, Sarawak, Labuan, and Cyprus. AUSTRALIAN. Australia, Tasmania, Norfolk Islands, New Zealand, Chat- ham Islands, and the Fiji Islands. AFRICAN. Cape Colony, Natal, Gambia and the Gold Coast, Sierra Leone; the single Islands — Ascension, Mauritius, and St. Helena ; and the groups — Seychelles, Amiraute, and the Chagos. NORTH AMERICAN. British America including Nova Scotia and Cape Breton Island, New Brunswick, Prince Edward's Island, Quebec, On- tario, Manitoba, British Columbia, the Northwest Territory, and Newfoundland, all, except the last named, being united under the title of the Dominion of Canada ; Balize, and th« Bermudas. SOUTH AMERICAN. British Guiana, and the Falkland Islands. WEST INDIAN. Jamaica, the Bahamas, Trinidad, and most cf the Lesser An- tilles. (10) CHAPTER I. The Britons. We know little of the early history of Brilain. From rude relics found in the soil, we conclude that the island was once inhabited by a race of savages who disappeared before a superior people that, at some unknown period, crossed from the Conti- nent of Europe. These Celtic invaders were found in sole possession when the Romans first visited the island, about half a century before Christ. They were a bar- barous people, divided into numerous tribes, whose principal employment was war. Their weapons were spears and broadswords, with blades of bronze, and they also used wicker shields covered with skins, and chariots armed with projecting scythes, in which, drawn by trained horses, they rode at full speed into the very midst of their foes. Their homes were huts and caves in the forests which, at that time, covered nearly all the land. They subsisted upon their flocks and herds, and the products of the chase, and wore little clothing, pointing their bodies blue, and covering them with hideous tat- tooes to make themselves terrible to their enemies in battle. But those occupying the southwestern corner of the island were superior to the rest, having been visited, from time immemorial, by other nations, for the tin found in the mines of that section. Even the mer- chants of ancient Tyre and Sidon, occasionally sent ships to barter Phcrnician wares for British tin. 12 THE BRITONS. Druidism. The Britons professed a religion called Druidism. They worshiped one Supreme Being, of whom they had no just conception, and numerous in- ferior deities, to whom they offered human sacrifices. The heavenly bodies occupied a prominent place among these inferior deities. They believed in a future state of existence, in which rewards and punishments were meted out according as men's conduct had been good or bad in this life. Much of the power and all the learning were confined to the priests, called Druids. They made the laws, administered justice, and were the sole instructors of the young. Nothing was committed to writing, and education consisted in receiving from the lips of the Druids and committing to memory a great number of verses on Geography, Astronomy, and Religion. The priests performed their mystic rites in temples, each formed of a circular row of huge stones standing upright with the altar in the centre, open to the heavens above, and located in groves of their sacred tree, the oak. Remains of these temples still exist in various places, the most notable at Stonehengo on Salisbury Plain. Their most holy place was the Island of Mona, now Anglesea, just across the Menai Strait. Their most solemn festival occurred on the sixth day of the moon nearest the tenth of March, their New Year's day, when the chief Druid, clothed in white robes, with a golden knife cut the sacred mistletoe from the oak to which it chins:. There were three other festivals of special interest to the English people, since to them may be traced the festivities of May-day, Mid-summer- TILE KOMAN CONQUEST. 13 eve, and Hiirvest-hoiue, celebrating respectively the sowing of the seed, the ripening of the crops, and the gathering of the harvests. First Soman Invasion. Britain, lying to the west of the continent, and separated from it by quite an ex- panse of water, was too insignificant to excite either en- mity or cupidity, and long escaped the notice of Konie, the "Mistress of the World." It was only when the tide of Roman conquest had reached the western shore of Europe, that the scheme of its addition to the Empire was first conceived. Julius Caesar, having nearly com- pleted the subjugation of the Gauls, crossed the Channel with two legions, and landed just beyond the clhTs of Dover, B.C. 55. The Britons, warned of the purpose of Caesar, had gathered in large numbers to oppose his land- ing. Though they were driven back, and repeatedly beaten, so stubborn were they, that Caesar did not ven- ture far from the coast, and was glad to accept their of- fers of peace and return to Gaul. But the next year he returned with a much larger force, five legions or thirty thousand foot soldiers, and two thousand horse. Having conquered the country for some distance beyond the Thames, compelling the chiefs to pay tribute and give hostages, Caesar again withdrew from British soil. Second Roman Invasion. Occupied with weightier matters, the Romans soon practically forgot their distant and worthless conquest, and the Britons were left for aearly a century to take care of themselves. During iris period, a growing trade and a better acquaintance with their neighbors on the continent, had done some- thing towards their civilization, attracting the attention 14 THE ROMAN CONQUEST. of the Emperor Claudius, who began, in the year of our Lord 43, a seeond and more difficult conquest. Caractacus. Caractacus, the most important of the chiefs at that time, putting himself at the head of the inland tribes, for eight years held the Romans at bay, when he was captured and taken to Rome to grace the triumph of his captor. "Is it possible that a people possessed of so much magnificence at home could covet my humble cottage in Britain," exclaimed the wondering barbarian as he gazed on the glories of Rome ! His kingly bearing won the respect of the Emperor, who restored him to liberty, and this is the last we hear of the noble Briton. Slaughter of the Druids. The Druids possessed almost unlimited power over the people, and this power they had used to the utmost, to arouse them to bitter hostility to Roman authority. Suetonius, the Roman general and governor, resolving to strike a decisive blow, in the year 01, crossed the strait of Menai and landed on the sacred shore of Mona. For a moment even Roman soldiers faltered, as they listened to the shrieks and imprecations of frantic priests and priestesses, and beheld the host of painted war- riors gathered to defend their altars; then pressing resolutely forward, this stronghold of British supersti- tion and British power was soon in their possession, and Druidism received a fatal blow in the slaughter of its priests, and the destruction of its groves and temples. Boadicea. During the absence of Suetonius a fresh insurrection broke out under Boadicea, widow of the King of the Icenians. Stung to madness by shameful abuse, THE ROMAN CONQUEST. 15 wnen protesting against the seizure of all her wealth by Roman officials, she went from tribe to tribe exciting the warriors to phrensy with the story of her wrongs. Under her lead they suddenly fell upon the Roman settlements, and seventy thousand soldiers and citizens were put to the sword. Suetonius hurried back from Mona to wreak a terrible vengeance on the Britons in arms. In a great battle fought near London, eighty thousand warriors sealed with their blood their devo- tion to their country, and the spirited queen, unwilling to survive the slaughter of her people and the destruc- tion of her hopes, put an end to her own life. The Roman Conquest. But the Britons were still unsubdued, and it remained for Agricola (who became Governor in the year 78), by the practice of justice and humanity as w r ell as soldierly skill , to reconcile them to Roman authority. Under the firm but liberal policy of Agricola and his successors, the Britons rapidly improved. They gave up their heathenish rites and savage customs, and adopted the manners, dress, and, to some extent, the language of the Romans. They became peaceful and industrious. Wide stretches of gloomy forests gave place to fields of waving grain ; and the mines of tin, lead, and iron began to be worked in earnest. Their surplus products found a ready market abroad, giving rise to a moderate but increasing commerce. The con- struction by the Romans of a system of public roads not only facilitated the transportation of troops to needed points, but hastened the development of the country and the civilization of its inhabitants. A wall of solid stone, twelve feet high and eight feet thick, H> THE SAXON CONQUEST. running from the mouth of the Tyne to the Solway Firth. a distance of sixty-eight miles, was built by the Emperoi Severus to protect the Britons from the incursions of the Scots and Picts, "vild and warlike tribes occupying the highlands of Caledonia. Rome continued in un- disturbed possession of Britain until the year 420, when bhe recalled her soldiers to repel the Goths, who were pouring from their German homes into Italy in vast numbers, threatening even Rome itself. The Saxon Conquest. The Romans had no sooner left the island than the Scots and Picts, boldly crossing the wall of Severus, renewed their ravages in the northern districts. The Britons, weakened by long subjection to Rome, were unable to defend themselves ; and, after a vain appeal to the Emperor Ilonorius for help, called to their aid the Saxons, Angles, and Jutes. These were fierce people inhabiting the peninsula of Jutland and the country around the mouths of the Elbe and Weser rivers, who, roaming about the waters of the North and Baltic seas in their pirate boats, had long been the scourge of all the adjoining coasts. They en- tered Britain under the command of their brave chief- tains, Hengist and Horsa, in the year 449, and quickly compelled the northern marauders to retire to their native highlands. But, attracted by the mildness of the climate and the beauty and fertility of the country, and finding, in con- nection with the promised reward, a pretext for a quar- rel, they soon turned their arms against the Britons themselves. The latter, compelled to fight in defence of their homes, gradually recovered their ancient valor. For a century and a half the struggle for mastery in THE SAXON CONQUEST. 17 the island went on, fresh hordes of Germans pouring in, from time to time, to the help of their countrymen. The battle of Chester, fought in the year 607, estab- ished, beyond a doubt, the supremacy of the invaders. The districts still occupied by the natives being severed one from another, could no longer act in concert, and the struggle, though lingering, ceased to have a national character. The brave but hapless Britons, beaten on all sides, and pursued with lire and sword, at last found a safe retreat among the mountain fastnesses of Wales and Cornwall. There, animated by a burning love of liberty, they continued in almost unbroken war for six hundred years, defying the whole power of Eng- land to subdue them; and there, their descendants, the Welsh, live to-day, a hardy, vigorous race, and at one with the English, who have long since shared with them the blessings of a common country. During the Roman occupation, Christianity had sup- planted the native religion. The Latin language, too, had gradually come into use, especially among the upper classes and in the larger towns. The entire disappear- ance of Christianity, and both the Latin and native lan- guages, attests the thoroughness of the German or An- glo-Saxon conquest. A few slaves held for the pleasure or profit of the conquerors were all that were left of the native population. King Arthur. Of the many heroic Britons, who struggled against the German conquest, the most fa- mous, whose name has come down to us, is Arthur, chief of one of the tribes in the West. But so much of fable has been woven into the story of this patriot Briton and Ms sixty "Knights of the Round Table," that we can 18 THE SAXON CONgUEST. only say with confidence, that such :i prince lived and bravely fought the enemies of his country. The Heptarchy. The conquerors gradually estab- lished separate kingdoms as they won new territory, each having its independent king. Seven of these. from their greater prominence, have been called, in history, the Heptarchy.* After the Saxons had be come firmly established in their new homes, and the sharpness of the struggle with the Britons had begun to decline, jealousy and ambition for pre-eminence involved them in Avars with one .•mother. Constant changes, therefore, took place in the number and boundaries of the kingdoms. The stronger gradually absorbed the weaker, until Wessex, under its vigorous king Egbert, brought them all under one government in the year 827. Introduction of Christianity. Britain first became Christian under Rome, but how or when is not known. Possibly, a Christian soldier in a Roman legion told the story ol' the Cross at a native fireside, or some name- Less but devoted priest, going on a mission to heathen Britain, achieved a conquest under the banners of the Cross, more glorious than that o\' Roman arms. St. Al- ban is recorded to have suffered martyrdom as early as the year 304. With the advent of the Anglo-Saxons * Kent, or Cmuia, was founded by Hengist,in 457. South Saxony, or Su« sox, by Ella, in 190. Wkst Saxony, or Wos^ox., by Cerdic, in 519. East Six- on voi Kssrx. by Erei'W m,in5-'7. XouTHUMitKULANi) (North of the Uuinber) by Ida, in M7. East Anglia, comprising Norfolk (North folks ) and Suffolk (South folks ) by Uffu, in 5T.">. Mkkcia (Marchmen, or people on fie march 01 frontier ) by Cridda, in 68a. THE SAXON CONQUEST. 19 the Christian religion disappeared, and, for a century and a half, Britain remained under a paganism more debasing than that of the Druids. Christianity was introduced, a second time, by Augus- tiiu'* and a hand of forty monks from Home, in the yeai 597. Ethelbert, king of Kent, who married Bertha, a Christian lady, and daughter of the king of Paris, was the first convert. Ilis people followed his exam- ple and accepted Christianity. Augustine became Archbishop of Canterbury, the head of the church of England, and his successors have retained their supe- riority ever since. Ethelbert's daughter Ethelburh, married Edwin, king of Northumbria, and through her influence and that of her priest Paulinus, Edwin and his people were converted. The other kingdoms became Christian during the next century. Anglo-Saxon Religion. The principal deity of the Anglo-Saxons was Woden, the God of war, from whom all their royal families claimed descent; the next in rank being Thor, or Thunder, the God of storms. Each day of the week was dedicated to a particular deity, from whom it received its name — a name it still continues ♦The venerable Bedc, our principal authority for early English history, tells how Christianity was now introduced into Britain. Gregory, a priest, one day saw in the market-place of Rome, some very beautiful boys for sale, and asked who they were and whence they came. He was told they were heathen boys from the Isle of Britain. He then asked the name of their nation. " Jingles," was the answer. "Angles," said Gregory, " they have the faces of Angtls, and they ought to be made fellow-heirs of the Angels in Heaven. But •f what tribe of Angles are they?" "Of Deira," was the reply. "Deira!" said Gregory, " then they must be delivered from the wrath of God. And what Is the name of their king?" ".JElla." "ASUaHhen Alleluia shall be sung in his land." Sometime afterwards Gregory became pope and sent Augustine and forty other monks to convert the English. 20 THE SAXON CONQUEST. to bear.* Like barbarous tribes in general, making the future existence a realization of their highest ideal of the present life, they filled their Valhalla or Heaven with scenes of war, where happy Saxons would live for- ever, occupying the days in the slaughter of their ene- mies, and the nights in wild carousals of victory. Anglo-Saxon Government. The king was assisted in the government by a great council, called Witenagemot, or "Assembly of the Wise," composed of the great no- bles, the Ealdormen or Earls, and, after the introduc- tion of Christianity, Bishops and Abbots. This council met regularly at Christmas, Easter and Whitsuntide, and on special occasions when summoned. At the death of the king it assembled to elect his successor, who was taken from the royal family, but was not always the next in line. Besides the Earls, who acted as judges and rulers in their districts, there was an inferior class of nobles, called Thanes, men who had risen to nobility by personal attendance on the king. The Churls were freemen of the middle and lower classes, tho lowest class of all being the Serfs, or slaves, who composed about two-thirds of the inhabitants. •Sunday, (Sun's day), or day for tho worship of the sun. Monday (Moon's day) or day for the worship of the moon. Tiesday (Tiw's day) the day of tho Dark God Tiw, to meet whom was death. Wednesday (Wodeu's day) the day of Woden, the War God. Thursday (Thor's day) the day of Thor, the God of storms. Friday (Frea's day) the day of Frea, tin goddess of peace and fruitfulness. Saturday (Saturn's day) the day of Sat* urn, a God borrowed from Roman Mythology. CHAPTER H. The Saxon Line, 827 to 1017-190 years. EGBEET. ETHELWOLF. ETHELBALD. ETHELBEET. ETHELEED I. ALFEED THE GEEAT. EDWAED THE ELDEE. ATHELSTAN. EDMUND I. EDEED. EDWY. EDGAE. EDWAED THE MAETYE. ETHELEED II. Egbert — S27 to 83 7 — 10 years. Saxon. The Danish Invasions. Egbert called the country England from the Angles, the most powerful of the three tribes. This is generally regarded as the begin- ning of the English monarchy. No sooner were the different kingdoms united under one government and at peace among themselves, than a new danger appeared from without. Inroads began to be made by the Danes, a piratical people of Denmark, who, descend- ing upon the eastern coast during the summer, would load their boats with plunder, and retire tor the winter to their strongholds on the shores of the North and Baltic Seas. They came year after year in ever increas- ing numbers, until at last, from pirate bands in search of plunder, they grew into invading armies bent on conquest. They planted themselves at various points along the coast, and waged perpetual war with the English in the interior. 22 EGBERT. They even colonized the coast of Ireland, forcing the inhabitants back into the interior. From the reign of Egbert to that of Ethelred the Unready, a period of nearly two hundred years, the struggle between Saxon and Dane went on, ending as we shall see a little later, in the establishment of Danish rule. Egbert was succeeded by Ethelwolf, a good and pious king, who was followed by his four sons in succession. Ethelbald, who died lamented by his people; Ethel- bert, a vicious and unworthy king; Ethelred I, a brave soldier, under whom Alfred learned the art of war, and whom he succeeded. Alfred the Great, 871 to 901 — 30 years. Saxon. War with the Danes. During the early part of his reign, Alfred was engaged in constant warfare with the Danes. Defeated in battle after battle by the overwhelm- ing number of his foes, he was compelled, for a time, to hide in a secluded spot in the swamps and forests of Somersetshire, still known as Athelney, or Prince's Island.* Wishiug to learn the strength and arrange- ment of the Danish camp, he presented himself before Guthrum, the Danish king, disguised as a minstrel. * Alfred, while a refugee, found temporary shelter in a herdsman's cottago. The herdsman's wife one day set him to watch some cakes that were baking over the fire; but Alfred, intent on mending his bow, let the cakes burn, and was sharply reproved by the indignant woman when she returned. The whole story may be a mere legend or come from an ancient ballad. There are two old Latin verses that quaintly express the good woman's alleged i«proof: — " Urere quos cernis panes gyrare moraris, Quum illinium gaudes hos manducare calentes." " There, don't you see the cakes on fire? Then wherefore turn them not? You are glad enough to eat them when they are piping hot." ALFRED THE GREAT. 23 For several days he amused the unsuspicious Danes with harp and song, when, having gained the desired information, he disappeared as mysteriously as he had come. Putting himself at the head of his trusted fol- lowers, he made a sudden attack on the Danish camp and gained a signal victory. By treaty, Guthrum and his followers received bap- tism, withdrew from Wessex, Alfred's native kingdom, and settled in the eastern districts as nominal vassals of the English king. Peace was broken after an inter- val of ten years by the arrival of Hastings, the famous sea-king, with a great fleet. Alfred once more took the held, and by his skill and genius the Danish fleet was captured, its army routed, and Hastings compelled to take refuge in France. Alfred's Government. Peace being restored, Alfred devoted the few remaining years of his life to the bet- ter organization of his kingdom and the elevation of his people. He invited wise men of other nations to his court, and founded schools of learning, among them the University of Oxford. He translated into the English tongue, portions of the Scriptures, the history of Bede, the early English chronicler, and Latin works of merit, and thus gave an impulse to learning. He compiled a code of laws, chiefly from the systems of his predecessors, containing principles of the greatest value in modern jurisprudence. He organized a mili- tia, and divided the country into counties, hundreds, and tens, after the old Saxon system, making each section responsible for the good behavior of its inhabitants. So complete and successful was his system of government, that violence and disorder disappeared from the land. 24 ALFRED THE GREAT. The boast is handed down to us that gold and jewels, left unguarded by the roadside, would remain untouched by dwellers or passers-by. As a soldier, statesman, and scholar, Alfred has never been surpassed by any English sovereign. Alfred's Successors. lie was succeeded, in order, by Edward the Elder, who first assumed the title of King of England, — Athelslan, a good and valiant king, who caused the Bible to be translated into Anglo-Saxon, and a copy placed in every church in the kingdom, — ■ Edmund, who was stabbed at his own table by the ban- ished robber, Leolf, — Edwy, whose romantic marriage with his beautiful cousin Elgiva brought upon both the vengeance of Dunstan the Abbot, Elgiva dying by vio- lence, and Edwy with grief,' — Edgar the proud but peaoeable, — Edward the Martyr, young and promising, who was killed at the gate of Corfe Castle, by order of his step-mother, — and then by Ethelred the Unready. Massacre of Danes. Ethelred, afraid to fight the Danes in an open and manly way, purchased peace by promising to pay them an annual tribute, called Dane- gelt, raised by a tax on land, the first on record in England. This tax proving very unpopular, Ethelred planned a massacre o\' all the Danes in the kingdom as the easiest way of getting rid of both Danegelt and Danes. The Danish Conquest. This massacre took place on the Festival of St. Brice, in the year 1002, and so enraged Sweyn, king of Denmark, whose sister, a hostage of peace, was among the slain, that he assem- bled a large army, transported it to the English coast, and commenced the work of Vengeance. Through and TUE DANISH CONQUEST. 25 through the kingdom of Wessex went the furious Dane, "lighting his war beacons as he wont." Leaving behind him only the bodies of the dead and the ashes of their dwellings. Ethelred fled to France, aud Sweyn became kino- of England, establishing the Danish authority in the year 1013. Sweyn died before coronation, and for a short time, the Saxon line was restored in the peison of Ethelred, and then in that of his son Edmund, called Lrouside. Between the latter and Canute, son of Sweyn, there was a short and furious war to decide Which should be king, ending in the division of the country between them. The death ot' Edmund soon •lfter, led to the submission of all England to the rule ol Canute. Comparison between Saxon and Danish Conquests. A brief comparison should be made between the Saxon and Danish conquests. The Saxons and Danes were of the same Teutonic stock, and in their Grermau homes spoke the same language with dialectical differences. They worshiped the same heathen gods, and had essen- tially the same laws and customs. The Saxons had, long before their invasion of Britain, roamed about the ■ waters of the German ocean in fleets of black pirate- boats, swarming up all the rivers and scouring all the coasts in search of plunder, it was while they were on just such a piratical raid, that the Britons first obtained their help against the Scots and Picts. So clouds {>{' Danish pirates hovered about the Eng- lish coast before the Danish invasion, plundering their somewhat civilized and christianized Saxon kindred. The Saxons were a century and a half in com- pleting their conquest, the Danes somewhat longer in 2G THE DANISH CONQUEST. effecting theirs. There was the same savage ferocity in battle, and the same ruthless slaughter oi' the con- quered. The Danes regarded the Saxons as renegades from their ancienl faith, and so it was, in either ease, a uar of heathenism on Christianity. But the final results were widely different. There was nothing in common between Briton and Saxon. and the war they waged was, on the part of the latter, one oi' extermination. But there was much in com- mon between Saxon and Dane, and they could easily assimilate. The barbarism of the conquering Dane yielded io the civilization oi' the conquered Saxon, so that, in process ot" time, the former became, as it were, transformed into the latter. CHAPTER HI. Danish Line, 1017 to 1042 — 25 years. CANUTE THE GREAT. HABDICANUTE. HAEOLD. Vaunts the (.rent, 1017 to 1035— 18 years. Danish. The Reign of Canute. Canute well deserved to he called the Great, lie enlarged his kingdom, then com- prising England and Denmark, by bringing under his sway Norway and Sweden. But his chief claim to greatness rests not on his exploits in war, but his achievements in peace. Coming to England from his native Denmark a tierce and blood-thirsty savage, he became in time a good, wise, and great king, * impar- tial in his sway over Saxon and Dane. Peace and the welcome sounds o\' industry soon took the place of wai and its horrid din. By -wise and popular laws, rigidly but impartially executed, he united and harmonized the discordant kingdoms, and healed the animosities of the •His oourtiers, wishing to Hatter him by exalting his power, onoe told him thathe was lord alike or sea and 'ami. and would beobeyed by both. Wishing to show them how foolish as well as impions these praises were, lie gave orders dint his throne should bo oarried to the seashore at Bonthampton, and sit down upon it while the tide was coming in. " Now." said he. " O sea, Iain thy lord; oome no nearer, presume not to we' my feel I '' Phe waves, ol course, Instead of attending to him, rolled on. till they Rowed around hi* throne and washed over his I'eer. Turning to his attendants, he hade them remember thai theieis only One who can say to the deep, "S > far Shalt thon go, and no further; and here shall thy proud waves be staved." He afterwards bung up !{' Edward. He affirmed that Edward, with whom he had been educated at his father's oourt, had even promised him the kingdom, and that Harold, when onoe wrecked on the ooast of Normandy and thrown into William's power, had swoio to support his ela'nn. However this may be, OU hearing of Harold's eleotion, William, "speechless with rage," at once commenced the most vigorous preparations to enforoe his ela'nn. lie built a great fleet, and gathered about him an army oi' sixty thousand knights, the flower of the chivalry oi' Normandy : and having ftrst obtained the Pope's sanction to the enterprise, crossed the channel, and landed on the coast oi' England, tin* last of September. Battle of Hastings, A. 1). 1066. William's merci- less ravages oi' the adjoining country brought Harold to battle at Senlao,* near Hastings, about the middle of Ootober. After a desperate struggle of nine hours' duration, just at dusk, Harold tell, pierced to the brain with an arrow, and his broken and panie-strieken army tied away during the night. William entered London in triumph, two months later, and was crowned, on Christmas day, at Westminster. This is called, hi history, the Conquest. * * in commemoration o( his victory, William bail! :t Monastery called Battle Abbey, iiii (he very spot where Harold's standard bad been planted. Although tin* i ,ta long tinoe paaaed away, Its suooeasor, m nuns, reminds the traveller of the (amOUS battle of Basting*. CHAPTER IV. Norman Lino, 1066 to 1151 — SS Years. WILLIAM I., thfl Conqueror. HENKY I.. Beauclerk. WILLIAM II., Rufus. STEPHEa. William the Conqueror— 1066 to 1087. — 21 Wars. Rolf, the Dane. William was descended from Rolf, ■ Danish pirate, who, in 912, just after the time oi Al- fred the Great, had planted himself with his pirate crew, .it the mouth of the river Seine. The king of France, being unable to dislodge him, finally, by treaty, gave him his daughter in marriage and a title to Normandy, in return for which Rolf agreed to receive baptism mid acknowledge himself a vassal of France. In process of time, the same change befell the Danes in France that had befallen them in England; they were absorbed by the more civilized people among whom they settled. As in England the Dane became an Englishman, so in France he became a Frenchman. Revolt of the English. Soon after William's acces- sion to power, and during his temporary absence in Normandy, there was a wide-spread revolt of the English. The signal for the rising was the appearance on the eoast, ot' a Danish tleet designed to restore Danish authority to the island. With a heavy bribe, the crafty William induced the Danish commanders to 32 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. abandon (heir purpose and return to Denmark, lit then turned upon the rebels in arms with a ferocity he only could show, lie ravaged the sea-hoard so that no Dane should find either foothold or plunder in future, and laid waste with tire and sword the old district )f Deira, between the Ilumber and the Tees, the sourc* and centre of tin' rebellion. So complete was the de- vastation, that, for the space of sixty miles north of York, the whole district remained tor half a century without an inhabitant, a barren waste, and marked only by blackened ruins. One hundred thousand human beings, who had tied to the woods at William's coming, crept back to the ashes of their homes, only to die of starvation. Although it was mid-winter when the cruel work was done, the ruthless king started at once for the West, where the revolt was still formidable. Through an unbroken wilderness, covered with drifts of snow, and crossed by swollen streams, the starving army toiled painfully on, with the tireless king ever at the head. Chester* was reached at last, and with its fall the rebellion virtually came to an end. Confiscation of English Estates. Then commenced, under the direction of the revengeful king, a wholesale confiscation of rebel estates. These were distributed • Chester is one of the most interesting as well as one of the oldest towns in England, li Bhows more plainly than any other the marks of the Romaq occupation, it is the only town in England that b as maintained its walls in thf ir original form, the foundations of which were lad by the Romans them- selves, its Ion;; and Interesting history is indicated by the following inBorip tions, made from l ime to time upon its walls : A. D. 61. Walls built by Romans. 7;. Marius, King of the Bl itons, extended the walls. 607. The Britons defeated by the Saxons. 90»>. Rebuilt by daughter of Allied the Great 1398. Henry 01" Lancaster mustered his troops under the walls. l*t&- The Parliamentary forces made a breach in the walls. WILLIAM TIIK CONQUEROR. 33 among the Nornian knights and aobles who had fought around William's standard, while their former Saxon owners cither found refuge in foreign lands, or, form- ing in hostile hands, waged a desultory warfare with their Norman conquerors. Hereward, a Saxon noble* retired to the isle of Ely, whore, protected by almost impassable swamps, he long defied the Norman power. But William, building a causeway across the swamps, finally forced the valiant Saxon to surrender. The Feudal System Established. The conquest of England now being complete, William turned his at- tention to the organization of the government, with a view to its security in the future. Normans were put into all places of power and trust. The military power o\' the government was based on the Feudal system that already prevailed in Spain, France, and Germany. Under this system, the great nobles were granted al- most unlimited power over the persons and property of their tenants, on certain conditions, the most impor- tant of which was. that they should come to the sup- port o\^ the king with all their retainers in time of war. These nobles, generally living in strongly fortified cas- tles, and constantly surrounded by devoted bodies of men-at-arms, thus became petty sovereigns, spending their time in the pleasures ot' the chase, or in making war on each other, and sometimes on the king himself. William erected the Feudal system in England as a bulwark to the throne : and such it was as against the conquered English. But when the spirit ot' disaffec- tion crept into the Norman nobility, thus made powerful and independent, the Feudal system became its chief danger. 34 WILLIAM T11E CONQUEROR. The Doomsday Book. For the better organization of tlio kingdom, and the more certain collection of its revenues, he ordered a great survey, the results of which were embodied in the "Doomsday Book," show- ing the ownership, extent, and productions of all the estates in the kingdom. From this register the (Town «.lnes were carefully calculated and rigidly collected. The Curfew Bell. William established the curfew (fire-covering) bell. This was rung from every church- tower and monastery in England, at sunset in summer, and al eight o'clock in winter, as a signal for the peo- ple to cover the tires on the hearth, and retire to rest. The law of the curfew had long prevailed in various parts of Europe as a safeguard against conflagrations, which were frequent and extensive in the wood-built tow ns. The Norman Language. After the Saxon rebellion, Normans had been put into all responsible places, both of church and state. Of necessity, therefore, all the business of the government and courts of justice, the services of the church, except such as regularly em- ployed Latin, and the exercises of the schools, were conducted in the Norman language. Normau thus came largely into use, even among English people ; but the English masses still continued to talk in their Anglo-Saxon tongue. It is said that William tried, though in vain, to learn the Anglo-Saxon language, that he might be the better qualified to govern hia v\ hole people. Character of William the Conqueror. Reserved, haughty, severe in his rule, and ruthless in his revenge, "stark to baron or rebel." but " mild to thorn WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 35 that loved God," ho inspired a mingled sense of respect and awe in all about him. This sense was heightened, do doubt, by a consciousness of his great physical strength, no ordinary man being aide to Bwing his bat- tle-axe or bend his how. There was a grandeur about the Conqueror that belongs to no other English king, as manifest in his fearless humanity as in his dauntless ferocity. It', with a ferocity that tinds few parallels in all history, he blotted out rebellious towns, and brought the silence of death upon offending dis- tricts, with a humanity in striking contrast with the spirit of the age, he formally abolished capital punish- ment, and but one person suffered death for crime dur- ing his whole reign. To gratify his love o( solitude and his fondness for the chase, he laid waste an extensive tract in Hamp- shire, reaching from Winchester to the sea, driving out its inhabitants and burning their dwellings and churches. Buthe also abolished the slave trade that had long been a source of wealth to the merchants of Bristol, and became the friend and patron of the Jews, then a hated race, allowing them to build dwellings and synagogues in all the principal towns. He was a true Catholic, and strengthened the church by the establishment of ecclesiastical courts, after- wards, in the reign of Henry II., the source of so much trouble: but he bluntly refused to obey the command of the pope to do fealty for his realm. If he removed English prelates and abbots, he required of their Norman successors the most exemplary lives, and instantly dismissed those found unworthy. 36 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR Although he could not brook opposition, and was like a raging lion to all who withstood him, there, was one man, Anselm, the good abbot of Bee, in whose presence he always became gentle and patient. William's end was characteristic. He died on an errand of vengeance. He had become corpulent during the latter part of his life; and once, when ill, had been made the subject of a silly jest on the part of the Icing of France. William took it to heart, and, on his recovery, commenced to lay waste the border lands of France. While riding through the burning town of Mantes, his horse reared among the hot embers that tilled the road, and he received injuries from the pommel of his saddle that terminated, in a tew weeks, in his death, at Rouen. lie left the kingdom of England to his seeond son William, called Rufiis or the Red King, from the color of his hair. To Robert, the eldest son, set aside on account of a rebellion in which he had engaged, he gave the dukedom of .Nor- mandy. William's wife was Matilda,* daughter of the Earl of Flanders, through whom the present royal house of England traces its descent from Egbert. ♦Ethelwolf, eldest eon of Egbert, had by his first wife four sons Alfred the Great being the youngest. Ilia second wife was Judith, daughter oi Charlea the Bald of France. lie was succeeded by his sou Blhelbald, who also married Judith, his father's widow. At Ethelbald'a death Judith went back to her father's court and eloped with Baldwin, after- wards Karl of Flanders. Their si>n married hli'nda, daughter of Alfred the Great, and from them sprang Matilda, wife of William the Conqueror. The famous "Bayous Tapoetry " was the handiwork of Matilda. This was a piece Of cam a- sixty-eight yards long and nineteen inches wide, on which were embroidered in wool, scenes and figures, giving a complete pictorial history of the Conquest. WILLIAM II. ,')7 William II. I0S7 to L100 — 13 years. Norman. Rebellion of the Barons. A.t the death of the Con- queror, William hastened to England and was crowned byLanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury. A rebellion of the Barons in behalf of Robert was suppressed chiefly by tin* English, whose aid the king secured by a prom- ise of good laws. William then tried by fraud and by force to wrest from Robert his French inheritance, buta treaty was finally made between them by which Robert retained his present possessions, and, in ease of the death of either, the survivor inherited his dominions. Later in the reign, Robert mortgaged Normandy to the king for five years, to raise money to go on the First Crusade. William was twice engaged in hostilities with Malcolm, king of Scotland, forcing the latter to ac- knowledge him as his feudal superior. Character of William II. The Red King had a strong will and great persona] courage, hut he was rapacious, prodigal, and licentious. He kept his principal minister, Flambard, busy devising ways and means to increase the royal revenue. The baronage was loaded with feudal obligations, and even the church was robbed of its wealth as well as rights. He refused to till vacant sees and abbeys, that he might use their incomes. The see of Canterbury was vacant from the death of Lanfranc, in 1089, till 1093, when the king being dangerously ill and conscience-smitten, appointed i\u x good and learned Anselm to the vacancy. On his recovery, the Red King returned to his old ways, and Anselm, withstanding for a while the royal tyranny and extortion, was compelled at last to Leave the kingdom. 38 WILLIAM II. The Red King met with a tragic death while hunting in the new forest which his father bad made. He was foimd pierced in the breast with an arrow, whethei by design or accident was never known. But he is supposed to have boon killed by Walter Tyrrol, one of the king's party, who immediately fled from tho country. He was succeeded by his younger brother Henry, Robert the elder brother not having returned from thf Holy Land, whither he had gone on a Crusade, The Crusades. The reign of William II. marks the beginning of tho Crusades. These were military expe- iitions, undertaken on a large scale by tho Christian aations of Europe, to free tho Holy Land from the rule and presence of the Saracen. Christians from all countries, since the fourth century, had made Long and painful pilgrimages to the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, either as a penance for sin, or as a means o( attaining to greater piety; hut they had been subjected to such dan- gers and indignities from the predatory infidel, that the Crusades were undertaken as a religious duty. They began in the year 1096, under the lead and preaching of a monk named Peter the Hermit (who had himself suffered while on a pilgrimage), and eon- tinned, at intervals, through a period of two centuries, sacrificing, it is computed, two millions oi' lives, and leaving the Holy Land still in the hands ol' the Saracen. The Benetits of the Crusades. Though failing to accomplish their primal object, the Crusades were pro- ductive o( great good in other directions. They brought the Christian nations into greater harmony with each other by uniting them in a common cause, and into im- mediate contact with the East, making them familiar with WILLIAM II. 39 Us arts, institutions, and laws, ami opening to them its rich ami varied commerce. They caused the construc- tion of numerous vessels for the transportation of cru- saders, thus stimulating ship-building ami navigation, and ultimately turning men's attention from the arts of war to those o( peace. They enlisted and sent abroad the dangerous and turbulent elements, for the most part never to return, thus purifying and making society at home safer and more peaceful. They struck the first great blow at the Feudal system, by compelling the nobles to sell or divide their great estates to raise money for their outfit. Finally they gave birth to the >pirit and system of Chivalry, whose value at this period, the darkest of the Dark Ages, can hardly be over-estimated. The System of Chivalry. During the Middle Ages, Christianity had, to a great extent, lost its power over the hearts and lives o[' men. War with all its unmeasured depths of vice and crime and woe, was the pastime of kings >>r the mere instrument of personal ambition ami passion, and even peace, when it came, instead of bringing new life to art and industry, left men to sink into a more degrading ignorance and a still grosser superstition. During the Middle Ages spiritual dark- ness brooded over all the nations. Sleep, like the sleep of death, rested on the human intellect. The spirit of Chivalry was light breaking upon the long and dreadful night, a clarion note awaking the world from the sleep of ages. It appealed to the nobler sentiments of the soul, inspiring the love of truth, honor, and religion, and enjoining the practice of courtesy, chastity, ami humanity. 40 WIJJJAM II. Though, with its solemn oath, imposed on all who aspired to its honors, and its iron garb, the insignia of knightly eharaeter. it could not always transform rude and brutal men into true and chivalric knights, it did place upon rudeness and brutality a needed and effoe- live check. Who can estimate its worth to woman, it. the protection it gave her, through those long and gloomy ages, when sensual pleasure was the chief aim, and brute force the highest law, known to most men? The system of chivalry, both ludicrous and imprac- tical in some of its features, when viewed from the stand- point of the nineteenth century, passed away before an advancing civilization; but its spirit, enlarged and purified by true religion, still exists in the enlightened public sentiment of modern times. (See page -±0.) Henry I., 1100 to 1135 — 35 Years. Norman. First Charter of Liberties. Henry I., surnamed Beauclerc the Scholar, was clearly a usurper. Being opposed by the barons, who espoused the cause of Robert, now on his way home from Palestine, Henry following the example of William, fell back on the support of the English. He gave them a Charter of Liberties, in which he restored the laws of Edward the Confessor with the amendments made by the Conqueror. The various abuses of the preceding reign were named and forbidden ; the Church was freed from unjust exact- ions, and the kingdom from evil customs ; and the rights of vassals and tenants under the feudal system specially unaided. Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, who had been driven from the kingdomby the persecutions of the Red King, was recalled, and Flambard, the Red King's hated minister, was sent to the Tower. HENRY 1. 41 To conciliate the English still further, he married Matilda, or Maud,* as the English loved to call her, a descendant of Edmund Ironside, thus uniting the Saxon and Norman families. Robert, Duke of Normandy. The enthusiasm of the English masses, at the elevation of an English prin- cess to the throne, was unbounded, and when Robert landed in England, and raised his standard as the rightful heir to the crown, he found himself, face to face, with sixty thousand resolute English yeo- men, and surrendered to Henry without a battle. A treaty was made between the brothers, Robert yield- ing all claims to the crown, for a pension for himself ind pardon for all his followers. And now occurs the larkest act of Henry's reign. Robert had no sooner returned to Normandy, and the barons dispersed to their castles, than commenced under Henry's direction the confiscation of the estates ot all implicated in the rebellion. The chivalric Robert, indignant at the treachery of his brother, at once called his retainers to arms and renewed the war. The king, claiming that the treaty had been broken, invaded Normandy, de- feated Robert's army, took Robert himself prisoner, and doomed him to life-long confinement within the walls of Cardiff Castle. It is affirmed that having once attempted to escape, Henry caused his eyes to be put out with a hot iron. This noblest of the sons of the ♦When Canute seized the crown in 1017, he sent the infant sons of Edmund Ironside to Germany. The Confessor on coming to the throne, twenty-four years later, invited Ed- ward,the only surviver of these sons.to return to England. Edward died soon alter his arrival, and his family, at the coming of William the Conqueror, took refuge in Scotland, where his daughter Margaret married King Malcolm Maud was the offspring of this marriage. 42 IIKNKY 1. Conqueror lingered twenty-nine years in sightless con- finement, dying, at last, in his dungeon an old man of eighty years. Character and Reign of Henry. Henry's eharaoter was a strange admixture oi' virtues and vioes. Ho irua unscrupulous, false-hearted, and revengeful, but ho promoted the welfare of his people, encouraged manu- factures, improved the coinage, established a system of weights ;iii(l measures, repealed the odious law of the Curfew, and re-organized the oourts of justice. Henrj 'a system of justioe, with modifications and Improvements! is the system of to-day, both in England and America. lie deall a heavy blow at (he Feudal system, and gave an impulse to liberty, when he endowed the great towns with oharters of freedom. The White Ship. The last years of Henry's life were sad and gloomy, on account of the death by ship- wreck, of his only son, Prince William. They had been on a visit to Normandy, to secure the acknowledgment of the Prince as heir to the crown, and to complete his marriago contract with the daughter of the Count oi' Anjou. Both matters being satisfactorily arranged, they embarked for the return, on different ships. The White Ship, in which William had taken passage, being delayed, attempted to overtake the rest of the fleet by moonlight. Speeding swiftly along under the sweep oi' its fifty rowers, it struck on a rock in the v:\cv of Aider- 1103 and went io the bottom. Only a single soul RSCaped to tell the sad tale io the bereaved father, who is said never to have smiled again. Henry left a daughter Matilda, whom he had married to Geoffrey Plantagenet, Barl of Anjou, to strengthen HENRY 1. 43 his possessions beyond the channel. Before she could return to England to take the crown that belonged to her, it was seized by Stephen, Count of Blois, nephew of the late. king. Affable in his manners and familiar in his address, Stephen had made himself a general favorite with the people of (he capital, and so paved his way to power. Stephen, 1135 to 115± — 10 years. Norman. Civil War. Matilda endeavored to secure her rights by force of arms. David, King of Scotland, was the first to espouse her cause. With an army of wild and lawless highlanders, he invaded the northern counties, inflicting havoc alike on the friends and foes of Matilda. Against this army of marauders, the Archbishop of York took the field, and, in the battle of the Stand- ard, put them to utter rout and drove them across the border. Matilda herself reached England the next year with a small force, and her adherents quickly gathered to her support. In the battle of Lincoln the army of Stephen was defeated, and Stephen himself captured and sent, in chains, to Bristol Castle. Matilda entered London and was acknowledged queen of England. lint her haughty manners and violent temper, so much in contrast with the generous and good natured ways of Stephen, soon changed even her friends to foes. The rapid approach of Stephen's heroic queen at the head ol' an army, and tiie ringing of the alarm bells in London, having caused a sudden uprising of the people, Matilda fled, in haste, from tho city, and took refuge within the walls of Oxford Castle, 44 STEPHEN . Stephen, once more at liberty and ;it the head of his army, in 114l\ surrounded her place of refuge, so dis- posing his men as, apparently, to cut oil* every uvenuo of escape. The garrison ran short of provisions, and Matilda with three; devoted knights, elad like herself m white to resemble the snow that covered the ground (for it was mid-winter), passed silently through the lines of Stephen's army in the night, crossed the frozen Thames, and found refuge among the loyal people of the west, whence, four years later, she withdrew to France. Her son Henry had now grown up to manhood. Possessed, by inheritance and marriage, of the larger part of France, he collected an army of his own subjects, crossed the channel, and re-opened the war with Stephen. Compromise Between Stephen and Henry. But the bishops of England, under the lead of Theobald, Arch- bishop of Canterbury, weary of a struggle that had brought such fearful waste, and to which they could see no end, finally, in L153, effected the treaty of Wallingibrd. It was mutually agreed that the crown should remain with Stephen while he lived, and descend to Henry at his death. It was also decided that the grants of crown lands made by Stephen should be can- celled, the new castles demolished, and the foreign troops dismissed. The Robber Barons. Two things influenced Stephen to consent to this arrangement, the death of his eldest son, aud the defection of his principal nobles, some of wdioni had turned against him, while more had abandon- ed the contest and retired to their estates. We find here a practical illustration of the workings of the STEPHEN. 45 Feudal system. To win the support of the barons, Stephen hud, at the beginning of his reign, given them permission to build new castles on their estates, besides granting new titles of nobility to his chosen adherents. One hundred and twenty-six fortresses were thus erect- ed, many of them of great strength and frowning from inaccessible heights. Secure in these, the barons lived like petty princes, defying the authority of the king, and renewing old family quarrels. They plundered the country around their estates, and taxed its inhabi- tants till famine stared them in the face. Even churches were robbed of their wealth. The rich were waylaid as they journeyed, and held or tortured for ransom. These nobles have gained in history the well- deserved title of Robber Barons. The Outlaws of the Forest. Following their exam- ple, criminals and outcasts, unemployed soldiers and starving peasants, everywhere took to the woods and became outlaws, making it dangerous to travel in some districts without an armed escort. Banded together, sometimes in large numbers, they set laws and authori- ties at defiance, or, retreating to their hiding places in the dense recesses of the forest, were safe from pursuit. While many of these bandits were rude and ruthless men, sparing neither age nor sex, others were generous and courteous, robbing the rich to relieve the wants of the poor. Such was Robin Hood, the very prince of bandits, wdio, some fifty years later, in the reign of Richard I., frith a hundred free and jovial companions, occupied the depths of the Sherwood forest. It is difficult to depict the anarchy and misery to which England was reduced in the reign of Stephen. 46 STEPHEN. Towns were abandoned, farms were left to decay, the sanctuaries were crowded with helpless, starving peo- ple, and thousands fled, in terror, to foreign countries. Stephen lived but a year after the treaty of Walling- ford, and Henry came to the throne unopposed, assum- ing for the royal line which he founded the family name of Plantagenet. Sec page 40. The training of youth for the duties and privileges of chivalry was long and arduous. The castles of nobles, especially those famed for knightly character, became schools of chivalry. Thither, at the age of -oven or eight, gathered the sons ot the neighboring gentry to begin their education. At the age of fourteen, the valets or pages as they were called alter the 15th century, became squires, exchanging the dagger, which alone they had hitherto worn, for sword and belt. At the age of twenty-one their education was complete, and they were entitled to receive the guerdon of knighthood. The ceremonies at- tending initiation were Impressive. Each candidate was first placed in the bath— a symbol of purification,— then clothed, successively, in a white tunic— a symbol of purity,— in a red robe— a symbol of the blood he would shed in defence of the true faith, — and in a black garment— a symbol of the death that awaited him as it awaits all men. After a rigid fast of twenty-four hours, he entered the church, as evening drew on, and passed the silent vigils of the night alone, engaged in prayer and meditation. At the close of the next day, which was spent in solemn religious services, the candidate knelt before his lord, who gave him three blows on the shoulder with the flat of the sword, saying, "In the name of God, of St. Michael, and of St. George, I dub thee knight; be brave, bold, and loyal." Clad in full armor, with gilded spurs upon his heels — the emblem of knighthood— and mounted upon a trained charger, he was ready to ride away to that ideal life of ancient chivalry, knightly con- flict and romantic adventure, which song, legend, and story had painted in such bright colors to his ardent imagination during his long novitiate. The training of boys for knighthood was two-fold— physical and moral. Under the direction of the lords with whom they lived, they were practised in all kinds of athletic exercises, such as hunting, hawking, swimming, leaping, climbing, and carrying weights, in the use of arms, such as the bow, sword, lance, and battle-axe, and in horsemanship. To the ladies of the castle was entrusted the care of their manners and mor- als. They were taught courtly accomplishments, and made familiar with the use of musical instruments, and with the songs of the troubadours. They were rigidly trained to be obedient to their superiors, respectful to the aged, and courteous to all. Especially were they taught that it was essential to the character of every true and loyal knight to honor religion and reverence woman. Indeed, the very standard which religion has set up for human as- piration and action, is found in the teachings of the ideal chivalry of the Middle Ages. This is undoubtedly due to the influence of the enlightened clergy among the nations, who saw in the wise direction of the institution ol chivalry, a remedy for the degrading ignorance and barbarity ol the times. CHAPTER V. Plantagenet Family, 1154 to 1485 — 331 Years. HENRY II. EI CHARD L, CcBur-de-Lion. JOHN., Lackland. HENRY III., of Winchester. EDWARD I. EDWARD II., of Caernarvon. EDWARD III. RICHARD II., of Bordeaux. HOUSE OF LANCASTER. HOUSE OF YORK. Henry IT., 1154 to 1189 — 35 years. Plantageneto The Condition of England. No king ever mounted the English throne under circumstances more peculiar, and, in some respects, more appalling, than greeted the first Plantagenet on his accession to power. During the reign of Stephen, the entire fabric of society had fallen to pieces, and both regard for law and respect for religion had been swept away in the general wreck. Beginning with the nobility, the spirit of lawlessness had permeated the priesthood and the peasantry. It is no wonder the helpless peasant either became an outlaw, or, in consternation, abandoned home and har- vest-field and fled beyond seas, when even nobles became robbers! This was the peculiar and appalling aspect of the case, that the best and highest elements in society had become, for the time being, most demor- alized. Henry, though but twenty-one years of age when he ascended the throne, undertook the work of reconstruction with a courage and an intelligence that (47) 48 IIENRY II. challenge our admiration. His efforts were mainly directed to the accomplishment of jbwo distinct ends, the establishment of order, and the correction of the abuses of the church. The Establishment of Order. The Robber Barons were, one after another, subdued, and theii castles razed to the ground; and the less noble, but no worse, highwaymen, the forest outlaws, were mercilessly hunt- ed down. The crown lands were also reclaimed, and foreign soldiers expelled. To increase the power of the crown, and weaken that of the baronage still more, two sweeping edicts were issued. One, in 1159, sub- stituted the payment of money, called "shield mone\ ,*' for the personal services of the barons in lime of war, enabling the king to keep a paid and standing force. The other, in 1181, restored the militia, making every freeman a soldier, always to be suitably armed, ami subject to the call of the king in time of national danger. Contest between Church and State. Henry's con- test with the church was not only more difficult, but more dangerous, than that with the barons. Ancient- ly, judges and bishops sat together on the civil bench- es, but the Conqueror had established separate courts tor ecclesiastical eases, over which the bishops pre- sided alone. Criminals in holy orders were thus put beyond the reach of tin 1 civil authorities, and as, by a canon of the church, the priesthood could not impose the death penalty upon one of their own order, these clerical criminals were also put beyond the reach of extreme punishment. It is not surprising that the clergy had, to some extent, become independent, or that one hundred murders were proved to have been com- ITENTIY TT. 49 mittcd, during tho first few years of Henry's reign, by priests, who either suffered no punishment, or one not at al] commensurate with the crime. They merely suffered sonic trifling penance or degradation in office. The Council of Clarendon. At the summons of tho b ing, a council of nobles and prelates met at the castle of Clarendon in 11G4. It was decided by this council, among other things, that tho civil courts should have a certain jurisdiction over the church courts, and that law-breaking priests, on conviction in the latter, should be stripped of their orders and turned over to the civil authorities for punishment. Thomas a Becket and King Ilenry. Thomas a Becket had been Henry's bosom friend and compan- ion. Ilenry had raised him from poverty to affluence, from tho position of tutor to his children, to that of Archbishop of Canterbury, the highest office of tho church in England. Becket at first accepted, then re- jected, tho "Constitutions of Clarendon ;" and then began that long and bitter struggle between himself and the king, in which personal animosities are strangely mingled with the graver affairs of church and state, ending in the violent death of Becket in 1170, and the ultimate triumph of the king. The priesthood and the laity were made equal before the law. The supremacy of the state in civil matters was achieved. Although, after the death of Becket, the king assented lo a modification of the " Constitutions," it was merely nominal, the practice of the courts and the submission of the bishops showing that the king still retained all the substantial fruits of victory. 50 HF.NUY II. The Death of Thomas a Beoket. The .loath of Beoket was tragic Four knights in attendance on the kingin Normandy, interpreting too seriously his rash and impatient wish "to ho rid of the turbulent priest," silently left the royal presence, and secretly crossed the English Channel. Making their way to :he gray old Cathedra] of Canterbury,— where shortly be- fore, on Christmas day, Becket, sad but undismayed, had preached to the peasantry from the text "1 come to die among you," — the knightly assassins, backed by their followers, murdered him before his own altar. A cry oi' horror arose from all Christendom. For the first time during the hitter struggle Henry bent before the storm, lie disclaimed all responsibility for the orime, ami afterwards publioly expressed his sorrow for its commission, by walking barefooted to the tomb of Becket, and submitting his back to the scourge oi' the monks; ami the threatened excommunication was averted. The guilty knights went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where they died; and on their tomb was inscribed this epitaph, " lien 1 lie the wretches who mur- dered St. 'Thomas oi' Canterbury." The Judiciary System. Oneofthemost interesting works oi' Henry's reign was the improvement oi' the judiciary system founded by Henry 1. England was divided into six judicial districts, each with three itiner- ant judges, who went regularly on their circuits, having jurisdiction alike over peasant and coble. The most radical change was made in the term of trial. The Anglo-Saxons brought with them, from Germany, a term of trial called Compurgation. A person charged with crime was acquitted or convicted, HENRY II. 51 according as his kinsmen or neighbors, generally twelve, or some multiple of twelve, in number, made oath to bis innocence or guilt. Another and very singular method of trial was called the Judgment of God. Among other things, if a suspected person could sarry a bar of red hot iron a certain distance, or plunge ais hand into boiling water, and in three days show no scar, he was pronounced innocent, otherwise, guilty. Sometimes he was thrown into deep water, and if lie sank he was innocent, if he swam, guilty. The Con- queror introduced Wager of Battle, or Single Combat. Au accused person was allowed to challenge his accuse] to mortal combat, and if he came out of the tight vic- torious he was declared innocent, otherwise. guilty. Trial by Jury. "The first clear beginnings" of Trial by Jury are found in the reign of Henry 11, when, by the Assize of Clarendon, in 1166, twelve freemen chosen from the hundred, and tour from each township, acting in the two-told capacity of judges and witnesses, pre- sented reputed criminals for the Ordeal of Battle, or the Judgment of Cod. By the same Assize, Compurgation was abolished. (See note on page 89), Henry's Foreign Possessions. Before bis accession to the English throne, Henry had extensive possessions in France. I Ic inherited Maine and Anjou from his father, and Normandy from his mother. Poitou, Aquitaineand Gascony he acquired by marriage with Eleanor, the di- vorced wife of the King of France. As Duke of Norman- dy he had a right to the feudal superiority oi' Brittany. English dominion in Ireland dates from Henry's reign. Shortly after his accession he secured the sanction of Pope Adrian IV. to the conquest oi' the island. Op- 52 HENRY TT. position among the English barons forced the king to forego the execution of his plans for a season; but the scheme of conquest was renewed when Dermod, King of Leinster, having been driven from his kingdom, sought the help of Henry, whom he acknowledged as his feudal superior. A small force under Fit/ Stephen, a Welsh knight, landed on the island in 1169, followed by a larger one under "Strongbow," Earl of Pembrook. The capture of Dublin, the marriage of "Strongbow" with the daughter of Dermod, and the death of Der- mod himself, left the English in full possession of the kingdom of Leinster. "Strongbow" at first assumed royal authority, but this he was forced to surrender to Henry, who came over in 1171 and received the hom- age of most of the chiefs and bishops. Though Ireland was nominally conquered, English authority was lightly regarded by the Irish chieftains for hundreds of years. Rebellions under Henry's Sons. The last years of Henry's life were full i^l' trouble, lie had four surviving sons, Henry, Geoffrey, Richard, and John. Encouraged by their mother, and also by the king of France, whose daughter Prince Henry had married, these unnatural sons repeatedly made war on their father, seeking to wrest from him portions of his dominions. Prince Henry aspired to sovereign power in England or Normandy, Richard was ambitious to rule over Aquitaine, and Geoffrey claimed possession of Brittany. In one of the most formidable of these attempts made in 117.'), they were aided by the kings of Scotland and France. It was at this time that King Henry, to propitiate divine favor, performed his penance at the tomb of a Becket. William, King of Scotland, was captured by the English the very day the royal penance HENRI II. 53 was completed, and was not released until he consented to acknowledge himself a vassal of the English crown. It was on this acknowledgment that Edward I., after- wards based his claim to the sovereignty of Scotland. In their last attempt, Henry was compelled to submit to the most humiliating terms. After the treaty of peace was signed, the king, who was sick in bed, asked to see the list of rebels he had agreed to pardon, and the first name that met his eye was that of John, his youngest and his favorite son. He turned his face to the wall, heart-broken, saying, "Now let the world go as it will, I care for nothing more." lie died soon after, and was succeeded by his eldest surviving son, Richard. Richard I., 1189 to 1199 — 10 years. Plantagenet. Slaughter of Jews. Richard's inauguration took place in the midst of a cruel slaughter of Jews. They had come to the coronation with rich gifts to propitiate the royal favor. A cry having gone forth that the king had decreed their death, they were beset by an ignorant and blood-thirsty rabble. Blood once shcd> passions once inflamed, these hated but helpless people were mercilessly slaughtered, and their dwellings burned, throughout the city. As the news spread from town to town,! he same terrible scenes were enacted, the same horrible butchery of innocent people. At York, five hundred Jews, with their families, took refuge in the Castle, which was speedily surrounded by an armed force. The Jews vainly offered their wealth as a ran- som for their lives. Having no hope of mercy, they plunged their daggers into the bodies of their own wives and children, rather than see them fall into the 54 1UCHAKD I. hands of their infuriated enemies. Richard had accepted their gifts, but, though he issued a proclama- tion in their favor, he took no adequate measures for their protection. Richard in the Holy Laud. The Christian nations were preparing for the third Crusade. Richard and Philip of France arranged to go in company, at the head of their forces. To raise sufficient money for his outfit, Richard freely offered for sale fhe lands of the crown, besides titles, offices, and pardons. At the rebuke of one of his friends, on account of his wholesale disposal of crown property, he is said to have exclaimed, " I would sell London, if I could find a purchaser." His career in the Holy Land is full of the stirring incidents of battle and adventure. He captured Acre and defeated Saladin, the great Saracen, at Ascalon. Philip, jealous of Richard's growing fame, abandoned the Crusade and returned to France. John, Richard's brother, probably instigated by Philip, usurped the government of England, and was planning to seize the crown, when Richard, alarmed for the safety of his kingdom, prepared to return home. Effecting a treaty with Saladin, by which pilgrims could visit the Holy Sepulchre unmolested, Richard reluctantly turned his back upon Jerusalem, the goal of many hopes, whoso Avails were, indeed, in sight, but within winch he was destined never to enter. Richard a Captive in the Tyrol. Being wrecked in the Adriatic, and attempting to make his way overland to England to escape the cruisers of Philip, he fell into the hands of his enemy, the Emperor of Ger- many. After lying a captive for more than a year, in RICHARD I. 55 the Tyrol, he was released on the payment by the Eng- lish people of one hundred thousand marks, as ransom. The English people were reduced to the greatest dis- tress to raise the money, the churches even melting down their plate. Richard returned, in 1194, after an absence of four years. "Take care of yourself," wrote Plrilip to John, who hastened to leave the country. But returning at Richard's command, he confessed on his knees his traitorous designs, and humbly asked for pardon. Said Lion Heart with characteristic generos- ity, "I hope I shall as easily forget his ingratitude, as he will, my forbearance." War with France and Death of Richard. Richard remained in England a few months, and then crossed the Channel to wage war with Philip. Learning that the Viscount of Limoges, one of his vassals, had found hidden treasure in one of his fields, Richard demanded its surrender, under the common law that made treasure- trove the property of the Crown. The demand was refused, and Richard at once besieged the Viscount in his castle of Chalus. During the siege he received a mortal wound, and died, as he had lived, in armor. Though ten years king of England, he had spent less than one in his kingdom. Character of Richard I. Richard the Lion Heart was a valiant and romantic knight, who loved tilts and tournaments better than royal courts, daring deeds on hard-fought -battle-fields, than the irksome cares and dry details of government. His very name, embalmed in song and story, has become a synonym for Chiv- alry. In Richard, the king was subordinate to the knight, and since he made so poor a king, it would, 56 RICHARD 1. doubtless, please the young who may read this book, could we represent him as, at least, a model knight, famous for humanity and true nobility, as well as match- less valor. But beneath Richard's iron armor there beat a hard, cold, seltish heart. Though fearles* of danger and mighty in battle, courteous to a gallant enemy and generous to a fallen foe, a skilled musician and familiar with the songs of the Troubadours, Rich- ard was brutal and unscrupulous, and stained his knightly honor by many a dark and cruel deed. He cared little for the happiness or welfare of his people, the power to gratify an inordinate love of military glory and daring adventure being the limit of his am- bition. Though dazzled by his brilliant personal quali- ties, and proud of his world-wide renown, England mingled a sense of relief with a sigh of regret, when her roving soldier-king, whose genius had both impov- erished and glori tied her, rested forever at Fontevrault. John., 1199 to 1216 — 17 years. Plantageuet. Character of John. John, the craven-heart, was as base and cowardly, as Richard the Lion Heart was gen- erous and knightly. Ho had, indeed, a brazen bold- ness in the midst of safety, but it quickly vanished at the presence of danger. Though grossly impious in his treatment of the sacred rites of the church, he was accustomed to wear charms and consecrated relics about his person as a safeguard against evil. Other English kings were licentious, but there is no king in all the list, so basely licentious as he. Destitute alike of virtue and honor, he respected neither the purity of woman, nor the sanctity of home. joun. 57 Loss of Possessions in France. He is general ly believ- ed to have murdered, with his own hand, his nephew Arthur, a boy of fifteen and the rightful heir to the throne, and to have kept Eleanor, sister to Arthur, in close confinement, till she wasted away and died. In retaliation for his treatment of Arthur, he was stripped of all his possessions on the continent by the king of France, and was ever after called Lackland. To recover them, he raised a large army and invaded tho territories of France. When the opposing armies were on the eve of battle, John proposed peace, and ignominiously fled to England in the very midst of negotiations. John's Quarrel with the Pope. John quarrelled with the pope about tho appointment of an Archbishop of Canterbury. He had secured the election, by the monks, of John de Gray, but Pope Innocent III. appointed Stephen Langton. Tho monks, submitting to the decision of their superior and recognizing Langton, were turned out of doors and reduced to beggary by the enraged tyrant. The Papal Interdict. Ho made light of the papal threat to lay the kingdom under an Interdict, and when it fell, in 1208, with all its horrors, upon the land, he alone seemed insensible to the blow. The pope waited one year, and tlien issued against John, who still remained obdurate, a bull of excommunication. Even this had no terrors for John, and in about three years more was launched against him the last and crowning 58 joiin. decroo of tho church, that of Deposition. * Philip of Franoe was specially commissioned with the execution of this final deoree. John's Submission to the rope For a while John continued defiant. But when Philip had assembled b great army ready for invasion, with seventeen hundred ships for its transportation across the ohannel, and the elements of opposition at home were beginning to gather like a dark c 7 .oud about him, his bravado forsook him, and his submission to the pope was sudden and complete. Said William tho Conqueror, when Pope Gregory Yll. called OH him to do fealty for his realm, "Fealty 1 have never willed to do, nor do 1 av i 1 1 to do it now. 1 have never promised it, nor do I find that my prede- cessors did it to yours." Every true Englishman expe- rienced a share of the national shame, when the degen- erate descendant of the Conqueror, on his knees, at the feet of the papal Legate, acknowledged himself :i vassal, and his kingdom a lief of the Papacy. It was •It is dlffloult to realise at thla day the effects <>r the Papal Interdlot. To the people, it was nothing loas than the ourae of God. aii England was atonoe plungod into deepest gloom, (Or the blessings and benedictions of religion were suddenly withdrawn from all except tho unoonsoloui iufant and the dying. For Pour long years it. was as though a pestllenoe bad Bwept over iiio land. Theohurohes w ere olosed, and their hells hung motionless in the belfries. '• No knell was tolled for the dead ; tor the nt little to the miseries entailed bj the Interdlot! except to the one who suffers it. /Looordlng to the tenets of the ohuroh and universal belief at Hi it age, an exoommunioated person was oul <>ir from all hope ni Heaven as well as ail fellowship in the ohuroh on earth. The deoree of Deposition absolved iiio people from their allegiance, the throne being declared vacant. JOHN. 59 the first and the Last time, in its history of a thousand years, that a king of England surrendered to a foreign potentate the independence of his country. Magna Charta, A.l). 1*215. With John's submission, the papal decrees wore recalled, and the French inva- sion stayed. Elated at the ease with whieh he had eseaped the threatened danger, and relying on the sup- port of the pope, whoso servant he had become, John next undertook to punish the barons for refusing to join him in a fresh war with France. Three years of royal outrage brought affairs to a crisis. A league, formed in secret among the barons, culminated in a general muster of their forces, and John suddenly found him- self face to face with all England in arms. (hi the fifteenth of June, 1215, in the valley of Runny- mede, — some say on an island in the Thames, — the enraged but helpless tyrant king was forced to sign Magna Charta, the most remarkable instrument known in English history. It was not entirely new. Some of its most important principles can be traced to Angio- ma x on origin, having been set aside by the Norman conquest. Others were brought from the reigns of the Henries, but all were made more broad and liberal and couched in more explicit terms. The two most impor- tant sections run as follows : — Section 45. " No freeman shall be taken, or disseized, or outlawed, or banished, or anywise injured, nor will we pass upon him, nor send upon him, unless by the legal judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land." Section 4(5. " We will sell to no man, we will not deny or delay to any man, right or justice." 60 JOHN. Tn other sections, tho royal prerogative was limited and defined ; tho rights of the church guaranteed ; the Feudal system relieved of some of its grievances ; Unlawful lines and punishments forbidden ; the free disposal of personal property by will allowed ; the means of obtaining a livelihood, such as the tools of the mechanic and the goods ol' the merchant, were exempt from fine or forfeiture for crime ; tines were to be pro- portioned to the offence; the circuit courts brought into the neighborhood of all, and the liberties and cus- toms of free towns continued. So far only freemen were benefited. The largei pari of the people of England were serfs, ami hut two sections related directly to them. In one of these, agricultural implements were exempt from line or for- feiture on account of crime, and in the other, guardians were charged, in the management of the property of their wards, "to make no destruction or waste of tho men and things" Such is a partial notice of the Great Charter, called by llallam "the keystone of English liberty." The people o( England did not realize, for hundreds of years to Come, all the benefits conferred by (he Croat Char- ter. Its provisions were often ignored and openly trod- den under foot by John and his successors, but the great principles of justice and liberty which they embodied were never forgotten by the people. They became, amidst the oppressions of after times, the centres around which clustered national hopes, (he goal towards which were directed national efforts. They were so many beacon lights in an almost shoreless sea of mis- rule, guiding an oppressed people in their struggle for JOHN. 61 freedom. They arc to-day the basis and the bulwark of those rights and immunities that make England and America the most free and happy countries on the earth. Patriotism of the Bishops of England. The rest of John's ignoble history is soon told. He surround- ed himself with foreign soldiers, for the double pur- pose of taking vengeance on the barons, who had been the authors, and were now the guardians, of the Char- ter, and of overthrowing the Charter itself. John was assisted by the pope, who as over-lord of England an- nulled the Charter, and excommunicated all who sus- tained it. The patriotism of Archbishop Langton and most of the bishops of the English church, at this period, should never be forgotten. Langton himself became the leader of the barons in their opposition to the tyranny of John and the dictations of the pope, lie tirst presented to them, at a preliminary meeting, the charter of Henry I., as a basis for their demands. The bishops and the barons stood side by side at Runnymede, alike indifferent to the execrations of the king and the anathemas of the pope. In the midst of the contest, John suddenly died. Overtaken by the incoming tide, as he was crossing a treacherous place by the sea-side, called the Wash, his treasure and material were swept away, and his army thrown into confusion. Vexation and exposure, or a surfeit, or poison administered at the abbey where John found shelter, threw him into a fever, of which he died in a few days. 62 henry in. Henry III., 1216 to 1272 — 56 Tears. Plantagenet. The Regency. The Earl of Pembroke was appointed Regent, and under his vigorous rule England was soon reduced to order. Louis, a prince of France, who, in the midst of the struggle with John, had been invited by the barons to assume the English crown, soon left the country with all his followers. The Charter was confirmed, and the severities of the forest laws miti- gated, by the substitution of fine and imprisonment, instead of mutilation and death, for killing the kimr'a deer. Unfortunately, in 1219, the able Pembroke died, and England quickly relapsed into a state of disorder. Henry had placed foreigners in all the principal offices of the state, to the great disgust of his own people. The pope, too, as over-lord of England, had filled the vacant livings with foreign priests, and had even de- manded a share in the government. The new Regent Hubert de Burgh, though ruling for a few years with wisdom and discretion, at last fell under the severe displeasure of the king, who had become of age, and, in 1232, was removed from office, and even thrown into the Tower. Redress, the Condition of a Vote of Supplies. In 1225, a great council was summoned to consider the question of supplies to the crown. A grant was made conditioned on a new confirmation of the Charter. From this time the practice prevailed of making a con- firmation of the Charter, or a redress of grievances, the condition of a vote of money to the crown. Some of the most precious rights now enjoyed by the English people were retained or acquired in this way. HENRY HI. 63 Henry's Attempt to Overthrow the Charter, In 1227, Henry, being twenty-two years of age, took the reins of government into his own hands. Ho inaugu- rated his full assumption of power by an attempt, in the following declaration, to make the Great Charter subordinate to the royal prerogative : M Whenever and wherever, and as often as it may be our pleasure, we may declare, interpret, enlarge or diminish the aforesaid statutes, and their several parts , by our own free will, and as to us shall seem expedient for the security of us and our land." This declaration was the key-note to Henry's policy for forty years, while the barons, on account of feuds among themselves, stood idly by. The history of the whole period is but a dreary and monotonous record of royal recklessness and folly, of royal beggary and extor- tion. The king, when in need of money, would swear on his honor as " a man, a christian, a knight, and a king," to preserve inviolate the provisions of the Char- ter, and the next moment, when his wants had been supplied, trample them, in mere wantonness, under his feet. Under the royal influence, even the courts of justice became but a legalized system of extortion and robbery, the judges on the circuits compounding felonies and selling justice to the highest bidder. Rebellion of the Barons. In 1258, a crisis was reached. There had been a failure in the crops, and a famine was imminent. Corn sent from Germany to relieve the general distress, was seized and sold by the king ; and being still in want, he summoned the barons to a great council at Westminster. Aroused by outrage and united at last, they obeyed the summons ; 64 HENRY III. but they came at the head of their men-at-arms. As Henry entered the great hall at Westminster and looked upon the stern array of mail-clad barons, whose clank- ing swords alone broke the stillness, he asked in the sud denness of his alarm, "Am I a prisoner?" "No, you are our sovereign," was the answer ; " but yonr foreign favorites and your prodigality have brought misery upon tho realm, and we demand that you confer authority upon those who are able and willing to redress the grievances of the public." Henry was powerless to resist, and consented to a commission of twenty-four barons, one-half to be appointed by himself, empowered to act in behalf of the realm. But all attempts at a permanent settlement failed, and both parties finally prepared for war. In 1264, the opposing armies met on the downs of Lcw r es. The royal army was defeated, and the king and his gallant son, Prince Edward, taken prisoners. Simon do Montfort and the House of Commons, A. D. 1265. The kingdom was now at the disposal of the barons. The ablest man among them was Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, whose brief but bril- liant career furnishes the one bright page in the black record of Henry's reign. In a Parliament, summoned by Montfort, at Westminster, in 12G5, he invited rep- resentatives of the people, two knights from each county, two citizens from each city, and two burgesses from each borough (anciently a community of ten families, now a town) to take their seats side by side with prelates and barons. This was the first House of Commons. As from the tyranny of John sprang the Great Charter, the corner-stone of English liberty, so HENRY III. 65 from the oppressions of Henry rose the House of Com- mons, its bulwark and defence. Evesham. Prince Edward, having escaped from cap- tivity, quickly assembled the royal forces, won the battle of Evesham, and placed the liberated king once more on the throne. Though the barons were beaten, and the noble de Montfort slain, no attempt was made to undo their one great work, the establishment of the right of the people to representation in Parliament. Order being restored, Prince Edward went on a Cru- sade, the last in the series, in 1270. In two years Henry died, and the same day the nobles took the oath of fealty to the absent Prince. In two years more, King Edward, having made a ten years' truce with the Saracens, returned to England, and was formally crowned at Westminster. Edward I. 1272 to 1307 — 35 years. Plantagenet. Conquest of Wales. Llewellyn, Prince of Wales, had repeatedly refused to acknowledge Edward as his feudal superior. In 1277, an English army was sent into Wales, and the Prince, deserted by most of his chieftains, was compelled to sue for peace and accept Edward's terms, the surrender of the sovereignty of his country. In 1282, the Welsh people, fired by patriot bards, whose stirring songs had kept alive in their hearts the love of liberty, rose in rebellion against their English rulers. Edward once more invaded the country at the head of ail irresistible force, and Llew- ellyn being early slain in a skirmish, the Welsh chief- tains quietly submitted and the country was formally annexed to England. Edward wisely gave the Welsh 66 EDWAKD 1. people the English system of courts and laws, and foi a hundred years, with a single exception, they remained at peace. Edward's queen, who had accompanied him on the march, gave birth, in the castle of Caernarvon, to a son, some twenty years afterwards called Prince of Wales, u title still given to the eldest son of the reign- ing sovereign. Returning to England, Edward devoted himself to the administration of the government. lie secured the adoption of a code of wise and wholesome laws,* thereby winning in history the name of the Eng- lish Justinian. Arbitrary Taxation Forbidden. By far the most important of these laws was passed in the year 1297, when by excessive and arbitrary taxation, Edward had provoked a rebellious confederation of the barons. He was compelled to assent to a new confirmation of the charter, and the addition of a clause forbidding the king to tax the people without the consent of Parlia- ment. Edward not only made wise laws, but he great ly improved the courts, f rendering the adminis- tration of justice more sure and equal. •Among these were laws basing more thoroughly than ever the defence of the kingdom on an armed militia, ever at the immediate call of the king; en- suring the freedom of elections against menace or forcible interference; for- bidding judges and officers receiving rewards for official services, lawyers using deceit to beguile the court, persons uttering slanders and jurors render- ing a false verdict; requiring the gates of walled towns to be kept shut from sunset to sunrise, and a watch to be set; ordering every man to cut away the bushes and undergrowth on his own land, two hundred feet on each side of the principal roads, to make an ambush by highwaymen difficult; and a statute for London, forbidding armed men to appear in the streets, or taverns to sell ale or beer,after Curfew. t The ecclesiastical courts were confined to purely spiritual matters. The county court was undisturbed, but by the appointment of " Justices of the Peace," as local magistrates, its business was somewhat limited, and the people in the rural districts better accommodated. From the Court of Appeal sprang ihe Court of Chancery, with the Chancellor at the head, a court gov EDWARD I. 67 Beginning of the Wars with Scotland. The Khig of Scotland having died, thirteen claimants appeared for the vacant throne, of whom Robert Bruce and John Baliol were the most prominent. Unable to settle peacefully the question of their claims, it was referred, in 1291, to the arbitration of Edward of England. Ed- ward decided in favor of Baliol, on condition that the latter should acknowledge himself a vassal of the Eng- lish crown. Edward's claim to superiority was based on the fact already stated on a previous page, that Wil- liam, a Scottish king in the time of Henry II., being taken in battle, was held in captivity until he acknowl- edged the King of England as his feudal superior. Baliol received the kingdom at the hands of Edward, but soon rebelled against the humiliations imposed upon him, and thence arose those fierce and bloody wars between the two countries, that continued through successive reisras to desolate the border lands of both. The earlier ballad and legend, wild and weird like the Scotch character itself, and the later tale and song with their warp of fact and woof of fiction, have involved the whole story of the struggle between England and Scotland in the fascinations of romance. Battle of Dunbar. In the battle of Dunbar, in 1296, the Scots suffered a signal defeat. Edinburgh was be- sieged, Sterling taken, and finally, at Montrose Abbey, Baliol surrendered into Edward's hands all right and title to the kingdom of Scotland. The Scottish kings were wont to be crowned at Scone, on a fragment of erned by the principles of equity, and not common law, and designed to have jurisdiction, when the technicalities of law, and the inability of* the other courts to vary from fixed methods of procedure, prevented the administration of exact justice. 68 EDWARD I. rock, called the Stone of Destiny. There was » Scotci tradition that wherever that stone might be, there the Scots would reign. TSy Edward's order, it was taken to Westminster Abbey, then just completed, and placed beneath the Coronation Chair, in which all the kings of England are crowned. William Wallace. Bui Scotland found a champion in the patriot William Wallace. Mustering an army of stalwart peasants, he put to flight the English knights at Stirling. Castle after castle fell into his hands, until all Scotland was once more free from English rule. He pushed his victorious arms across the border and ravaged the north of England. The war-like Edward, who had been abroad while these events were occur- ring, now returned, and putting himself at the head of a large force, brought "Wallace to bay at Falkirk, in 1298. The latter had been appointed Guardian of the Realm of Scotland, but proud Scottish lords, scorning to serve under one of humble birth, forsook, if they did not betray him, at Falkirk, and Wallace was utterly defeated. For seven years, outlawed, and with a price upon his head, hiding among his native mountains, he waged a pitiless war on the English, and was then basely betrayed by a Scotch noble. He was taken, in chains, to London, and there tried as a traitor, with a crown of oak leaves upon his head, to indicate that he was king of outlaws. Being condemned to death, he was tortured and executed in the most horrible manner. From lowland moor ft) highland glen, from peasant cot to lordly castle, sped the story of his cruel death. What Wal- lace living failed to do, Wallace dead achieved. Scotch EDWARD I. 65 jealousies died. The fierce resentment that united aD hearts in a stern resolve to avenge his cruel death, united them in the nobler resolve to free their country from the hated English yoke. Robert Bruce. In four months all the clans were .n arms under their second champion, Robert Bruce. Edward, bowed with years, but resolute still, once more took the Held. But he sank under exertion and excitement, and died just as his army, at Burgh-on- Sands, came in sight of the blue hills of Scotland. In his dying moments ho enjoined upon his son to prosecute the war with vigor, and even desired that his dead body should be carried at the head of the army ns it marched. Character of Edward I. Edward I. was a wise legis- lator, a skilful soldier, and a gallant knight. Though a despot in disposition, and doggedly tenacious of the royal prerogative, he was just and even generous to law-abiding subjects. To others he was severe and even cruel. The Jews tampered with the coinage, and three hundred of the guilty died on the scaffold ; and finally, in 1290, the whole Jewish people, number- ing sixteen thousand souls, were banished from the realm. His natural sternness was tempered by gentle- ness and affection in his domestic relations, but ho would not shield from the consequences of his crime, even his own son, who once went to prison like a com- mon felon. Under the pressure of want, Edward at onetime levied money contrary to the Charter ; but, convinced of his error, he acknowledged it in tears, in the presence of his Parliament, and reformed. In this reign Parliaments became more regular and met per- 70 EDWARD II. manently at Westminster, but as yet the Commons hac no voice in matters of legislation, simply voting money. Edward II., 1307 to 1327 — 20 Years. Plantagenet. Character of Edward II. Edward II. was weak, though childishly wilful, and utterly destitute of the knightly qualities that shone so brightly in his father's character. He had neither vigor nor virtue enough, to be just himself, or to enforce justice among his people; and much less did he rise even to a faint conception of the one grand purpose of his father's life, the extension of English dominion over the whole island. Ho had but a single aim, indulgence in sensual pleasures. Piers Gaveston. The first five years of Edward's reign were spent in contentions with his barons, on account of one Piers Gaveston, a dissolute Gascon knight, to whose corrupting influence he had wholly sur- rendered himself. One of Edward the First's dying injunctions to his son was, never to recall the banished Gaveston. This injunction was forgotten by the sou, the moment the father was dead ; and the recalled favorite acquired, besides his old influence over Ed- ward, entire control of the government. But it was Gaveston's insolent manners, and his stinging witticisms on the barons, quite as much as his assumption of authority, that won for him their cordial hatred. Twice by force of arms they compelled him to leave the king- dom, and twice the infatuated king recalled him. He was seized by the barons on his re-appearance in 1312, and thrown into Warwick Castle, whose lord he had nick-named the " Black Dog of the Wood." After a EDWARD II. 71 form of trial, he was taken to Blacklow Hill, a little rise of giound a short distance from the castle, near the river Avon, and there beheaded. The quarrel between the king and the barons over the worthless knight is only important as out of it came an advance in constitutional liberty. Parliament established the right to investigate the public expendi- tures and punish bad advisers of the king. Bannockbuni, A. D. 1314. While Edward and the barons were wasting their time in petty strife, the Scots under Bruce were gaining their independence. Linlithgow, Roxburgh, Edinburgh and Perth succes- sively fell into their hands. * Stirling Castle was besieged, and its governor, under the pressure of want, agreed to surrender on a certain day, the Feast of St. John, if not relieved by the Eng- lish. Edward, roused from his lethargy by the critical state of affairs at Stirling, hastily gathered an army of a hundred thousand men and pressed forward to its relief. He was met at Bannockburn by Bruce, at the head of thirty thousand Scots. In the battle that followed, the English suffered the most disastrous defeat, considering the disparity of the forces engaged, to be found in the history of English warfare. Edward's treasure, and all the vast material •The accounts of the sieges of castles held by English garrisons are full of romantic interest. Linlithgow was taken somewhat alter the manner of ancient Troy. A Scotch peasant had been in the habit of supplying the gar- rison with forage. lie came one day with a load of hay in which Scotch sol- diers were concealed. Having crossed the drawbridge, he placed his load in such a position that the gates could not be shut. The concealed soldiers, sud- denly appearing, held the gates until reinforcements lying in ambush came np.and the garrison was overpowered. 72 EDWARD II. of his army, fell into the hands of Bruce, while his panic-stricken soldiers were butchered without mercy. The Scots again ravaged the northern counties. Fresh armies were raised by the English, but little was accomplished. After the battle of Bauuockburn, Edward fell under the influence of two new favorites, the Spencers, father and son. It is but the story of Gaveston repeated, a brief use and abuse of power, a short but desperate struggle with the enraged barons, and a violent death at their hands. Queen Isabella in France. In 1325, the year before the fall of the Spencers, Queen Isabella had been sent by Edward to the court of her brother, Charles IV. of France, to arrange terms of peace be- tween the two kings. She accomplished her mission in a manner more favorable to France than to England, but declined to return at Edward's earnest entreaty, pleading her fear of the Spencers. She had little love for her husband, and had formed a violent attachment for Roger Mortimer, who had been condemned to the Tower on account of his enmity to the Spencers, but had escaped to France. He became the chief officer in Isabella's household. While abroad, the Queen, who was accompanied by her son Edward, Prince of Wales, visited the Court of William, Count of Hainault, and while there arranged a marriage contract between the Prince and Philippa, daughter of the Count. Deposition and Death of Edward. In 1326, with a small force furnished by the Count, Isabella returned to England, and at once raised the standard of revolt, ostensibly to overthrow the Spencers, but in fact to EDWARD II. 73 gain for herself and Mortimer the supreme power. She was hailed as a deliverer by all classes, and soon had an overwhelming force at her command. The king, deserted and helpless, embarked for the Isle of Limdy, off Bristol Channel, but was driven upon the Welsh coast and landed at Swansea. He soon surrendered himself to his enemies, and was hurried like a felon from place to place, and finally lodged in Berkeley Castle. Parliament, in 1327, declared the throne to be vacant; and thus anus established the parliamentary right to de- pose the king. The young prince was crowned under the title of Edward III. To satisfy the feigned scruples of Isabella, Parliament extorted from the captive king a formal abdication of the throne. Edward never left Berkeley Castle. Its gloomy walls one autumn night rang with heart-rending shrieks, and the next day the distorted features of the dead king told only too plainly the tale of his cruel death. A few years after this, Mortimer, when about to expiate his crimes on the gallows, confessed that he sent two hired assassins to murder the hapless king. Edward III., 1327 to 1377—50 years. Plantagenet. The Regency. Edward HE. became a powerful monarch, and his reign was one of the longest and most brilliant in the history of England. Being crowned at the early age of fourteen, a Council of Regency, composed of twelve principal lords, was appointed to administer the government during the minority. But this Council being controlled by Queen 74 EDWARD III. Isabella and Mortimer, the real power still remained in their hands. Treaty of Northampton. The Scots under James, Earl of Douglas, continued their ravages across the border, and the young king raised an army and marched against them. But the light-armed and well- mounted Scots, skilfully avoiding battle and eluding pursuit, forced Edward to retire for want of supplies. Finally, in 1328, by the Treaty of Northampton, the independence of Scotland was acknowledged. Fall of Isabella and Mortimer. Edward, now eighteen years of age, resolved to take the reins of government into his own hands. Isabella and Morti- mer occupied a strong castle at Nottingham. Every night the keys of the castle gates were brought to the bed-side of the suspicious queen, while guards were stationed at every avenue of approach. Under the guidance of the governor, a small but trusty band of Edward's friends entered the castle at night, through a subterranean passage, and being joined by Edward himself, took its garrison completely by surprise. Mortimer was seized and borne away, the queen piteously entreating her son "to spare her gentle Mortimer." From this moment, Edward was king in fact as well as name. lie summoned a Parliament, before whom Mortimer was brought charged with various offences, including the murder of Edward II. He was pro- nounced guilty and hanged on an elm at Tyburn, in 1330, while Queen Isabella was consigned to life-long imprisonment in Castle Risings. She lingered twenty- seven years in hopeless captivity, visited once a year by her son, the king. Longitude West 3 from fir. c v -T V * honaitude Ea Washingt&ii ■ i KDWARD III. 75 Halidon Hill. Robert Bruce, the heroic old king of Scotland, died in V<'>2{), and the crown descended to David his son, then but seven years of age. His- tory now repeals itself. Edward Baliol, son of John Ruliol who figured in the reign of the first Edward, inserted his right to the sovereign power, as his father had done before him. Defeating the forces of Bruce, near Perth, ho seized the power, while Bruce fled to France. To gain the support of Edward of England, he, too, agreed to reign as a vassal of the: English crown. The indignant Scots sprang to arms and drove him from the kingdom. After a show of reluctance, on account of the treaty still in force between the two countries, Edward pronounced in favor of Baliol. Raising a large army, he marched into Scotland, and, by one great battle at Ilalidon Hill, in 1333, placed Baliol again upon the throne, and compelled Urucc once more to take refuge in France. The very name of Baliol was hateful to the Scots, and upon the with- drawal of the English army, he was a, second lime driven from the kingdom. The " Hundred Years' War " with Franco. Tho cruise of Bruce had been warmly supported by the King of France, and Edward, convinced that English supremacy in Scotland could never be made secure, so long as the ships and soldiers of France were at, the call of the Scots, resolved to strike a decisive blow at France herself. Two convenient pretexts were at hand, the encroachments of the French on the English possessions on the continent, and the claim of Ed- ward to the French throne itself. 76 EDWARD TTT. The war that now began between England and France is known as the " Hundred Years' War," because, with intervals of peace, it continued for a hundred years.* Though English kings won a world-wide renown, and English soldiers covered themselves with glory, during its- progress, it ended in the loss to the English people ot all their possessions in France, except Calais. Cressy, A. I). 134-0. The first conflicts were inde- cisive. Edward gained a great naval victory over the French, oft* Sluys, in the English Channel. Landing some years afterwards on the French coast, he won the famous field of Cressy. It was in this battle that Ed- ward, Prince of Wales, called the Black Prince, from the color of his armor, bravely won his spurs, entering upon a career that, for brilliancy of achievement and the splendid exhibition of knightly qualities, finds no paral- lel in the annals of chivalry. Calais. Five days after the battle of Cressy, Ed- ward laid siege to Calais, a strongly fortified town on the seaboard, opposite the cliffs of Dover, which French privateers had long made their haunt, while lying in wait for unguarded English traders. In • The ground of Edward's claim will be seen in the following statement: - Philip IV., predecessor of the present King Charles IV., of France, left three ecus and a (laughter, Isabella, who became the wife of Edward II. of England, The daughter was the youngest. The sons left only female issue, while the daughter left male issue, Edward III. ol England. Edward was thus tile near- est male heir. It was maintained by the French that Edward's claim was Darrcd by the Saliolaw, a law that had long prevailed in France, forbidding jemale succession. Edward sought to evade (lie force of this law by asserting that, though a female could not inherit the power, she could transmit it to her male descendants. To this the French replied that a female could not trans- mit a right she did not herself possess. The French practice was in strict accordance with their theory, for on the death of Fhilip's sons, his heirs direct being females, or ihe issue of females, were passed over, and the crown was given, without opposition, to Philip <>f Val<>i-s a nephew ol' Philip IV. EDWAKl) III. 77 twelve mouths it was starved into surrender, but the fortitude of its inhabitants, and the heroism of the im- mortal six, who offered their lives as a ransom for the people, will challenge the admiration of all ages. Though Edward's army had been greatly wasted during the siege, and he had threatened to put the whole city to the sword, on account of its obstinate defence, he promised, at last, to spare the lives of its inhabitants, if six principal citizens, bare-headed, barefooted, and with halters about their necks, would bring to him the keys of the town and castle, and deliver themselves up to his will. Six noble men offered themselves for the sacrifice. They presented to Edward the keys, and were ordered to instant death. But Edward's gentle Queen Philippa, falling on her knees before him, begged their lives, and they were spared. Neville's Cross. The Scots, who were in alliance with France, taking advantage of Edward's absence, appeared in large force in the north of England, under the command of Bruce, their king. They were de- feated by Philippa (who had not yet joined her husband in France), in the battle of Neville's Cross, Bruce him- self being taken captive. The exhaustion of an expen- sive foreign war, and the ravages of a fearful plague, called the Black Death, forced Edward to make a tem- porary peace with France. Poictiers, A.D. 1356. But war was renewed in 1355, by the Black Prince, who inarched from his Duchy of Aquitaine with a small but well-appointed force, and penetrated to the very heart of Frauec. When about to return laden with spoils, he found him- self opposed, a few miles from the city of Poictiers, by 78 EDWAliD III. the French king at the head of an overwhelming army. By a wise choice of ground and a skilful disposition of his little force, he inflicted upon the French host, a ter- rible defeat. Among the prisoners was John, the French king, who was broughl by the gallant prince to London. Edward now li
7, required its use in the courts (^' justice. Even Frenoh romanoes began to be* translated into English. The English People. There had always existed feelings of hut red and jealousy among the people o\' the different races. The native Briton could never forgive his Savon conqueror, and both alike detested the proud and domineering Norman. 'The reign oi Edward witnessed the blending of those discordant races into one harmonious people. They fought , side by side, at Cressy and Poiotiers, and their animosities melted away amidst rejoicings of victory. From t lint time they Looked hack with a common pride to a glori- EDWARD III. 81 ous past, and forward with a common hope to a more glorious future. Change in the Methods of Warfare. A change was gradually taking place in the methods of warfare. Hitherto, mail-clad knights had been the main reliance in battle, but Edward, following the example of William Wallace at Falkirk, had won his most, brilliant cam- paigns with English archers. At Cressyand Poictiers, the knights of France were first thrown into confusion by clouds of arrows sped with unerring aim by English bowmen. It is said that cannon were iirst used on the battle-field, at Cressy; but heavy cannon, throwing stones, were used before, for siege purposes. The Two Houses of Parliament. Edward had in- creased the number of towns allowed to send represen- tatives to Parliament, making the latter so large, that it was found necessary to divide it into two distinct bodies, the one composed of lords and bishops, called tin' House of Lords, and the other, of representatives of towns and counties, called the House of Commons. And thus Avas perfected the legislative branch of the government. The Witenagemot of the Saxons had developed into the Great Council of the Normaus, and that, first into the single Parliament of Earl Simon, and now into its perfected form of two independent Houses. From this moment, the Commons, who had been overawed in the presence of lords and bishops, assumed a more independent character. It is a signi- ficant fact, in this connection, that Edward, forced by his necessities during the French wars, confirmed the Great Charter thirteen times. 82 BDWABD III. Death of Kdwanl. Enfeebled by age, and over whelmed by the disasters that had befallen him, Ed- ward survived the Black Prince but a year, dying in l.')77. Mis last years were gloomy, and his death peculiarly sad, and a striking commentary on the vanity of human glory. A.s the end drew near, he was utterly forsaken. Even Alice Perrers snatched a ring from his unresisting finger, and (led. A.t the last moment, « compassionate priest, entered the silent chamber, and held a crucifix before the fasl glazing eyes of the dying king. It is difficult to realize, thai this is the Edward who was the very prince of that proud race, the Plan- tagenots, the hero of the French wars, and the pride of England. Chivalry was then at its zenith, aud Ed- ward's court had been Chivalry's capital. Hither gal- lant knights had been WOllt to gather from all pails of Europe, to mingle in the scenes of Feudal splendor, that constantly dazzlocl tho eyes of the wondering people. But, whether in the friendly lists of the tour- nament, or the deadly shock of battle, Edward's plume had always been pre-eminent. Richard 11., 1377 to 1399—22 years. Plantagenet. The Regency. No king ever came to the English throne more heartily welcomed, or left it less regretted, than Richard II. The fact that he was the son of the Black Prince, that mirror of Chivalry and idol ol' the people, opeued all hearts to him. lie was handsome, but effeminate, a mere lover oi' pleasure and royal dis- play, ffia retinue numbered ten thousand persons, and its passage through the country was dreaded little RICHAKD II. 83 less lli.'in thai of an invading army. Being l>ut eleven years of age when be inherited the crown, a regency was appointed. Causes of Wat Tyler's Rebellion. Four years after his accession, the Peasants' Revolt, or Wat Tyler's Re- bellion, broke out. This revolt is worthy of very brief mention, considered alone in the incidents attending it. It had none of the " pomp and circumstance of war," and was little better than tumultuous gatherings <>f ill- organized mobs, whose subsidence was as sudden as their uprising. But the social and political questions involved Lift it into a plane of grave importance. It was :i revolt founded on social distinctions, tlio begin- ning of an irrepressible conflict between the poor and humble oppressed, and the rich and noble oppressor; of an antagonism bel ween labor and capital, that , in one form or another, has continued unabated to this day. Emancipation. During the preceding reigns, the serfs had, in various ways, gradually risen to the con- dition of freemen. The work of emancipation had been hastened by the necessities of the lords themselves, who, to maintain the pomp and splendor of Chivalry, expensive even in time of peace, but doubly so in time of war, resorted to every artifice to raise money. It was a ready and productive way, to commute the services of the serfs for their est hnated value in money. Edward himself, to raise funds for the French wars, sent agents to all the royal estates to sell to the serfs their freedom. So that bythe middle of the fourteenth century, free labor had, to a considerable extent, taken the place of slave labor, and was then abundant and cheap. 81 RICHARD II. The Black Death. In 1348, in the reign of Edward III, a terrible plague, called the Black Death, originat- ing in Asia and traversing the continent of Europe, swept England as with the besom of destruction. One-half its inhabitants were carried off, but it was especially malignant amorg the lower classes. At its close, labor was scarce and high, and as it naturally sought the best market, in some sections harvests could not be gathered for want of help. The Statute of Laborers. The landowners appeal- ing to Parliament for relief, an Act, called the " Statute of Laborers," was passed, re-establishing the old low price of labor, and compelling the laboring classes to seek employment within the limits of their own par- ishes. This virtually restored the old and odious system of serfdom, creating the most intense discon- tent among the peasantry. They gathered in large numbers at the different centres, to listen to the harangues of their leaders depicting in bitter language the wretched 'condition of the poor, and the luxurious estate of the rich. By the close of Edward's reign, the oppressed peasantry were ripe for revolt. The Breaking out of the Rebellion. In the fourth year of Richard's reign, a tax of one shilling was im- posed on every person in the kingdom, above fifteen years of age. It was not the amount of the tax, but the fact that the poor were taxed as heavily as me rich, that kindled the smouldering spark into a flame of rebellion. The most formidable rising took place in Kent, where a hundred thousand peasants gathered under Wat Tyler, and taking up their line of march for London, poured into the city in a vast disorderly RICnARD II. 85 mass. Many excesses were committed, but the fury of the multitude was chiefly directed against those concerned in the odious tax and previous oppressive legislation. The king, who at tirst had taken refuge in the Tower, met them by appointment at Mile-end, just out of London. During the conference, Tyler placed his hand on the dagger at his side, and was instantly stricken down by one of the king's attendants. The lives of the royal party were in imminent peril, for the bows of the enraged insurgents were already bent, when the king, riding hastily forward, exclaimed, "Tyler was a traitor ; I will be your leader." They quickly gathered about their new and youthful leader, praying for liberty for themselves and their children. This achievement of Richard's seems almost heroic, and is all the more conspicuous from the long and ignoble career that followed it. Richard professed to yield to their prayers, and thirty clerks were set to work preparing and distributing free papers. The pacified insurgents began to break up and return home. In the meantime the nobles were assembling their forces and hastening to the support of the king. The latter, false to his word, quickly cancelled all the free papers he had issued, and caused the leading rebels in all the towns to be tried and punished. Though the revolts were suppressed and the peasants nominally returned to a state of serfdom, the newly awakened desire foi personal liberty could not be extinguished, and the work of emancipation went slow- ly but surely forward, until, in a century and a half, serfdom may be said to have disappeared from England. 86 RICHARD II. Wickliffe and the First Reformation. The Peas- ants' revolt , charged, as it was, by Catholics, to the seditious teachings of Wickliffe and his followers, was a serious Mow to the reformation.* Wickliffe was for- saken by his most powerful friends, including the Duke of Lancaster himself. Bu1 there was another reason for this defection, — Wickliffe's extreme views in regard to some ot* the tenets of the ehureh. So Long as lie merely exposed the corruptions of the clergy, he was applauded hv all classes, bul when he assailed the cardinal doctrines of the ehureh, lie lost the sympathy of all good Catholics. Wickliffe now displayed the real greatness of his mind, and the versatility of his genius. Instead of the scholarly arguments in classic Latin he had hitherto addressed to the greal and Learned, he now directed his appeals in plain A.nglo-Saxou to the masses of the Eng- lish people. Pamphlet after pamphlet against both the doctrines and the practice oi' the church, issued from ► The teachings ofsomeofthe leaders, ami so the tendency of the times, are clearly indicated In the following Bentitnents, attributed to John Ball, the" mad priest of Kent": -"Good people, things will never go well in Eng land so long as goods be no! in common, an l bo long as there be villains (simply vassals) ami gontlomen. By what right are they, whom we call lords, greater folk than we? On whit grounds have they deserved it? win- do they hold us in serfage? if we ail oame of the same father and mother, ot Adam and Eve, hOW e in they say or prove that they are better than we, if it he m>t that they make us gain for them, by our toil, what they spend in theii pride? They are elethed in their velvet and warm in their furs and theii ermines, while we are covered With rags. They have wine and spices and fair bread, and wo eat oat-cake and straw and water to drink. They have leisure and tine houses. We have pain and labor, the rain and the wind in thft fields. And yet it is Of us and of our tod that those men hold their state- ' The following couplet i> also attributed to Ball: — " When Adam delved and Eve span, Who was then the gentleman?" it is hardly to be wondered at, that multitudes of ignorant men, bitterly con - BOious Of their ow n wretchedness and the sumptuous estate Of their masters, both equally undeserved, in their minds, should enlist in an enterprise thai promised to make them ail more equal. RICHARD II. 87 his prolific pen, and \s as sent broadcast over the land. An order of preachers, railed the Simple Priests, was Instituted to disseminate his doctrines. Such progress was made, that "every other man you met was a Lol- lard," * to use the hitter language of a careful observer oi' the times. The crown, at last, came to the aid of the church ; Wlekliffe was banished from Oxford, and his writings condemned as heretical and ordered to lie burned. Retiring to Lutterworth, he devoted his energies to the last and grandest work oi' his life, the translation of the Bible into English. December 30th, L384, he hada stroke of paralysis, while attending mass in the parish church, and passed peacefully away the next day. Otterburn and Chevy Chase. There is little o\' interest in the foreign relations of this reign. The border lands of both England and Scotland were wasted by hostile incursions. In 1388, occurred the battle oi' Otterburn, a mere border-fight between two hostile noblemen, Percy and Douglas, ami their retain- ers, but made forever memorable by that celebrated ballad, " Chevy Chase." Chaucer. In thereignsof Edward III. and Richard 11. lived Chaucer, the " Morning Star o\' English poetry," whose " Canterbury Tales," the most famousoi his works. is still read with delight. Thirty pilgrims from all classes in society are represented as travelling together from London to Canterbury, to visit the shrine oi St. Thomas, and whiling away the tedium of the journey * The name Lollard, derived from the old German lo/i,n or Mien, to sing, was iii-t applied to Uio Reformers as an epithet <>f derision, from their prac ticeof singing hvmns in their meetings. MS RICHARD 11. by tolling stories, which furnish the most accurate picture of the manners :m\ a cunningly devised statute, granting him a life income, and placing the legislative power in the hands of a select number of lords and burgesses, Parliament was virtually abolished. Though the king now seemed more secure in the possession of power than ever, his downfall was near at hand. Deposition of lUchnnl. A personal quarrel having arisen between two young noblemen, an appeal was made to "wager of battle." Ou the day appointed for the contest, and in the presence o{' the multitude gath- ered to witness it, Richard banished both from the kingdom, and soon after seized the estates, io which one of them, Henry Bolingbroke, his own cousin, had fallen heir. Taking advantage of the absence of the king in Ireland, Henry Landed at Ravenspur, in Yorkshire, and raised tin- standard of revolt, llis twenty followers increased to sixty thousand fighting men by the lime he reached London. Richard hastened back to England, only to fall into Henry's hands, sutler dethronement by Act of Parlia- ment, and disappear within the walls oi' the Tower, With Richard, end tin 1 Plantagcnet kings, on the whole an able though a tyrannical race. But the worst of these kings were the best t\»r England in the end, KH1I AK1> II. 89 for with intolerable tyranny came rebellion, and ulti- mate relief. Rebellion founded in a just cause does not often end in mere bloodshed and anarchy, but in a permanent advance injustice, liberty, ami law. page 51). Trial by Jury has sometimes been attributed to Alfred the Great; but there iseverj reason to believe thai the jurors oi Alfred's time, like those of other Saxon kings, were only Compurgators. For fifty years after Henry's Assise, the only forms "i trial used alter presentment by the jury, were the Ordeal ol Battle and the Judgment of God. At tin- Fourth Lateran Council, beld at Borne in 1216, Henr) III. being King of England, all Ordeals were abolished and went rapidly out of use; but the English statute authorizing the Ordeal ol Battle was not repealed till 1818. The year before, a man charged with the orlme of murder claimed the right, under the ancient law, to challenge his accuser to mortal combat, which the court allowed. Many steps have been required to bring Trial by Jury to its present perfection, in the reign of Ed- ward 1.. pei sons especially acquainted with the facts in any case presented for trial, were added to the jury. Butasearlyas the reign of Edward in. the jury was divided into two distinct bodies Of jurors ami witnesses, the jurors ceaBing to be special witnesses, though they still made use of their personal knowledge of the facts in making up a verdict, ami the added witnesses ceas- ing to be jurors. From this l iuie the witnesses merely gave testimony, and the jurors decided whether it was sufficiently grave to warrant the indictment of the accused. Thus was the way opened for the rise of the Pettj (fury, as triers of the issue, and the limitation id' the original jury to the work ol pre- sentment. In the reign of Charles 11. the principle was established that jurors shall not be called in question on account ^l' their verdiet ; and in the reign of George IV- it was enacted that "jurors need only be good ami lawful men of the body of the country." In the jury as established by the Assize of Henry 11., though nominally a jury of presentment, we tlnd the germs of the Trial Jury. Presentment in certain criminal oases was equivalent to conviction; tor, though the sus- pected person safely passed the Ordeal that followed presentment, it he tvas charged with inunler or other felonious crime, or was of bad reputation, he was compelled to abjure the realm. Thus Henry's jury performed, to a cer- tain extent, the functions of both Grand ami Trial juries. It is not to be won- dered at, then, that its verdict was awaited by the prisoner and his friends with much the same anxiety that, in criminal eases, attends the action of the Trial Jury at the present time. CHAPTER VI. House of Lancaster, 1399 to 14GI — 62 years. HENRY IV.. Bolingbroke. HENRY V. of Monmouth. HENRY VI. of Windsor. Henry IV., 1399 to 1413 - U years. Henry's Title, Henry IV. gained the orownbyhis prowess. Conscious that his title* was defective, and his possession of power precarious, he sought to win. to his support those most powerful elements in the State, the nobility and the church. To the nobility, flushefj with pride at the memories oi' Cressy and Poio- tiers, hut burning with shame :it the loss ol' Aquitaine, he held out the gains and the glory oi' another French campaign. Incessant domestic troubles prevented the renewal of the war with France, but hoping to gain the • To explain : Ttae four eldest Bona of Edward [II. wore Edward, the Blaok Prince; Lionel, Dukeof Clarenoe; John of Gaunt, Duke > i Lanoaster; and Edmund, Duke of York. Edmund, Earl of March, was descended from Lionel iiu- Beoond, and Henry i\\, from John of Gaunt, ctu< third son of Edward in., so thai when the eldest branob of the royal family became extinct, as it did at t in- death ol Richard 11 . son ol the Blaok Prince, the crown belonged of right to the Earl of March, the representative of the Beoond branch. Tins asurpa" lion of Henry [V. was all the more glaring, sinoo it really ooourred before the death of Richard u.. anil it led, some sixtj years later, In tiio reign of Henry vi . to ■ Beriea of wars, called the "Wars of the Roses." One other fact ought to be mentioned In this connection. Shortly after this usurpation, the Beoond and fourth branches ol the royal family wore united by the marriage of theii two surviving representatives, &.nne, and Riohard of Cambridge. Riohard, r>nk.o of Fork, the Issue ol tins marriage, was the one, In the reign of Henry \'i.. to press the olalnia of his house to the throne. EN) HENRI IV. 91 favor of the church conscious of the steady growth of reform Ideas, he began a most bitter persecutiou of the reformers, The First Martyr at the Stake. Bj an Ad of Par- liameut, called the "Statute of Heretics," the bisliopa were empowered to imprison all writers, teachers, and preachers of heresy, and, ou their refusal to abjure, to surrender thom to the civil power for punishment. William Salter, a London preacher, was the first mar- tyr at the stake. Being condemned by the bishops, ho was handed over to the civil authorities and burned, in accordance with the statute, in 1 tOl. Henry IV. lias the unenviable reputation of being the lirst king of England to impose on his subjects, by statute, the penalty of death, and that, the awful death i>\ tiro, on account of fidelity to religious belief. And thus was inaugurated the system of horrible intol- erance that blackens, for so hum - a period, the page of English history, of which Catholics ami Protestants were alike guilty, ami whose only palliation is the spirit of the age. To the prayer of the House of Commons, that the cruel statute might be repealed or mitigated, Henry replied that "he wished one more severe had been passed," and gave a terrible proof of his sincerity by immediately signing the death warrant of another reformer. Revolt ill Behalf Of Richard II. Henrys reign wit- nosed a constant succession of revolts. Throe of these will be noticed. The lirst was in behalf of King Richard, who was rumored to have escaped from con- finement, :11,, t b) be still living in concealment in Scot- 92 HENRY IV. laud. This w;is quickly suppressed, and in K-ss than a mouth :i report was nirrent thai Uiehard had died at Castle Poutefract. His body was even brought to London and exposed io the public gaze, that all might see that he was really dead. Strange and conflicting stories were told of the manner of his death, l>ut nothing is positively known. Ho is supposed to have been con- signed by Parliament io an unknown dungeon, and '."have diedaviolont death, at tho instigation of Henry himself. Revolt <>!' the Welsh. Another revolt broke out in Wales, under Owen Glendower, who claimed desoent from the n>\ al line of Llewollyn and the ancienl Britons. As in the times of Edward I.) patriot hards, journeying from place to place with song and story of the oarl\ heroes of Welsh history, fired the Welsh heart anew with its old love of liberty, Glendower, being de- feated in I ho open field, retired \o the fastnesses of Suowdon, and throughout Henry's reign defied the whole powor of England, What beoame of him was never known, lie lived for some time after Henry Y. oame to the throne, a wanderer and an outlaw, refusing all overtures of poaeo, and making his home in hidden eaves among his native hills. A cave still called " Owen's Cave " is to be seen on the eoast of Merioneth. Revolt of tho Percies. But the insurrection most dangerous to Henry's throne suddenly broke out undei the Peroies, who had hitherto heen its most powerful supporters. The cause of their defection is not clear. It may have been Henry's Inability to pay the expenses of their previous campaigns in his behalf, or his un- willingness to ransom the eider Mortimer, Hotspur's MI'.NKY IV. 99 brother-in-law, who was a prisoner to Glendower; but its declared object was to place upon the throne the Earl of March, whom Henry held as ;i state prisoner ni Windsor. They were assisted by Glendower and Douglas, each :it the head of a band of his count ry- nien. Henry gained a oomplete victory over all these foes al Shrewsbury, in I l<>:». Hotspur, the younger Percy, being killed on the field ofbattle. The elder Percy per- ished in a subsequent revolt. Tho Poet-Sing of Scotland. Prinoe James, a youth of twelve, and heir to the Scottish throne, had embarked for France, to escape tho perils that menaced the royal family of Scotland. His ship was taken by an English cruiser, and the young prince remained a state prisoner in England for nearly nineteen vears, two of whioh were spent in the Tower, and sixteen in the Keep of Windsor Castle, lie was provided with good instruct- ors, and became the famous "Poet-king of Scotland." When released, he assumed the crown to which he had fallen heir, and math' one of the noblest of Scottish kings. He married Ladv doanna Beaufort, an English princess, to whom he had become attached while in prison. Henry's Troubles. Henry lived in constant dread of the Lollards, who were known'to be active in foment- ing insurrections. He was conscience-smitten, too, it is said, at the part he had taken in their perse- cution, as well as at (lie means he had used to attain to power. Forced to he ever on the alert against the friends of the dead Richard on the one hand, and the living Mortimer on the other; morbidly jealous of the growing popularity of tho Prince of Wales, and in con- stant fear lest the latter should snatch the crown from 94 HENRY iV. Lis head; distressed at the Prince's wild and reckless conduct; and shattered in mind and body by epileptic tits to which he was subject, no wonder he grew morose and unpopular towards the end of his reign, and was hurried prematurely to his grave. He died in afit, while praying before the shrine of St. Edward's at Westminster. "Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown," was Shakspeare's sage reflection on the stormy years of Henry's reign. Henry V.,1413 to 1422 — 9 years. Lancaster. The Wise Beginning of Henry's Eloign. The reigu of Henry Y . was short hut brilliant, happily disappoint- ing those who feared that the reckless prince would make a reckless king. Calling together his old com- panions in tolly, he told them of his purpose to change his lite, and forbade them to enter his presence until they should follow his example, and reform. In proof of his sincerity as well as wisdom, he selected as his principal advisers in the government, men of known integrity of character. Aiming them was Grascoigne, who, as Chief Justice, once sent Prince Henry himself to prison, for interfering with the course of justice. Several just and noble acts, at the very outset of his career, did much to disarm the enemies of his' house. He pacified the York family by setting free the long imprisoned Ear] of March, and by giving to the bones of Richard II. a truly royal burial among the kings of England at Westminster. He gained the support oi' the powerful family of the lYreies, by restoring to them their forfeited estates. HENRY V. 95 Suppression of the First Reformation. Henry's attention was early called to the Lollards. Their doc- trines had been gradually spreading, during the preced- ing reign, not only in England, but on the continent. John Huss, rector ot" the University of Prague, had become, through the influence of WicklifiVs writings, a convert to Lollardism, which he openly preached, until silenced at the stake. The Catholic clergy, early in this reign, saw the necessity ot* acting with more vigor against the "new heresy," and marked as their tirst victim, Sir John Oldcastle, the leader of the Lollards in England, whose eastle they had made a place of refuge. The king, inspired by an old friendship, sought to save him from death: hut Oldcastle, refusing to recant, was cast into the Tower, and. after trial and condem- nation by the prelates, was turned over to the civil authorities to be burned. The king again interposed, granting a respite of fifty days, during which Old- castle made his escape, and planned, so it was said, and so the king believed, an immediate rising of the Lol- lards. Henry at once took decided ground against the Reformation, and the most violent persecution followed. The severest statutes were enacted, com- manding the arrest of all persons, even if suspected of heresy, and entailing forfeiture of estate and blood un all convicted. Oldcastle and many others perished, and the first Reformation, mail that was outward and visible, was soon at an end. Elsewhere allusion has been math- to the decline of the Reformation among the influential classes, on account of its connection with the ''Peasants' Revolt." A word more seems proper [Jtf HENRY V. before leaving the subject. Some of the leaders of the Reformation, lacking the singleness of purpose that inspired its founder, Wickliffe, sought, as we have seen, to bring within its sweep the removal of social distinctions and the equalization of property, — our modern communism. At the time of its suppres- sion, it also rested under the odium of conspiring to subvert the government. The Reformation, branded on the one hand as communistic, and so, dangerous to society; on the other as revolutionary, and so, destruc- tive to public order, gradually arrayed against itself not only the rich and powerful, but also the more thought- ful and conservative. Outwardly, the Reformation ceased to exist, hut, to use the expressive words of Lingard, a spirit of inquiry had been generated, and the seeds were sown of that religious revolution, which, in a little more than a century, astonished and convulsed the nations of Europe, or to use the poetic language of Knight, "Out of Wickliffe's rectory, at Lutterworth, seeds were to be borne upon the wind. which would abide in the earth till they sprang up into the stately growth of other centuries." * •Thirty years after Wickliffe's death, ami in the early part of Henry's reign, the Council of Constance, the same that condemned Jobn Hups, Issued a deoree that Wickliffe's remains Bhould be disinterred ami burned. This was done, and his ashes were oast into a little brook that runs past Lutterworth, into the Avon. The Avon leads into the Severn, the Severn into a narrow sea, tx i the Bea into the ocean. In the following beautiful lines the poetic fancy oJ Wordsworth makes the scattering ol Wickliffe's ashes an emblem of thf ■treading of his doctrine:— "As thou these ashes little brook, wilt bear Into the Avon— Avon to the tide 01 Severn— Severn to the narrow seas— Into main ocean they — this deed accurst. An emblem yields to friends and enemies, How the bold teacher's doctrine, sanctified By truth, shall spread throughout the world dispersed." HENRY V. 97 Renewal of the "Hundred Years' War." During the reigns of Richard II. and Henry IV., there had been an intermission in the "Hundred Years' War" with France. It was renewed by Henry V., a year after he be- came king, by a revival of the old claim to the French throne. The time was a favorable one. The French King, Charles VI., was insane, and his son, the Dau- phin, too young to rule ; while the Dukes of Burgundy and Orleans had involved the nation in a bloody war to decide which should be regent during the Dau- phin's minority. Henry crossed the channel and cap- tured Harfleur, near the mouth of the Seine, but with a loss, by sickness and death, of two-thirds of his army. Against the advice of his nobles, he formed the daring purpose of marching through the country to Calais, following the old route of Edward IH. He bad about ten thousand men. The French factions, startled at the new danger, ceased their fratricidal strife, and prepared to meet the common foe. Aginconrt, A. D. 1415. The French army, esti- mated at one hundred thousand men. planted itself directly across Henry's path, near the village of Agin- conrt. The hostile armies joined battle about noon, October 25th. In three hours, the battle won added new glory to English arms, and fresh laurels to her kings. Considering all the circumstances of the day, it was the most brilliant victory English soldiers evei gained over those of France. Aginconrt at once took its place in history by the side of Cressy and Poictiers, but outshone them both ; Cressy in the fearful odds against which the English contended, and in the brilliant personal achievements 98 HENRY V. of England's kiinr ; Poictiers, in the amazing fortitude with which that Little band of sick and starving men encountered the flower of the chivalry of France. Seven princes of the blood, above a hundred noble- men, and eight thousand knights, fell on the side of France that day. Henry then made his way unopposed to Calais, and soon after crossed the channel to England. What a joyful welcome the English people gave their warrior- king when he returned from his brilliant campaign ! They rushed into the water, as he noared the land, and bore him on their shoulders to tin 1 shore. Throngs oi delighted people went out to meet him from all the towns, strewing flowers in his path. His entrance to London finds no parallel except in the magnificent Tri- umphs the people oi' ancient Home were wont to give their returning victors. Siege of Rouen. All attempts at a permanent peace were futile, and, in 1417, Henry again entered France with a well-appointed force of forty thousand men. Towns and castles surrendered at his summons, or fell before his assaults. The siege oi' Rouen lasted six months. Its inhabitants, variously estimated at from one hundred and fifty to two hundred thousand, refus- ing to open their gates, were at last reduced to the most dreadful extremities. "War," said Henry, "has three handmaidens. Fire, Blood and Famine, and I have chosen the meekest maid of the three." And while the merciless king was slowly drawing his lines closer around the devoted city, this meek but pitiless handmaiden. Famine, was executing her horrible com- mission within its walls. One half its inhabitants had HENRY V. 99 perished, and the survivors, in despair, had resolved to bum the city and die in battle before its walls, when Henry, fearful that Fire and Blood would, at the last, snatch from his hands the coveted prize, offered them terms of capitulation. Conquest of Franco and Treaty of Troyes. An event soon happened that hastened and completed the conquest of France. The Duke of Burgundy was as- sassinated in the very presence of the Dauphin him- self, and probably with his connivance. The Duke's son. Philip, in revenge, allied himself with Henry, and the whole Burgundian party threw itself into the scale against the Dauphin. A treaty was made at Troyes, in the presence of the king and queen of France, in 1420, bestowing on Ilenrv the hand of Princess Catherine, and securing to him the regency of France during the life of its maniac king, and its sovereignty at his death. The States-General solemnly ratified the treaty. While engaged in bringing the kingdom to order, in the von prime of life and at the height of his power and glory, Henry was attacked by an incurable disease, and died, August 31st, 1422. He left an infant son at Paris, now king ot England and France. Henry's widow, Catherine, afterwards married Owen Tudor, a Welsh chieftain, one of her attendants, and from them sprang the Tudor sovereigns. Beginning of the Navy. The first ship of war ever owned by the English government was built in Henry's reign. Before this period, the maritime towns had fur- nished all the ships needed for war or national pur« L.orC. tOO HENRY V. poses.* The House of Commons took but a single step in advance during Henry's reign. It Bettled the principle that no law should be valid without the assent of the House of Qommons, Henry VI., 1422 to 1461 — 3D years. Lancaster. The Dauphin of Franco Assumes the Crown. Henry VI. was crowned King oi' England and Franco at the age oi' nine months, his ancles, the Dukes oi' Glouces- ter and Bedford, being appointed, in accordance with the wish of his father, the one Protector of the Realm oi' England, and the other Regent oi' France. The Dauphin oi' France had never consented to the "Treaty oi' Troyes," setting aside his claims to the throne, and, at the death oi' his maniac lather, shortly after that of Henry V.. assumed the title oi' Charles Vll. The town of Orleans, Lying on the north side oi' the Loire, and the country south of the Loire, were loyal to Charles, never having eome under the sway of Eng- land. Bedford, who, as a soldier, was little inferior io Henry V, himself. Laid siege \o Orleans, with the design oi' extending the English dominion. The French were in consternation; for, with the fall of Orleans, the country south of the Loire would be open to invasion. Joan of Arc. The amazing success oi' the cam- paigns oi' Edward 111. and Henry V. had given the French an exalted idea oi' English valor and a ureal * The dependence of the government on maritime towns, for ships of war, oontinned for a long time, even after it began to own vessels of its own; for the growth of the Bngli iNavyv - very slow. 5The Heel with which Elisa- beth, ninny years later, dostroyed the Invincible Armada, was mainly contrib- uted, all manned and equipped, bj maritime towns and wealthy Individuate HENKY VI. 101 distrust of their own. There is no other explanation of the ease with which a mere handful oi' English soldiers could repeatedly overrun the most populous districts of France. It was at this moment, when French despondency was deepest, that help appeared from a most unexpected quarter. A simple peasant girl oi Domremy, on the eastern confines of France, believing that she was destined by Heaven to free her country from foreign rule, presented herself at the Court of Charles. She told the story ot' the angel visions she had seen, and the voices she had heard, commanding her to so to the succor o( her king. The French people had unlimited faith in Joan's divine com mission, ami Charles himself, believing, or professing to believe, her story, paid herthe greatest honor. The belief in sorcery and witchcraft was all but universal in that age. To allay the alarm of their superstitious soldiers, the English commanders assured them that Joan was not a messenger oi' Heaven, but this only forced them to the belief that she was sent by the Evil One, and was a witch, and their dismay was complete. .loan, elad in white armor and mounted on a snow white horse, with a great white banner borne before her, on which were embroidered the lilies ot' France, directed her march towards Orleans. Crowds of excited soldiers joined the strange procession that passed unopposed through the lines of the awe-stricken English, and entered Orleans. Under her lead, the French soldiers, restored to confidence in themselves, soon drove the besieging army from its intrenchmeuts, and Orleans was saved. 102 HENRT VI. Joan, called from this time the "Maid of Or- leans," then commenced her triumphant march on RheimSj where, according to the prophetic "voices," the king was to receive his crown. Town after town was taken on the way, sometimes without a Mow, the English soldiers Hying in dismay as tin 1 dread banner came in sight. At Rheims, the garrison was driven out by the inhabitants, and the gates opened wide io receive the advancing host. In the old oathedral that had witnessed the coronation of so many of his ancestors, Charles was formally crowned King of France in 1429. Joan, with tears of joy, declared that her work was done, her mission ended, and desired io return at once to the care oi' her father's flocks. There were other eities io be conquered, and the king detained her ; but her enthusiasm was gone, her counsels became timid and vacillating, and the spell o\' her power over the sol- diery w;is soon broken. Captured in the defence of Compiegne, she was sold to the English by Burgundy, and, after a year's captivity at Rouen, basely handed over to the church oourts for trial. Being condemned as a witch and a heretic, she was burned to death in the ancient market-place at Rouen, in L431. Whatever credit we may give to the " visions " ami " voices " Joan professed to have seen and heard, we cannot doubt her heartfelt sorrow for her erownless king and fallen country, her sincere faith in her mission, or her devo- tion in fulfilling it, her purity, her piety, and her mar- tyr's death. Though her ungrateful king made no effort to rescue or ransom her, and took no interest in her fate, her name is held in grateful remembrance among her countrymen, and excites a tender respect HENRY TI. 103 wherever her strange, sad story is told. These will form a monument more enduring than that erected to her memory on the spot where she died. Loss of all France, except Calais. The English rule in France was hastening to its close. The Dukes of Burgundy and Orleans had been reconciled, and their united forces hurled against the English. Fighting bravely, but defeated on every side, they retired to Nor- mandy in the hope that that province, at least, might lie saved. There was a truce and then a treaty, but both were powerless to stop the war. Normandy rose in rebellion in the north, and Guienne in the south. Though the English fought with desperate valor, they were steadily driven towards the sea-board, and finally within the walls of Calais, and the " Hundred Years' War," that long, fitful dream of an English empire in France was over. Such an empire was impossible. The campaigns of Edward III. and Henry V. were brilliant, but unsubstantial, feeding the national pride, but exhausting the national resources. As soon as those great captains retired from the scenes of their conquests, those conquests melted away like mist before the morn og sun. The French crown was but a bright and tempting "Will-o'-the-wisp," luring on ambitious kings, but ever eluding their grasp. Euglish Discontent. The loss of France caused in- tense disappointment in England, and as the vengeance of the people could not be visited on the royal person, it fell on the heads of his advisers. The Duke of Suf- folk had brought about the marriage of Henry with Margaret of Anjou, consenting, in the contract, to the cession of Maine and Anjou to Margaret's father. To 104 1IKNKY VI. satisfy popular clamor, Suffolk was impeached by Par- liament,and hurried by the king in((» exile, to save him from n worsefateat home. Bu1 Suffolk's enemies were not to be cheated out of their prey. He was pursued and i>\ ertaken on the high seas by a Large ship, called the "Nicholas of the Tower." Being ordered on board the Nicholas, he was greeted, as he reached its deok, with the salutation, " Welcome traitor." Twodaysafter- wards,he was Lei down into a small boat and beheaded with a rusty sword, on :i block o[' wood. The Duke <)\' Somerset was held responsible for the more recent losses iii France. But, being a relativeof the king and a favorite of the queen, he continued for a while to doty all his enemies. Jack ("ado's Rebellion. Shortly after the death oi Suffolk, :i revolt broke out under one Jack Cade, an old soldier in the French wars. It grew out of the genera] discontent at the mismanagement of the gov- ernment at home and abroad. Cade's grievances were embodied in :i "Complaint " scut to the Royal Council, o( which had counselors to die king, interference oi' the nobles in the elections, extortion oi' the royal oi'- tiecrs, and the Statute oi' Laborers, formed the chief burden. It is interesting to note that this revolt was chiefly Located in Kent, Wat Tyler's old home, and among the very classes implicated in Tyler's old re- bellion,* Cade, advanoing towards London with a * Tyler's principal grlevanoewas serfage, and bla chief demand freedom. The faol thai neither serfage nor freedom was mentioned In Cade's Complaint is Btrons, Inoldentni i>v,n>i thai sla\ erj , though still on the Btatnte book, had virtual I j died out, especially Id Its more odious features. The sumptuary laws of tins period also Bhow the improved condition of the lower cIms--,'*, and dio gradual passing awas of social distinctions. Although the Statute of Laborers was still unrepealed, II had ,•••:! stv) to be executed . the labor question HBNBY VI. 105 motley trowd oi' twenty thousand men, met and scat- tered the royal forces at Sevenoaks. The king fled to Kenilworth, and Cade entered London. Three days he held the city, putting to death obnoxious persons, and, at the last, plundering private property. Retiring at night to Southwark, the citizens held London bridge and prevented his return. On a promise of pardon and redress of grievances, the pacified insurgents began to return to their homes, while Cade himself, with a price on his head, and almosl without a follower, was pursued into t ho country and put to death. Events Preceding the Wars of the Hoses. Cade's rebellion is supposed by some to have been incited by Richard, Duke of York, who returned from his govern- ment in Ireland, in a short time, only to increase still more the general confusion. Be demanded the dismission of the Duke oi' Somerset from office. The violent quarrel that now began between the ambitions Dukes soon ripen- ed into open war. Henry, although a man in years, was but a child in intellect. The real government lay in the hands of the Queen, the friend of Somerset. At this juncture Henry sank into utter imbecility , and Par- liament appointed York, Protector. Somerset went into the Tower. The king recovered, and York retired to his estate, while Somerset returned to power. The most powerful noble in England was the Karl oi' Warwick, who took the side of York. In the spring of 1455, York and Warwick marched towards London, with being left, for the most part, to the natural laws that govern it, tin" laws oi supply and demand, in comparing the two revolts, filer's whs an outburst of despair on the pari <>i men whose wrongs bad beoome unendurable ; Cadtft a mere polltloal outbreak, inaugurated by men dissatUiled with the manage- incut ul public alfuus. 106 HENRY VI. professions of loyalty to the king, but with a peremp- tory demand for the surrender of Somerset. The battle of St. Albans, in 1455, left Somerset dead on the field ; that of Northampton, in 1460, witnessed the complete overthrow of the royal forces and the capture of the kins; himself. Hitherto, the Duke of York had professed loyalty to the king and enmity only to his bad advisers, but he now revealed the hidden purpose that had inspired all his movements from the beginning. Boldly enter- ing the House of Lords, he pronounced Henry VI. a usurper, and claimed the crown as his own by right of inheritance.* The Lords, compelled to act, ac- knowledged the justice of his claim, but decided that, since the House of Lancaster had held the sceptre for sixty years and the nation had sworn fealty to its pres- ent king, with him the sceptre should remain while he lived, and then descend to the House of York. Wars of the Roses. Henry's spirited Queen, in- dignant at an arrangement that disinherited her son, summoned all the friends of the House of Lancas- ter to the field. The conflicting claims of the two Houses had been discussed at every hearth-stone and camp-fire in England, and the sympathies of civilians as well as soldiers were warmly enlisted on the one side or the other. The adherents of the House of Lan- caster wore as a badge the red rose, and those of the House of York, a white rose ; hence the name " Wars of the Roses." Though there was actual warfare less than two, these wars covered a period of thirty, years, sacri- • 8ee note on page 90. HENRY VI. 107 Being nearly all the members of both royal families, and mole than half the ancient nobility of England. In the first conflict, at Wakefield, in 1460, the Red Rose triumphed over the White, the Duke of York being captured and brought to the block, on the field of battle. His head was placed on the walls of York, adorned, in mockery, with a paper crown. In the second, at Mortimer's Cross, the White triumphed over the Red, Edward, the young Duke of York, being in command. In the third, at St. Albans, the Red was again victorious, and King Henry, who had been brought, a prisoner, upon the field by Warwick, being left behind in the rush of retreat, was restored to liberty. •The true qualities of most minds are best seen in emergencies. Some men are never so little to be fear- ed as when victorious ; others never so dangerous as after a defeat. While the Lancastrian generals, in- stead of following up their advantage at St. Albans, allowed their men to scatter over the country to pillage, Edward, spurred to promptitude and boldness by fail- ure, pushed straight on to London. As the young and handsome prince rode through the streets of the capital, he was greeted by the people with shouts of w Long live King Edward." A council of peers, prelates, and citizens, was hastily convened, before whom Edward boldly demanded the crown. The council declared that Henry had forfeited his life-lease by taking sides with the Queen, and that Edward was the rightful King. The formal coronation took place at Westminster, June 29th, 1461. CHAPTER VII. Souse of fork, 1461 to L485 -1 years. BDWAED iv. I BIOHABD III. KDUAKDV. I Edward IV., 1461 U) 1485 :i yaws. York. Toulon, A.I>. 1461. Edward put himself al tL< bead of all the forces he oould muster, and set out in pursuit of t lu* Lancastrians, now hurrying northward. Be overtook thorn :it Tow ton, about eight miles from York. Each army numbered sixty thousand men. It was iu tho midst of a snow storm, about four o'clock iii the afternoon of Palm Sunday, thai the struggle bogan. All nighl long and pari of the following day the dreadful battle raged, and when t ho Lancastrian army, panic-struck, fled from ilu> field, thirty-three thousand nun i.i\ dead in the snow. It had been the practice, from the very beginning of the war, for either party, when victorious, to exeoute the nobles of the othor, and confiscate their estates. Aitor To wton there was a swooping confiscation of Lancastrian estates, many of which wenl to reward the Earl of Warwick, the main pillar of t lu» House of York. So rich and powerful did this nobleman become, it is said he oould muster an army of men from tho vassals on his own estates, and he has oonie down to us In history as tlu< ii<*> r.i»\\ \i;d i\ . 10:> king-maker, from his ability, as wo shall presently sec, in make and unmake kings. Two attempts made by the Lancastrians :il Hedge- ley Moor and Hexham, in 1 1 1 » 1 , i<> retrieve their fallen fortunes, were unfortunate. Henry, after hiding iu Lancashire for more than :i year, was betrayed in his enemies and thrown into the Tower. Queen Margaret, friendless and destitute, fted with her little son. Prince Edward, to i he court *>f her lather. Barnet. The friendship between Edward and War- wick soon gave place to socrol enmity, and that to open warfare. Edward was jealous of the overshadow- ing power of Warwick, and Warwick was offeuded al Edward's secret marriage with Elizabeth Grey, widow of a Lancastrian knight, and the elevation of the Queen's family, (he Woodvilles, t«» rank and power. Fortune was tickle. In the spring of 1470, Warwick became an exile in France, where he math 1 an alliance with Queen Margaret, engaging to aid her in restoring the House of Lancaster to power. This alliance was cemented by tin" marriage of Margaret's son to War- wick's daughter. In the fall of the same year, Edward, in turn, became a fugitive in I [olland,and I [enry exchang- ed a dungeon for the throne, [n the spring of 1471, Ed- ward having received aid from his brother-in-law, the Duke of Burgundy, landed :it Ravenspur and prepared, once more, to meet his powerful foe. On the field of* Bar- net, on Easter Day, in the mist and darkness, was foughl the last battle between the king and the king-maker. The latter, betrayed by his ally, the Duke of Clarence, the king's brother, was slain, and his army cut to pieces, Edward re-ascended the throne, and 1 [enry re-entered the 110 ki>\\ \i;i> IV. Tower, where he died soon after by the hand of violence. Tewkesbury. The very day the battle of Barnet was fought, Margaret landed with a force at Weymouth. Undismayed by the disastrous tidings that soon reached her, the spirited queen pushed northward and made a final stand at Tewkesbury. There, on the fourth ot* May, she saw her last army annihilated, her only sou. for whom aloue she had really' fought, cruelly slain while crying for mercy, and the last hope of the House of Lancaster fade away. Ransomed after five years of captivity by t ho king of France, she returned to her native A.njou and died broken-heartod at the disasters that had befallen her family. Character and Government of Edward. Edward had a superior mind and was a good soldier. So long as his crown was in jeopardy, he continued vigilant and active; hut when the last enemies of his house had been silenced, in the dungeon, in exile, or in death, he gave himself unreservedly to the gayeties and excesses of his court. Handsome and affable, he made himself a favorite in society : hut sagacious and unscrupulous in matters ot stale, he became a tyrant and established a despotism. lie attempted to revive the old thread-hare claim to sovereignty in France. Parliament voted large Minis tor a French war, and raised and transported to French soil an immense army. Advancing from Calais a short distance, negotiations were opened with King Louis, resulting in a treaty, Edward yielding his claims for an annual pension. The odious spy system was a device of Edward's, and was made so thorough. that the lightest court gossip as EDWARD 1\ • Ill well .is the gravest state intrigue found its way to the king's oar. Another invention of Edward's was called a "benevolence." This was a gift of money which he would invito his rich subjects to make him, and which fchoy dared not refuse, — an ingenious way of keeping the letter, but violating the spirit, of the law against arbitrary taxation. Results of the Wars of the Uoses. We are now at the close of Edward's reign, and although the last battle of the Wars of the Roses has not yet been fought, the main part of the struggle is over, and it seems proper here to allude briefly to its general results. These may be summed up as follows : — 1st. The de- struction of the ancient nobility of England and the fall ot' the Feudal System. '2nd. The loss of constitu- tional liberty. 3rd. The decline of civilization. The Destruction of the Ancient Nobility. The Wars of the Roses were peculiarly the wars of the nobles. All the great feudal houses, gathered around the rival standards of York and Lancaster, were hurled against each other, in battle after battle, with frightful loss. Confiscations, executions, and exile, still further diminished their numbers and power, until, at the close of the contest, the ancient baronage ot' England was left a hopeless wreck. It is said that at one time and another, during these Avars, the Crown held one-fifth of all the real estate in England as its share of the spoils. It is true, both lands and titles remained, some ot' them to return to their former owners or their kindred, but more wont to enrish and ennoble the favorites of the king. 112 EDWAED IT. The nobility, thus re-created by royal olemency and royal bounty, was shorn of its traditional power and independence. It bore little resemblance to the grand feudal race that, coming down from the Conqueror, was as old as the throne and ;is proud; to the lordJya race that, for centuries, had stood so firmly between the throne and the people, the support of the one against factiou, and the defence of the other against tyranny. We cannot help a feeling of admiration for the old- tune baron of England, whether we recall him in time of peaoe, in the old ancestral castle, extending a rude but hearty hospitality, or in time of war, (dosing his gates and bidding defiance to all his foes, lie feasted or he fought with equal relish, and was no respecter of persons, buckling on his armor as readily lor a tilt with the forces of the king as with those of his quarrelsome neighbor. Said Karl Warrenne, as he thing his sword on the table before the commissioners of Edward 1., sent to examine his title deed, "That, sirs, is my title leed." When Karl Bigod refused the demand of Henry 111. for aid, said the latter, " I will send reapers and reap your fields for you." " And 1 will send you back the heads of your reapers," replied the fearless Karl. We can hut honor their patriotism as well as admire their fearlessness. Time and again did they come to the front in periods of national peril. The barons of Emrland wrung from the tyrant John the great char- tei of freedom. Who that has read the story of Magna Charta has not Longed to know which of the immortal twenty-four was the Jefferson who conceived EDWARD IV. 113 and framed that wonderful instrument? But history is not silent as to the name of Simon de Montfort, the leader of that other immortal twenty-four that reap d the House of Commons in the very face of the throne itself. With the ancient baronage fell the Feudal System. Feudalism, as a power in England, expired, as it were, in a bright but lurid flame, when the House of War- wick, after towering for a brief period, high above the throne itself, suddenly went down on the field of Barnet. The regret of the reader will be but natural that Warwick, who has been fitly called the "Last of the Barons," could not have been the best as well as the last of his race. The Loss of Constitutional Liberty. From the Magna Charta to the "Wars of the Roses, there was a slow but real progress in constitutional liberty, almost every reign bringing either a limitation of the royal prerogative or an enlargement of popular rights. At the beginning of the Wars of the Roses, there had been established, so far as the intelligence of the people and the arbitrary dispositions of kings allowed, the following principles : — The king had lost the right to levy taxes, make or change the laws, and imprison or punish subjects arbitrarily. Parliament had gained, besides the control of laws and taxes, the right to impeach and remove the ministers of the crown, direct and investigate expenditures, depose the king, and settle questions of peace and war. During the Wars of the Koses, all these great principles and guarantees, won through centuries of toil and suffering, were rudely swept away, and it was a century more, before 114 EDWARD IV. the nation had sufficiently recovered itself to re-assert and re-establish them. England may be Bald to have passed from an absolute to a limited monarchy, when, in the reign of Edward 1., the king lost the right to Levy taxi's without the consent ^i' Parliament. Edward IV. reduced England to an absolute monarchy again, that continued to grow more and more absolute, until, in the reign of Henry Y11I., it had become a despotism as unmitigated as that of the Czar. Nor is this strange. The nobility, shattered and dependent, had neither power nor prestige, and could no longer, if it would, stand between the people and oppression; the ehnreh that had so often stood side by side with the nobility in the contest with tyranny, was stricken with heresy, and paralyzed through fear of another reformation; the people were not yet sntli- tiently enlightened to understand or maintain their own lights; and so the crown was left with little or no restraint, and the descent towards absolutism was easy and rapid. Charters, statutes, and human rights Were trodden under foot with perfect impunity. To use the language of Green, "The Crown which only fifty years before had been the sport of every taction, towered into solitary greatness." Though constitutional liberty seemed, after the Wars )l the Roses, to have departed from England, none of the great statutes advancing the cause of human lights were ever abrogated. The Magna Chart a was recognized as the supreme lav of the land by kings and ministers, even while they trampled its provisions under their feet. The EDWARD IV. 115 Monarchy and the House of Lords were once abol- ished, but the House of Commons never. Though bated by tyrants, and bo prorogued, dissolved, over- awed, and ignored, it never for a moment ceased to exist . The Decline Of Civilization. The barbarous manner in which these Avars were conducted was most debasing, not only to the soldiers who were actors, but also to the people who were spectators, in the horrible drama. w No quarter," was the savage order in many a battle. But more demoralizing than this were tho cold-blooded executions that followed almost every victory. And most brutalizing of all was the hideous md sickening spectacle of ghastly heads and limbs of human bodies, impaled on stakes and walls in public places, and constantly staring the people in the face. What a school tor the young were the Wars of tho Roses! The nobler qualities of individual character were consumed in the fierceness oi' the hate which these wars engendered. There is hardly a chivalrous deed to be found in the whole gloomy record. War is not neces- sarily demoralizing to cither individual or national character. When waged in the cause of truth and jus- tice, it may bo ennobling to both. A Washington or a Hampden may become great and i^ood in tho midst of conflict and carnage. But in the Wars of the Roses there was no principle at stake. The welfare of a nation was sacrificed to the interests of a house; the patriot was sunk in the partisan; the baser passions ruled, and civilization declined. 116 EDWARD V. Edward V., April 9th to June 2Gth, 1483. York. Usurpation of Richard, Duke of Gloucester. The people of England bad settled down tolerably contented under Edward IV., in spite of tbc tyrannical character of bis government. In fact, they were willing to ac- cept almost any rule that could save tbem from the horrors of civil war, and give some promise of sta- bility. At Edward's death, there was a general dispo- sition to receive kindly his son Edward, as his suc- cessor. But there was one man in England who did not share this feeling, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, uncle to the young prince. With the subtle craft of which he was master, Richard concealed his ambition under a mask of loyalty, but at once put into opera- tion a scheme of usurpation, that, for boldness of de- sign and skill in execution, has few equals. He first arrested on a trivial charge, Lords Grey and Rivers, Prince Edward's uncles on his mother's side, and threw them into castle Pontefract. He then possessed himself of the person of Edward, and after- wards, of Edward's younger brother, Richard, and lodged them for safe keeping, as he said, in the Tower. He next secured from Parliament his own appointment as Protector of England, and at the same time, with other peers, took the oath of fealty to Edward. A few days after this, on the 13th of June, occurred a scene in the Tower, where the royal council were in session, marked in itself, but made forever classic by the genius of Shakspeare. Richard suddenly presented himself before this council, at the head of a file of sol- diers, and charged its president, Lord Hastings, with EDWARD V. 117 sorcery and designs upon his life. "I will not dine," said he, at length, "till they have brought me your head." Hastings was quickly hurried into the court- yard by the waiting soldiers, and beheaded on a chance block of wood. The other members of the council we to cast into prison. Having thus put out of the way all the immediate friends of the young princes, Richard's elevation to the throne became easy. He surrounded himself with soldiers, and was attended in public by a formidable array of prelates and nobles, many of whom were won to his side by the honors and offices ho heaped upon them. The Thames is said to have been covered with the barges of his servants, while in London organ- ized gatherings of the rabble were taught to shout, " Long live King Richard," and a shameless friar, in a sermon at Paul's Cross, pronounced the princes illegiti- mate, and declared the Duke of Gloucester to be the true heir to the kingdom. Finally, a deputation headed by the Duke of Buckingham, Richard's pliant minion from the beginning, invited him to take the crown, which, with a show of reluctance, he consented to do. The next day, at an informal meeting of members of Parliament, the declarations of the friar received a shameless endorsement, and Richard, the following day, the 26th of June, occupied the royal seat at Westminster Hall, as King Richard III. The same day, Grey and Rivers were beheaded without a show of trial. The formal coronation took place on the 6th of July, and the well-planned tragedy, of which Glou- cester and Buckingham were the authors and chief actors, the whole kingdom of England a stage, and all its people silent but interested spectators, was over. 118 RICHARD III. Richard 111.. US.'* (o 11S5 — 2 years. York. The Elements of Opposition to Richard. Although no open resistance was made io the usurpation of Richard, he bad numerous enemies, including nearly all the adherents of the House of Lancaster and those of the House of York, who were, at heart, loyal to the rightful king, Edward V, There was, too, a general feeling of indignation at the harsh treatment of the young princes; for, at the accession of Richard, they had boon removed from the palace of the Tower to its prison. There were whispers of a gathering storm. The Duke of Buckingham, now estranged from his old master, was getting ready for a rising to liberate the princes and restore Edward io his rights. Henry Tudor, Ear) of Richmond, the last surviving member oi the house of Lancaster, Mho had been saved at the fall of the Lancastrian cause, by flight to the continent, was busy enlisting English exiles and fugitives to return and assist in the rising. The Smothered Princes. Richard had gone to the north on a "royal progress," and was at Warwick when vague rumors of Richmond's plans first reached his ears. A messenger of Richard's rode swiftly back tu London on a secret mission, and soon it was r abroad that the young princes were no more, lb when they had died no one know; but that a foul murder had boon committed, and that Richard its instigator, all believed. The very mystery in which the fate of the princes was shrouded, as impenetrable .-is the gloomy walls that were its silent witness - rved but to deepen the public horror of the crime, and the public abhorrence of the criminal. RICHARD III. 119 After Richard's death, the hired assassins told how they smothered the little princes, sweetly sleeping in each other's anus, and buried them at the foot of the stair- case that led to their apartment in the White Tower. In confirmation of this story, it is said that some work- men, sent by diaries II., in L674, to make repairs, found buried in the ground at the foot of an old stair- case, the hones of t wo youths. Bosworth Field. The rising that took place was un- fortunate. Richmond, who had arrived with a fleet to aid the movement, was driven oil* the coast by a storm, and compelled to return to France. Buckingham, un- able to cross the high waters of the Severn and join the confederates, was taken and executed. Richard now summoned his first and only Parliament, and at- tempted by wise legislation* to turn the current of public opinion, setting so strongly against him. It was too late. The death of the princes defeated the plans of the conspirators, but a new scheme was made to elevate Richmond himself to the throne, and to bring about his marriage with Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Edward IV., thus uniting the rival houses, and rallying to the support of Richmond the adherents of both. Richard tried to forestall a scheme so dangerous to his power, by one attempt to marry Elizabeth to his own * Anions others thoro were statutes mating unlawful the exaction of "be- Devolenoi b," — establishing a protective tariff, but allowing the free importa- tion of books, — forbidding the Beizure of the goods of persons suspected ol crime before conviction, ami allowing such persona to be liberated on bail,— giving freedom to all Hie serfs still left on the royal estates, — legalizing the mie of estates regardless of the email, a statute that enoouraged the breaking np of large estates, and the wider distribution of landed property among the middle and lower classes, usually accredited to the reign »f Henry VII. 120 RICHARD m. son, but the latter suddenly dying, by another, to es- pouse her himself, from which he was deterred by the force of public opinion. In the meantime, Richmond was busy reorganizing his expedition, and word soon came that he had sailed from the mouth of the Seine. Richard took his stand at Nottingham, a central point, and, with horsemen on ah the roads, awaited the beacon-lights on the distant hill- tops that were to signalize the time and place of Rich- mond's landing. August 7th 1485, the expedition entered Milford Haven, and a landing was effected. On the 22d, the opposing armies met on the Field of Bosworth. In the midst of the conflict, Lord Stanley went over to Richmond with all his forces. Earl Percy refused to fight, when Richard, with a cry of " trea- son, treason 1 " rushed into the thickest of the fight, with the desperate resolve to conquer or to die At- tempting to strike down his rival, Richmond, into whose very presence he had cut his way, he was sur- rounded and slain. His golden crown, that had rolled under a hawthorn-bush when he fell, was found and placed npou the head of Richmond, on the battle-field, and in the presence of the whole army. There was great rejoicing throughout England, when it was known that the hated king had paid with his life the penalty of his crimes. The Wars of the Roses and the reign of the House of York ended together on Bos- worth Field. Character of Richard. It is difficult to make a just estimate of the character of Richard III., good authori- ties differ so widely in their views of him. Until recent- ly, ho has been regarded as a monster of wickedness, and RICHARD in. 121 without a redeeming quality. But hi& apologists af- firm, that the historians and dramatists, from whom we have derived our impressions, living in the Tudor period, and devoted to the interests of the Tudor sov- ereigns, painted Richard's character in colors alto- gether too dark. There is no doubt, that mere suspi- cions * of crime on the part of Richard have grown into a positive belief in his guilt, that his bad qualities and wicked deeds have been paraded in all their de- formity, and his good qualities and worthy deeds passed 1 ightly over. He showered benefits on those who served him, and performed many acts of kindness and justice. He restored to the family of Hastings the forfeited estates, secured her jointure to the widow of Rivers, and provided for the widow and daughters of Edward IV., who had taken sanctuary at Westminster, when Edward V. went to the Tower. He inspired more wise legislation in the single session of Ins Parliament, than can be found in the records of any previous reign since Edward I. — legislation that had the ring of liberty in it. As a ruler merely, he compares favorably with the kings of that period. But as to his character as a man, it seems difficult to reverse the verdict of history. The historians of the Tudor period, though partial, recorded * The belief that Richard murdered Henry VI. with his own hand, and drown- ed the Duke of Clarence, his older brother, in a butt of Malmsey wine, seemed to rest in the fact that he waa known to be in the Tower when they were re- ported to have died ; and the belief that he was the one who stabbed the son Of Henry VI. after the battle of Tewkesbury, rested on the fact that he was known to be present, but Hastings and Clarence were also present. The be- lief that he put out of the way Anna, his wife, to make room for Elizaboth, rested on the fact Hint she died very conveniently for his plans, although rather suspicious remarks are accredited to Elizabeth, in substance that " the better part of February had passed and she feared the Queen would never die." The Queen died about the middle of March. 122 RICHARD III. and reflected the opinions of Richard's own contempo- raries, the public sentiment of Richard's own times; and public sentiment, though not infallible, is, in the long run, a truthful mirror of the characters of men. Richard began his public career about the year 1471, and continued for fourteen years to be actively engaged hi public affairs, twelve in the service of his brother, Edward IV., and two as an actual sovereign. Almost his first recorded public act was one of heartless cruelty. A young man of less than twenty years, he was one of two judges that condemned to death so many Lancas- trian nobles after the battle of Tewkesbury, when they had been induced to leave the sanctuary, to which they had lied, by a promise of pardon. With the death of the princes the feeling against Richard became intense and universal. It was evident that personal ambition was his sole inspiring motive. Splendid talents and the most untiring energy were re- morselessly devoted to one fixed purpose, to become King of England. As best suited his policy, he could assume the most daring effrontery and boldly strike down those who stood in his way ; or, resorting to the arts of dissimulation, remove them by the hand of the secret assassin. Henry VIII. destroyed a hundred lives to Richard's one ; but he did not inspire half the terror, for Henry's judicial murders were perpetrated under the color of law and in the light of day. Sim- ply to secure his throne, Henry YU. put out of the way, with a form of trial, an unoffending royal prince, without exciting universal abhorrence. There is nothing from which human nature so in- stinctively shrinks as a deed of darkness, no being it RICTIAKD III. 123 so abhors as aii assassin or his employer ; and it was the settled belief in Richard's almost Satanic capacity for deeds of darkness, that inspired all England with such a dread of him, and that has given to his character oi the page of history a color of such unexampled blackness. CHAPTER VIII. Tudor Family, 1485 to 1603 — 118 years. HENRY VII. HENRY VIII. EDWARD VI. MARY. ELIZABETH. Henry VII., 1485 to 1509—24 years. Tndor. Union of York and Lancaster. That Henry was a descendant of John of Gaunt,* and an acknowledged usurper, would, under ordinary circumstances, have en- dangered his throne ; but his opportune marriage with Elizabeth, a York princess, entirely appeased the jeal- ousy of the House of York, while the satisfaction of the people at the overthrow of Richard fully reconciled them to the usurpation. This union of the Roses was a source of great strength, not only to Henry but to all the Tudor sovereigns. Lambert Simnel. The only attempts worthy of note to disturb ( lie new house were made by two impostors, Lambert Simnel, son of a joiner of Oxford, and Pcr- kin Warbeck, son of a merchant of Tournay. Simnel claimed to be Edward, Earl of Warwick, escaped from prison, although at that very moment the real Warwick lay in a dungeon in the Tower, to which he had been •It will l»o remembered that by the Treaty of Troyes, Henry V. received in marriage the band of Catherine, daughter of Charles VI., the crazy king of France, mnl that after Henry's death, his widow married Owen Tudor, a Welsh chief- liin, by whom she had a eon. This eon married a descendant of John of tiaunt, Duke of Lancaster. The issue of this marriage was Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, now Henry VII. Hence the name Tudor. (1»4) HENRY VII. 125 transferred by Ileury. Landing in England with a force chiefly of Irish, he was beaten and taken captive in the battle of Stoke. As an expression of the king's contempt for the imposition he had practiced, Simnel was made a scullion in the royal kitchen, but was uf» terwards promoted to the office of falconer to the king. Perkin Warbeck. Warbeck, a more dangerous but not less real impostor, personated Richard, the younger of the smothered princes, claiming that he too had escaped from the Tower, and had now come forward to assert his rights. He visited a number of foreign Courts, and had a variety of interesting adventures, being crowned as a real prince at Dublin, furnished with a royal body-guard at Paris, patronized as the "True "White Hose" by the Duchess of Burgundy, and supplied with men and money, and wedded to a royal wile,* by James of Scotland. After two fruitless in- vasions, the one from Scotland under the lead of the Scottish king, and the other from the west, supported by the Cornishmen, Warbeck was deserted by all his fol- lowers and traced to the Sanctuary f of Beaulieu, iu * TliiB was Lady Catherine Gordon, a member of the royal liouso of Stuart. She was lauied for personal beauty and amiable trails of Character. When Warbeck entered upon his dangerous career, he placed his wife for safe-keep- ing in the Castle of St. Michael's Mount. After his defeat, a body of horse- men suriounded the castle, and compelled its surrender. Even the cold, practical king was touched by Catherine's devotion to her husband, and gave her an honorable place near the person of the queen. The name, White Itose, by which she came to be known, though suggested by the false claims at her husband, was given as a tribute to her beauty. t Sanctuaries were consecrated places, where criminals could, for a limited time, find shelter when pursued. They were analogous to the temples of refuge among the ancient Greeks, and the cities of refuge among the Jews. In England, as early as the seventh century, churches, and in some cases their grounds, were set apart for sanctuary purposes. Sometimes a stone scat was placed beside the altar, where the person of the fugitive was as sacred as the altai itself. Though the sanctuary might bo surrounded, and th« 126 HENRY VII. the New Forest. Induecdto surrender, he was thrown into the Tower, and afterwards hanged at Tyburn, on the charge of planning an insurrection with the young Earl of Warwick, his fellow-prisoner. Warwick was also executed, not because he was guilty of any offence worthy of death, but because he was the last male Plantagenet, and a source of possible danger to the throne of Henry. The Statute of Allegiance. The attempts made on the throne, though not very grave, led Parliament to define by statute the allegiance of the subject. It was enacted that no one should be punished for allegiance to the reigning king, whether he be king "do jure" (by right), or king "de facto" (in fact). This was designed to guard against such wholesale executions, in case of a change in the dynasty, as followed the fluc- tuations of the Hoses, when men were adjudged trai- tors one day for adhering to York, and beheaded the next for following Lancaster. The Discovery of America. The reign of Henry VII. marks the era of discover}'. When Columbus re- turned to Spain, under whose auspices he had sailed in 1492, and the startling news ilew from port to port that a new world had been discovered far to the westward, it was like a bugle blast in the midst of a slumbering army. The maritime nations of Europe awoke to a orlmlnal forced by hunger to surrender himself, he had the right of" abjuration af ll,o i calm ; " that is, ho OOllld go before the proper authority any lime within fortj days, .onfoss his erimo.and make oath to quit the realm and not return w ltrout the consent of (he king. In that ease he was protected until he could embark tor Borne foreign country. Traitors wore deprived of the right of sanctuary in 1">34, criminals in the reign of Elisabeth, and insolvent debtors in 1607. Bat In Sootland, the Palace and A.bbey of Holyrood still remain a Banotury for poor debtors. Persons not oriminals, whose lives were in dan- iter, Often took shelter in the sanctuaries. HENRY VTI. 127 spirit of enterprise and inquiry they had never known before. National pride and jealousy, and individ- ual love of glory and adventure, sent expedition alter expedition out into the broad and hitherto dreaded Atlantic, on its wonder-seeking mission. The printing press,* invented just before, aided in the general awak- ing. The story of the voyage of Amerigo Vespucci, published in Strasburg in 1505, was circulated through- out Europe, stimulating still more the thirst for dis- covery. When the first flush of wonder and excite- ment had passed away, and the public curiosity in regard to tbe new-found lands bad been partially sat- isfied, d reams of empire, schemes of profitable trade, and a wild greed for gold, became permanent incentives to individual and national enterprise. In original dis- covery, England was second only to Spain, sending out an expedition under John and Sebastian Cabot, that reached, in 1497, the main land of North America. The same year an expedition, fitted out by the Portu- guese, under Vasco di Gama, doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and opened a new way by water to the commerce of India. The Revival of Letters. The Art of Printing had quickened the spirit of inquiry in other directions. There was in England a great revival of letters. On the taking of Constantinople by the Turks, in 1453, ♦William Caxton learned the Art of Printing while in Holland, where, in U71 be i Mini ci i a book entitled " The Reouyell of the Bistoryes of Troye." He brought his press to England In 1476, reign of Edward IV., and the next year published a work entitled " The Game and l'laye of Chess." Loiifr before the Christian Bra the Chinese were familiar with block printing, and its use in Germany dates from the year 1488. Gutenberg Invented cut metal types in 1444 ; Schceffer, types cast iu hollow moulds in 1462. 128 HENRY VII. many of the learned men of Greece found an asylum in Italy. Thither flocked students from all quarters, among whom, from England, were Grocyn, Linaere, Colet and Erasmus. On their return to England, fired with zeal, a new enthusiasm was awakened inthe study of Grecian and Roman literature; and the Bible, that, in rare and costly manuscript, had been aeeessiblo to only a privileged few, reproduced in cheap editions, in print, was brought within the reach of many. Men began to think for themselves, not only in philosophy and science but in politics and religion. The discovery of a new world, awaking the spirit of investigation and enterprise, gave an immense impetus to the intellectual development just beginning under Colet. In the lan- guage oi' Green, "The human mind seemed to gather new energies at the sight of the vast held which opened before it." And here, too, we find the source and beginning of modern civilization, based not on the essential slavery of the Feudal System, as was the mediaeval, but on the growing intelligence and increasing importance vi the masses of the people. The Character and Policy of Henry. With little love for learning himself, Henry had looked with an eye of cold suspicion on the signs of a new intellectual life brightening all around him. Even the discovery of America hardly disturbed the impassive king. He had been willing, indeed, that the Cabots should sail on a voyage of discovery, at their own expense, and he showed some appreciation of their grand achieve- ment, by rewarding them with a present of ten pounds when they returned and laid a new world at his feet. hen u y vii. 129 Henry wau business-like and miserly. He kept two lawyers busy finding "cases" and exacting fines. Ob- solete statutes, forgotten tenures, and petty violations of law, were so many drag-nets that swept into the courts multitudes of men, whose lines poured into the royal treasury a constant stream of wealth. He revived " benevolences,'* but improved upon the plan of Ed- ward IV., who sought gifts only from the rich, by ex- acting them from the poor as well.* lie omitted no opportunity to grasp the estates of those attainted, and made a large income from the rigid execution of the Statute of Liveries. In feudal times the castles of the barons were like armed camps. Crowds of idle retainers, feeding on the bounty of their lordly masters, were ever ready, at their bidding, to storm a castle or menace a throne. The Statute of Liveries, enacted in a preceding reign, was designed to break np these great military establish- ments. Having fallen into disuse, it was revived and executed by Henry, with fine and forfeiture. f A new court, called the " Star Chamber," was appointed to * By a cunning device, called from its author, " Morton's fork," he demanded money of those who made a display in their style of living, for display was evidence of wealth, and exacted gifts from those who made no display, on the ground that such must have grown rich by their economy. f Bacon tells an amusing story highly illustrative of Henry's avaricious character:— " There remaineth to this day a report that the king was, on a time, entertained by the Earl of Oxford, —that was his principal servant, both for peace and war, — nobly and sumptuously, at his castle at Henningham. a'id at the king's going aw;iy, the earl's servants stood, in a seemly manner, 'n their livery coats, with cognisances, ranged on both sides, and made the Xing a lane. The king called the earl to him, and said : ' My lord, I have heard much of your hospitality, butl see it is greater than the speech. These hand* some gentlemen and yeomen, which I see on both sides of me, are sure your menial servants.' The earl smiled, and said, ' It may please your grace, that were not for mine ease. They are most of them my retainers, that are couie 130 IIHNKY VII. have special reference to cases coming under this stat- lite, — a oourt that, being solely under the control of tho king, became, in later reigns, the instrument of great oppression. By sharp practice and rigid economy, Henry was able to amass an immense fortune (£10,- 000,000 present value) for his son and successor to squander. Though avaricious hy nature, there was a policy ill Henry's desire to be rich, lie had one grand pur- pose ever in view, — the establishment of the Tudor throne on a safe and solid basis. He well knew that the great power of the Commons lay in their control of (he public funds, and that the possession of abun- dant means on the part of the king was the royal road to independence. lie exerled himself, therefore, to obtain money without appealing to Parliament, and was so successful that, there was but one session of Parliament during the last thirl ecu years of his reign. lie tried slill further to fortify his house, by connect- ing it, through marriage alliances, with the reigning families of Europe. His son Arthur was married to Catherine of Arragon, a Spanish princess, and his daughter Margaret to James Stuart, the King of Scot- land. Henry died in 1509, and was buried at West- minster, in the magnificent chapel which he himself had built and which still bears his name, lie was suc- ceeded by his son Henry. to do mo service at BUOD a time as this, and chiefly to sco your grace.' The kins started a little and said: ' By my faith, my lord, i thank you for your good oheer, but i may nol endure to have my laws broken in my sight. My at. jorney must speak with you.' And It is part of the report, that the earl com pounded lor uo loss than lliieen thousand marks." HENRY VIII. 131 Henry VIII., 1500 to 1547 — 38 years. Tudor. Character of Henry VIII. Henry VIII. came to the throne under circumstances peculiarly favorable. Representing in his own person the rival houses of York ;iinl Lancaster, Ik; received their cordial and united support. Henry was eighteen years of age, a handsome, generous, and popular prince. But he changed much in disposition as he grew older. Nat- urally passionate and impulsive, and unused to self- control, he became, with opposition, malignant and un- relenting. He was as prodigal as his lather had been penurious, and wasted in a few years the great fortune he inherited. One of the first official acts of the young king was designed to satisfy popular clamor. Empson and Dudley, the hated lawyers of Henry VII., were brought to the scaffold on a charge of treason. Foreign Alfairs. The foreign wars of this reign were comparatively unimportant. Henry has been called a good soldier, but a bad general. Both the king and his principal minister, Thomas Wolsey, were actuated more by personal than national considerations, in the foreign relations of the state. At one time licnry was ambitious to occupy the vacant German throne ; at another, Wolsey aspired to fill the vacant papal chair ; and each sought to shape the foreign policy of England to meet his own interests. In spite of the failures of his predecessors, Henry dared to dream of the conquest of France. His campaign in that country, in 1513, is chietly celebrated for the battle of Guinegate, which the French themselves laughingly named the "Battle of the Spurs," from the amusing haste with which their cavalry, not whipt 132 HENKY VIII. but well-scared, galloped off the battle-field. During Henry's absence in France, an event occurred in Eng- land of a far more serious character. The Scots were in league with the French. Invad- ing England under the command of their king, James IV., they were met at Flodden, the last of the Cheviot Hills, by an army under the Earl of Surrey. The bloody battle that followed left Scotland without a king, and almost without a nobility. Ten thousand gallant Scotch knights fell on Flodden Field. Being deserted by his allies, Henry made peace with the French king, Louis XII., giving the latter in marriage the hand of his eldest sister Mary.* In 1520 there was a meeting between Henry and the new king of France, Francis I., in English territory. The place of the meeting has been called the " Field of the Cloth of Gold," from the magnificeuce of the display. The most important of Henry's foreign relations was with the Pope of Koine. The Divorce of Catherine of Arragon. Henry had married Catherine of Arragon, his brothor Arthur's widow, soon after coming to the throne. He had been betrothed to her by his father years before, a special dispensation being obtained from the pope, as such a union was forbidden by the Levitical law and a canon of the church. Nearly twenty years after this marriage *Louis XII. soon died, and Uenry sent Charles Francis Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, to France.to bring his widowed sister back to England. Now it hap- pened that Brandon was an old and accepted lover of Mary's, and her wishes had not been consulted by Henry when he gave her to the French king; princesses' wishes rarely were in those old times. Taking advantage of so favorable an opportunity, Brandon and Mary were married in France before they returned to England. Henry was, at lirst, very angry, but soon forgave them. They had a daughter, Lady Fiances Brandon, who married Henry Grey, Marquis of Dorset. Lady Jane Grey, whose sad history we are soon to relate, was the offspring of this marriage. HENRY VIII. 133 had taken place, Henry began to have what he ealled conscientious scruples about its legality. He coupled these scruples with his " despair of having male issue by Catherine, to inherit the realm." He had but one living child, a daughter, Mary. Another dispensation was now required to dissolve his union with Catherine, before he could form a new alliance. Cardinal Wolsey was commissioned to secure it. Charles V., Emperor of Germany, nephew to Catherine, had captured Rome and made the pope a virtual prisoner in the Castle of St. Angelo. For the latter to give the desired dispensa- tion would offend Charles ; to refuse it would displease Henry. Delay, then, on the part of the pope, in making a decision that might involve both the peace of Europe and the welfare of the church, was but an act of ordinary prudence. For two years was the impatient king kept in suspense, his impatience made all the greater by the violence of his passion for Anne "feoleyn, a pretty maid of honor to the queen. At length, in 1529, a legatine commission composed of Cardinals Wolsey and Campeggio, was appointed to try the case in England. After sitting about two months, and just as Henry was expecting a favorable judgment, the commission unexpectedly adjourned, and the sanguine hopes of the king were suddenly dashed to the ground. The pope then ordered the case to be- tried at Rome, sealing the fate of Wolsey, and making a rupture with the Holy See inevitable. Cardinal Wolsey. Cardinal Wolsey was the son of a butcher, and was educated at Oxford. Brilliant talents had brought him to the notice of Henry VII.," from 134 HENRY VT11. whom bo hud received the appointment of royal chap- lain. He afterwards attracted the attention of Henry VIII. , who raised him from one position to another until he became Lord Chancellor of the kingdom, and Cardinal in the church, and finally Papal Legate. For twenty years he had stood at the head of church and state, the most powerful, if not the most able, subject England ever had. His genius was unequalled for breadth or versatility. He could play the courtier, and amuse the idle hours of the pleasure-loving king with ceaseless sallies of wit and mirth, or he could act the statesman, and guide with consummate skill the most intricate affairs of the government. It is inter- esting to follow him as he leaves the scenes of his former pomp and splendor, and devotes himself with simplicity and meekness to the ordinary duties of a parish priest, visiting the sick and dying, giving alms to the poor and needy, and ministering in countless ways to the temporal and spiritual wants of his grateful people. In about a year, the king ordered his arrest on a charge of high treason. He had committed no new offence, and had been pardoned for the old one ; but he had an unforgiving enemy in Anne Boleyn. In charge of the keeper of the Tower, Wolsey com- menced his last journey towards London. He was taken ill on the road. On reaching Leicester Abbey, conscious that his end was drawing near, he said to the Father Abbot, as the latter gave him a kindly wel- come, "I am come hither to leave my bones among you."- This was Saturday night. The following Tues- day, November 29th, 1531, when at the point of death, be gave utterance to those ever memorable words, 'Tf HENRY Vlll. 135 I had served God as diligently as I have done the king, he would not have given me over in my gray hairs."* The ingratitude of Henry VIII. was the basest of his many faults. He eould crush long-tried and faithful servants, with as little feeling as he would tread upon the meanest reptile. The Divorce of Catherine of Arragon Accomplished. The gordian knot of the divorce was finally cut by the ingenuity of Bishop Cranmer, who suggested to the delighted king the reference of the whole question to the universities of Europe. The pope forbade the divorce of Catherine and the marriage with Anne Boleyn, on pain of excommunication. But a majority of the universities, for various reasons, decided in Henry's favor, and Cranmer, now made Archbishop of Canterbury, pronounced, in 1533, Henry's union with Catherine null and void. Anne Boleyn, already mar- ried to the king, was publicly crowned Queen of Eng- land. The noble Queen Catherine, whp had resisted to the utmost the disgrace and injustice heaped upon her, died in a few years, honored for her virtues and her piety. The Oxford Reformers. We return once more to the beginning of Henry's reign. The young king, though fond of pleasure and display, was scholarly in his tastes and well educated, and carefully fostered the new spirit of enterprise and mental activity among his * These words, addressed to Muster Kingston, the Constable of the Tower, who had been sent by the king to convey Wolsey to prison, have been crystal lized by the genius of Shakspeare : " O Cromwell, Cromwell, Uail I but served my God with half the zeal I served my king, Ue would not in mine age Have left me naked to mine enemies." 136 HENRY VIII. people. Colct, who had been made Dean of St. Paul's by Henry VII., became, under the present king, head of a new school for the study of Latin and Greek literature ; More was appointed to some civil office, and, later, at the fall of Wolsey, to the chancellorship ; Erasmus received a professorship at Cambridge. These zealous pioneers in the new world of thought and con- science, vigorously applied themselves to the work of reform. Erasmus. Erasmus, with a moral courage that re- minds us of AYickliffe, wrote book after book, in which he aimed at reformation in politics and religion as well as learning, now arraigning and ridiculing the follies and foibles of the monks and men of various professions, and now addressing the consciences of men in the most tender and affecting appeals. In his " Praise of Folly," he makes Folly, dressed in cap and bells, describe, in a speech to her associates, the re- ligious teachers of the day, the old school men, as "men who knew all about things of which St. Paul was ignorant, could talk science as though they had been consulted when the world was made, could give you the dimensions of heaven as though they had been there and measured it with plumb and line, men who professed universal knowledge, and yet had not time to read the Gospels or the Epistles of St. Paul." But the work of Erasmus must potent in its influence, was his edition of the New Testament, in parallel columns, one in Greek and the other in Latin. Several editions were required to meet the popular demand. Said Erasmus, in speaking of the Scriptures in his preface, "I wish that they were translated into all languages, so as to be HENRY VIII. 137 read and understood not only by Scots and Irishmen, but even by Saracens and Turks. I long for the day when the husbandman shall sing portions of them to himself as he follows the plough, when the weaver snail hum them to the tune of his shuttle, when the traveller shall while away with their stories the weari- ness of his journey." Thomas More. From the prophetic pen of More, appeared a work entitled "Utopia," or Nowhere, a satire on the times, especially the reign of Henry VII. Utopia was an ideal commonwealth, which an imag- inary companion of Amerigo Vespucci, deserted on the American continent, found somewhere iu the midst of the wilds. It had wide and cleanly streets, com- fortable houses, a system of public schools in which every child received a good education, perfect religious toleration, and universal suffrage, though with a family, and not an individual ballot, and the sole object of the government was the good of the whole people, and not the pleasure of the king. Had More's pseudo voyager but wandered to the American continent a few centuries later, he would have found his model "Utopia" a real and not an ideal republic. Opposition to the Oxford Reformers. This is but a slight glance at the work of the Oxford Reformers, extending through a period of /:>rty years, in educating the people of England up to a higher plane of intelli- gence, and in preparing the way for that second and still greater movement that began in Germany under Luther one year after More wrote his " Utopia," and in England soon after. It must not be supposed that the old school men and theologians were silent, while 169 HENRY VIII. the reformers were busy removing the very founda- tions of their ancient temples. They bitterly op- posed the reformation at every step. More once wrote to Colet, " No wonder your school raises a storm, for it h like the wooden horse filled with armed Greeks for the destruction of Troy." And such it proved. So popular diu it become that others of a similar character followed ; and it is said that, in the latter part of Henry's reign, more schools were founded than in three centuries before. Repeated attempts were made to de- stroy Colet ; once, when, from the royal pulpit and in the very presence of the king, Colet had denounced the French wars, in which the king had enlisted so heartily ; and again, when, at a convocation of bishops and clergy, being appointed to deliver the opening ser- mon, he boldly charged many of them with living worldly and immoral lives. The bishops of London, with others, lodged a charge of heresy against him. Said the bluff king to those who sought his help against Colet, " Let every man have his own doctor, but this man is the doctor for me." To Henry's protection did the Oxford Keformers owe their personal safety, and to his encouragement was the New Learning indebted for its rapid progress. And yet the very men he shielded from the most vindictive enemies he hesitated not to destroy at their slightest opposition to his own will. Martin Luther and the Reformation. More than a century had passed away since Wickliffe inaugurated the First Reformation. We arc now brought to the th eshold of the second, under Luther, on whom W ieklifie's mantle seemed to have fallen. Martin HENRY vnr. 139 Luther was educated for the law, but, in 1505, he entered a monastery at Erfert, and, in 150S, became preacher at the University of Wittenburg, lately founded by the Elector of Saxony. Pope Julius II. was ambitions to erect a temple of unrivaled splendor at Rome. lie published an indulgence in Poland and France, which Leo X. extended to the northern provinces of Germany. In 1517, Luther, learning that one of the agents of the pope was about to come to Wittenburg, nailed to the doors of his church his famous propositions, ninety-live in number, denouncing the abuse of indulgences, and the next day (day of All-Saints) read them to the assembled parish. The pope's agent was forbidden by the Elect- or, Luther's friend and protector, to enter his dominions. The controversy that followed, called the "Controversy of the Monks," soon attracted the attention of Leo, to whom Luther addressed a most submissive letter. But upon the publication by Leo, that the pope, as successor to St. Peter, and vicar of Christ upon earth, possessed the power of granting, for reasonable causes, certain indulgences, Luther appealed to a general Council. When all efforts to reclaim Luther had failed, the pope issued against him a bull of excommunication. This Luther publicly burned, and, in 1521, was summoned for trial before the Diet of Worms, over which the German Emperor himself presided. Luther boldly maintained all his declarations before that august as- sembly, refusing to recant or abjure, and was con- demned as a heretic. Having a safe pass for three weeks, he retired to a secret castle in the Thuringian forest, and then, after a few months, to Wittenburg, and hence- forth devoted himself to the work which he had under- 140 HENBY VIII. taken, the reformation of the church. The emperor then issued his edict against Luther, consigning him to death at the stake ; but before the sentence could be executed, all Germany was ablaze with the fires of reformation and revolt, and the emperor had little time to kindle that for the martyrdom of Luther. Thus began the Great Reformation, but it did not end in Germany. We are soon to see it cross the English Channel, and separate England and Scotland from the Papal See. Nor does it cease, till, in the progress of time, it has brought within its resistless sweep the kingdoms of Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway and the Netherlands. The Reformation in England. England was fully awake to the events occurring in Germany. King Henry, although a friend to reform in the church, still held to its principal tenets. While the Diet of Worms was in session, he had written a book against Luther, for which, in gratitude, the pope had called him "De- fender of the Faith," a title still borne by the sover- eigns of England. We have seen how, a little later, in 1529, a breach had occurred between the king and the pope, on account of the divorce of Catherine. This gradually widened into complete alienation and then separation. By successive acts of Parliament, be- ginning in 1531 and ending in 1534, Rome and England, bound together for eight hundred years by that most sacred of ties, a common faith, were sundered forever. The most important of these enactments forbade all appeals to the pope, extin- guished papal jurisdiction over England, and de- clared the King of England to be the Supreme Head HENKY VIII. 141 of the Church of England. It was now that the bull of excommunication, long held over the head of Henry, was hurled against him. But the Rubicon had been crossed, and there was no alternative but a march on Rome. Bishop Fisher and Thomas More Executed. Speech against the pope was no longer heresy ; but denial of Henry's Supremacy was made high treason. For the latter offence perished on the scaffold, in 1535, Fisher, the good Bishop of Rochester, who came to the scene of his death w r ith a copy of the New Testament in his hand, and read, as he knelt to lay his head upon the block, the words, "This is life eternal to know Thee, the only true God." For this, too, perished More, one of the most learned men in Christendom, who, believ- ing the pope to be the divinely appointed head of the church, had resigned his office on Henry's assumption of Supremacy. He had been a life-long reformer ; but he had labored for a reform of the church, and not separation from it. The Emperor Charles is said to have exclaimed, when told of the death of More, "I would rather have lost the best city in my dominions than so worthy a counselor." Henry Supreme in Church and State. By Act of Parliament, Henry now stood at the head of both Church and State. He dictated the utterances of the pulpit as well as the enactments of parliament ; he controlled the ecclesiastical as well as the civil courts ; he declared what was truth and what heresy. Bishops and archbishops held their places only at his pleasure ; and he claimed for himself all the reve* nana that for centuries had flowed so steadily to the 142 HENRY VKI. Vatican. No priest could preach without a royal license, and no license was given without the Oath of Supremacy. Every priest was compelled to declare to his assembled parish their absolution from allegiance to the pope, and the duty of obedience to the new Head of the Church. Thus were the mute and bewildered people, constrained by respect for law on the one hand, and reverence for religion on the other, carried peace- fully through the first and most critical step of a great religious revolution. In other nations the Reformation advanced only through a sea of blood. It is a perti- nent inquiry, to what extent were the peace and order that marked the Reformation in England due to the overshadowing character of the throne, and the iron will of the despot that occupied it? As if to remove the last shadow of a limitation to the authority of the king, Parliament enacted that royal proclamations should have the force of statutes; and it is affirmed, that during tho sessions of Parliament, if Henry's name were but mentioned, in his absence, the mem- bers would rise and bow before the vacant throne. Henry's next step was to reform the faith and practice of the church. He drew up with his own hand the articles of religion.* These showed that the king had * They made the Bible the sole ground of faith; reduced the sacraments from seven to three, namely : Penance, Baptism and the Lord's Supper; retained transubstantiation and confession, but added justification by faith; and re- jected pilgrimages, purgatory, indulgences, the worship of images and relics, and masses for the dead. The Ten Commandments and the Lord's Prayer were required to be taught in every school and family. A copy of Tyndal's Bible, the first ever translated into English, revised by Coverdale in 1535, was ordered to be chained to the pillar or desk of every church in England, and to be open to the reading of all. In 1539. a translation of the Bible was made by Cranmer. HENR? VTTI. 143 taken the middle ground between Protestants * and Catholics. They were essentially the views Erasmus had so long labored to impress upon the English peo- ple. The bishops and clergy gradually fell into the new order of things, but the monks remained unrecon- ciled. The Suppression of the Religious Houses. A com- mission was appointed to visit the religious houses. They reported a larger part of them as corrupt and im- moral, and so, by statute, nunneries and monasteries were broken up, their inmates being turned out into the world, and their revenues poured into the royal treasury. Ten thousand nuns alone were made home- less by the cruel statute, which was probably inspired by no higher motive than the greed of the king for the wealth of the church. At the same time the tombs and shrines of the saints, many of them adorned with costly works of art and rich with the gifts of countless pilgrims, were robbed of their treasures and ruthlessly destroyed. The most famous of these was the tomb of Thomas a Bccket, from which two great chests of gold and jewels were borne away to the royal coffers. This was followed by several risings, especially among the •After the decision of the Diet of Worms, in 1521, Charles V., Emperor of Germany, issued an edict against Luther and the Lutheran heresy. A quar- rel arose, in 152(5, between Charles and the pope, and the former threw his in- lluence against the latter in the Diet of Spires, then in session, and the follow- ing decree, entirely annulling the Edict of Worms, was issued: " Each state ■hould, as regards the Edict of Worms, so live, rule, and bear itself as it thought it could answer it to God and the Emperor." The different German •tates thus became either Lutheran or Catholic, as they chose. But Charles ioon settled his quarrel with the pope, and, as a result, the second Diet of tpires, held in 1529, re-enacted the Edict of Worms, and forbade further re- form without the sanction of a regular council. Against this decision the Lutheran princes of Germany entered their " protest," and were therefore called " Protestants." 144 HENRY VIII. nobles in the north and west. These were readily put down, and the executions that followed remind us of the Wars of the Roses. Henry's principal minister, after the retirement of More, was Thomas Cromwell. He had taken service with Wolsey, and remained his friend to the last. When Wolsey retired in disgrace to his Sec of York, Cromwell went to London to " make or mar," as he expressed it. It was Cromwell who suggested to the king to solve the Papal problem, by declaring his own Supremacy. He became a member of Parliament, and was indefatigable in his efforts to protect and save Wolsey. Ho then became Henry's chief minister, and, when Supremacy had been achieved, Vice-gercnt of the church. Tho Bloody Statute. The Reformation had advanced with rapid strides, and was attended with many excesses on the part of extremists. A reaction was the result ; and this led to the enactment, in 1539, at the dictation of the king, of a statute containing six articles, called by Fox " the whip with six strings," re-affirming the cardinal doctrines of the Catholic church. Tho penalty of death, by fire or the scaffold, hung over the heads of all who violated the terrible statute. The prisons were quickly crowded with offenders. Catho- lics were burned for not accepting the Protestant head of tho church, and Protestants committed to the flames for rejecting the Catholic faith. The execution r>f this statute was relaxed after a few months, else it were difficult to sec how there could have been a con- sistent Protectant or Catholic left in England. Henry's Wives. Henry, in 150i>, married Catherine of Arragon who was divorced in 1533, having had a HENRY VIII. 145 daughter, Mary. The same year he married Anne Bolcyn, who was beheaded, in 1536, on a -charge of being faithless to him, leaving a daughter, Elizabeth. The next day he married Jane Seymour, who died, in 1537, after giving birth to a son, Edward. In 1540, Cromwell arranged a match with Anne of Cloves, a German princess. But she was plain and awkward, and in a little over six months, Henry was divorced from her, and married to Catherine Howard. She, too, was beheaded, in about a year and a half, on a charge of unchastity before marriage, and the next year, 1543, he married Catherine Parr, who survived him. Crom- well was brought to the block when the king discarded Anne of Cleves. Henry's Death. By an Act of Parliament, Henry was authorized to bestow the crown according to his own pleasure. He bequeathed it to his son Edward. The youth and old age of few persons present so great a contrast as those of Henry. A graceful and attractive youth, he became in old age so gross and offensive in his person that few could endure to remain near him. On account of his excessive corpulency, he was moved from chamber to chamber by mechanical aid. When nis last sickness came upon him, and death drew near, at first no one dared tell him the terrible truth. Con- scious at last of the coming change, he sent for Cran- mer, who had retained his favor to the last, pressed his hand, and died. 146 EDWARD VI. Edward VI., 1547 to 1553 — 6 years. Tudor. The Regency. The political history of the reign of Edward VI., which lasted only six years, is but an un interesting record of the schemes of ambitious nun, aiming at wealth and power. Henry VIII. had ap pointed a Council of sixteen members, at the head of which stood Cranmer, to govern the kingdom until Ed ward, who was now ten, reached the age of eighteen years. This Council, disregarding the will of Henry, appointed the Earl of Hertford, afterwards Duke of Somerset, one of its own members, Protector. Edward and Mary, Queen of Scots. By a treaty with Scotland, made during the lifetime of Henry, Edward had been betrothed to Mary, the young Scot- tish queen. Somerset urged upon the Scots the exe- cution of the treaty, but the combined French and Catholic influence prevailed to defeat it. Somerset raised an army and marched into Scotland to compel the observance of the treaty. At the battle of Pinkie, the last national contest between the two countries, the Scots were defeated with a loss of ten thousand men, but they became more bitterly opposed to the execu- tion of the treaty than before. The Earl of Huntley expressed the prevailing sentiment among the Scotch nobles when he said, " He disliked not the match, but hated the manner of the wooing." Mary was then sent to France to render the marriage impossible. The Earl of Warwick, afterwards Duke of Northumberland, also a member of the Council, secured the overthrow of Somerset and his own appointment in his .stead. Northumberland remained in office to the end of th<* reign. EDWARD VI. 147 Peasant Revolts. While Somerset was Protector, peasant revolts* broke out in different parts of the kingdom. The most important of these revolts oc- curred under one Robert Ket, at the head of twenty thousand men. Ket established himself at Norwich, as judge and law-giver for all the country around, making his headquarters under an oak tree, which he called the " Tree of Reformation." The revolts were quelled with the usual barbarities, the "Tree of Reform- ation " serving as a gallows. Progress of the Reformation. But the most promi- nent subject in this reign is the progress of the Refor- mation. Archbishop Cranmer, encouraged by the king, who was a zealous Protestant, vigorously carried for ward the work begun by Henry VIII. The old * It is not clear as to the exact causes in all cases. It will be remembered that after the ravages of the Black Death in the reign of Edward III., tho scarcity of laborers caused high wages, and both together wrought a gradual change in the agricultural policy of the country. The farmers, abandoning crops that required much manual labor, turned their arable land into pastures for raising sheep. The suppression of the monasteries was followed by a like disposition of the church lands, the most of which went to satisfy the greed of favorite courtiers, and to found a new nobility, and were, by their new owners, turned into " enclosures" for sheep culture. The agricultural products were thus largely reduced in quantity, but enhanced in value. But the people, in the course of time, recovered from the depletions of the pesti- lence, and labor became abundant, and consequently cheap. Besides this, the monks had been good, to the poor, and were generally beloved. There was a feeling of heartfelt sympathy for them, as homeless and penniless they wandered about the country, begging food and shelter. The monasteries were not corrupt as a rule. They had in times past served a useful purpose. They had afforded the means of education to the young, given shelter to the traveller, and been a refuge for the oppressed, in an age when there were no inns, few schools, and little protection for the weak and innocent against the lawless and brutal. The general dissatisfactiou, especially in the rural dis- tricts, at their suppression, caused a reaction against the Uefoimation, and gave rise to plots for the return of Catholicism. All theso things, therefore, " enclosures " for sheep culture, a surplus of labor and a falling scale of wages, small crops and the high price of food, the dissolution of the religious houses, together with a debasement of tho coinage urier Ilenry VIII., com- bined to produce idleness, destitution, and revolt. 148 EDWARD VI. statutes running back to the days of the Lollards, and those of a more recent origin on the subject of heresy, as well as the "new-fangled treasons" of Henry VIII., were all repealed. The Catholic clergy were removed from their livings, and their places filled with Protest- ants ; the Latin mass was abolished ; the churches were despoiled of their plate, the paintings on their walls, and the stained glass in the windows, were ruth- lessly destroyed. The colleges connected with the religious houses and the chantries (places where mass was said for the dead) were broken up, their revenues being used, in part, by Edward, for the endowment of grammar schools and hospitals. Perhaps the most im- portant step taken in promoting the Reformation was the preparation, chiefly by Archbishop Cranmer, of a " Book of Common Prayer." Cranmer took as a basis for his work the services that had been in use in the church since the primitive ages, making such changes in the form of worship as the new faith seemed to require. Being acceptable to the king, it was adopted by both houses of Parliament, and its use by all the clergy made obligatory, under pain of fine and imprisonment. Only two persons suffered at the stake during this reign, but many, who refused to conform to the Protestant worship, went to prison. Edward's Will. Lady Jane Grey,* a member of the youngest branch of the Tudor family, had married Lord Dudley, son of Northumberland. As Edward was in consumption, and it was evident that he could not long survive, Northumberland prevailed upon him to alter the succession, and instead of leaving the crown * 8co note on page 189. EDWARD VI. 149 to Mary, the rightful heir, to give it to Lady June Grey. Edward was no doubt chiefly concerned for the safety of the Protestant religion, and his last prayer is said to have been that England might be pre- served from " Papistry." Lady Jane was a Protestant, Mary, a Catholic; and so zealous was the latter, that she continued to hold Catholic services at her own house in defiance of all the authorities. Northumber- land was undoubtedly inspired by no higher motive than the aggrandizement of his own family. The fail- ing king was placed by him under the care of a woman of reputed skill, but he declined more rapidly than before, and soou died, at the age of sixteen. Suspi- cions were not wanting that his end had been hastened to make more sure and speedy the accomplishment of Northumberland's plans. Edward was a youth of great promise, and his death was generally lamented. Northumberland at once hurried into the presence of Lady Jane Grey, with the intelligenee that she was now Queen of England. This is said to have been her first knowledge that she was Edward's heir, and she as- sumed the crown only in obedience to the commands and entreaties of her husband's family. Mary, 1553 to 1558 — 5 years. Tudor. Lady Jane Grey. It had been the intention of the conspirators to seize the Princesses Mary and Elizabeth before the death of Edward became known ; but Mary, being notified of its occurrence in season, took refuge in a castle on the coast, that she might escape to for- eign parts, in case the fortunes of war went against her. She then pi spared to assert her rights by force of arms. I 50 MART. The usurpation of Northumberland did not meet the approval of the people, who gathered rapidly to the support of Mary as their lawful sovereign. Lady Jane, convinced of her mistake, gladly laid aside the crown which she had so reluctantly assumed, and which she had worn but ten days, and disappeared entirely from the public sight. Her life had been passed in the delightful pursuits of learning. Though but sixteen years of age, she could speak fluently, Latin, Greek, French, and Italian, and had some acquaintance with Hebrew, Chaldee, and Arabic. Beautiful in person, sweet and guileless in disposition, and gifted in conver- sation, she was better litted to shine in domestic and literary than in courtly circles. Mary speedily as- cended the vacant throne. One of her first acts was to bring to the block the guilty Northumberland, and to cast into prison the innocent but unfortunate Lady Jane and her husband, Lord Dudley. The next year a marriage was arranged between Mary and Philip of Spain, a zealous Catholic. This mat eli being odious to the English people, several ris- ings occurred, implicating some of the friends of Lady Jane. The fate of the latter was sealed. From her window in the Tower,she saw the headless body of her husband borne away, and in a few hours followed him to the scaffold. John removed one who might be dan- gerous to his throne, when he put to death the little Arthur; Richard might have made the same poor plea when he destroyed the youthful princes in the Tower; Mary had little excuse for putting to death this lovely girl, whose only crime was lending a too ready obedi- ence to her husband's intriguing father. MART. 151 Catholicism Restored to England. Mary was a zeal- ous Catholic, and determined to restore England to friendly relations with the Papacy. Parliament was assembled, and proceeded, by statute after statute, to sweep away all the legislation of the preceding reigns establishing the Protestant religion. It refused, how. ever, to re-establish the religions houses, and restore to them their lands ; but Mary conscientiously yielded up all church property that remained in possession of the Crown. The Catholic bishops, who had been incar- cerated in the Tower by Edward, were restored to their sees. Cardinal Pole, the legate of the pope, was re- ceived with great pomp, and, in presence of the sov- ereign and both Houses of Parliament, solemnly absolved the nation for its temporary departure from the Catholic faith. There soon began an unrelenting persecution, but with whom it originated is a matter of uncertainty. Bishops Bonner and Gardiner presided over the court before which Protestant offenders were brought for trial. The statutes originally passed for the repression of the Lollards were levived. During the four years of its continuance many persons perished by the axe, in prison, and at the stake, while thousands tied to foreign parts. Bishops Rogers, Hooper, liidley, and Lati- mer, and Archbishop Cranmer, the foremost preachers of the preceding reign, were successively committed to the flames. Said the aged Latimer to his friend Ridley, as side by side they were chained to the iron stake, "Be of good comfort, Master Ridley,' and play the man ; we shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out." Latiraei's prophetic words found a speedy fulfilment. 152 MART. The fires of persecution enkindled anew the zeal and devotion of the Reformers. For every life that went out in martyrdom to the oause of religious liberty, there were- a hundred converts to the Protestant faith. Mary's Marriage with Philip of Spain. Mary's marriage with Philip took place in L554, hut it proved as imhappj for herself as it. was unpopular with hor subjeots. On the part of Philip it had been a mattei of mere State polioy ; on the pari of Mary one oi positive infatuation. Even before she had seen Philip, the rep- resentations which the Spanish Legate had made of his master inflamed her imagination, and excited her to an almost insane desire for the match. She was eleven years older than her husband, to whom she became devotedly attached, hut by whom she was despised and studiously neglected. So unmanly was Philip, he even allowed her name to be made a subject of jest among the gallants o( his court. Having received, by the abdication oi' his father, the sovereignly oi' Spain and the Netherlands, he spent most of his time on the continent, partly from his aversion to his wife, and partly from disgust at the insignificant position he oc- cupied in the government ol' England. Though hus- band to the queen, ami nominally king, he was re- fused by Parliament both the act of coronation and the right of Bucoession. Loss of Calais, A.l). 1558. Spain had engaged in a war with France, Philip came to England to secure the aid oi' Mary. A sudden descent oi' the French upon the English coast, and the desire of Mary to please her husband, led to a treaty with Spain and a declaration of war with France. Man's cup o( misery MARY. 153 was tilled to the brim when the mows reached her that Calais, the boast and pride of England for two cen- turies, and its last possession on the continent, was wrested forever from English rule. Situated in the midst of marshes, it had been the practice to withdraw a portion of the garrison during the winter, and the defenses had been oi' late much neglected. Suddenly attacked by sm and land by the Duke of Guise, it was forced to surrender, after holding out eight days in the vain hope oi' relief. Said the wretched queen, rt AVhen 1 die Calais will he found written on my heart ;" and slu> died, in less than a year, of a broken heart. Extenuation of Mary's Cruelty. While the perse- cutions to which Mary was constantly spurring her lagging bishops, wore atrocious, we can, at least, credit her with lidelity to her convictions. Brought up in a court as absolute as that o{' an eastern despot, and where a human life weighed little against a whim of the king, and reigning in an age not yet risen to even a faint conception of the perfect freedom of opinion, which is the crowning glory of that in which we live, there is some palliation for her bigotry and her cruelty. Mary consci- entiously, and, in the only way she knew, by force, undertook to extirpate what she thought was heresy, and re-establish what she believed was truth. Nor should the facts of her personal history bo forgotten. Disowned by her father just as she was entering womanhood, and branded as illegitimate by statute, and so cherishing for many years a hitter sense of prong; despised and forsaken by a husband she adored; hated by a people whose welfare she sought io promote ; crushed with a sense of shame at the loss Ibi MAKY. of Calais, and worn and wasted with disease, it is ui' plot after plot among Catholics, both ;il home and abroad. Pope Tins V. issued a decree of deposition against Elizabeth. Jesuit and Seminary missionaries came into the kingdom in unusual numbers, claiming to be inspired only by a desire to perpetuate the Catholic faith, but believed by Elizabeth to have come to awaken discontent and excite insurrection among her Catholic subjects. Tin 1 Spanish ambassador, Mendoza, being implicated in some of these schemes, was ordered to leave die kingdom. Finally a Catholio plot, under the leadership of one Babington, to assassinate 1 Eliza- beth and proclaim Mary, was brought in light, implicating Mary herself. Elizabeth was now oompelled to aot in defenoe of her life and throne. Mary, tried by a com- mission of Peers, in L587, wis found guilty and con- demned to death, and the queen reluotantly signed the * The banished Bothwell made his home among the Orkneys, and heoame tin- leader of :< band or pirates. Being pursued) he found shelter, for awhile, among the Shetland Isles, whence ho escaped to Denmark, « here in- died n> n JunKeon. ELIZABETH. 163 wurrant for hoi execution. In the hall of Fotheringay Castle, her last prison house, this weary captive of nineteen long and dreary years, saddened by sorrow, but heroic still, calmly laid her head upon the block. Her brilliant qualities of mind and person, the calm dignity with which she bore misfortune, and her affect* ing death-scene, have touched the cord of universal sympathy, and thrown a veil of charity over the frail- ties of her Life and character. Both Council and Parlia- ment considered Mary's death a State necessity. What would have been the result of her liberation we can only conjecture; but her execution was closely followed by the most imminent peril that ever menaced the throne of Elizabeth, if not the liberties of England. Of the disposition of Alary herself, we have the clearest expression in a letter to Elizabeth, written during the last of her captivity, when longings for liberty had overcome all worldly ambitions. "Let me go," she wrote, "let me retire from this island to some solitude, where 1 may prepare my soul to die. Grant this, and 1 will sign away every right which either I or mine can claim." Elizabeth turned a deaf car to this touch- ing appeal, and Mary then bequeathed all her rights to the English throne to Philip of Spain, — rights which Philip promptly claimed and began the most gigantic preparations to enforce. The Maritime Growth of England. It seems neces- sary at this point to notice briefly the maritime growth of England. Elizabeth's moderate and pacific policy, persistently followed for thirty years, had produced the happiest results. The nation's advance in wealth and power had been rapid and healthful. Unexampled 164 ELIZABETH. thrift characterized all its industries, while its com merer whitened every sea, pouring into London, then just becoming the great trade-mart of the civilized world, the wealth of every land and clime. The thirst for adventure and discovery had sent daring spirits into every nook and corner of the earth, whose glowing reports of the wonders they had seen stimulated fresh expeditions, and opened to English enterprise new avenues of trade. It had led Chan- cellor to penetrate the Arctic ocean towards the east, and open a lucrative trade with Archangel. It had lured Davis and Frobisher into the same ocean towards the west, in search of a shorter passage to India. It had sent the famous Hawkins to the tropics, and opened an inexhaustible source of wealth in the ivory, gold- dust and slaves of Guinea. There was an extensive and growing trade with the ports of the North, Baltic and Mediterranean seas. Every harbor on the coast had long sent out its fishing boats into the waters around, but now England began to rival France in the number of vessels sent to the cod-fisheries of New- foundland and the whale-fisheries of the Polar seas. There was another cause for the maritime develop- ment of England. The persecution of the Huguenots of France and the patriot Reformers in the Netherlands had awakened the sympathies of English Protestants, lint its 'politic queen coolly continued negotiations for marriage with a Catholic prince of France, even after the massacre of St. Bartholomew; and she long looked with apparent indifference at the butcheries of Alva in the Netherlands. The English people finally took the matter into their own hands, and ELIZABETH. 105 made war on their own account. They flocked to tho Netherlands by thousands and joined the Protestant army. English "sea-dogs," as they were called, com- missioned as privateers by Conde of France and the Prince of Orange, or flying the French and Dutch flags without commissions, simply pirates, swarmed in all the waters frequented by French or Spanish traders. Aided by the English people all along the coast, and often by the royal officers themselves, prizes were con- stantly run into secret inlets and their cargoes dis- charged. Drake, the boldest spirit of them all, haunted the unguarded coasts of Spanish America, burning towns and intercepting Spanish galleons bound to Ca- diz, laden with gold, silver, and diamonds for the Spanish king. In such schools were the brave and hardy mariners of England trained for the hot work which Philip was soon to furnish them. Elizabeth's Defiance of Philip. Affairs were fast coming to an issue between Elizabeth and Philip. The foimer had long been embittered by Philip's secret efforts to awaken discontent among her Catholic sub- jects ; the latter as long enraged at Elizabeth's duplicity in secretly aiding tho Netherlander, and shielding English pirates on Spanish commerce, while professing peace with Spain. Towards the last, Eliza- beth threw off the mask. Under the pressure of public sentiment after the assassination of the Prince of Orange, and conscious that the Reformation in the Netherlands, unaided, must soon expire, she sent an array of eight thousand men to their assistance. It was under the command of the Earl of Leicester, one of Elizabeth's favorites, and accomplished little. lfifi ELIZABETH. The campaign [a chiefly memorable for the death of one of its most accomplished officers, Sir Philip Sidney. He received a mortal wound at the siege of Zutphen. When about to partake of a little water that had been procured with great difficulty, he saw a wounded sol- dier looking wistfully at it. "Take it," said the chiv- alric Sidney, who was himself burning with thirst, "thy necessities are greater than mine." When Drake returned from one of his expedi- tions, enriched with the gold and jewels taken from Spanish galleons, and Philip demanded the surrender of the "pirate," Elizabeth publicly conferred on the latter the honor of knighthood, and wore the captured jewels in her hair. The death o\' Mary , Queen of Scots put an end to Philip's irresolution. The Invincible Armada. Besides dethroning Eliza- beth, it was Philip's aim to restore Catholicism to Eng- land. To this double purpose, he now bent all his energies, and turned the vast resources of the whole Spanish empire. For three years, ships and stores were slowly coming into the Tagus, and forming what Philip boastfully called the " Invincible Armada." The English rovers were all called home. Drake, with a fleet of thirty sail, hovered about the Spanish coast, picking up Spanish traders ami attacking un- guarded points. Boldly entering the harbor oi' Cadiz, ho destroyed the ships and stores collected there, de- laying tin 4 sailing o\' the Armada for many months. The great licet left the Tagus the last of May, L588. Overtaken by a storm, it put into Corunna to refit. The last o[' duly, its approach to the English coast, under the command of the Duke of Medina ELIZABETH. 167 Sidonia, was signaled by blazing beacons on every hill-top. It swept slowly up the English channel, in the form of an extended crescent, seven miles from wing to wing. It was composed of one hundred and fifty ships, many of them of immense burthen. Od its roar closely hung the English fleet of eighty sail, under the command of Lord Howard. Drake had command of the " sea-dogs," among whom were Hawkins and Frobisher. The huge and unwieldy galleons of Spain were raptured or sunk, one by one, by the lighter and more active craft of the English Still the mighty fleet held steadily on its way and dropped anchor in the roads of Calais. The Duke of Parma had.been in camp at Dunkirk with thirty thou- sand men, ready to land on the English coast as soon as the Armada should arrive io protect their passage across the channel. Howard saw the necessity of de- cisive action to prevent the crossing of Parma's troops. The next night eight English ships, filled with combus- tibles and set on tire, were towed towards the Spanish vessels, and sent, with tide and wind, into thoir very midst, as they lay crowded together at anchor. The affrighted Spaniards cut their cables and lied to the open sea, stretching away in a broken line along the. coast. At break of day, the fearless "sea-dogs," under the lead of Drake, fell upon the disordered line, and sunk, captured, or forced on shore, Spaniard after Spaniard, driving the still numerous but panic-stricken licet northward. Medina no longer thought of the cou- UUesI of England, but of safety for his broken and scattered licet. Not daringto return through the En<>-- lish Channel in the face of Drake, he sought to make Ifi8 ELIZABETH. the circuit of Scotland and Ireland, and roach Spain bv way of the Atlantic. Drake, having exhausted, his ammunition, gave up the pursuit, and the Hying Span- iards disappeared in the waters of the North Sea. Overtaken by tierce storms, and unacquainted with the navigation of those dangerous seas, their unwieldy and disabled galleons were dashed upon the wild and rocky shores. The hapless crews escaped a watery grave, only to die at the hands of the inhabitants. Eight thousand oi' the very chivalry of Spain arc said to have perished on the western coast ot' Ireland. Nearly a hundred ships and fourteen thousand men were missing, when the shattered remains of the "In- vincible Armada" once more dropped anchor in Span- ish waters. The Spanish king received the news of the destruc- tion of the Armada "with his usual constancy," saying, with unchanged countenance, "1 sent it against man and not against the billows." The English, too, recog- nized the tact that the elements, perhaps more than English valor, had won for them the victory. On an old English medal, commemorating the event, this in- scription was written: — w Flavit Jehovah et dissipati sunt" "Jehovah blew and they were scattered." England's supremacy on the high seas was now achieved. Philip, indeed, with the energy of despair, gathered another Armada, but this only brought Drake and the English " sea-dogs " once more to the Spanish coast. Cadi/ was taken and burned to the ground, and its ships and stores again destroyed. lie once more became the scourge of Spanish America, taking treas- ELIZABETH. 1(>9 are-laden galleons and destroying settlements j but all sense of danger from Spain passed away from Elizabeth and her people. Great Names. The impulse given to learning in the preceding reigns, favored by the long peace of the present, began to bear fruit. Men of genius appeared in every department of intellectual labor. Raleigh, Spencer, Hooker, Bacon, Sidney, and Shakspeare are among the most illustrious names. There was a host of lesser lights. Though Elizabeth had the wisdom to be guided by statesmen in public affairs, in private life she admitted to favor men of little ability and still less virtue. Death of Elizabeth. The closing years of her life were made sad and gloomy by the execution for trea- son of the last of her favorites, the Earl of Essex. In a moment of tenderness, years before, Elizabeth had given him a ring, requesting him to send it to her if he ever needed her help. Now that the earl lay under sentence of death, she looked, confidently, day after day, for the ring. But it never came ; and the disappointed but resentful queen gave her signature to the fatal sentence ; and the unfortunate earl -was soon beyond the reach of mortal aid. Not long after this, the Countess of Nottingham, when on her death-bed, called the queen to her side, and confessed to her that Essex had sent the ring, and that she, out of enmity to him, had withheld it. Elizabeth's resentment at what she had believed to be the earl's contempt for her favor, changed to a paroxysm of rage and grief. Shaking the dying countess, who was praying for her pardon, Elizabeth cried, " God may forgive you but I 170 ELIZABETH. never can." She became a prey to melancholy that deepened with her tailing strength, until she died, liko her sister, broken-hearted. On the night of her death she was asked to name her successor. At the mention of Lord Beauohamp, a member of the royal family, she said, with a touch of the old Tudor spirit, " I will have no rogue's son in my seat." James VI., king of Scotland was named, but she was speechless and could only signify her assent. The next morning, March 84th, L603, she died, and dames became king of Eng- land, with the title of dames I. Character Of Elizabeth. En character, Elizabeth was a mass of contradictions. She had, in a marked degree, the iron will, imperious temper, and sound judgment of her father, the insincerity, vacillation and vanity of her mother. She was often coarse in her manners, and sometimes profane in her speech. Though arbitrary in her rule, like her father, she was never a tyrant like him, and she knew how to yield when the occasion required concession. Two years before her death she granted a large number of monop- olies to favored -persons. Seeing the dissatisfaction they had created, she sent a message to the House of Commons, announcing the reversal of all the grants. To a committee sent to express the gratitude of the House for the gracious act, she returned her thanks for reminding her of a mistake into which she had fall- en through an error of judgment. From her supreme desire to win the love and promote the welfare of her subjects, despite her faults, she was known in her day, among the great mass of the English people, and had come down to us in history, as " Good Queen Hess." CHAPTER IX. House of Stuart, 1603 to 1714 — 111 years. JAMES I. CHARLES I. COMMONWEALTH. CHARLES II. JAMES II. WILLIAM and MART. ANNE. James I., 1603 to 1625 — 22 years. Stuart. Union of Scotch and English Crowns. James 1. was the representative of the royal families of both England and Scotland, and so united both their crowns. Although these countries now came under one king, their constitutional union, or union of Parliaments, did not take place till the reign of Queen Anne. Persecution of Non-Conformists. The increasing severities towards non-conformists in the latter part of Elizabeth's reign, excited an intense anxiety in the pub- lic mind, to know what would be the policy of her suc- cessor. Before James reached London, he had been approached by both Catholics and Puritans ; the former basing their hopes on his promise of toleration of Catholic worship, given to secure Catholic support, and the latter expecting much from his Puritan edu- cation. Both were doomed to disappointment. He avowed himself an Episcopalian ; and although at first tolerant, he began ere long to execute the laws against non-conformists with more rigor than Elizabeth had done. (171) 1V2 JAMES l. Iii January, 1604, the king had called a convention* of Episcopal and Puritan divines, to discuss the religious question. The hope thai this convention would bring harmony among the clashing sects was not realized. King James, who had been the principal speaker in behalf of the Established Church, angry at the obstinacy of the Puritans, who failed to be convinced by his arguments, sought to convert them by a threat. "I will make them conform," said he, as the convention closed, "or 1 will harry them out of the land.'" The persecutions that followed forced multitudes to seek in foreign lands the safety and protection tliej could not have in their own. The Gunpowder Plot. The discontent of some of the Catholics at the persecutions to which they were subjected, found expression in the "Gunpowder Plot," a scheme to blow up Parliament House, when king, lords, and commons were assembled. The conspirators hired the basement of the building, ostensibly for business purposes, and concealed therein thirty-six barrels of gunpowder. A warning sent to a Catholic lord, November -1th, L605, the dav before the meeting of Parliament, led to an investigation. The powder was found under a pile of wood and fagots, and Guy Fawkes, the keeper of the cellar, preparing slow matches for the explosion on the morrow. The con- spirators dispersed in every direction, and sought * This convention accomplished but one thing of Importance, the Issue, in 1611, If a new translation of the Bible, called " King James 1 Version," the one still used by most Protestants. The translation used by Roman Catholics is called "The Douay Bible," of which the New Testament was printed at Rheimsinl58S and the Old at Dona; In 1609-10. JAMES I. 173 places of concealment, but most of them were ferreted out and put to death. Although the Catholics as a body were not responsible for this diabolical plot. it gave a death-blow to Catholic hopes of toleration. The laws againsl "Popish recusants" were made more severe and executed more rigorously than ever. They were required to take a new oath, renouncing the right of the pope to excommunicate princes, or absolve sub- jects from their allegiance. The Pilgrim Fathers. One little Puritan band, after a brief stay in Holland, took passage in the May- flower and sought, across the broad Atlantic, a refuge in the wilderness of the New World, content to sever the tender tics that bound them to home and country, and endure all possible hardships, that they might wor- ship God as conscience directed them. The " Pilgrim Fathers," as we are wont to call these first settlers in New England, landed at Plymouth, in the depth of winter, December 21st, 1G20. This was not the first permanent settlement made by the English on the continent. In 1606, three years after James's accession to power, two companies were chartered for the settlement of America. The terri- tory of the London Company extended from the 34th to the 38th parallels of latitude, corresponding roughly with the mouths of the Cape Fear and Potomac rivers ; that of the Plymouth Company from the 41st to the 45th parallels, corresponding with the mouths of the Hudson and St. Croix. The country between was open to settlement by either company. In 1607, under the auspices of the London Company, an expedition entered Chesapeake bay, and made a settlement at I VI JAMBS i. Jamestown, on the James river, aboul fifty miles from its mouth. An attempt made by the Plymouth Com- pany, the same year, l»> plant :i oolony Dear the mouth of the Kennebec, was u<>i successful. James's Assumption in Hatters of Religion. Jame& was ;i man of one idea, and that the inherited and abso- lute rights of kings. But tliis doctrine of the "divine right of kings" was uot only a favorite theory, ever on the royal lips, hut also the key-note to the royal policy, hoih in church ami state. Parliament assem- bled in L604. The House of Commons was Largely Puritan, and its temper, in view of (lie absolutism set Up by flames, is clearly seen in its action. It petitioned lor a redress of grievances in matters o( religion The king's deoided rejection o( this petition was met by the equally deoided protest on tin' part of the House: " Let your majesty be pleased to reoeive publio infor- mation from your Commons in Parliament, as well oi' the abuses in the Churoh :is in the oivil State. Your majesty would he misinformed if any man should de- liver thai tin* kings of England have any absolute power in themselves, either to alter religion or to make any laws oonoerniug the same, otherwise than as in tem- poral causes, by consent oi' Parliament." James's Assumption in Mailers of Government. James levied a tax on all exports and imports, and obtained a decision from the judges in favor of its legality. The House of Commons then petitioned for & redress of grievances in matters o( state. 1 lis re- fusal to granl this petition brought another protest and prayer that a law he made to declare "that all iniposi- JAMBS 1. 17f) lions set upon your people, theii goods, or merchandise, Bave only l>y common oonsent in Parliament, are and shall be void/' Parliament was promptly dissolved, hut the necessities of the king compelled its speedy re- assembling. The questions dividing king and Parlia- ment went to the people, and beoame the issue in the election of new members. The new House of (om- inous w;is more decidedly opposed (o (lie policy of Urn king than the old one. It made a redress of griev- ances, especially thai of illegal imposts, the condition of a grant of supplies. Its angry dissolution displayed the folly ;is well ms obstinaoy of the king. Seven years of absolute rule, seven years of relent- Less extortion, only served to widen the breaoh between king and people. Qlegal imposts continued; the odious "benevolences" were revived; the equally odious system of " purveyance "* was praotioed without. regard to the law; the sale of monopolies and the obso- lete system oi' royal wardship, by whieh the incomes of the estates held under military (enure went, to the king during the minority of the heir, were re- newed ; patents of nobility were so freely sold that, at the death of James, one-half the peers of England were those created by him. The shameless waste of the money thus obtained, on a corrupt court, excited the disgust as Well as the indignation of the people. • Purveyance was an anolent prerogative of the Grown, by whioh the king bad the preference overall others In the purchase of supplies. Bo oould take thorn at an apprataed value, even without the owner's consent. The royal offioers often praotioed great Injustice, purvoyanoe beoomlng under Homo of the king* « system of royal robbery, An attempt was made to regulate it in Magna Cbarta, ami by repeated enactments in succeeding reigns* it won iiiuiiiy mtrrendcri'ii i>y OhafleB II. (Or a compensation. 176 JAMBS I. Persona] favorites took the plaoe of English stairs- men, not only in the friendship of the king, but in stations of highest responsibility in the government, A mere adventurer, one George Villiers, became Duke of Buckingham and Minister of State, He a\ as (ho Piers Gavestoo of the infatuated king. Promotion to office, retention in office, and even access to the person of the king, on the part ot* men of the highest rank, depended on the pleasure or the bribery ot' this hand- some but oorrupl official. Foreign Allans. The foreign policy ot" James was almost as displeasing to the English people as his man- agement of domestic affairs. Just as the life and death struggle between Catholics and Protestants was break- ing out in Germany, warmly enlisting the sympathies of Protestant England in behalf of the latter, James was obsequiously courting the favor of Spain, and seeking to bring about a marriage between Prince Charles and the Spanish Infanta. The cry for another Parliament, coming from every quarter of the kingdom, forced the king to issue writs for an election. The Parliament of 1621. The Parliament of 1621 is almost as famous as that <^( hi 10, tor the boldness with which it opposed the assumptions of the king. It demanded a war with Spain instead o[' a treaty oi' al- liance, and a Protestant instead o( a Catholic marriage for the Prince oi' Wales. " Bring stools for the ambas- sadors," was the ironical command of the king', as the committee, sent by the House oi' Commons to com- municate their demands, was announced. He forbade further discussion by the Commons on affairs oi' State, n^sertinjr that all their rights were derived from him- JAMKS I. 177 self and hi.-> ancestors. w Let ns pray, and then con- sider of this great business," said a member of the Commons, as flic king's commands were repeated by the committee. The resolution that followed, affirm- ing freedom of speech as their ancient right, has the ring of the times of Henry III., when an armed baron- age boldly confronted the tyrant at Westminster. The clanking of swords was then hardly more startling to the ears of Henry than the utterances of the Commons to James. Willi a purpose as aimless as it was impo- tent, In; sent for the journals of the House, and with his own hand tore out the leaves containing the ob- noxious resolution. James might indeed destroy the Parliament recordsj but the spirit of liberty, enkindled anew in the hearts of the patriot Commons, he could not extinguish. The sudden dissolution of Parliament ended the conflict, for the time being. Prince Charles. Prince Charles, accompanied by Buckingham, visited Spain to complete the marriage contract with the Spanish Infanta. Mutual disgust broke oil* all negotiations, and Charles returned to England, and took sides with the people in demanding war. James, disappointed in his hopes of* a Spanish alliance, was home along by the popular current into another war with Spain. A new marriage was ar- ranged for Charles with Henrietta, a princess of France. James died before its consummation. Sir Walter Raleigh. The name of Sir Walter Ra- leigh had long been known in connection with public affairs. He began his public career in the reign of Eliza- beth, and was prominent as a courtier, statesman and commander. Under the patronage of Elizabeth, he sent 178 JAMES I. sevoral expeditions to make settlements in the Now World. His first colonists, at Roanoke [sland, were ill-fitted for the hardships and privations of a new oountry, and look advantage <»t' a chance visit of Drake, who was returning from one of his raids on Spanish America, to abandon their settlement. His Beoond colony, when revisited after (Ik* expiration of three years, was found to have disappeared, Leaving no trace behind. Early in (ho reign of James, Raleigh, being implicated (though on very slight testimony) in a conspiracy to overthrow the government and place Arabella Stuart, the king's oousin, on (he throne, was sent to the Tower, under sentence of death. After twelve years of confinement, during which he ocoupied the dreary hours of prison life in writing a "History of the World," he was released on a promise to guide an expedition to a <^old mine in Guiana. But the Spaniards, notified (some say by .lames himself) of the purpose of (lie expedition, made every prepara- tion io defeat, it. Raleigh, broken in spirit and fortune, returned to England, only to re-enter the Tower, and perish on the seall'old. Character of James I. James was plain in person, awkward in manners, and intemperate even to drunk- enness in his habits; but he had good natural ability and considerable Learning, of which he was exces- sively vain. His pedantic display o( his Learning led Henry IV. of France, to characterize him as the "wisest fool in Christendom." The publio contempt for his meanness was only surpassed by the public re- sentment at his usurpations. lie was at once the most puerile and the most presumptuous of English kings. JAMES I. 179 Aw an index of the prevalent feeling towards this king, it is said that his peculiarities, both of person and character, were publicly caricatured in the theatres of Loudon, to the infinite enjoyment of the people. Charles L, 1625 to 1649—24 years. Stuart. Constitutional Liberty at the Accession of Charles I. From the Wars of the Roses to the reign of James I., we hear little of constitutional liberty in England. Standing, as we now do, at the very threshold of a re- newal of the constitutional struggle, a brief retrospect will make more intelligible the course of events upon which we are about to enter. Mediaeval civilization rested on the Feudal System, and fell with it, and both went down with the nobility in the Wars of the Roses. These wars reduced Eng- land to a state bordering on anarchy, and the only power that did save it, or that could save it, from utter anarchy, was a stable throne. To this all parties turn- ed with the instinct of self-preservation. The nobility, land owners, and moneyed classes, re- membering the leveling doctrines of the socialists, looked to the throne to protect them from another peas- ant revolt. The Church, too, conscious of the silent but vigorous growth of communistic, as well as reform, ideas, saw in a stable throne the strongest bulwark of social and civil orucr, as well as of the Catholic religion. And the peo- ple, having endured, during the wars of the Roses, the evils of a disputed succession, were ready to welcome any lino of kings strong enough to save them from the horrors of another civil war. 1M0 CHARLES l. 'riic 1 1 « » 1 1 >-; < > of Commons, that ancient hope of thu nation , by a sweeping restriction of the elective fran- chise, and l>v wholesale corruption in the eleotion <>f members, had sunk into a mere appendage <>!' the crown, and, under some of the kings, into the great instrument of its oppressions. W it 1 1« > tit marked violenoe or speoial opposition, the king deliberately gathered into his single hand all the powers of Church .'iiul State. That he should become arbitrary was natural; that ho should grow despotic w:is not strange. Between the reigns of Edward IV. :iud Charles [., the government of England ranged through all shades and degrees of absolutism. But even in the midst of absolute rule, silent foroes were at work weakening its foundations, and destin- ed, in the fulness of time, to accomplish its complete overthrow. The diffusion of knowledge and the eleva- tion of the masses, had been rapid and general, espec- ially after the invention of the printing press. There was noiselessly growing up an enlightened public senti- ment on the relation of sovereign to subject that was tar in advanee of the theory and practioe o{' the gov- ernment. Faith in the doctrine oi' the "divine right of kings" became weak, as oonviotions of the saored- ness of human rights grew strong. During the reign of James 1. it was evident that a Collision between king and people was at hand. At the death of James, there was a lull in the gathering Storm that was soon to break over the head <)\' his son and SUOOesSOr. It will ever he a matter iA' wonder that Charles 1. OOUld so eoinpletely shut his eves to the h'i^us of the times, that he should lake no warning GHABLBS i. 181 from his father's mistakes, but should blindly and obstinately pursue his father's insane policy. Renewal of iho Constitutional Struggle. The strug- gle was dearly defined. H was constitutional liberty agaiust the royal prerogative, an oppressed people against m tyrannical king. The English people, whom the crown alone could rescue from the robber barons in the reign of Henry II., whom the patriot barons alone could shield from the tyranny of lli«' crown in Henry lll.,iliis great English people bad :il last outgrown dependence on king and baron, and proved in the end more than a match lor (hem both. Public feeling in England ran high againsl Catholicism ;il the time of James's death. The "Thirty Xears'War" in ( Germany, beginning in :i contest between the Elector Palatine of the Rhine and Ferdinand, Emperor of Aus- tria, for (he Bohemian crown, had widened into a life and death struggle between Catholics and Protest- ants. Besides the sympathy English Protestants felt for (heir brethren in Germany, they were naturally in- terested in behalf of the Elector, who was son-in-law to King James. Spain hud openly taken sides with the Emperor, and England hud entered the lists against Spain, besides sending :t sm;ill army to the help of the Elector. Butthe war with Spain lagged through the indifference of the government led by Buckingham, ih<^ chief minister of State. King ( !harles demanded a sub- sidy; but Parliament, suspicions of his intontions, and watchful of the liberties of England, limited the usual granl of certain life customs to a year. Resent- ing the limitation, ( 'barles refused to accept the vote, and levied ( he customs on his own authority. Parliament IS '2 CHARLES 1. then proceeded to discuss the public grievances, and was dissolved. A fruitless expedition against Cadiz, under Buckingham, leaving the king deeply in debt, oompelled its re-assembling in 1626. Instead of reliev- ing the king's necessities, the House of Commons, guided by that dauntless patriot. Sir John Eliot, pro- ceeded to impeach the officers of the crown. Charges of corruption against Buckingham were carried in the House. Eliot, in a speech full oi' scathing invective, then arraigned the royal favorite before the House of Lords, and ^as sent by the angry king to the Tower. The refusal of the Commons to art on public affairs caused Eliot's release, but their request for the dismis- sion of Buckingham brought another dissolution. Then followed more illegal taxation in the form oi' "benev- olences" and "forced loans." Although many of the clergy preached the doctrine of passive obedience, men everywhere refused to give or lend to the king. Poor and friendless offenders were pressed into the army or navy ; the rich and noble were thrown into prison or summoned before the Council. Buckingham now had an opportunity to retrieve his falling tort unes. During the first year oi' his reign, Charles had married Henrietta Maria, a French princess. The marriage stipulation with reference to the toleration of Catholics* having been broken by the king, Richelieu and Olivarez, the able ministers oi' France and Spain, planned a joint invasion of England, Buckingham sought to checkmate this scheme oi' invasion by an attack on France. He sailed with a large tleet to the relief oi' Kochelle, the stronghold oi' the Huguenots, which was besieged by French Catholics. Another CHARLES I. 183 disaster, more shameful than that at Cadiz, left the king still deeper in debt, and compelled the i me of writs for another Parliament . Petition of Right, A.I). 1628. The people, now thoroughly aroused, returned a House more hostile to the king than the former one. Like that, it demanded redress before a grant of money. It proceeded to array its grievances and frame its demands into that second great charter of Liberties, the "Petition of Bight." This Petition forbade forced loans, benevolences, and every species of illegal taxation, imprisonment, and punishment; forbade martial law and the billeting of soldiers upon the people in time of peace', and im- posed obedience to the laws on the ministers of the crown. The refusal of the king to sign this Petition was followed by a " Remonstrance on the State of the Kingdom." At the mention of Buckingham's name, against whom the Remonstrance was aimed, the speaker forbade further discussion, saying that he held a royal order to allow no member to speak against the ministers of the crown. The effect of this direct interference with free speech, one of the most unques- tioned privileges of Parliament, beggars description. Eliot, who was addressing the House, sank stunned into his seat. There were a few moments of death- like silence, followed by sounds of suppressed excite- ment, and then exclamations of amazement, grief, anger, broke here and there from the seething assem- bly. Some wept and some prayed. Members rose to speak, but sat down overpowered with emotion. The renerable Sir Edward Coke at last took the floor, and in scathing language denounced Buckingham as the 18-4 CIIARLES i. author of all the perils that menaced the liberties of England. Charles, alarmed at the dangers that threat- ened hi^ favorite, sought to quell the storm by giving his signature to the Petition of Right. But it was too late, rhe House, bent on the destruction ot' Bucking- Lam, pressed it s Remonstrance, and was hastily pro- rogued. But Buckingham soon ceased to be an object ot' anxiety to either the King or his Commons. While preparing to take charge of another expedition against France, he was killed at Portsmouth by one Folton, but whether for public or private ends is not dear. Folton had boon discharged from the public servioe. The King Can Do No Wrong. An explanation ought to be made of the persistency with which the House of Commons pursued Buckingham even at'ter the king had assumed the responsibility of all the offences charged against him. It was then, as it i> now, a settled principle ot' the English monarchy that " the king can do no wrong." In ease of wrong doing by the government, the king's ministers are held re- sponsible, and, aside from the removal or punishment of these, there is no way to coerce or punish the king himself except by revolution. The Purpose of Charles to Bole Alone. At its next session, in lio_'i\ the House summoned the collect- ors of the illegal taxes to its bar. They appeared but refused to answer, pleading the commands of the king. The speaker, being about to adjourn the House, in oho- dienee to a royal order, was held down in his chair and the doors kept looked against the messenger of the king, until the resolutions offered by Elliot were passed. CHARLES I. 185 These resolutions denounced "as a capita] enemy of the kingdom any minister who .should seek to change the established religion or advise Ihe levying of taxes without consent of Parliament." The House then un- locked its doors and suffered the dissolution awaiting it. Ringing bells and blazing bonfires had signified the public joy when the king signed the Petition of Right, for if was then thought there would be an end of royal oppression; but joy was changed to sorrow when the king, on the occasion of the last dissolution, announced that there would be no more Parliaments, that hence- forth he should rule .-done. Eleven years of personal government, during which Parliament was not once; as- sembled, prove the earnestness of the royal threat, and form one of the gloomiest periods in the; history of Eng- land. Nine of the more prominent opponents of the king were thrown into the Tower, one of them, the heroic Eliot, to die within its walls. Laud, Strafford, and tho Two Courts. There were two ministers upon whom Charles chiefly relied to carry out his policy of absolute rule, William Laud, who had been placed at the head of the church, and Thomas Went worth, made Lord Strafford, once a hit- ter opponent, but qow a devoted supporter of the king. There were two courts that were the chief instruments of the royal tyranny, the High Commission and Star Chamber, the former having jurisdiction over offences against the church, and the latter, those against the king. Besides these there was the "Council of the North," having almost absolute authority in the northern coun- ties. 186 CHARLES I. The lli^rli Commission and Puritan Emigration. Though not himself an avowed Catholio, Laud sought to make the Church of England Catholic in its Bpirit and practice. Through the court ot' High Commission he waged a pitiless warfare against Puritanism. Its ministers were everywhere driven from their livings, and its Laymen subjected to tortures that rivalled those of the most barbarous ages. Patents were secured and companies organized tor the settlement ot' New Eng- land. Eyes that looked Longingly towards the distant refuge of the Pilgrims yet tilled with tears, as, turning their backs upon scenes that were dear to them, the Puritans wended their way with unwilling feet to the place of embarkation. Hearts that swelled with grief as the shores o( "'dear old England" faded away from their sight, yet rose to a lofty purpose and a sublime resignation, as they laid home and country on the altar of their religious faith. They counted the peril, pov- erty, and hardship of their New England homos as naught beside the boon they sought and found, — •'' Free- dom to worship God.* 5 The Puritan exodus, once begun, continued until the New England coast was dotted with settlements. Lord Say-and-Seal and Lord Brooke obtained a charter for the settlement of the territory now embraced in the State of Connecticut, Several colonies were established under this charter within a few years. Lord Baltimore secured a patent of the territory now known as Maryland. This settlement, originally founded as an asylum for persecuted Catholics, had a most liberal charter grant- ing perfect religious freedom to all sects. A colony numbering eight hundred souls under John Winthrop, CHARLES I. 187 entered Massachusetts Bay, in 1030, and founded Boston. During the interval between the dissolution of the Par- liament of 1G29 and the assembling of that of 1040, twenty thousand Puritans had found homes in the New World. It is said that even Hampden and Cromwel] once embarked for America, but were stopped by a royal order. The former had purchased a tract of laud on Narraganset Bay. The Star Chamber and Illegal Taxation. But while the High Commission was doing its wicked work in the name of religion, the Star Chamber was crushing out every vestige of civil liberty. Its officers sur- passed even the lawyers of Henry VII. in the ingenuity with which they entrapped and mulcted the people. Laws and customs which had passed away with the feu- dal times in which they originated, but which had never been formally repealed, were brought to light and all offenders fined: Knighthood was forced on the gentry unless commuted with money. The forest laws were rigidly executed and poachers heavily lined. James had attempted to check the growth of London by a royal order defining its corporate limits. Every house since erected beyond the specified line was or- dered by Charles to be torn down unless its owner paid into the royal treasury a sum equal to three years' rent. Hundreds of the poor were made houseless by the exe- cution of this relentless order. Monopolies prevailed more extensively than under Elizabeth or James, rais- ing the necessaries of life to an exorbitant price. Ship Money and John Hampden. But the climax to the national endurance was reached when the king ordered the lovy of a tax called ship money. From 188 CHABLES 1. the earliest times this had been a war tax levied on the maritime counties for the protection of the coast. Charles ordered the levy of ship money on all the peo- ple, inland as well as maritime, for general purposes, and in a time of peace. Eliot, the early champion of English liberty, was dead, but a worthy successor ap- peared in the person oi' John Hampden, a tanner of moderate means in the shire of Buckingham. Refus- ing to pay the tax assessed against him, he carried his case to the courts. Though defeated through royal in- tluenee, Hampden gained a groat moral victory, for the injustice oi' the king was made apparent to all the nation, and the public mind was educated to resistance. The Attempt to Force Episcopacy upon the Scots. The king had attempted to force Episcopacy upon the people of Soot land. A royal order enjoined the use oi' the Liturgy in all the Scotch churches. But those sturdy Presbyterians had imbibed the spirit as well as the faith oi' John Knox. A National Covenant, in- dustriously circulated, received the signatures of nine- tenths oi the Scotch people. The closing paragraph shows both the tenor of the Covenant, and the temper of the people. "We promise and swear, by the name oi' the Lord our Cod, to continue in the profession and obedience of the said religion, and that we shall defend the same, and resist all the contrary errors and corruptions, ac- cording io our vocation and the utmost oi' that power which God has put into OUT hands, all the days oi' out life." Charles at once hurried northward with all the troops at his command, to enforce obedience. But the CHARLES I. 189 Scots quickly marshalled their clans under Leslie, a pupil of the great Gustavus, and, without waiting f<>r the attack of the Englishking, pushed boldly across the border and offered battle. The astonished kingfeigned concession, and retired to await the levy of a larger force. The Short Parliament. The crisis demanded the action of Parliament, and the king was forced to issue tin* usual writs for an election. The records of preced- ing Parliaments would answer for this. Instead <>f vot- ing men and money for a Scotch war, it demanded re- dress, and, after a stormy session of three weeks, wan angrily dissolved. "Thingsmust go worse before they ir<> better," said St. John, one of its members. They speedily went worse. A Great Council of Peers, assembled at York as u last expedient, accomplished uothing but delay. The advancing Scots had reached New Castle and were on the march for York. Laud was mobbed in London, and the High Commission broken up at St. Paul's. All England was brought to the verge of revolt, when Charles once more, and for the last, time, issued his summons for a meeting of Parliament. The Long Parliament. Parliament assembled on the 3d of November, 1640. Having enacted that its dissolution could only take place by its own consent, it continued, with expulsions and intermissions, through h period of twenty years, and is known in history as the Long Parliament. All the accumulated griev- ances of the people since the advent of the Stuarts Mere poured into the House of Commons, in the shape of complaints and petitions, requiring the labors of forty 190 CHARLES I. committees for their examination. Then began the sharp work of reform. Patriots were released from prison ; the Star Chamber and High Commission abolished; the judgment against Hampden annulled; ship money and arbitrary taxation once more for- bidden, and royal officers impeached. Laud and Straf- ford, the two able but servile agents of the King, were thrown into the 'Power, whence they came only to lay their heads upon the block. The Attempt of Charles to Arrest the Five Members. The King looked bitterly but helplessly on, while the absolutism in which he had sought to entrench himself was roughly swept, away. Conscious that his throne was crumbling beneath him, he attempted by one master-stroke to crush out all opposition and re-estab- lish his lost authority. His blow was aimed directly at the House of Commons. With a company of sol- diers at his back, he appeared at the door of the Com- mons Chamber, and demanded the surrender of five of its members on a charge of high treason. Pym and Hampden were of the number. "I sec my birds have flown," said the king, after looking carefully over the silent assembly. With the expectation that "they would send the accused members to him," and a threat "to secure them for himself if they did not," the baffled king abruptly left the chamber. Civil War Inevitable. Tho crisis had come. The occasion was too solemn for business, and the House adjourned. The next day a royal proelamat ion branded the five members as traitors and ordered their arrest. London rose as one man for their defence. Its train- bands held the city and guarded the House of Com- CHARLES I. 191 mons. They escorted the historical five back to their scats amidst the shouts of the excited people. Both parties began to prepare for the war that was now in- evitable. The king raised his standard at Nottingham, August 22d, 1642. Parliament ordered the enrollment and muster of the militia. Roundheads and Cavaliers. The great English people, farmers, traders, and artisans, mostly Puritans, with a sprinkling of peers, rallied around Parliament, and were called Roundheads, from the Puritan practice of wearing closely-cut hair. A majority of the nobles, gentry, and clergy, took sides with the king, and from their gallant bearin"; were called Cavaliers. The two great parties into which England resolved itself, the one democratic and the other aristocratic, the one aiming at progress and reform, and the other clinging to the traditions of the past, have continued to this day, under the names of Whig and Tory, Lib- eral and Conservative, to struggle for the mastery. Presbyterianism Made the National Religion. Par- liament secured the aid of the Scots, by signing the Covenant, and adopting the Presbyterian as the national religion. As an offset Charles sought help from tho Irish. In 1633, Strafford had been sent to Ireland, and for seven years had maintained in that country the iron despotism Charles struggled in vain to establish in Eng- gland. After Strafford's execution in 1641, and as a result of his severity, there broke out a wide-spread revolt of the Catholic Irish against the Protestant Eng- lish. It was located chiefly in Ulster, that had been settled, thirty years before, in the reign of James I , 192 0HURLE8 I. l>v colonies of English Protestants. During its continu- ance, according to Clarendon, not Less than forty thousand people of English birth were slain. With this fresh in the public mind, the purpose of King Charles to bring an Irish army into England caused great excitement, even among his own adherents. Officers of all grades and in considerable numbers threw up their commissions, or went over to the other side. Edgehill, A.D. 1642. The first conflict, at Edge- bill, was favorable to the king. Successive disasters in various quarters darkened the prospects of the patriot cause. Not the least among these was the death, in a skirmish, of Hampden, the Washington of England. The great want oi' the patriot army was cav- alry. It was his strength in this arm that gave the king the advantage during tin 1 earlier stages of the war. A sturdy Puritan from the shire of Huntingdon, whose military genius we are soon to recognize, seeing the want, raised a regiment of horse, composed of men of like stamp with himself, and brought it into the field against the king. Naseby, A.l). 1645. In the battles iA' Marston Moor and Naseby, Cromwell at the head of his invinci- ble " Ironsides," scattered like chaff the horsemen of Prince Rupert, and then charging the close ranks of loyal infantry, put them to utter rout. The king conscious after the battle of Naseby that all was lost, rode into a camp of the Scots on the river Trent, and surrendered himself to Lord Leven, its commander. Straggle Between Presbyterians and Independents. The Puritans of England were divided into two prin- cipal sects, Independents and Presbyterians. The CHARLES I, 193 former held that each individual church with its pastor should regulate its own affairs, independent of all others. The latter accepted the higher and ultimate authority of synods and bishops. The Independents were identical with the Separatists of the reign of Janus I., of -whom the refugees at Leyden and the Pilgrim Fathers formed important bodies. But their original idea of church independence widened towards the close of the Avar into that of the complete separa- tion of Church and State. The Presbyterian majority in Parliament proceeded to reorganize the Church of England on the Presbyterian plan. The 1 perils that environed civil liberty passed away with the surrender of the king to Lord Leven, but the religious intolerance that, remained, and to which the Puritan majority still clung, became almost as danger- ous to the State as the absolutism they had abolished. They had removed the civil, only to impose the relig- ious, yoke upon the necks of their brethren. Each party sought reconciliation and alliance with the king, as a means of success for itself; the Indepen- dents on the basis of religious toleration, the Presby- terians on the adoption of the Covenant. Charles rejected the oilers of both parties, expecting to bring tho ouo or tho other to his own terms. "I am not without hope," wrote he, " that I shall be able to draw either the Presbyterians or tho Independents to side with me for extirpating one another, so that I shall be really king again." "What will become of us," asked a Presbyterian, "now that the king has rejected our proposals ?" M What would have become of us," replied 194 CHARLES I. an Independent, " had he accepted them ? " Parliament bargained with the Scots for the possession of Charles's person, paying £400,000, the amount due them. Struggle Between Parliament and the Army. The Presbyterians, now believing their victory assured, took a more decided stand. They established Presbyteries throughout the country, and voted to disband the old army which was Independent, and organize a now one with Presbyterians at the head. The quarrel between the religious sects in Parliament now changed to a struggle between Parliament and the army, ending, as we shall soon see, in the defeat oi' the former, and t he- establishment and continuance of military rule for a period of nearly twelve years. The army refused to disband, without an assurance o( religious toleration. A body of its troopers surrounded the Holmby House in which the king was detained, and took him into custody. Parliament charged Cromwell with inciting the act. While denying the charge, he put himself at the head of his old soldiers and was soon on the road to London. Royal intrigue and treachery towards both parties, — the flight of the king to the Isle of Wight, his unsuccessful effort to reach the continent, and his detention in Car- isbrook Castle, — a treaty with the Presbyterians, the principal terms oi which were the assent of the king to the Covenant, and his re-instatement on the throne, — the mustering o( the Cavaliers in various quarters, and the passage o[' the border by an army of Scots, to co- operate with the Royalists,— were events that transpired in rapid succession. The Army Becomes Supreme. At the head of an army only too willing to follow where Cromwell led, CHARLES I. 195 with amazing rapidity he scattered the cavaliers inus- tering in the West, and then, turning northward, crush- ed the Scots at a blow and entered Edinburgh. Fresh concessions on the part of the king had given the latter au overwhelming majority in Parliament, and he was again seized by a body of troopers, and hurried away to Castle Hurst. A few weeks found Cromwell again iu London. Surrounding the Parliament building with his soldiers, he excluded all the Presbyterian members. The Independents remaining were called the "Rump Parliament." They assumed, as representatives of tho people, the supreme power of the State, and proceeded to the most radical legislation. The High Court of Justice. They organized a "High Court of Justice," composed of seventy princi- pal officers and members, for the trial of Charles Stuart on a charge of high treason. This Court met at West- minster on the 20th of January, 1649. Charles denied its legality and refused to plead. On the 27th, he was adjudged guilty and condemned to death. Tho death warrant was signed on the 29th, and on the 30th the unfortunate king was beheaded in front of Whitehall. The scaffold on which he sulfercd was covered with black and surrounded w T ith soldiers. As the masked executioner, raising the head of the king streaming with blood, cried aloud, "This is the head of a traitor," a deep but audible groan burst from the assembled people, who tied horror-stricken from the awful scene. The people of England had never before witnessed the execution of their king, and Charles had borne himself, duriug the course of the trial, with such kingly dignity, and, after the fatal sen- 1% OHABLBB T. to nee, with such patience and resignation, as to win their reverenoe and sympathy. The anniversary of his death was observed with religious servioes, as the" Day of King Charles the Martyr," from the restoration in 1660, to the year L859, Three of Charles's children deserve notice ; Charles, Pnnce of Wales; flames, Duke of York; and Mary. The two former became Kings of England in turn. Mary married William, Prince of Nassau, and her son William became king after James. The Commonwealth, 1649 to 1660 11 years. The Commonwealth and its Perils. En less than a month after the execution oi' t he king, the Monarchy was formally abolished and a Republio, under the name o[' Commonwealth, erected in its stead. The Elouse o( Lords shared the fate oi' the throne, and the Rump (.'om- inous were left the sole and supreme authority. They created a Counoil of state, oomposed of forty-one ot' their own members, as the executive branoh of the government. Perils early thickened around the young Republic The violent death ot' the king at the hands ot" his subjects oaused an intense exeitemeut among the monarohs of lan-ope. The minister? ot' England were driven from some oi' the capitals and murdered in others. Holland made haste to recognize Prince Charles, then a refugee at the Hague, as King of Eng- land. 'The proud Cavaliers, though beaten into silenee, to. ked with deadly hatred, as well as unspeakable dis- gust, upon the Puritan Republic, and they only waited for a favorable turn of events to attempt the restora* TIIK COMMONWEALTH. 197 fcion of the Monarohy. But the first movements of a royalist outbreak were crushed by lh<^ iron hand of ( Iromwell. A most dangerous spirit had crept into the army, which, if unchecked, would have !<•y forced marches, Crom- well placed his army directly in the path of Charles at Worcester. Cromwell characterized this battle aa his "crowning mercy." Scarcely a Scot escaped. 108 THE COMMONWEALTH. Charles saved himself by flight; but left almost alone in the heart of England, with Cromwell's troopers occu- pying every road and scouring the country in search of the fugitive, his sit nation was perilous in the ex- treme Threadiug his way, in one disguise and an- other, through innumerable dangers, hiding by day and journeying by night, in two mouths he safely reached the southern coast and took passage on a collier for Prance. Parliament and the Army. Whatever may bo said in defence of the extreme courso of the Independents, both in Parliament and in the army, on the score of Belf-preservation, the Rump was but the fragment of a Parliament, ami its long continuance was felt by all parties to be impolitic. Charges o[' greed and cor- ruption against its members in appropriating the public spoils increased the odium attached to its name. Hate- ful from the outset to all denominations but its own, it was fast becoming hateful to that. Cromwell, impa- tient at the selfishness and uncertainty that charac- terized its action, urged a prompt "settlement of the nation, "and an early dissolution. Parliament, in re- taliation, resolved to disband the army. Failing in that, it sought to eclipse the splendor of its fame, by still more splendid achievements on the sea. Tho Dutch and English nations were maritime rivals, and their mutual jealousy was ready to break into open hostility on tin 1 slightest provocation. A statute, called the "Navigation Act," requiring all nations trading with England to bring their products to English ports in their own vessels, was aimed at the commerce of the Dutch, the common carriers of Europe. The English THE COMMONWEALTH. 199 required the ships of other nations to lower their tlags in British waters. An English fleet under Blake met a Dutch fleet under Van Tromp in the Downs, Blake's signal of three guns for the customary salute to the English flag was answered by Van Tromp with a broadside. The fight that followed led to a declara- tion of war with Holland. The first conflict sent the Dutch under De Ruyter into port to relit; the second forced tin; English, under Blake, to seek the shelter of the Thames, while Van Tromp exultingly swept tho English Channel with a broom at his masthead; tho third seriously crippled Van Tromp, and, for a time, gave Blake undisputed possession of the sea. Before this last, victory of the English licet, then; was an un- derstanding that Parliament should soon dissolve! and the army disband ; after it, the former evinced a dispo- sition not, to dissolve at all. Tho Expulsion of tho Hump Parliament. In lf!53, a plan was made to call a new Parliament, in which all the members of the old Parliament should continue to hold scats, and also act as judges of the election of newmembers. Cromwell, who was a member of Par- liament, was opposed to this scheme. A mutual council at Whitehall adjourned for oiks day, with the under- standing that no action should be taken in the mean- time. At the time appointed for the second meeting, but few of the friends and none of tin! leaders of tho measure weie present. A messenger soon arrived at Whitehall with the announcement that tho bill was under discussion in Parliament and about to pass. Crom- well's hesitation vanished. Taking a till! of soldiers and posting them in tho lobby of the Parliament Cham- 200 THE COMMONWEALTH. her, ho entered and took his accustomed scat. As he listened to the arguments of Vane who was speaking in behalf of the bill, he said to one who sat by his side, "1 am come to do what grieves me to (he heart." But ho continued to listen. "The time lias come," said ho, at length, to another. "Think well, it is dangerous work," was the reply. Still ho waited, but, just as the bill was evidently about to pass, he arose in his place and stepped out into ihc middle of the chamber. Pour- ing forth a torrent of abuse upon the members of the opposition, he stamped his foot as a signal for the sol- diers to enter. " Your hour has come," were his words as the soldiers tiled into the room, "the Lord hath done with you. It is not lit that you should sit here any longer. You should give place to better men. You are no Parliament." The Speaker was forced from his seat and the room quickly cleared by the soldiery. Lifting the man' from the table, "What," inquired he, "shall we do with this bauble? Take it away." Cromwell Made Lord Protector. The Council of State, dismissed with as little ceremony as Parliament, was followed by another council, and that by a con- vention, composed of Independents selected from lists furnished by the churches, and called the Little Parlia- ment, or Barebone's Parliament. It accomplished nothing, and voted its own dissolution after appointing still another council, composed of eight men with Cromwell at the head. This council summoned a Par- liament to represent England, Scotland, and Ireland, the right to vote for members being granted to all having a properly of two hundred pounds, except Cat holies and those who had fought for the king. Dur- THE COMMONWEALTH. 201 ingthe interim of nine months, for the preservation of order, Cromwell was induced by the council to assume tin* government with the title of Lord Protector. The same body adopted an [nstrumenl carefully de- fining the powers of the Protector, and organizing a strictly constitutional government. The advice of this council was made necessary in the management of for- eign affairs, in questions of peace and war, and in the appointment of officers. Parliament was to meet once in three years, make the laws, subject for twenty days to the Protector's veto, and levy taxes. Cromwell Usurps the Government. In the writs for an election of members, it had been expressly stated that Parliament should not have power to alter the government as settled in a single person and a Par- liament. Its lirst step on assembling in 1054, was to take into consideration the organization of the govern- ment. The question of the Protector's veto power was debated for three days, when Cromwell, hairing the way to the Parliament, (Jliamber by a tile of soldiers, turned hack all who refused to sign an agreement not to alter the form of government. Three hundred signed and were allowed to enter. One hundred refused and were turned back. The signers adhered to their agreement, but fell back on the tactics of their prede- cessors, refusing to vote money for the army without a redress of grievances. This brought an angry dis- solution, and tho government relapsed into the ab- solutism from which the civil war had freed it. Taxes were levied and laws were made, on the sole authority of the Protector. The reaction in the public mind in favor of the monarchy was intense. Faith in the fun- 202 THE COMMONWEALTH. damenta] principles of the Commonwealth faded away, us Its outward fabrio orumbled under the usurpations of Cromwell. Royalisl revolts broke out in various quar- ters, but they were easily crushed by the vigorous soldier who now had at his disposal all the powers of the State. England was divided into ten military distriots, and each placed under martial law. Scot- land and Ireland were reduced to order, but the se- verities practiced by English soldiers iii the latter country have Left to this day their hitter fruit of undy- ing hatred of the English rule. Prosperity Under Cromwell's Rule. In spite of the discontent and opposition of the royalists, theadminis- fcration of publio affairs under Cromwell was character- ized by wisdom, moderation, and suooess almost beyond precedent in the history of England. Cromwell reformed the law and made its administration uniform. "To hang a man for sixpence and pardon murder," as he ex- pressed it, did not accord with his idea of Justice. Though humane and tolerant in general, he was unrelenting to Catholics, and his campaign in Ireland was merciless. He allowed (he dews, who had been banished from (lie realminthe reign of Edward I., and who were still hated of all men, to return to England, and did his best, to protect them. To a new sect of Puritans, called Quakers, the objeol of derision to all others, ho extended the shield of his power. Cromwoll's orude but eil'ectivo statesmanship was best displayed in his management of foreign affairs. Bangs, in whose capi- tals at the beginning of the Commonwealth the lives of English ministers were not safe, earnestly solicited his alliance. A treaty favorable to England was made THE COMMON WKALTI I. 203 with Holland. The Mediterranean was cleared of tho piiuirs that had Long made their haunts on the Afri- can shore, any his determined intercession. In L656, Crom- well summoned another Parliament. It voted supplies, but it protested against the military despotism under which England continued. Cromwell at once withdrew the soldiers quartered in the ten military divisions. Although, on account of the opposition of tho army, ho refused the title of King, which this Parliament pro- posed to confer upon him, he accepted tho power to name his own successor. Cromwell's Death. Cromwell died September 3rd, 1658, of an attack of ague, but his end was hastened by anxiety. His last years were full of I .rouble. There was a growing discontent among the people at the strictness of his government. He was surrounded by conspira- cies, and menaced with assassination. lie became a prey to perpetual fear, wearing armor under his cloth- ing, and arms about his person. His sleeping-room was constantly changed to Lessen the danger of mid- night attacks, and in ^<>in^ abroad, he returned by a different route to avoid an ambush of his enemies. Cromwell's Character and Motives. Of Cromwell's character and motives then; is a wide difference of opinion. Personally, he was one of oat lire's noblemen. Rising from the common walks of life to an estate and 204 THE COMMONWEALTH. fame truly regal, ho lost noil her his simplicity nor hia piety. That he felt some of t ho promptings of ambi- tion, it is difficult to deny ; that ho possessed a great, earnest soul, chiefly animated by a desire to promote the welfare of his country, it is easy to believe. Had Cromwell been of royal blood, and Hie throne his birthright, his reigu would have been the pride and boast of Englishmen through all time. Cromwell has been compelled to bear tho odium of all the extreme measures that followed tho civil war. Both when ho was Captain General of tho Puritan army and Lord Protector of England, did his moderate counsels avail to defeat the wild schemes that always spring up iu times of revolution, and more than once did he endan- ger his iulluenco with his owu soldiers by his conserva- tism. Armies are rarely composed of men of such positive minds as the Puritan soldiers. Almost any oue of them could preach to his fellows what was called a sermon, and he had, too, his own ideas of govern- ment as well as of religion. Even a Cromwell could not always mould sueh stiff-necked material entirely to his owu will. It has been wisely said in regard to his policy with his army, that " to ordinarily govern, Crom- well was sometimes compelled to submit." The neces- sity of retaining the confidence and support of the soldiers, to assure his personal power and the ascendency of England as a nation, was imperative. lie had an intuitive sense of the nation's ills and the proper remedies to be applied. That his intuitions were, in the main, correct, finds its best proof in the marvelous success of his policy. THE COMMONWEALTH 205 In his government, the personal and constitutional elements were strangely mingled. Ruling ordinarily in accordance with the laws, he did nol hesitate, on occasion, to override or change them. Wlien Parlia- ment failed to meet his expectations, he dismissed it, and, like Charles, ruled alone. There the similarity ends. Charles ruled alone to maintain the royal pre- rogative; Cromwell to give peace and prosperity to England. But there was, while Cromwell lived, a uni- versal feeling that the laws and the constitution were ever at the merey of an individual will. Such a sys- tem as Cromwell's, however favorable to order and progress under a wise administration, was inconsistent with a free constitution. Under a weak head, it would inevitably result in anarchy; under an ambitious one, relapse into a despotism. But Cromwell's enemies were unrelenting. It mat- tered little to cavalier and noble, who regarded him only as an upstart and an interloper, that his just and able rule commanded the respect of all Christendom ; nor to the royalist, who regarded him only as a low-born pretender and usurper, a tit mark for every assassin's dagger, that he made his country so great and powerful that the simple name of Englishman became a protecting shield to the humblest citizen that bore it, in any part of the civilized world. But whatever may be justly said of his wisdom and patriotism, it must be acknowledged that Cromwell was a usurper. The ruler who, even once, manifestly sets aside a settled constitution, or tramples under foot established law, is a usurper. This Cromwell did, at will. The people of England with much peril and bloodshed 206 THE COMMONWEALTH. had just struggled through duo revolution, that their traditional liberties might be preserved to them; but when the despotism, however violent, of the Stuarts, merely gave place to the despotism, however mild, of Cromwell, freeaom was won only to be lost again. The Legitimate result ol' Cromwell's usurpation in 1653, was the return of the Stuarts in L660, and the continuance of religious intolerance and arbitrary govern" ment for almost a generation. Kiehanl Cromwell. Cromwell named his son Rich- ard as his successor. The father was both soldier and statesman, the son was neither: and so, after a tew months of fruitless effort to oontrol a mutinous army and govern an almost rebellious people, Kiehanl re- signed the Protectorship and retired to private life. The Restoration. General Monk was in Scotland at the head of a well-appointed force, lie commenced at once his march towards London, where his arrival was awaited with indescribable anxiety. Though long silent as to his intentions, he was favorable \o the res- toration of the monarchy, and was in secret corres- pondence with Prince Charles, who was at Breda. The famous "Long Parliament," once more coming to- gether, issued writs for a new election, and voted its own dissolution, just twenty years from its first meet- inff. The new Parliament assembled on the 25th of April, 1660, and, agreeably to the wishes of all parties, invited Prince Charles to return to the home and throne of his father, lie landed at Dover on the 25th of May, and was crowned King o( England on the 29th. This is known iu history as " The Restoration. n THE COMMONWEALTH. 207 The Last Muster of the Puritan Army. Ono of the most suggestive pictures presented to us in the annals of the English nut ion, is that of the old Puritan army, thirty thousand strong, drawn up at Blackheath, to witness the return of Charles. It might bo culled "The Downfall of Puritanism." Those grim and stal- wart men, who had been the arbiters of the fate of England for nearly twenty years, whose resistless charges had carried dismay into the ranks of the enemy at home and abroad, stood like lifeless statues, while the ringing bells and glad shouts of the people welcomed the returning Stuart to the throne of his ancestors. They had swept away the Throne, the House of Lords, and the Established Church, and had reorganized, or dismissed at will, the House of Com- mons, lint in tin; presence of the people, re-inspired with their old reverence for royalty, they were beaten without a battle. Sadly and thoughtfully, but without a murmur, they laid down their arms and quietly re- turned to their former homes, henceforth to be distin- guished from their neighbors only by greater industry and sobriety. Cromwell had been the representative of Puritanism, and his usurpation of power was regard- ed as a Puritan usurpation. When, therefore, he assum- ed all of royalty but the name, and ruled England through his army instead of his Parliament, Puritanism became a political force instead of a moral power, and its fall at the death of Cromwell was inevitable. Charles II., 1660 to L685 — 25 years. Stuart. The Circumstances under Which Charles Became King. Charles II. ascended the throne in 1660, but 208 CHARLES II. English history dates the beginning of bis reign from the death of his father, in 1649. The circumstances under which he became an actual sovereign were aus- picious. Perhaps no English king was ever welcomed to the throne with so wild a delight as he. A few words as to the circumstances may be proper. That Cromwell was just in his rule and made Eng- land glorious, did not reconcile the people to the es- sential despotism he established. Even Republicans were unwilling to live under a government republican only in name. After the death of Cromwell, and during the administration of his son Richard, the gov- ernment was fast relapsing into anarchy. With Rich- ard's retirement, England was not only left without a head, but without a settled form of government. The monarchy had been abolished and the republic had proved a failure. What would follow none could tell; but it was plain to all, that the soldiers in arms were the sole arbiters of the fate of England. The one fate to be dreaded was a succession of irresponsible military rulers. Puritans and Churchmen, Republicans and Royalists, beheld the gulf that yawned before them, and, for a time, forgot their differences. For a peril that all could see but none could fathom, there was but one alternative, — the restoration of the monarchy and the return of the Stuarts. It was not then the fickleness of the English people, as is too often charged, but their conscious and narrow escape from nameless national woes, that caused such unbounded enthusiasm when Charles Stuart re-entered the capital of his ancestors. The Social Revolution. The extreme legislation of the Puritans had made their rule irksome to chakl.es ii. 209 the people. Innocent amusements had been strictly prohibited, and piety, or its profession, had been made an essential qualification for office. With the restora- tion of the monarchy and a repeal of Puritan legisla- tion, there was an inevitable reaction. The dance around the May-pole on the village green was never so joyous as now, and Christmas festivities returned with more than their wonted hilarity. Had Charles pos- sessed but ordinary wisdom, could the experience of his father and his own early misfortunes have taught him the one lesson to study and respect the wishes of the people, his reign would have been peaceful and popular. But he broke every promise he had made, and disappointed every expectation of the people. Although they welcomed the removal of unnatural restraints, they were not prepared for the unbridled license that prevailed throughout the country after the restoration. Before long they were turning in disgust from the king they had welcomed so heartily, and wish- ing they had the great Oliver back again. Nothing more vividly illustrates the extent of this social revo- lution than the history of the stage. During the Puri- tan period, theatrical performances, however innocent, had been rigidly prohibited. With Charles returned the theatre, foul and revolting, without even a French refinement to its grossness. But the painted scenery and loose manner? of the new stage only reflected real life in fashionable circles. The king himself led the shameless revels of the royal court ; the court gave the standard of morality to the capital ; and thence the deadly contagion spread, infecting fashionable society in all parts of the kingdom. Religion became a by- 210 C11AKLES II. word and morality a mockery. It is but just to say that the great mass of the English people remained un- affeoted by this incoming tide of vice. Although Pu- ritanism, as a political power, had fallen, and its very name had become a jest among the now dominant cav- aliers, the sturdy virtues and the deep religions spirit that were its very essence, had heen too deeply im- planted in the minds and hearts oi' the English people to be easily removed. They still remained to mould English character, and modify English institutions, and they are, to this day, a rich inheritance of the English people. Tho Convention Parliament. The Parliament that restored the monarchy is called the " Convention Par- liament." It early passed an "Act oi' Oblivion and Indemnity " extending a general pardon io all offenders, except certain oi' the Regicides. Of these, thirteen were executed and many imprisoned for life, although Charles had virtually promised to pardon all who vol- untarily came forward and surrendered themselves. Many tied to foreign parts, three oi' them, (idle, Whalley, ami Dixwell, finding refuge in America. This Aet restored to the Royalists the estates taken from them by the Commonwealth, except when the transfer had heen made by sale, but it gave them no redress for other losst>s. The dissatisfied cavaliers pronounced the " Aet " one of oblivion to the king's friends and indemnity to his enemies, for they had been mulcted without mercy under the Commonwealth, and many had heen forced to part with their estates to meet the demands oi' the government. This Parliament abolished the last relic of the Feudal System, the ton- CHARLES II. 211 uro of lands by knight service, including the wardship of minors and the marriage of heiresses, that had been fruitful sources of income Iodic king, in place of which he received a life-grant of £1,200,000. The Restoration of the Episcopal Religion. The dissolution of this Parliament and a new election re- Bulted in the return of the " Cavalier Parliament " of L661. This body attempted by successive acts to re- establish Episcopacy as the national religion. "The Solemn League and Covenant" was ordered to 1m; burned by the public hangman. Charles himself became an Episcopalian, declaring that "Presbyterianism was no religion for a gentleman." The " Corporation Act " re- quired ;ill public officers to worship in accordance with the usages of the established church, and to deny the right of the subject to bear arms against the king. The "Ah of Uniformity" required all the clergy to adopt the prayer-book and assent to all its contents, on pain of expulsion. Two thousand Puritan clergymen were ejected from I licit- livings in one day, for non-compliance with this statute. Attempt to Force Episcopacy upon the Scots. To gain the aid of tin; Scotch Presbyterians, Prince Charles, on New Fear's Day, 1651, solemnly signed the Covenant at Scone, thus pledging himself to support tin; Presbyterian religion. But In; now not only turned Episcopalian himself but he resolved to force Episcopacy upon the Scots. The Earl of Lauderdale was sent to Scotland with unlimited powers to carry out the wishes of tin; king. Bishops were appointed, and soldiers posted at the various centres to compel attendance on the worship of the established church, and to collect SIS 0HARLE9 u. linos from non :it t iMuLmt s. An impotent rising of tho persecuted Coyenanters in the neighborhood of Edin- burgh became an excuse for the most barbarous Legisla- tion, and the most dreadful cruelty. The - Borew " and " boot " became oommoo instruments of tor- ture. From this time, 1662, to the Revolution, iu L688, the Scotch Coyenanters maintained their faith amidst persecutions :m«.l Bufferings, from which the mind re- coils W ith horror. The "Conventicle Act" forbade all Puritan assemblies for public worship. The faithful Covenanters, armed for self-defence, held seorel meetings, at midnight, in the depths of the woods. English soldiers Bometimes burst upon them with merciless slaughter. The Bea- girt prison on loss Rock, and the gloomy walls of Dun- barton Castle, witnessed many an awful death by slow anil cruel torture, many a sail ami lingering one in dark and dreary dungeons. Tho " Five Mile Aot *" forbade non-conforming clergymen to appear within five miles of any town 01 tho places ofthcir former worship, and excluded them from the work of instructing the young, dooming them to penury and even starvation and death. An Aot was passed for the suppression of Quakers, who were specially odious to tho Cavaliers, from their refusal to boar arms. English as woll as Scotch prisons were crowded with Puritan offenders. Foreign AtVairs. rho history of the foreign affairs of this reign is 'out a humiliating reoord of royal intrigue and treachery. Charles i* charged with involving tho country in war tor tho simple purpose of obtain- ing a vote of money tor its prosecution. The money onoe in his hands wont to tho support of shanudoss en mm.ks ii. 21.T favorites, while English ships were left to decay, and their orews remained unpaid. The first of these wars was wiih Elolland. H grew out of the rivalry of the Dutch ami English merohants seeking a monopoly of tlu> trade in ffold-dust and ivory on the coast of (juinea. An English fleet, sent to America during the first year of this war, 1664, compelled the surrender of all the Dutoh oolonies (<» England. The govern- ment of these oolonies was granted by the king i<> his brother, (lie Duke of York, from whom New York received its name. Tim Plague in London. A signal viotory, gained off the Suffolk const, near Lowestoft, caused little exulta- tion in London, for an enemy more dreaded than the Dutch w:is already in the suburbs of the great city. The worst fears were realized. That, dread pesti- lence, the Plague, was soon in every house, bring- ing death and consternation to the crowded population. In six months one hundred thousand persons died. Grass grew in streets that were onoe the busy marts of trade. Scarcely a sound was heard but the rumbling of the carts, and the cries <){' the attendants eohoing through the city and pieroing the death-haunted houses, " Bring out your dead, bring out your dead." The Great Fire of London. During the next year, 1666, oalled by Dryden the "Year of Wonders," the greater pari of the city w;is laid in ashes by an extensive Gonflagration. In (he end the fire proved a blessing, Ibr it destroyed the filthy sections still infested by the Plague, and, in time, narrow lanes and wretched hovels gave place to wide, well-drained streets, and moreoom* modious dwellings. 511 CHARLES IT, During the year following the tiro, tin 1 Dutch] every where victorious by reason o( the decay of the Eng- lish navy, sailed up the Thames and threatened London itself. The war was ended by the Peace of Breda, in 1668, Clarendon . who had been at the head of affairs of state, becoming unpopular on account of the war. n\ms compelled to resign to escape impeachment. He was succeeded by a Cabinet, or Cabal,* composed of five members, Charles a Pensioner of Louis of Franee. But that which brands this administration with the deepest in- famy, is a secret compact made with Louis \IY.. king of Prance, in L670, Louis ooveted the posses- sion of the Netherlands, and Bent an army to invade its territory. To preserve the balance of power thus en- dangered, England, Holland, and Sweden formed the "Triple Alliamv." While professing to enter heartily into this Alliamv. Charles was busily negotiating i\ Becret treaty with Louis. For an annual pension oi' £200,000, ho agreed to withdraw from the Alliance, assist Louis' Bcheme of conquest in the Netherlands, :unl adopt the Catholic religion. It was stipulated that ho should announce his change ot" religion ms soon :is it was prudent, and that Louis should lend him a French army in case of revolution, Charles didan- othor thing especially humiliating to the nation. Dun- kirk, that had been won from Spain by the valor of Cromwell, ami had become almost as essential to Eng- lish power, and quite as essential to English pride as • l'hi"i- WttTQ Clifford, ^rlt&CtoB, BlIOklngfaMIl, AshU'v.iuU 1 sui,UmM;iU\ tlu» iiuli;0.s »>(" \\ln>so u.mu's l«>wn l!u> woi.l 0:il>al, :i woi.l know a Ivi.nv. ftlgnlQ mjt I 0:iIm\u(. But to oorrapt wm tira Cabal ofCharlaa u., uu- \\>n,i Km otw •Inc* boon ipplted &0 olnjuos *(' politiOal (ru'k>tow». CHAHLBS if. 21 . r i Calais had been a oontury before, was sold i<> the Frenoh U i hit for £400,000, merely (<> pander to the pleasures of :i virion:! oourti A.greeably i«» the treaty made with Louis, Charles, in L672, began the war with Holland. On thesea,the Dutoh navygained several viotories over the oombined fleets of England and France. The refusal of Parliament i<> vote supplies, mikI the unpopularity of the war, oompelled Charles to make peace in two years. ITrauoe oontinued hostilities (ill L678, when, by the treaty of Nimeguen, she n >so to the first rank among the powers of Europe. Though gaining many advantages during the war, slid failed to oonquer ilio brave little Republic Declaration of Indulgence. Just before the begin- oing of 1 1 mi war, Charles had issued . - i Declaration of [ndulgenoe, establishing the prinoiple <>f religious !<>l- eration i<> all seots. This Declaration gave instant liberty (<» thousands of Puritans, who. Cor many years, had pined in English dungoons. Bunyan left the cell he had ocoupiod for twelve years in Bedford jail, and where he had oomposed that most wonderful allegory in the English tongue, Pilgrim's Progress. Twelve thousand Quakers :il<>n«' were set at liberty by this ediot. There was general distrust as <<> the motives of the king in issuing the Declaration <>f [ndulgenoe. Ct wms believed to be the initiative in m scheme i<> restore Catholics to office, and Catholioism l<> England. A persistent refusal of Parliament (<» vole supplies com- pelled the icing l<> withdraw it. The Test AH.. Parliament quickly followed n|> its advantage by passing the Test Ad, requiring all «>Hi- oers, rivil and military, i<» take the Oath of Supremaoy. 216 CHARLES TT. This Oath contained a denial of the peculiar tenets of Catholicism, and an affirmation *>!' those of the estab- lished churoh. The numerous resignations that fol- lowed showed to what an extent Cat holies hail already been brought into office, and confirmed previous suspic- ions of the Catholic tendencies oi' the king. James, Duke oi' York, (lie brother of the king and Lord High Admiral, an acknowledged Catholic, was forced to retire from the navy. The Popish Plot. There were wide-spread fear and distrust. Whispers oi' Catholic plots tilled the air. At this moment, when the public mind was excited with apprehension and ready to credit any tale however wild, Titus Oates came OUt, in 1678, with pre- tended revelations oi' a plot to murder the king and all the Protestants in England. It was like a spark in a powder-magazine. All England was thrown into a phreusy of excitement. The train-bands patrolled the streets oi' London. The Catholics, to the number oi' thirty thousand, were ordered to leave the city. They were excluded by statute from Parliament, and, tor a century and a halt', were debarred from member- ship in either house. Fresh testimony of the coming of a Catholic army caused a fresh panic, and every Catholic in the kingdom was disarmed. Trials, con- victions, and executions followed each other with inde cent haste. The most eminent victim was the venera- ble Lord Stafford, who A\as guilty of no offence, ant was offered up to satisfy the maddened popular thirst for Catholic blood. A bill to deprive dames oi' the right of succession passed the House oi' Commons, but was defeated in the OTTATlLttfl II. 217 House of Lords. The discovery of a Letter to Louis, written by the Earl of Danby, who had become Prime Minister after the fall of tho Cabal, soliciting money, und exposing the dependence of Charles on tho French king, gave an air of reality to the revelations of Gates, and fanned slill moro tho popular phrensy. Just at this moment it was discovered that the whole story of the "1*01)1811 Plot" was a pure fabrication. Tho Rye House Plot. A real Protestant plot chiefly to secure the exclusion of James from the succession, came to light, later in tho reign, implicating men of high rank, among whom were Lord Russell and Alger- non Sidney. A few reckless men of tho same party formed another scheme to assassinate tho king and his brother as they rodo past a place called the Rye House. The two plots were ingeniously made to ap- pear as one, by the lawyers of the Crown, sealing the doom of the high-born conspirators, who speedily per- ished on tho scaffold. Tho Habeas Corpus Act, A.l). 1070. In this reign the Habeas Corpus Act, the third great statute advancing constitutional liberty, was passed. It was specially designed to secure tho personal liberty of tho subject, forbidding his detention in prison without cause duly shown before a legal tribunal. Although tho principle established by this Act had been embodied in one of tho leading sections of the Great Charter, tho arbitrary wills of kings and tho ingenuity of ministers had hitherto rendered it entirely inoperative. Tho freedom of tho press was also secured in this reign. This was accomplished by a refusal of Parliament to renew the license law, by which a supervision of the press had 218 OttAKLES (I. been maintained. It was in this reign that Milton, deprived of the office he had held under Cromwell, poor, old, and blind, achieved that greatest triumph of ok life, Paradise Lost. Tho Merry Monarch. With all tris faults, Charles was an easy, good-natured king, going quietly along iu the path of his pleasures, even when the most excit- ing events were occurring around him. His excessive good nature has given him in history, the title of " Merry Monarch." The various plots, real and pre- tended, had brought a reaction in the public mind in favor of the king. While the latter avoided an open or defiant disregard o( the laws, he went deliberately to work to make his government absolute, inaugurat- ing what has been termed the second Stuart tyranny. Tho Test Av-t excluding Catholics from office was quietly ignored, and dames was restored to his former position as Lord High Admiral. Although making no public avowal oi' his adoption o( the Catholic faith. Charles desired the ministrations of a Catholic priest in his dying moments. James 11., 1685 to 1689—4 yours. Stuart. Tho Second Stuart Tyranny. During the preceding reign, dames. Duke of York, had gained considerable credit as commander o( the navy. All efforts to exclude him from the throne on account of his pro- nounced devotion to the Papacy had failed, and now, at the death of (diaries without heirs. he assumed the crown without opposition, under the title of dames 11. Much was hoped from the supposed manliness o\' his character, and still more from the solemn avowal made TAMES ir. 210 in the presence of his council, at its first meeting aftei the death of Charles, to support and defend the estab- lished ohurch, and execute the laws of the realm. But the high expectations that preceded the coronation unc only equaled by the disappointment that followed H. Enthusiasm soon gave place to gloom, and gloom Id horror. James was not a mere lover of ease and pleasure like Charles, but he soon showed that he was more indifferent to public sentiment, more defiant of the law, and more malignant towards men of other views. Within three days after his accession, and against the advice of his council, he levied customs ivith- out the consent of Parliament. The first elections wore carried by fraud and violence in (he interests of the king. Parliament, being subservient to Ins will, ap- proved (he levy, :ind voled the king a life income of .£2, ooo, ooo. lis action on the subject of religion was moulded to suit the royal pleasure. Though silent on (he subject in England, the laws against the Scotch Covenanters were made more severe and executed more rigorously than ever before. An ill-organized attempt of the Duke of Argyle to rouse (he clans to resistance quickly ended in the death of the Duke and the scat- tering of (he elans. The Rebellion of (lid Duke of Monmouth. An at- tempt, equally rash, on the part of the Duke of Mon- mouth,inthe west, having for its object the overthrow of James, and his own assumption of royal power, was even more disastrous in ils results. The royal army defeated the rebels at Sedgemoor, July i" Par- liamont and tho discontent of the people only increased the audacity of the king. lie constituted a spocial Court of Beven members with JofrYies at the liead, oommissionod to exercise complete control over mat- ters of religion, It was the "High Commission *' revivod. The Earl of Perth, one > ( t' the most Eealous supporters of the poli< j of James in matters of religion, w :is appointed to the government of Scotland, and the Earl of Tyrconnel, equally devotod to James and his polioy, to that of Ireland, A royal procla- mation, forbidding ministers to preach on disputed Bubjeots, was answered by stirring appeals from almost. every pulpit, while the public press teemed with the indignant protests oi' the people. James next Bought to place the great institutions of Learning under Catholic control, lie tried to force upon one of thu JAMBS 11. 2S8 Oxford Colleges a Catholic Load. The Fellows had elected owe of then own aumbcr, deollning to aooept ilu' Qomiuoo of the king. James summoned them to his presonee. "I am your king, 1 will be obeyed," Baid he! "Go to your chapel this instant, and elect the Bishop] Lei those who refuse look to it, for thej shall feel the whole weighl of my hand 1 N The Se?en Bishops. All England was now In a fer- nu'iil : but flames, possessed with the insane ohstinaey of his race, and doaf to the entreaties of his Catholio frionds, and evon of the pope who counseled modera- tion, pressed swiftly forward to his doom, lie issued a " Declaration of indulgence," similar to thai of his brother, Charles II., abolishing all religious tests for office ami all penal laws againsl nou-eont'oi mists. This was ordered to he read to every congregation in the land. Only two hundred out of ten thousand clergymen oboyed. A protest signed by seven bishops was presented io the king. "It is :i standard of rebollion," said dames, as he sent the bishops to the Tower, They were speedily broughl before the King's Bonch on a charge oi' seditious libel. Being aoquitted by the jury aftor a day's trial, they were released amidst the wildest aeelamat ions oi' the people. That night, June 30th, 1688, was a memorable one in Lon- don. The whole oity Was illuminated in honor ot the seven bishops, honliros hla/.ed in every street, and rockets lit up the heavens. To over-awe the eity, Jsmes had established a camp at Hounslow, midway between Windsor and Whitehall. He was present with the army when the news o( (he acquittal arrived, hut lel't at once tor London. As he rode away he heard 224 JAMES II. a great shouting behind him. " What is that ?" asked the startled king. " It is nothing but the soldiers who are glad that the bishops are acquitted," was the reply, "Do you call that nothing?" rejoined the king, now bit- terly conscious that he had lost the sympathy of the sob diers who were his only hope. Not daunted as yet, he dispatched the infected regiments to distant stations, replacing them with soldiers drawn chiefly from the garrisons of Scotland and Ireland. He assembled an army of forty thousand men, but he little dreamed that many of its officers were already in a league against him. Among these officers was Lord Churchill, after- wards, as Duke of Marlborough, to become the most famous general of his times. William of Orange Invited to Take the English Crown. The very day the bishops were acquitted, seven leading nobles sent a secret invitation to William, Prince of Orange, who had married James's eldest daughter, to come to England with an army and take the crown, assuring him of abundant support. William had seen King James become the pensioner of Louis of France, his most inveterate enemy. He had watched his persistent efforts to restore Catholicism to England. He had witnessed, with undisguised re- sentment, his evident purpose to transform Ireland into a Catholic state, to become (according to the French ambassador) an asylum for English Catholics, and a possible refuge for himself, — a scheme that threatened the integrity of the empire of which William's wife was the prospective heir. His counsels and his protests had been alike unheeded. Finally, when it was announced that the queen had given birth to a son, William JAMES II. 225 shared the general belief, that it was a supposititious child, to be foisted upon England, in the interests of the Papacy. His purpose was formed, and the invita- tion of the English nobles accepted. James and Louis were in perfect accord. When William began to gather ships and soldiers for the English campaign, Louis schemed to detain him on the continent. By the greatest mistake of his life, as some historians term it, Louis hurled his forces against Germany in- stead of Holland, and the latter country being, for the present, safe, William was free to pursue his English campaign. With a fleet of five hundred ships, and an army of fourteen thousand men, he sailed from the Scheldt, and landed at Torbay, on the southern coast, the 5th of November, 1G88. His army took up its line of march for the interior, receiving at first but few additions. But soon powerful nobles began to arrive, and important towns to give in their adhesion. The Flight of James to France. James struggled with the energy of despair to meet the crisis. He sought to turn the current of public opinion by correcting abuses and making concessions, and even went franti- cally about touching for the king's evil, but all to no purpose. The people were wholly alienated from their king. The army of forty thousand which he had gathered at Salisbury; retreated, in panic, before the banners of Orange, and began to break up. Its officers went over to William, or retired entirely from the contest. James was utterly deserted. " God help me, for my own children have forsaken me," said the wretched king, when he learned that his daughter Anne had gone over to his enemies. Tossing the Great Seal 226 JAMES II. into the Thames, ho quickly followed his wife and child in their tlight to France, without striking a Mow for his kingdom and crown. The Glorious Revolution Peacefully Accomplished. The House of Peers held a session, and requested William to call a convention of the people and to assume, in the meantime, the provisional government of England. The convention assembled in January, 1689, and declared Mary, eldest daughter of James II., William's wife, to be the lawful heir to the vacant throne. But Mary declined to accopt royal honors that were not shared by her husband, and the convention then invited William and Marv to become joint sov- ereigns ot* England, with the actual administration of the government vested in the former. This proposition was accepted. Having signed a Declaration ot* Rights, re-allirming the ancient Liberties of the English people, William and Marv received their crowns, and "The Glorious Revolution" was accomplished. Well may a revolution be called glorious, that, without the shed- ding o\' a drop of blood, achieved results so grand. From that day to this we hear no more of punishment in England except for crime. Englishmen no longer pine in foul dungeons, or die in Grod's tree air at the cruel stake, for fidelity to religious convictions. Instru- ments of torture now exist only in Museums, as relies of a by-gone age. exciting the wondorof the beholder, that any age, and above all, any Christian ago, could have been so barbarous. The interval of two months between the flight oi' James and the coronation of the new sovereigns is known as the Interregnum. WILLIAM ANI> MAKV. 227 William III., 1689 (o 1702 — 13 Years. Nassau. Mary II., 1689 to 161)4 — (5 Years. Stuart. The Grand Alliance. The elevation of William to the English throne was a serious blow to Louis, Bang oi' France. Besides enabling William to bring into the contest with Louis the fleets and armies of England, it largely increased his power and influence on the continent, lie became at once 1 ho acknowl- edged head of the opposition to French aggression. The revocation of the Edicl of Nantes, in 1685, had enabled William to bring about a coalition oi' the Protes- tant princes of Germany. The recent and wanton ravages of the French armies in the Palatinate now enabled him to bring into the alliance the Catholic princes also.* The conns of Spain and Austria, though reluctant to join an alliance of Protestant powers against a Catholic king, were forced to do so by considerations o\' self-interest, the Conner to make more secure the possession of the Spanish Nether- lands against the ambitious schemes of the French monarch, and the latter to win Protestant support for the claims of the House of Austria to the Spanish succession. France, without an ally in Europe, was thus compelled to face a coalition comprising England, Holland, Germany, and Spain. An English brigade was sent at once to the aid oi' the allies, but William himself was detained in England, by the unsettled * The "Treaty of Westphalia," terminating the "Thirty rears' War," In 1648, had lefl Germany, already divided by the Reformation, a loose confedera- tion of petty. Independent states a united in times of common danger by ;» sense of individual weakness, bul separated, in times >>i peaoe, by ilUfereuooi in religion 228 WILLIAM AND MAliY. Condition of the government, and especially by the critical state of affairs in Ireland. Rebellion in Ireland. Tyrconnel had accomplished his mission in Ireland, bringing it completely under Catholic rule. The Irish people, seeing at last an opportunity of throwing oif the English yoke and recovering their lands, rose in arms. In the south, the panic-stricken English abandoned their homes and fled from the country. In the north, they gathered within the walls of Enniskillen and Lon- donderry. Backed by fifty thousand Irish soldiers, Tyrconnel boldly raised the standard of the Stuarts. James himself arrived in Ireland with a licet and army furnished by the French king. Londonderry sus- tained a siege of one hundred and live days, when an English ship broke through the boom stretched across the river Foyle, and brought relief to the starving inhabitants. The same day a sally was made by the garrison of Enniskillen and the besiegers beaten off. Battle Of the Boyne. Shortly after this, William landed at Carrickfergus with an ample force, and took up his line of march for Dublin. lie found the army of James strongly posted behind the river Boyne. Crossing this river on the 12th of July, 1690, in the face of the foe, William gained a complete victory, .lames embarked in haste for France. " Change kings with us and we will light you again," said an Irish officer to an Englishman who taunted him with the panic of the Boyne. William, after an unsuccessful attempt to capture Limerick, leaving the further prosecution of the war to his deputies, returned to England, and soon joined his allies on the continent, over whom WILLIAM AND MABY. 229 the French armies had gained victory after victory. Peace of Ryswick. Flushed with success, Louis was tempted, after William left for Holland, in l»i!>'_\ to prepare an expedition for the invasion of England. But his fleet was completely overthrown, oil' Cape La Hogue, by a Dutch and English squadron, and all dauber of invasion passed away. The victory of La Hogue, and the presence of William on the conti- nent, inspired the allied armies with fresh courage. Although the war lingered for several years with vary- ing success, Louis, conscious, at last, that he had completely exhausted the resources of his people, ami, in the language of Fenelon, "had made France a vast hospital," consented, in 1697, to the unfavorable Treaty of Ryswick. lie surrendered all his conquests except Alsace, recognized William as king of England, and abandoned the cause of James II.' This war, under the name of "King William's War," had spread to tho English and French colonies in America. A feeble attempt on the part of the English to take Quebec, and murderous raids among the New England settlements by hostile Indians, were the only events worthy of mention. The Bill of Bights, A. D. 1G89. Although associated with William in the government, Mary had nothing to do with its administration. She died in 1694, universally esteemed for her many virtues. William survived her seven years. This reign was of great political importance to England. William's coming had been preceded by a declaration of his purpose to uphold the liberties of the country. During the first year he gave his signature to the Bill of Rights, 830 WILLIAM AJSD MAliY. second, in impoi'jance, only to the Great Chartei itself. This Bill made standing armies in times of peace, and Levies of money without consent of Parlia- ment, unlawful; guaranteed the right o{' petition, the frequent assembling of Parliament, and freedom of debate; and forbade interference with the laws on the part of king. Other statutes established freedom of Ihe press and toleration for Protestant seets; secured to persona accused of crime the right oi' counsel ami a copy o\' the charges; ami to those condemned, protection from excessive lines and cruel and unusual punish- ments. By the Triennial lVdl.no Parliament could sit more than three years. The Act of Settlement excluded Catholics forever from the throne, making Anne, second daughter of James, the prospective heir, ami, at her death without heirs. Princess Sophia, who had married the Elector o[' Hanover. The Constitution of England. William's reign marks an era in constitutional government in England, not alone because it gave birth to now laws in the interests of liberty, hut because it gave vitality to laws that were old. Before William's time there were charters and statutes enough, could they have been executed, to have made the English people free; but neither was public sentiment so educated and expressed, nor the royal prerogative so limited and denned, as to make it impossible for a tyrant still to rule. During William's reign the rights of the people and the prerog- atives of the crown were clearly defined. Now sov- ereign and subject alike how before the majesty of tho law. WILLIAM AM) M.UiV. 2ol One principle was established in the reign of William that has made popular government in England secure, the principle that the ministers of the Crown must bo in harmony with the House of Commons. If in any important matter, or one in which the opposing parties are at issue, the House refuses by its vote to sustain the policy of the ministers, these ministers at onee retire, and their places are filled by men of the opposite party. The House of Commons can, therefore, dictate the policy to be pursued by the government, and is the chief ruling power. There is a peculiar and interesting fact in connection with the English Constitution. It is comprehended in no single enactment, nor in the enactments of any single reign. It is composed of all the great charters and statutes that have been enacted from time to time since the reign of John, with such customs and prece- dents as have the sanction of long usage. Although it lacks the individuality of our own Constitution, yet as the slow and steady growth of ages, as the product of the wisdom and patriotism of the best English minds, standing as it does tin 1 tests of time and an advancing civilization, it commands our reverence and our admira- tion. Indeed, our own Constitution is but a collection and epitome of the various charters of freedom that lie scattered all along the pathway of English history. The common phrase c< Mother Country " is significant, not alone as indicating the English origin oi' mot of our people, and our early colonial governments, but also the English origin of our liberties and our laws. Nearly all those great principles of government which we hold so dear were conceived in English hearts and wrought 232 WILLIAM AND .MARY. out by English bauds. The inalienable rights of man, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, dawned in Magna Charta long before they shone full-orbed in the Declaration of Independence. The Second Grand Alliance. The Peace of Ryswich had oeen hastened by the consciousness on the part of the principal actors, that the settlement of a new ques- tion of vital importance to the powers of Europe was soon to be forced upon them, the question of the succes- sion to the Spanish throne. The death of the present king, Charles II., was near at hand. With him would end the Austrian line of Bourbon princes, that had ruled over Spain for two hundred years. The leading powers, including France, determined on a partition of the Spanish empire at the death of Charles, agree- ing to recognize Archduke Charles of Austria, as heir presumptive to the Spanish throne. King Charles, indignant at the proposed partition, bequeathed his whole empire to Philip of Anjou, grandson of Louis XIV. Charles died in 1700, and Philip unopposed took possession of his inheritance. The exultant Louis, disregarding the treaty of partition of which he was one of the signers', accepted the will of Charles. Acting in the name of his grandson, he garrisoned the Spanish Netherlands with French troops, and returned a haughty refusal to William's demand for their withdrawal. England and Holland prepared for war. At this juncture, James II. died in France, and Louis publicly acknowledged the son of James as King of England, under the title of James 111. England had never been in greater peril from a foreign power since the days of the Armada, for the elevation of WILLIAM AND MARY. 2'6b Philip had placed the Spanish empire on the side of England's foes. "The Pyrenees exist no Longer " said Louis as his grandson went to take the Spanish crown. The soul of William rose with the emergency. Willi matchless skill and energy he brought to a successful issue the last great work of his life, the formation of a Grand Alliance embracing England, Holland, Ger- many, Sweden, and Denmark, pledged to oppose the ambitious schemes of the French monarch, and to sup- port the claims of Archduke Charles of Austria to the Spanish throne. Death and Character of William. But William did not live to prosecute the war he had planned. An accident, caused by the stumbling of his horse as he rode to Hampton Court, terminated fatally on the 8th of March, 1702. He had long been slowly sink- ing under the ravages of disease. Although his face was marked with the lines of suffering, and his frail form bowed with care, his eagle eye and firmly com- pressed lips showed to the last the fiery soul within. Trained in the school of adversity (for the House of Orange had lain prostrate during his early youth), he had learned to be watchful of public events, and re- served in the expression of his opinions. l.lis family being restored to power just as he was entering man- hood, William brought to the public service wisdom and prudence beyond his years. His genius was best displayed in great emergencies. He was never so cool as in the midst of the conflict, and never so dangerous as after a defeat. Owing to his silent, unsocial habits, and his manifest partiality for his own countrymen, he was personally unpopular during his lifetime. But L'oi WILLIAM AM) MARY. his patience, constancy, and patriotism, and, above all, the wisdom of his far-seeing policy, securing to the English people prosperity at home, and an influence abroad unknown since the times oi' Cromwell, have male William of Orange an honored name in every English household. At William's death Anne was immediately proclaimed Queen of England, in accord- ance with the Art oi' Settlement. Anno, 1702 to 17U — 12 Years. Stuart. The War of the Spanish Succession. The death of William created no little consternation among the nations composing the " Grand Alliance." And conse- quently, the announcement, made from the throne, shortly alter Anne's accession, that the policy oi' William would he continued by the new government, was hailed with general delight. The Duke of Marl- borough and Prince Eugene were placed at the head of the allied armies. The war, that now arose, called in Europe, the " War o( the Spanish Succession," and in America, "Queen Anne's War," lasted till the year 1713. During its progress four great victories were gained over the French at Blenheim, Ramillies, Oude- narde.and Maplaquet. France, humbled and exhausted, was compelled to sue for peace. By a treaty signed at Utrecht, in 171,'), while Philip was recognized as King of Spain, his possessions on the continent were divided among the allied powers. Louis consented to the formal cession oi' Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Gibraltar to England, recognized Anne as Queen of England, and again abandoned the cause of the Stuarts. This war had extended to the French and English ANNE. 235 colonies in America, being marked by the renewal of Indian barbarities, especially in Massachusetts. Plans were iii progress for the sailing of a fleet against Quebeo, but they were brought to a sudden termina- tion by the announcement of peace. Marlborough. For several years, parly strife iii England had been growing more and more hitter, the Whigs favoring, and the Tories opposing, the war. Its long continuance, the frightful losses attending its fiercely contested battles, and the rapid increase of the national debt, had made it, towards the last, exceed- ingly unpopular. The Whig ministers were compelled to yield their places to Tories. Marl ho rough, who had allied himself with the Whigs, lost favor with the queen, who was Tory at heart, and, at the close of the war, was dismissed from the public service, with charges of peculation and mismanagement. His wife, the famous Duchess of Marlborough, who had exercised almost unbounded influence over the queen from the day of her accession, also fell into disfavor, and was dismissed from all the offices which she held about the royal person. Marlborough retired from England in disgust. This remarkable man deserves a moment's notice, lie was handsome in person and of polished address, skilled in diplomacy, and, confessedly, the first general of the age. It is said that he never lost a battle, nor failed in the attempt to take a town, during his whole military career. His serenity under all circumstances was something marvelous. Ho went as calmly into battle as. toa parade, passed unmoved amidst the most terrible scenes of carnage and suffering, exhibited no fear at the presence of danger, and showed no elation even in the 286 ANNK. hour of victory, But there was another and Jt darkei .side to his charaoter. He waa guilty of habitual mean- ness and dishonesty, and bore exposure with little apparent shame. He had been a traitor to James, being among the tirst to join the League againsl him, and then a traitor io William, having enlisted warmly in a scheme for the restoration of the Stuarts, even after the aooessiou of William. His master passion was love of money. He stooped to the mosl unscrupulous methods in acquiring it, and managed, while in office, to amass an immense fortune. Marlborough stands a marked example of mingled greatness and Littleness. Constitutional Union of England and Scot Land. In the midst of the war, in the year 1707, England and Scotland were made, in all respects, one kingdom, their Parliaments being united, as their crowns had been a Little more than a century before. By the Act of Union, Scotland was to be placed on a perfect equality with England in matters of trade, the courts of Justice were to remain unchanged, and the ehnreh o\' Sootland was to be maintained, as already established by Law, Six- teen Sootch Peers were admitted to the House o( \joi\\*, and forty-five members to the House of Commons. Although this union was bitterly opposed by the Scotch people, it has contributed immensely to their pros- perity. Little fishing hamlets have grown into great oommeroiaJ cities, manufactures have sprung up and thrived, and to-day, in some departments o( industry, Sootland stands among the foremost nations. The reign of Anne was distinguished for its intellectual greatness, contesting with that o( Elizabeth the right ANNE. 231 to be called the " Augustan Age." Ii is radiant wiih the genius of suoh men as Pope, Steele, Swift, aud Addison. Death of Good Queen Anno. Queen Anno died, in 1714, of an attack of apoplexy. Her people kindly remembered her as "Good Queen Anno." She was not attractive in person, and possessed but moderate ability. It', like Elizabeth, she made an unwise choice iA' personal favorites, and weakly surrendered herself to their influence, like Elizabeth, too, she had the good sense to put able men at the head of the government. A ft or (ho Duchess of Marlborough (who was a whig) had lost favor with the queen, the latter fell under tho influence oi' Mrs. Masham, one of her attendants. By her husband, Prince George of Denmark, she had nineteen children, all of whom died in infancy, or early youth. Dontostio cares and sorrows make up the burden of her twelve years of rule. Prince George, though husband to the queen, had lilllo to do with the governmenl <>f England. 'That his abilities were limited may be gathered from the following sarcasm of the Merry Monarch: "1 have tried him drunk and sober, and can find nothing in him." In accordance with t In* " Act of Settlement," Anne was succeeded by George, Elector of Hanover, son of Sophia, who wan ii granddaughter of James I. CHAPTER X. House of Brunswick or Hanover. GEORGE I. GEORGE It. GEOKGK III. GEORGE IV. WILLIAM IV VICTORIA. George L, 1714 to 17-27 — 18 years. Brunswick. The Jacobites* George 1. was thoroughly German in his tastes and habits, .-is well as Mnh and speech. He manifested Little interest in English affairs, passing most of his time in his German kingdom, which Thackeray has pronounced as fortunate for the English people, since they were left the more free to confirm their newly acquired liberties. The adherents of the exiled Stuarts, called Jacobites, from Jacobus, Latin for James, had been very busy all through the reign of William, plotting his overthrow, usually in League with Louis \1\ . of France. Anno, being a Stuart and a Tory, was undisturbed by them, but during the Lattei part ot* her reign, there was a deep Laid plot to place on the throne, at her death, the sou ot" dames 11. This plot was dofeated through the vigilance ot* the Wbigs, ami its Leaders were forced into oxile, or brought to trial and punishment. The Jacobites were sufficiently active during the reign of George L.to keep the Lattei in a state of perpetual alarm, hut the decease of Louis, their most powerful friend, was a death blow to theii prospects. (MS) GBORGE T. 2.'J'.» Tho Pretender. In I7ir>, James Francis Stuart, on of James II., and «-.i M < ■< I the Pretender, caused bis standard to be raised id Scotland, under the Earl oi Mar. Nothing came of the attempt but sorrow and suffering !<> the deluded Highlanders who bad rallied (<> his support. Mar escaped (<> Prance in company with the Pretender. Two years later, Charles XII. of Sweden, having :i personal quarrel with Ki i iy an English squadron, off the coast of Sicily, Rang Philip, in retaliation, planned an invasion of England and a rising of the Jacobites, in favor of the Pretender. The Spanish fleet was dis- persed by a storm, and this scheme, too, came to nought. The South Sea Scheme. But one thing of interest remains to l>e noticed, the South Sea Scheme. The expensive Wars of William had made necessary a national debt, amounting, at this time, to fifty-three million pound a. The offer of the South Sea ( Jompany to assume the entire debt, and lend money to the gov* eminent, at the low rate of four per cent., besides 840 GKOUOK I, pay Ulg a bonus of seven million pounds, in consider* tiou of the solo right of trade to the South Seas, was accepted bv the government, The plana of the com* pany required an immense outlay. Not having suffix cient capital tor sogigantio an enterprise, the company issued an indefinite amount of South Sea stock, promising Large dividends to all who would invest. The well-known annual return o( the galleons of Spain laden with the gold, silver, ami precious Btones o( South America, and the glowing aooounts o( voyagers to the distant Pacifio, ooncerning the tropical wealth o( its myriad islands, led to the most extravagant notions of the value of the South Sea trade. In addition to this, the South Sea Company had the virtual endorsement o( the government. Its stock sold readily, and the price wont up until shares worth a hundred pounds sold for a thousand. The excite- ment became intense and increased to a phrensj . All dav long, eager throngs crowded around the oounters of the company. The hard-earned savings of the poor, as woll as the superfluous wealth of the rich, were swallowed up in the all-devouring Maelstrom. Other companies* sprang up tor absurd, and even impossible objects, finding eager victims, so prevalent was the insane spirit of speculation. It is estimated that their entire stock would amount to five hundred million • rtioio wow oompantoa ■• t^> iisti tor wrooka on the iiisii ooMt, N ■■ to extrtol mivi't from load," ■• to Import usoa from Spain," •• tor a wheel fbr porpotaal motion.* 1 "lor mi iiiuhMinkiiiit lli.it sli.-ill in .Ino tmio l>o 1 ovo.ilo.!." Xo., \o. aii tiioso oompaniaa found grilling violins, a\a Ifthaj oompaniea Just dm* tionoil n\ 01 o not :i sufllouMitlv palpabltl luuloso,r.o On I hQ l'i ov.iilmi; ni:in\.i lor apeoalation, aoomp&ny waa annoonood " for the Invention o( melting dowi saw dust mnl olui>ti, and Tlflfltlaj llii'in Into olOU tlo:il boaida H illionl Onokt or knot*." (i,(ii:cr i. SMI pounds sterling, twice the value, al thai time, of all the land in England. The South Sea Company, l>.v mi Af Parliament to throe years, but the frequent occurrence of elections kept tho country in .1 state of constant turmoil, and the Septennial A<1 was passed, lengthening the sitting to seven yoars t George I. was stricken with apoplexy while travelling in Hanover, and died in his carriage He left one son, who succeeded him wiih the title George II. George EI., 1727 fco L760 :t:i Fears. Brunswick. Robert Walpole. Robert Walpole was Prime Min- ister <»f England during the last six years of the reign of George [., and be continued, during the i\v*i, fifteen years of tho reign of George II., to guide the affairs of State. II<- first oame into prominence at the lime of the South Sen excitement, having, from the first, warned his countrymen against the delusive "dream." But it was in the midst of the dismay that followed the awaking, that Walpole displayed bis matchless skill as a financier, suggesting plans to equalize the losses, and so to alleviate the general dis- tress. The ohiof merits of his policy were its firm adherenoe to pence, and the encouragement it gave 242 GEORGE IT. to industry. Its grand results were an unprece- dented development of the national resources, and the re-establishment of the public credit. The English people, being no longer distracted by questions of religion and liberty at home, or war abroad, directed their energies, as never before, to the arts of peace. A new interest was awakened in commerce, and English merchant ships increased in every sea. A new impulse was given to manufactures, and great busy towns grew up, as if by magic. But "Walpolo's administration, though favorable to the production of material wealth, was destructive to public virtue. He retained power only through the indiscriminate practice of bribery. Honors, offices, titles, and gold, were unsparingly dis- tributed to carry borough elections, and control parlia- mentary votes. "Every man has his price," was Walpole's pernicious estimate of human virtue, and the key-note to his policy. War with Spain. The Treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, limited the commerce of England with Spanish America to slaves and the use of a single ship. The treaty re- striction had never been enforced by the Spanish officials, and a lucrative trade had gradually grown up. Sometime after Philip had mounted the Spanish throne, the two countries of France and Spain had made a secret treaty, afterwards called the "Family Compact," France engaging to restore Gibraltar to Spain, and Spain engaging to break up English trade with South Amer- ica. Almost every ship that arrived from South Amer- ican waters had some tale to tell of search and outrage by Spanish cruisers, raising the war feeling, among the English people, to fever height. Walpole long strug- OTCOTWVE TT. 248 gled to maintain peace, but, in 1730, lie yielded to the pressure and declared war with Spain. Hearing the bells that proclaimed the popular joy, Walpole is said, with a wise foresight, to have remarked, " They may ring their bells now ; before long they will be wring- ing the:: hands." The war was unfortunate, and, as often happens, the man who was least responsible was most geuerally blamed. Walpole had to bear the odium of the now unpopular war. But its area soon widened. War of the Austrian Succession. At the death of Charles VI., Emperor of Germany, his daughter Maria Theresa inherited his dominions. The Elector of Bavaria also claimed the German crown. France and Spain sup- ported the cause of the Elector ; England and Holland that of Maria Theresa. This war began in 1744, and was called, in Europe, the "War of the Austrian Suc- cession," in America, " King George's War." Its feeble conduct on the part of England, charged to the apathy of the great "peace minister," made him so unpopular, that his majority in the House of Commons dwindled to a single vote, forcing him to resign in 1742. King George joined the army on the continent, and won, at its head, the battle of Dettingen. The war continued till 1748, when, by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, the claims of Maria Theresa were allowed by all the powers. The only event of importance that occurred in America during this war, was the capture of Louis- burg, on Cape Breton Island, called from its great strength the Gibraltar of Ajnerica. It was taken by an expedition that sailed from Boston, in 1745, undei ?44 OFOROF. TT. the command of Sir William Pcpporcll. Much to the disappointment of the colonists, the Treaty of Aix-la- Chapelle compelled the restoration ofLouisburg to the French, The Young Pretender. While the war was in [irogress, and the very year that Louisburg was taken, mother and a last attempt was made by the Stuarts to recover the English crown. A grandson of James 11.. Charles Edward Stuart, called the young Pretender, landed on the western eoast of Scotland with hut seven followers. The Highland elans were easily roused at the eall of a Smart, and the Pretender, gain- ing a victory at Preston Tans over the troops sent to oppose him, soon found himself at the head oi' six thousand men, and marched rapidly on London, caus- ing, for a time, the greatest consternation. English soldiers were hastily withdrawn from the continent, and an ample force soon stood between the Preten- der and the capital. Scarcely a Jacobite had joined him, inn were there any signs of a Jacobite rising, and the disappointed Prince, after reaching Derby, was forced by the Highland chiefs to retreat. Cnlloden. lie was overtaken, in 17 It!, at Culloden Moor, near Inverness, and his army was defeated with great slaughter. The Pretender escaped from the battle- field, only to wander a hunted fugitive amidst the wilds of Scotland. His romantic adventures and hair- breadth escapes remind us oi' the perilous wanderings >f Charles 11. after the battle o( Worcester. With English dragoons patrolling all the roads, and guard- ing every pass, and English cruisers closely watching the Scottish coast, it seemed impossible for the unfor- QEOltUU II. 245 tunate prince to escape. For five months he found shelter among the rough but devoted Highlanders. At one time he was thrown upon the mercy of a band of robbers, living with them in ;i cave near tho const. Bui neither Highlander nor robber was tempted to betray him by the reward of thirty thousand pounds, which the king had placed upon his head. The Last of u Quesne. Washington, attacked by overwhelming num- bers, was forced to retreat beyond the Alloghanies. France and Fnuland, realizing that the time had now come for the struggle for dominion in America, hur- ried forces to their respective colonics; and thus began, in L754, the French and Indian War, The Fivo Important Points. The French, at the outset . occupied live important points, against which the efforts of the English were mainly directed. Fort Du Quesne, standing at the head- waters of the Ohio, commanded the Ohio Valley ; Fort Niagara controlled the fur trade and the navigation ot' the Great Lakes; Forts Ticonderoga and Crown Point stood right in the great natural highway between Canada and New York; Quebec was the key to the possession o[ Canada, while Louisburg controlled the fisheries, and the gulf and river of St. Lawrence. The earlier eontliets were favorable to the French, but the appointment o( William Pitt at the head oi the English ministry caused a more vigorous prosecution o( the war, and GEORGE II. 247 tho tide soon turned in favor of English anus. Louis- burg :iiitl Du Quesne surrendered in 1 7 r> I ;,M U .<,<, ..,. . I. MAI' 01 HINDOSTAti ■•*• .UlKlMllj -V/ SxiTftl \ C" * A \ . i v itmoi m Mm\,1in.- W >'..i..uii UKOUUK II 249 India ' ompany was posted vviih the sole govern- ni'iii of tho Engli !i East [ndia \><> < ions. It. or- ganized and maintained its own array, and establi ih< 'I it own courts of ju iticc. H i principal station i, at the time "I" Hi'- accession <7, by the Viceroy him- self, :K the head of sixty thousand savage natives, tiflecu thousand of whom wore cavalry. But this great host was completely overthrown by tho bravo little army under Clive, and tho rich and populous district of Bengal was added to British India. The war against tho French was prosoeutod with vigor, and, in six mouths after tho accession of George 111., tho English dominion in [ndia was firmlj established. George 111., L760 to L820 -60 rears. Brunswick. The Peace of Paris. The first two kings of the Souse o( Hanover were German to tin* last in taste and feeling, and there was Little in oommon betwocn them and their English subjects. But George the Third used to boast that "ho A\as Briton born," ami it was then something to be proud of, tor England, un- der the guidance of tho "Great Commoner," had takon tho foremost rank among tho nations of Europe. In L763, tho " Seven Years' War 1 ' was formally terminated by tho " Peace oi' Paris." Few treaties have made such sweeping changes as this. Franco relinquished to Groat Britain not only the disputed territory in America, l>nt nil Canada besides. She surrendered to Spain the island and the town oi' Now Orleans, and all her terri- tory west of the Mississippi. Of her vast possessions in North America, she retained, as fishing stations, only two small islands, St. Pierre and Miquelon, lying south of Newfoundland, J$y the same treaty, Spain gave Florida to England, in exchange for Havana and tho OEOBOE ur. 251 Philippine I land , which England bad taken from \n;t oaring Hi- Can m of the Ameriean Revolution. The Repressive Policy of England. The r''' li,; .'/ f 'f the mother country toward* bei American coloniei bad always been a repressive one. Both commerce and manufacturi i had been discouraged by laws eon- fining their trade to English ports, and to the use of Engli I) bips. This policy was inspired, in part, \>y a purpose to protect home industries, and; in part, '!< ire to keep the colonies in a state of dependence. Searefa Warrants. With the increase of colonial wealth, came chem< colonial revenue. Duties were laid on certain imports, and, as a result, the colonists, without calling in question the propriety of such duties, resorted to an organized y tern of smuggling. To correct this evil, captain i of Engli ih cruisers were empowered to search, and, in case ot .-,11 ipicion, to seize, every merchant ship entering a colonial port; and, on the land, officer , provided with "search warrants," were authorized to break into tores, and even private houses, if suspected of containing Is, violating a principle Ion;/ dear lo the English people, that " Every man's bouse is bis castle." The Stamp Act. No direct tax had ever been laid on America Such a tax Ij:"I bc< ted as early tin the mini iry of Walpole, but a con cioui aess of in injustice had hitherto deterred English ministers from attempting to levy it. In 1 7';.";, during the ministry of Lord Grenville, a tax was laid on stamps, whose use on 252 GLOKOE III. papers, pamphlets, and legal documents, was made obli- gatory by Act of Parliament. This direct tax was held to be justifiable, on the ground of the expenses incurred by the home government in prosecuting the French and Indian war. But this was a mere pretext, for the Eng- lish ministry could nut have been ignorant that the colonics had borne more than their share of the burdens of the war. The spirit of opposition in the colonies was so intense and universal, that the Stamp Act was re- pealed the next year ; but the repeal was coupled with an affirmation of the right of Parliament " to bind the colonies in all cases whatsoever." Boston Port Bill. After resorting to various devices to secure submission on the part of the colonies, even sending regiments of soldiers, as a menace to the people of Boston, the British government, in 1773, laid a trivial tax of three pence per pound on tea. But this too failed, for with the colonics, it was not a question of money, but of principle. They had no voice in the delibera- tions of the body that taxed them. "Taxation with- out representation is tyranny," was the principle on which they took their stand. New York and Phila- delphia sent the unbroken chests of tea back to Eng- land. In Charleston, they were stored in damp cellars, until their contents became worthless. At Boston, the cargoes of three ships were poured into the bay by men disguised as Mohawks. In retaliation, the port of Boston was closed to commerce, and the charter of Massachusetts annulled, by Act of Parliament. Battle of Lexington, April 19th, 1775. From this moment, the colonies were a unit in the pur- pose to oppose the oppressions of the English govern- GEOKdE 111. 253 ment. The public mind was rapidly educated to resistance by such dauntless patriots as John Hancock, John Adams, Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, and Benjamin Franklin. Delegates from twelve colonics met a1 Philadelphia in September, 1774, forming what is known as the First Continental Congress. While expressing their loyalty to the mother country, they boldly asserted their rights as colonies. Their petitions and protests were slighted by Parliament and spurned by the king. The breach rapidly widened, and war became inevitable. General Gage, commander of the British troops in Boston, having learned that military stores were being collected at Concord for the use of a colonial army, sent a detachment of eight hundred soldiers to destroy them. But its march had been preceded by a swift messenger, the gallant Paul Keverc, who gave notice of the coming of the British. The whole country on the line of inarch was aroused, and " minute men " began to muster. A company was drawn up on the village green at Lexington when the British force came up. Refusing to disperse at the order of the commanding officer, seven men fell dead at the lirst volley of the British soldiers. The latter then marched on to Concord, and succeeded in destroying some of the stores, when the gathering of "minute men" from all quarters compelled them to retreat. But retreat was more dangerous than battle. All along its line, rocks, and trees, and walls, concealed the undisci- plined but now determined colonists, whose unerring bullets constantly thinned the British ranks. Re- inforcements alone saved the latter from annihilation. 254 GEORGE III. The battle <>*' Lexington, fought on the 19th of April, 1775, was the signal to all the colonies that the. war had actually begun. Volunteers came pouring in from all parts of .New England. In a lew days after this battle sixteen thousand "minute men" won 1 gathered in the environs of Boston. The Declaration of Independence. The Second Continental Congress assembled at Philadelphia in May, 177f>. Measures were taken to raise and main- tain an army, o\' which George Washington was elected Commander-in-chief. But the must important work of this Congress was the passage, on the 4th of July, 177i), of a Declaration of Independence. Hitherto, the colonies had petitioned, respectfully but earnestly, for a redress of grievances ; now, as a sovereign people, they boldly declared, and prepared to maintain, com- plete independence. It was an unequal contest. A few weak ami scattered colonies were opposed to the most powerful empire in the world. In the field, an untaught militia, scantily supplied with munitions of war, and often destitute of food and clothing, were pitted against well- trained and well-furnished veterans. But inspired by the example ol' Washington, their noble commander, the patriot soldiers endured privations without com- plaint, suffered defeat without despair, and patiently learned the art ot war from its practice. The earlier events oi' the war were unfavorable to the Americans. Their gallant stand at Bunker Hill, and the successful siege of Boston, while giving them confidence in themselves, weighed little on the issue, compared with the defeats at Long Island and GEORGE III. 255 White Plains, and the forced retreat of Washington through New Jersey and across the Delaware The prospect that had Looked so gloomy during the year 1776, brightened a little, at its close, with a brilliant success at Trenton, and with another, in the early part of 1777, at Prineeton. The crisis of the war was reached in the latter part of the year 1777. Surrender of Burgoyuo anil Alliance with France. The British had planned two campaigns, which, if suc- cessful, they confidently believed, would bring the colonies to terms. One of these had for its object tho capture of Philadelphia, then the colonial capital, and the other, the isolation of New England from the rest of the country. The first, though successful, proved to be of no advantage to the British. Washington, beaten at Brandywine and Germantown, was compelled to yield the capital to Howe. Congress removed to York. The second was disastrous to the British. General Burgoyne had organized, in Canada, a grand expedition composed of t^n thousand well-armed and well-trained men. lie moved up Lake Champlain and along the line of the Hudson, capturing forts and driv- ing the Americans before him. Checked at Bemis's Heights, he was surrounded and beaten at Saratoga, and compelled, on the 17th of October, to surrender his whole force to General Gates. Tli6 effect of this signal success was marked both at home and abroad. It was, in fact, the turning point in the war. The Americans took new courage. Foreign nations were inspired with increased respect for a people struggling so bravely against such fearful odds. Franco had watched the course of Uie contest with keenest inter* 256 GEORGE III. est. Though animated by the bitterest hatred of England, and anxious for the success of the colonies, she had been unwilling to ally herself with an uncer- tain cause. After Saratoga, she hastened to acknowl- edge the independence of the colonies, and to make with them a treaty of alliance. She sent a fleet and an army, at once, to their assistance. Spain and Hol- land acknowledged their independence a little later. William Pitt, Earl of Chatham. Not less marked was the effect of the surrender of Burgoyne on the English people. Public sentiment grew strong against the war. Some of the ablest English statesmen urged an immediate peace. A "motion was made in Parlia- ment by the Duke of Richmond, to acknowledge the independence of America and withdraw British soldiers from American soil. This brought William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, once more and for the last time, into the House of Lords. Leaning on his crutches, with his limbs swathed in bandages, pale and emaciated, but with faculties apparently undimmed, the great orator denounced, with the impassioned eloquence of which he was still master, the proposition to yield up one of the fairest possessions of the British empire, as he said, at the dictation of France. Attempting to speak again in reply to the Duke, he fell back in a swoon, and was borne away to die. Pitt had opposed the scheme of taxation from the outset, and he had resisted, step by step, the policy of coercion which had been adopted. Illness had ±brced him to retire from office in 1768, but he had not ceased, in his retirement, to utter his solemn warnings to the government and to the nation. On occasions of importance, though ill, he had been GEOKGE III. 257 brought into the House of Lords, in which his Earldom entitled him to a seat, to participate in its deliberations. Pit 4 was the friend of America because he was the friend of justice, but he was an Englishman and a patriot, and his soul revolted at the thought of the dismemberment of his country. Yorktown, A. D. 1781. It was owing to the obstinacy of Kim? George, that the motion of Richmond did not prevail. Though the war lingered for several years, chiefly in the South, the final issue was never doubt- ful after the success at Saratoga. Its closing scene was laid at Yorktown, in Virginia. Lord Cornwallis, hemmed in, on one side, by an ample force of French and Americans under Washington, and, on the other, by a French fleet under Count de Grasse, was com- pelled, on the 19th of October, 1781, to surrender. Peace of Paris. Though virtually euded in America, the war still continued among the European combat- ants. England gained repeated victories on the sea. The most interesting event was the heroic defence of Gibraltar by General Elliot, against the combined forces and fleets of France and Spain, through a siege of three years and seven months. September 3rd, 1783, articles of peace were formally signed at Paris, and the United States of America took her place, unchallenged, in the great family of nations. Causes of the French Revolution. The Despotic Rule of Louis XIV. Louis XIV. was a superb monarch. His court was as magnificent and his rule as absolute as those of an Eastern despot. Louis uttered no idle boast when he once said, " I am the 258 GEORGE in. State," for a J the powers of the State were centered in his single person. The French nobles, though slaves to the king, were tyrants to their tenants, grinding them with taxation, from which they were themselves almost wholly exempt. Louis' system of government was a Feudalism as oppressive to the poor as that of the Middle Ages. With him passed away much of the regal splendor that had dazzled, and the personal power that had awed, the people of France. But the worst features of his system, its despotism, extor- tion, and extravagance, remained under his successor. The Corrupt Rule of Louis XT. Louis XV. sur- passed all his predecessors in the vileness of his private life, and in his wanton waste of the public money. Evidences of discontent among the suffering people became more and more apparent. The king plainly foresaw a coming storm, but he took no means to avert its calamities from his people, or from his successors on the throne. He was only solicitous for his own safety. " Things will last my day," was his monstrous speech on one occasion. "After us the deluge," replied the royal favorite, Madame Pompadour, and the reck- less pair only plunged the deeper into every species of excess. The Inefficient Rule of Louis XYI. Louis XVI. was a mild and pious king, but he had neither the ability, nor the vigor, to cope with the perils that gathered darkly around the throne which he inherited. The French Sceptics. The popular discontent had been intensified by a class of literary men, who had flourished in the preceding reign, among whom Vol- taire and Rosseau had stood foremost. With the GEORGE III. 259 fiery eloquence peculiar to French genius, they had disseminated the most extreme views on subjects that profoundly agitated the public mind, such as class privileges, unequal taxation, and popular rights, kin- dling in the excitable bosoms of the French people a burning love of liberty, and a bitter hatred of oppression. But they also taught infidelity to religion, and contempt for established order, striking at the very foundations of society itself. The seed sown by French sceptics, at this period, took deep root, and ripened, before long, into bitter fruit. The Influence of the American Revolution. One other influence, operating on the French mind, remains to be mentioned, and one of no light import at this period. The French soldiers had returned from America, at the close of the revolutionary war, full of the republican spirit, which they readily communicated to their friends and neighbors, making them familiar with the idea of revolution, and especially, with the merits of a democratic form of government. The States-General. Louis XVI., conscious that the public credit was gone, and that a crisis in the finances of the government was at hand, in 1789 summoned the States-General, a body composed of nobles, clergy and commons, that met only in times of national peril. It9 last session was in 1614, in the time of Richelieu. But the meeting of the States-General only precipitated the storm which it was designed to avert. The com mons, or Third Estate, as they were called, ignoring nobles and clergy, declared themselves to be the supreme authority of the State. 260 GEO&GE Hi. The Revolution Sweeps away Church ami State. This action of the commons was revolution, whose bloodless beginning in Legislative halls was but the DO O tirst breath of the coming storm, that was soon to rock. to their very base, all the institutions of Church and State, and, finally, to involve them in complete and indiscriminate ruin. A Paris mob destroyed the Bastile, the hated prison, in whose dungeons had been silenced, tor so many generations, the murmurs of the people. The blame- less king and his accomplished queen, Maria Antoinette, subjected to one indignity after another, at last perished under the guillotine. The Monarchy was overthrown, and a Republic was erected in its stead. The Christian Sabbath was abolished, and every tenth day was made a day of secular rest. A solemn vote decreed that there was no God, and Reason was enthroned as the object of supreme worship. Over the entrance io every cemetery in the land was written, "Death is an eternal sleep." The Keigu of Terror. One political party followed another in power, each more violent than the other, until, under the National Convention, with Robespierre ;it the head, the climax was reached in the inaugura- tion of a "Reign of Terror." The guillotine was glutted with victims, and the best blood of France tlowed like water. It is computed that a million per* sons perished during this mad carnival of blood. The excesses of the Republic at home, and its efforts to arouse the revolutionary spirit abroad, soon raised against it a eoalition of the most powerful nations of Europe. GEORGE III. 201 Napoleon Bonaparte. The stirring events of the times brought to the surface, about the year 1795, the most extraordinary man of modern times. Napoleon Bonaparte was born on the island of Corsica, a French dependency in the Mediterranean. He was educated at a military school in Brienne, a town in France, show- ing, even in youth, the germs of that genius which after- wards made him so distinguished. His skill and cour- age at the siege of Toulon, and his bold defence of the Directory, the successor to the National Convention, against the National Guards, in 1795, placed him, at once, at the head of the armies of the Republic. He returned from his first campaign in Italy, the idol of the French people. His second in Egypt and Syria, in 1797, designed to establish a French empire, and undermine that of England, in the East, was a complete failure. Napoleon won the battle of the Pyramids, but was repulsed at Acre, while his fleet was annihilated by Nelson, in the battle of the Nile. Leaving his generals to complete the hopeless cam- paign, Napoleon returned to Franco to overthrow the Directory, and to become First Consul in 1799, Consul for Life in 1802, and Emperor in 1804. From the time of his election as First Consul in 1799, to his fall in 1814, the history of France, and almost of Europe, is the history of Napoleon. Coalition after coalition of the powers of Europe sprang into existence, only to be dissolved by his diplomacy, or crushed by his power. These coalitions were no longer formed for the destruction of the Republic, or the restoration of the Monarchy, for Napoleon had overthrown the one, and restored the other, but they were formed against Napo- 161 in. re terror in the hearts of the kings, than had even the dread spectre of Admiral Nelson. England alone, of all the po of Europe, remained, through Nap whole career, undaunted and unconquered, England a) sorted at times, by all her allies, stood between N • aiul universal conquest, Said the groat soldier, when, in 1802, he had gathered one hundred trained soldiers at Boulogne, and a vast Beet of trans- - to land them on the shores of England, "Let ns be masters of the Channel for sis hours, and we are masters of the world.* 1 But the fleet, designed to ising of the transports, was swept from the Channel, and blockaded in the harbor of Cadii bj gallant Nelson, and tho invasion was not even at- tempted. French and Spanish tloots, venturing forth from Cadi.-, were met and annihilated, off Capo Trafalgar, in It was on this occasion that Kelson gave tho famous order, "England expects every man to do his dun." — -the grandest sentiment ever signaled from the mast-'.., -ad of a flag-ship, on the eve o\ battle. It was Nelson's last order. He was struck, in the very heat of the contest, by a musket hall, while standing on the deck of his ship, tho Victory, Covering his face with his handkerchief, that the crewmight not see who was wounded, he was carried below, and died jnst after victory was assured. The Struggle on the Spanish Peninsula. In 1 8 s . began the struggle between England and France for the mastery in Spain, the army o\' the former being 0BOBOB m. 2C..T nndor the command of Arthur Wollosley, distinguished for In services in Indh, that of ili<- latter, under Soult, one "i the most illustrious of Napoleon's marshals. Victory long wavered in the balance, but finally, in the early part of the year L81 1, the scale turned In favor of E&nglii li arms, and ili«' last French soldier was driven across the Pyrenees into France. For his success in Spain, especially at Talavera, in L809, Wellesley w:ih rewarded with the title of Duke of Wellington. In other parts of the continent, Napoleon had generally been victorious, carrying the eagles of France into almost every capital. [Jim and Austerlitz, Jena and Wagram, wen- witnosses of his amazing success. The Invasion of Knssia. In L812, when at the summit of his power, Napoleon undertook the inva- sion of Russia. This has been regarded as the turning point in his career. Alier advancing for a period of three months, during which several bloody battles were fought, lie reached Moscow, the ancient capital of the empire, only to see it speedily laid in ashes. The rich and beautiful oity was sacrificed, thai the invader might find no shelter. The food in all the country around had been destroyed, and winter was fast approaching. Al'ier waiting more than a month, in the vain hope of peace, there was no alternative for Napoleon l>nt retreat. The Btory is a sad one. Thousands of brave men died at the hands of the wild Cossacks, clouds of whom hovered around the devoted army, day and night, ever on the alert to attack the helpless masses, or cut off straggling soldiers. Thousands more per- ished with eold, hunger, and exhaustion, amid the drifting snows which cover that vast region of pine hikI 264 GEORGE III. plain. Nearly half a million gallant and stalwart men began the proud march that was to add Russia to the list of Napoleon's conquests. Only thirty thousand wan and haggard spectres lived to reeross the Niemen, Tho Battle of tlio Nations. To any but Napoleon, the Russian disaster would have been overwhelming. But with an energy almost superhuman he gathered up the fragments of his armies, made fresh conscriptions and boldly i'aeed a new, and still more powerful eoali tion of his foes. The decisive conflict, the " Battle of the Nations," occurred at Leipsic, in 1814, lasting three days, and ending in the complete discomfiture ol the French. . A desperate but hopeless struggle on the soil of France deferred, but could not prevent, the fall of Paris. Napoleon at Elba. Napoleon was deposed and ban- ished to the island of Elba, over which he was allowed to rule with the title of Emperor, and Louis XVIII. was plaeed upon the throne of his ancestors. AVhile a congress of sovereigns and ministers of the leading powers was in session at Vienna, to re-adjust the dis- ordered affairs of Europe, Napoleon, secretly leaving his little empire in the Mediterranean, landed on the shores of France, and began a triumphant march on the capital. Thousands of the old soldiers of the empire flocked to his standard, and he soon entered Paris, surrounded by an excited populace, whose old, familiar cry, "Long live the Emperor," rent the air on every side. Louis XVIII. fled in dismay to the frontiers. Waterloo, A. D. 1815. The astonished kings at Vienna, suddenly startled from their dream of fancied GEORGE TTI. 265 security, and conscious that their crowns and kingdoms were once more at stake, quickly formed a new co- alition. The council chamber was forsaken for the camp, and half a million of men, coming from every quarter of (he continent of Europe, were soon on the march for France. The armies of England and Prussia were first in I he held. Napoleon, hoping to crush them in detail, before their junction with the rest, hastened to Belgium, the great I tattle ground of Europe, where he found himself confronted by the English under Wel- lington. On the field of Waterloo,* at the close of a Sabbath day in June, Napoleon's sun once more set, never to rise again. His last devoted army, after dash- * The battle of Waterloo — called by the French St. Jean — was fought on a Sunday. All night before, the rain had fallen in torrents; and when the troops rose from their cheerless bivouac among the crushed and muddy rye, a driz- zling rain still fell. The armies faced each other upon two gentle 6lopes, near which ran the high road to Brussels. The army ol Wellington numbered move than 70,000, — that of Napoleon about 80,000 men. Between, in a slight hollow, lay the farm-houses of Ilougomont and La Have Sainte, round which the bloodiest combats of the day took place. Tho battle began at ten o'clock. Napoleon knew that he was a ruined man unless he could pierce and break the red masses that lay between him and Brussels, lie kept, closely to one plan of action, — a storm of shot and shell upon the British ranks, and then a rapid rush of lancers and steel-clad cuirassiers. But the British infantry, formed into solid squares, met every charge like the rocks that encircle their native shore. Again, and again, ami again the baffled cavalry of Fiance recoiled with many an empty saddle. This was a terrible game to play; and well might Wellington, when he looked on the squares, growing every moment smaller, as soldier alter soldier stepped silently into the place of his fallen comrade, pray that either night or Blucher would come. It was seven o'clock in the evening before the distant, sound ol the Prussian cannon was heard. Blucher had out- marched Grouchy, and was hastening to Waterloo. Napoleon then made the grandest effort of the day. The Old Guard of France, unoonquered veterans of Austerlitz and Jena, burst in a furious onset upon the shattered ranks of Britain; but, at one magic word, the British squares dissolved into 'thin red lines,' glittering With bayonets, and, with a cheer that rent the smoke-cloud hovering above tho field, swept on to meet the foe. The French columns wavered — broke — fled; and Waterloo was won.— [Collier. 2(>6 GEORGE TTT. ing again and again, like ocean billows, against the rod English squares that stood "like the rocks that encircle (heir native shore," poured, bleeding, back to France. Napoleon at St. Helena. In 181"), about twenty years after his firsl appearance on the stage o( European politics, Xanolcon Bonaparte was consigned to per- petual captivity on the island of St. Helena, in the heart of the Atlantic. His career constitutes one oi th^ most thrilling episodes in all history. Reverses of fortune are among the most common events of human life, but the annals of the past furnish few instances to compare with that of Napoleon. Since few can rise to so dizzy a height of power and glory, few can experience so great a fall. What a contrast ! Napoleon the Em- peror, and Napoleon the Exile ! Napoleon conquering states and dispensing thrones, at once the terror and admiration oi' a continent, and Napoleon, sad, solitary, and forgotten, looking hopelessly out from the lonely, barren rock, upon the silent, shoreless sea, the mighty soul within stirred only with the melancholy memory of vanished grandeur 1 On the 5th oi' May, 1821, while a hurricane swept with unusual violence across the unprotected isle, and the surging billows beat with a mournful and monotonous sound upon the shore, the fettered, restless spirit of the great soldier passed away from earth. What a commentary doi>s the career oi' Napoleon furnish, on the instability oi' worldly things, and the evanescent character oi' worldly glory. Resting on any other foundation than that of everlast- ing truth and right, the grandest conceptions of the genius oi' man often prove as fleeting and unreal as the " baseless fabric of a dream." 1 lis gilded creat ions, however stable they may seem, will flash for a few orcrmott tti. 267 brief hoars in the sunlight of hope, and then fade with the gathering twilight, and vanish utterly away in the quick coming night. Causes of England's Second War with the United States. Right of Search and Impressment of Seamen. In the midst of the wars with Napoleon, and just as the latter was getting ready to invade Russia, England engaged in her second war with the United States, in defence of the " right of search" and of the." impress- ment of seamen." So exhausting were the Avars with Napoleon, that England could with difficulty find seamen for her nav} r . It was a settled principle of her government, that a person born a British subject could never surrender his allegiance to his country, no matter in what part of the world he might take up his abode. Acting on this principle, her captains boldly searched American ships on the high seas, and im- pressed all Britisb-born seamen found therein. This course was unqualifiedly condemned b} the United States, whose policy it has always beci , to regard all persons of foreign birth living under tho protection of its Hag, who had cither been naturalized, or had taken any of the legal steps necessary to that end. as American citizens, and as such, entitled to the protection of the government. The case against Great Britain was aggravated by the fact, that, in many in- stances, the impressed seamen were of American birth. Above six thousand seamen were forcibly taken from American ships and compelled to serve ou British men-of-war, within the period of a few years. 268 GEORGE in. "Decrees" of Napoleon and "Orders" of the English Council. The war feeling in the United States was increased by the "decrees" of Napoleon and the "orders" of the English Council, declaring, respec- tive.y, the ports of England and France to be in a state of blockade. This was particularly injurious to the United States, since, being a neutral power, she was, to a considerable extent, engaged to do the canying trade of Europe. Between French and English cruisers, the commerce of the United States was well-nigh swept from the seas. Napoleon, in 1811, withdrew the appli- cation of the "decrees" from the United States, making the war feeling against England all the more intense. Between the year 1807, and the declaration of war in 1812, it has been computed that one thousand American merchant ships were taken by British cruisers. Declaration of War by the United States. War was declared by the United States, June 10th, 1812. It was fought chiefly on the sea, the United States gaining many signal victories. Privateers, being com- missioned in large numbers, frequented all the routes of English commerce, and gained a rich harvest in the capture of English merchant ships. Operations on the land were limited to the Canadian frontier, and to descents on exposed points along the coast. General Ross, sailing up the Chesapeake, made a sudden raid on the capital, and, with a vandalism that belonged to a by-gone age, burned to the ground most of the public buildings. Battle of New Orleans. The last battle of the war was fought at New Orleans on the 8th of January, 1815. The British under Sir Edward Packenham were com- GEORGE III. 269 pletcly repulsed by the Americans under General Jackson, Packenham himself being slain. Peace of Ghent. It was, of course, unknown to both commanders, that fifteen days before, on the 24th of December, 1814, peace had been made at Ghent. Although the treaty of peace left unsettled the ques- tions at issue between the two countries, English captains never afterwards searched American vessels to find British subjects, and a few years ago, the English government formally abandoned the whole doctrine of the " right of search." During the greater part of this reign, William Pitt, second son of the Earl of Chat- ham, was at the head of the government. The Regency. During the last nine years of his life, King George was blind and insane, and the Prince of Wales ruled as Prince Regent. Though obstinate and conservative, George III. was much better than the other kings of his name. The simple, homely, familiar ways of " Fanner George," as he was called, gained him the good will of the people, and the great misfor- tune that clouded his later years, won their heartfelt sympathy. George IV., 1820 to 1830 — 10 years. Brunswick. England after the Napoleonic Wars. England emerged from the wars with Napoleon the most powerful nation in Europe. During this long and desperate struggle, nearly all the European nations had, at one time and another, been drawn or forced to the side of England's foes, and, in consequence, their fleets had, one after another, been swept away by the superior navy of England, so that her supremacy on 270 GEORGE IV. the sea, first achieved in the reign of Elizabeth, was now universally conceded. Isolated from the nations of the continent, her own soil had known nothing of the desolations that war had brought to theirs. Her industries had not only remained undisturbed, while theirs had been paralyzed, but they had been forced to an unnatural expansion, bringing unexampled pros- perity to her capitalists. On the other hand, the return of peace caused a re-action, that was followed by a crisis in both the national finances and the national industries. Manufacturing establishments, stimulated to an over-production during the w 7 ar, could not at once adapt themselves to the new conditions of a state of peace, and they were compelled to contract, and, in many cases, to close, operations altogether. Thousands of operatives in all the manufacturing districts were thus thrown out of employment, who, having laid up nothiug during the time of prosperity, were now suddenly reduced to want. The disbandment of the army and navy forces had released multitudes of men, many of whom could not find the employment they sought, while more w r ere restless in spirit and had little taste for the quiet pur- suits of life. Although the rates for the poor were everywhere largely increased, destitution and suffering were everywhere inevitable. The Napoleonic Avars had greatly increased the public debt, which at their close amounted to £800,000,000, and the people were heavily burdened with taxation. The necessaries of life had reached exorbitant figures during these wars, enriching laud owners and large dealers, but bearing heavily on the poor. GEORGE IV. 271 The Corn Law. During the year after the close of the Napoleonic wars, the land owners, with a policy as short-sighted as it was seltish, secured the passage of a law placing such a duty on corn as virtually to prohibit its importation. High prices were thus main tained, especially on the bread of the poor, after theL income had greatly diminished or had ceased altogether. Idleness, poverty, and suffering produced discontent and incipient rebellion, but this only brought upon the unhappy people the strong arm of the law, and aggra- vated the miseries of their condition. Agitation on the Subject of Reform. The people attributed their distress to bad legislation, and not wholly without cause, and the remedy, in their minds, was increased political power on the part of the masses. Then began an agitation on the subject of reform in the laws, never known before in England. The active English mind, no longer engrossed with the excitements of foreign war, employed itself in questions of domestic policy, and the resources of the ministry and statesmen of England were taxed to the utmost, to meet the social and political problems that constantly presented them- selves for solution. From the passage of the Corn law, in 1815, to the present time, England has been the arena of an unintermittiug strife on the subject of reform. Reform has been the all-ensrossins: theme at the fireside and in the cabinet, at the hustings and in legislative halls. Reform and Anti-Reform have been inscribed on party banners, and have been the issues of party politics. The period embraced in the last three reigns, those of George IV., William IV., and Victoria, might be called the Era of Reform. We can here notice 272 GEORGE IT. only the most important matters that have successively agitated the public mind, and the leading measures that have been enacted, tending to the removal of class and religious distinctions, to the equalization of civil and political rights, and especially, to the amelioration of the condition of the poor, and their advancement in the scale of being. If the progress of reform has been slow, on account of the bitter resistance of powerful conservative elements, it has also been sure. No essen- tial step in this grand march of the English people towards the ideal of all just government, the greatest good to the greatest 11111111)01-, has been retraced. Tem- porary checks and defeats have made their ultimate triumphs all the more complete. The liepeal of the Corporation and Test Acts. The Corporation Act, passed in the reign of Charles II., required the officers of corporations or boroughs to conform to the rites of the restored Episcopal Church, and was specially designed to effect the removal of Puritans, who occupied most of the borough offices. The Test Act, passed later in the reign of Charles II., made the same requirements of civil and military officers, with the addition of the Oath of Supremacy, and was enacted at a time when it was supposed Charles was scheming to restore Catholicism to England. But the perils against which these statutes were designed to guard, had, at the time of George IV., long since passed away. The State church was firmly established, and proscriptive laws on account of religion had not only become needless, but they were a source of perpetual GEOEGE IV. 273 discontent. After much agitation, in 1S2S both these acta were repealed in their most odious features. The Catholic Emancipation Bill. But the Cath olics had disabilities more irksome than those just men- tioned. At the time of the " Popish Plot," in the reign of Charles II.j Catholics were made ineligible to Parlia- ment, and, although this plot was clearly seen at the time to be a pure fabrication, they were not restored to mem- bership, and, lor a century and a half, had no voice in the counsels of the nation. The Irish Catholics labored under peculiar hardships. In 1801 the constitutional union of Great Britain and Ireland was effected, thirty Irish lords and one hundred commoners being admitted to the English Parliament. This union, though origi- nally designed by Pitt, who was Prime Minister, as one of a series of measures to bind England and Ireland more closely together, was not only distasteful to the great body of the Irish people, who preferred their old independent Parliament, but it drew in its train a new, and, in time, an intolerable grievance. Only Protestants could sit as members in the cham- bers of the English Parliament. It is difficult to say which was felt to be the greater grievance to Catholic Ireland, to have no representation, or to be restricted to a Protestant one. The discontent of the Irish people rose to fever height, culmi- nating in outbreaks which were trodden out in blood. Bill after bill for the relief of Ireland was brought into Parliament only to be voted down. Associations in which almost every Catholic and many Protestants became enrolled, were formed throughout Ire- land, to secure the repeal of the disabling laws. Daniel 274 GEORGE IV. O'Counell, an eloquent Irish barrister, the acknowl- edged head of these associations, was at this time all but supreme in his power over the Irish people. In 1827, he was elected to Parliament from the County of Clare, but was ineligible on account of his religion. The climax to Irish endurance was reached, when O'Conncll was refused the seat to which he had been elected, and Parliament soon came to sec that there was but a choice of alternatives, justice to Ireland, or War with a united and a determined people. A bill was accordingly introduced to admit Catholics to Par- liament. Even Wellington, long the opponent of reform, who had looked calmly on death in many a bloody battlc-tield, shrank from the horrors of a religious war in Ireland. Said the Iron Duke, on moving the second reading of the bill, "If I could avoid, by any sacrifice whatever, even one month of civil war in the country to which I am attached, I would sacrifice my life to do it." In a little more than a month, April 13th, 1829, the bill, having passed both houses, received the royal sig- nature and became law. Roman Catholics were placed on an equality with Protestants, except that they re- mained ineligible to tho throne, the chancellorship, the lord-lieutenancy of Ireland, and to offices in Protest- ant Universities. O'Conncll at once took his seat in the House of Commons. Navarino, A.D. 1827. In the early part of the reign of George IV., the Greeks, who had suffered under Moslem rule for more than three centuries, rose iu rebellion. The sailing of an expedition from Egypt to lay waste the Morea, and to carry away its inhabi- GEORGE IV. 275 tants into slavery, caused a coalition of England, France, and Russia in behalf of the helpless Greeks. The allied fleets, entering the harbor of Navarino in the latter part of 18l'7, annihilated the entire Turkish and Egyptian navies. Greece was made an independent kingdom, and Otho, a Bavarian prince, was placed upon the throne. A touching and romantic interest is con- nected with the struggle of the Greeks for indepen- dence, on account of its association with Lord Byron. The unhappy poet devoted his fortune and the last efforts of his genius to the cause of Greece. On its classic soil, and in its service, he breathed his last. Character of George IT. George the Fourth is one of the most uninteresting, as well as despicable, sov- ereigns that ever sat on the English throne. The time had gone by when an English king could over- ride the laws, else George IV. would have been a tyrant. He threw what little influence he possessed against the cause of reform, retarding, but not defeat ing, its progress. lie was profligate in the extreme, and spent most of his time in the company of the worth- less. His flatterers called him "the first gentleman in Europe," a title that rested solely on his possession of a well-shaped figure, polished manners, and exquisite taste in matters of dress. Through his licentious habits he had lost the respect of his people, while his relentless persecution of his wife had excited their intense and lasting dislike. He had married, when Prince of Wales, his own cousin, the Princess Caroline of Bruns- wick. After submitting to every species of indignity from her husband, Caroline returned to her home on the continent. After the elevation of George to 1 1 6 GF.OUC. B IV. the throne, a bill wu introduced into Parliament Ebi the divorce of the crownless queen, but so intense was public feeling against the king, it was finally allowed to drop. Queen Caroline died in about a year, broken down with shame and grief. George IV. died in 1830, leaving do heirs, and the throne descended to bis brother William. William IV., 1S;>0 to 1837— 7 years. Urunswick. State of Feeling in England at the Accession of William. The brief period of William's reign was one of unprecedented political excitement. The question of reform, fairly launched upon the sea o( English politics during the preceding reign, became the exclu- sive object oi % public attention. During the first year of William's reign a revolution broke out in Prance, that excited grave apprehensions in England as well as on the continent. The French people had caught the spirit that animated the English masses, and were call- ing loudly for reform. The French ministry sought to crush this spirit by ordinances, subverting the consti- tution o( the country, and destroying the freedom o( the press. The exasperated Parisians rose at once in arms. For three days were the streets of the capital the scene of indescribable confusion and carnage, when the government troops were driven from the city, and the king. Charles X.. was compelled to abdicate the throne. Louis Philippe, Puke o\ % Orleans, was appointed Lieutenant-Genera] o( the kingdom. For awhile, the tricolor, the symbol ot' French republican- ism, tloated over the city of Paris in place o( the white flag of royalty, but. in the end Louis was made king w ii.i.i am iv. 277 under a liberal constitution. A feverish and almost revolutionary spirit was kindled among the masses throughout Europe by the revolution in France. In Brussels, ;i using of the people terminated in ;i sep- aration from Holland, and the founding of the new kingdom of Belgium. Tlie excitement in England, created by this revolution, happily found vent in the election that was near at hand, which resulted in re- turning a House of Commons overwhelmingly Liberal. The conservative Duke of Wellington was forced to yield his place as Prime Minister to Earl Grey, who was in sympathy with the new House. Wo arc now brought to the consideration of another of those great statutes, that stand like mile-stones in the pathway of English progress, the Reform Bill of L832. The Reform Bill ol* is;tt. One of the crying grievances of the English people was the inequality of representation in Parliament. In early times the kings had designated the (owns that were to be represented in the lower house. They usually selected (hose most important. Towns were occasionally added to the list, sometimes as a matter of justice, and sometimes as a matter of favoritism. There was no law or basis of representation. In the course of time a great change came over the face of England. The growth of manu- factures had made new centres of population. Thriv- ing towns and cities, such as Birmingham, Leeds, and Sheffield, had sprung up in the wilderness. On the other hand, flourishing towns had dwindled into mere hamlets, and in some, eases had disappeared altogether. But through all this shifting of the population, there had been comparatively few changes in the represents 278 william rv. lion in Parliament. Old Sarum, "without a house within its limits, continued to send two representa- tives to every Parliament, while Birmingham, a great bus} hive of industry, remained entirely unrepre- sented. These "rotten" or "pocket" boroughs, as the towns "were called, that had representation, but little or no constituency, were under the control of noblemen, who either selected the persons to represent them, or offered the places tor sale. A Reform Bill Avas intro- duced into Parliament early in 1831, designed to re- adjust ami equalize the system of representation. It passed the House of Commons after a prolonged dis- cussion, but was defeated in the House of Lords. The excitement in England became intense. Riots and conflagrations constantly disturbed the peace o\.' the kingdom. The conservative Lords becoming alarmed at the temper of the people, which threatened the most, serious results, followed the example of the liberal Commons, and passed the Reform Bill at their next session in 1832. Fifty-six "pocket" boroughs, having one hundred and twelve representatives, were dis- franchised, while thirty more were allowed each a single representative, making a total reduction of one hun- dred and forty-two members. The vacant seats were distributed among forty-two large and flourishing towns, thai hail previously no representation. Results of Reform Legislation. Besides leading to immense material benefit to the people, the Reform Dill of 1ST) -J conferred on the liberal element a power it had never known before. The cause oi' reform gained a prestige that made other progressive move- ments easy and rapid. For the first time, the manu- WILLIAM IV. 279 faotxi ring and general business interests had able and adeq late representation in Parliament. Hitherto, the Land-holders had moulded legislation to meet their peculiar wauls. Now, measures began to be devised and framed into statutes, for the development of commerce and manufactures, making them, in time, the leading interests of the British people. As an illustration of the progress made, it may be stated, that, atthe beginning of the reign of William IV., Great Britain hail three hundred and fifteen steam- vessels with a tonnage of 33,441. At its closo she had six hundred steam-vessels with a tonnago of 67,961). At its beginning there was but a single railway line of importance on the island. At its closo all the great manufacturing centres and mining districts had rail- road facilities for the transportation of goods and pas- sengers to the metropolis and leading seaports. Abolition of Slavery in the Colonies. The aboli- tion of slavery in the colonics was one of the subjects that had agitated the public mind. Wilberforce and other philanthropists had labored for nearly forty years in the cause of emancipation. In 1833, a bill was introduced into Parliament, giving freedom to all the slaves in the British colonics, and appropriating £20,- 000,000 as compensation to tho planters. It passed without serious opposition, removing one of the foul- est stains that ever disgraced a civilized nation. Character of William IV. William EV. was called the "Sailor King," from his early connection with the Eng- lish navy. Ho was a worthy man and a just and ablo ruler. He was in hearty sympathy with tfio reform movements of the day, and for this leason was held in 280 WILLIAM IV. high esteem among the people. The careless, easy, open manners of the sailor clung to him to the last, increasing still more his popularity among the English masses. He had long been afflicted with hay fever. In 1837, his disease assumed a more aggravated form, and he sank rapidly under its attacks, and died on the 18th of June, in the seventy-second year of his age. Victoria, 1837. Brunswick. Reform Legislation in the Reign of Victoria. William IV. died without heirs, leaving the crown to his niece, Alexandrina Victoria. As the Salic law pre- vailed in Hanover, forbidding female succession, that kingdom reverted, at once, to Ernest, Duke of Cum- berland, the nearest male heir of the House of Bruns- wick. Hanover had been a useless and an expensive appendage of the British empire since the accession of George I., and its return to the condition of an inde- pendent state was not regretted by the English people. The legislation of this reign has been characterized even more than that of its predecessors by the spirit of progress. We shall not undertake so much as to name all the unequal and oppressive statutes and prac- tices, the relies of less civilized ages, which have been swept away forever, nor all the measures that have been devised to perfect the liberties and enlarge the opportunities of the English people. "Reform Bills," the matured products of an enlightened statesmanship, have followed each other in rapid succession. Under the inspiration and guidance of such men as "Wilber- force, Brougham, Cobden, and Bright, the reform move- ments have advanced with rapid strides. The English VICTORIA. 281 government, at lirst following somewhat slowly and reluctantly in the footsteps of an advancing public sen- timent, now leads the van in the grand march of im- provement. Not only has it secured to the English people, in a broad and general sense, the enjoyment of civil and religions liberty, but it has brought within (he seope of its inquiry the minutest details of thoir condition. And not alone at home, but to the re- motest limits of an empire " upon which the sun never sets," has a beneficent legislation extended a hand of helpfulness to British subjects. Repeal of the Corn Laws. Although the Corn laws, passed in 1815, had undergone repeated changes, they still fettered English commerce and remained an op- pressive burden to the poor. The discontent of the people found expression, in 1839, in an organization, called " The Anti-Corn-Law League," designed to se- cure the repeal of all duties on breadstuff's. At the head of this League stood Richard Cobden and John Bright, two of England's noblest sons. Tho difficulties in the way of a repeal of the Corn laws seemed almost insuperable. Notwithstanding the in- creased representation of tho manufacturing and com- mercial classes in Parliament, nine-tenths of the mem- bers still represented the landed interests, and held firmly to a high tariff on imported grain. They argued that the repeal of the Corn laws would destroy the profits of agriculture, at that time the leading in- terest ; that the land would cease to be cultivated and return to a state of wilderness, and that the condition of the rural population, dependent, as they were, on the cultivation of tho soil, would become deplorable. 282 VICTORIA. The Reform League directed its efforts not so miuh to the conversion of members of Parliament, as to tlio creation of a public sentiment in favor of tree trade, and so to a gradual change in the complexion of the House of Commons. Public speakers wore sent into all the rural districts, whore they addressed vast as- semblies of the working people in behalf of their favor- ite doctrine. Papers and pamphlets, advocating the same views, "were scattered all over England. The result of efforts so persistent and systematic may easily be anticipated. The great change that took place even among the people o( the agricultural dis- tricts, was soon perceptible in the increasing number of free traders elected to Parliament. But the Corn League met unexpected opposition from another and an older organization, also devoted to the interests of reform. The Chartists. Xo sooner had the excitement at- tending the reform movement o\' 1832 subsided, than a new agitation began to occupy public attention. It finally culminated, in 1838, in an organization bearing the name of "The Chartists." Its principles and objects were embodied in a document called" The Peo- ple's Charter," under six distinct heads : — 1st. Uni- versal suffrage. 2d. Vote by ballot. 3d. Animal Parliaments. 4th. Payment of members ot' Parlia- ment. 5th. Abolition of the property qualification. 6th. Equal electoral districts. At the rise of the " Anti-Corn-Law League," the Chartists sought to unite the forces of the two movements, but the loaders of the League refused to adopt the six articles o\' the Chartists, thinking it wiser to direct their efforts to the YICTORIA. 283 accomplishment of the single end they hud in view — the repeal of the Corn laws. The Chartists, under the lead of Feargus O'Connor, then threw their influence against the cause of the League. In spite of all ob- stacles the latter organization carried its point. Sil Robert Peel, who was at the head of a conservative ministry, became a convert to the doctrine of free trade, and a bill for the repeal of the Corn laws passed through both Houses in 1846. But the complete extinc- tion of duties on brcadstuils did not take place till 1849. The same year the famous Navigation laws, originally passed during the Commonwealth, in 1(351, and amended from time to time, were entirely repealed, and thus the last obstacle to trade with England was removed. The predictions of disaster to the agricul* tural interests and to the rural population, so freely made during the progress of the campaign, were not realized. Since that day " free trade" — the right to buy in the cheapest, and to sell in the dearest, market — has been the watchword in England. The Chartists had divided into two wings, the radi- cal and the conservative. The excesses of the radical wing, and its threats to overthrow the government and to establish a Republic, unless "The People's Charter" were adopted, had brought the whole movement into disrepute. Little was heard of it again until the year 1848, when another French revolution disturbed the peace of Europe. Its effect in England was an immense revival of Chartism. Petitions were industriously circulated for the adoption of " The People's Charter " by parliament. These petitions, claiming to have 5,700,000 signatures, were to be carried to the House 284 VICTORIA. of Commons, at the head of a procession of half a million persons. The possibility that a revolution might be attempted, similar to that which had just taken place in France, led the government to make the most gigantic preparations to meet it. The procession was declared to be illegal and forbidden to take place. Special constables, to the number of one hundred and seventy thousand, wen' sworn in, among whom was Prince Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, who was soon to accomplish another revolution in France, and to place himself at the head of the restored Empire. All avail- able troops were brought to the capital and placed under the command o( the Duke of Wellington. The preparations oi' the government terrified the Chartists, and on the day appointed for their grand demonstra- tion only thirty thousand assembled at the rendezvous on Kennington Common. No procession was attempted and the monstrous petition was wheeled to the House of Commons and respectfully presented by Feargus O'Connor, the Chartist leader. A careful examination of its contents discovered that there were less than two, instead of more than live, million signatures, and a large number i)( these were found to be spurious. From this moment Chartism, convicted oi' fraud, ami branded as revolutionary, fell into public contempt, and the whole Chartist organization speedily dissolved. But its elements, re-organized, and carrying forward the work of reform in a less odious manner, have partially accomplished (he objects of "The People's Charier." The property qualifications have been nearly abol- ished, the right of suffrage made almost universal, and the secret ballot substituted for open voting. A bib, VICTORIA. 285 passed it 1858, modified the oath required of Jews, making them eligible to Parliament. The Disestablishment of the Irish Church. The Catholic Emancipation Bill had done much towards the pacification of Ireland. Ot' the grievances still re- maining, the requirements ot' the law in regard to the established, or Anglican, church, were perhaps the most exasperating to the Irish people. The communicants of thh church numbered about one-eighth of the pop- ulation, those ot* the various dissenting bodies some- what less, while the Roman Catholic church embraced within its pale the rest, somewhat more than six-eighths of the entire population. Besides supporting their own worship, the Catholics were compelled to pay cer- tain specific tithes, to support the worship ot' the An- glican church. Although all the temporalities of the church, amounting to £ It", 000, 000, with an income of nearly £1,000,000, were in the hands ot' the Anglican clergy, the very bread was often taken from the pov- erty-stricken hovel of the delinquent Irish Catholic, or his solitary cow driven away, and ''the wolf left at his door," that God might be worshiped in Ireland after the established manner. We cannot wonder that the Irishman, as he saw his hungry children gather about the scanty board, sometimes turned, in rage or despair, with a vindictive purpose, upon the exacting tax-gath- erer, or that violence and misery filled the beautiful, but misgoverned, land. In 1869, during the Gladstone ministry, a bill was introduced into Parliament to disestablish the Irish church. This bill placed all the religious sects ou the same level, making them alike dependent on the vol- 286 VICTORIA. untary contributions of the people for their support It passed the House of Commons by a large majority. In the House ot Lords, though, denounced as revolu- tionary, it also received a majority of the votes cast, and became a law, January 1st, 1871. Of unsettled Irish questions, the relation of landlord and tenant is both the most fruitful of trouble and the most difficult of solution. The rebellions and confiscations of past times have placed most of the land in the hands of a few proprietors. The great estates have been divided into small farms and rented to the Irish people, the greater part of whom are dependant on the cultivation of the soil for a livelihood. Being mere ten- ants at will of the proprietors, they have had neither pride nor interest in making improvements on the farms which they occupy. The Irish Land ^ill, pass- ed in 1870, allowing tenants, if compelled to vacate, payment for permanent improvements made by them, has not realized the expectations of its framers, for, in most cases, the rents have been so exorbitant that tenants could not make such improvements. Of recent legislation under the ministry of Gladstone, designed to protect the rights of property, on the one hand, and ameliorate the condition of the Irish people, on the other, it is too early to speak. But it is doubt- ful if Ireland will ever be fully pacified, until she is allowed some form of self-government. Educational Bill. The same Parliament established a national system of public schools, resembling, in many respects, the New England system, having local school boards, and furnishing all needed help to indigent chil- dren. The necessity of legislation on :i subject so vital VICTORIA. 287 to the welfare of the nation was made apparent during the consideration of the bill. An investigation showed that two-thirds of the children of England were utterly destitute of school privileges. Of 83,000 children in Birmingham, only 26,000 attended school. Of 90,000 in Liverpool, but 30,000 had school advantages. The Education Bill was warmly supported by men of both parties, and became law on the 22d of July, 1870. Under the direction of boards of education, schools were speedily established in all parts of England, and to-day. except in some of the more sparsely settled districts, every child in England can receive the rudi- ments of an English education. The Foreign Policy. The foreign policy of this reign has, on the whole, been peaceful. Its wars have been distant, and, for the most part, unimportant. They have been waged chiefly in Asia and Africa. A useless war with Afghanistan, in 1839, grew out of jealousy of the designs of Russia in Asia. A war was waged with Abyssinia in 18G7 to effect the release of English subjects, held in captivity by Emperor Theo- dore. War with Egypt. In 1840, the Pasha of Egypt threw off the Turkish yoke. He entered Asia at the head of a large army, for the purpose of detaching Syria from the Ottoman empire. The Sultan, unable to rescue his Asiatic dominions from the grasp of the warlike Pasha, appealed to Russia, England, and France for help. France, though inclined to aid the Pasha, remained neutral, while Russia and England united to preserve the integrit} r of the Ottoman em- pire. Their combined fleets, under the command of 288 VICTORIA. Commodore Napier, bombarded the strongly fortified town of Acre, the key of all Syria, and compelled its surrender in three hours. The appearance of the allied fleet before Alexandria forced the rebellious Pasha to sue for peace. But the treaty that followed was more favorable to Egypt than to Turkey, for it left the Pasha only a nominal subject of the Ottoman Porte, and the Pashalic of Egypt was made the inheritance of his family. Syria, that under the brief but enlight- ened rule of the Pasha had entered upon a new career of peace and prosperity, was left to groan under the iron heel of the Moslem power. Wars with China. A shameful war was waged with China to force upon her the trade in opium. The Em- peror of China, seeing the deadly effects of the poison- ous drug upon his people, forbade its importation. The English merchants, unwilling to give up the profitable trade, and having resorted to smuggling, were impris- oned by the Chinese government, and whole cargoes of opium were seized and destroyed. War was declared by the British government in 1840. The surrender of Canton to a British army, and the siege of Nankin, forced the Emperor to submit. The cession of Hong Kong to the British, and the openiug of five principal ports to commerce, were the results. The renewal of war in 1856, on account of an outrage to a vessel sailing under British colors, resulted in a treaty, open- ing all China both to merchants and to missionaries. The Balance of Power. In his "Law of Nations," Vattel thus defines the expression "balance of power" : * By this balance is to be understood such a disposition of things, as that no one potentate or state shall bo VICTORIA. 289 able absolutely to predominate and to prescribe to the others." The mere principle of an alliance among states exposed to a common danger is as old as the existence of states themselves ; but the use of this principle in ancient times was only occasional or acci- dental. Its adoption by any number of states as a definite and permanent principle of action is compar- atively modern. The states of Greece often combined against some one of their number, that seemed to be attaining to a power dangerous to the rest. The coalitions against the occupation of Italy by the French under Charles VIII. , and against the ambitious schemes of Ferdinand II. of Germany, the repeated alliances to repel the aggressions of Louis XIV. of France, and the wars inspired by the vaulting ambition of Napoleon, are all illustrations of its use in modern Europe. After the close of the Napoleonic wars, the idea of a permanent organization of powers to maintain the established equilibrium in Europe took definite shape. The five great powers of Great Britain, France, Russia, Prussia, and Austria, constituted themselves a standing tribunal to preserve the balance of power in Europe. From that time to the present, this colossal tribunal has dominated over the entire continent, and, as a result, comparatively few changes have taken place in territo- rial lines. It has operated not only to prevent the indue expansion of any one state, but also to break up empires whose overshadowing power made them dan- gerous to the rest. The partition of the Spanish empire, after the death of Charles II., is an illustration of its practical application in this direction. An attempt was made in a congress at Vienna, \n 1853, to obtain a vote £90 VICTORIA. to restore the kingdom of Poland, on the plea, that its dismemberment had disturbed the balance of power in Europe. The opposition of Prussia and Austria, each of whom possessed a portion of the dismembered kingdom, defeated the project. But the chief value of this principle lies in the security which it gives to the smaller and weaker states, preventing their absorption by their more powerful neighbors. It shielded the little Dutch Republic from the ambitious designs of the most powerful monarch of his time, Louis XIV. It has availed thus far to preserve the integrity of the Turkish empire against the aggressions of Russia, whose chief ambition is the possession of Constantinople. The Crimean War. In 1853, Russia invaded Mol- davia and Wallachia, the upper Dannbian provinces of Turkey. This was declared by a congress of nations at Vienna, to be a violation of the balance of power in Europe. Upon the refusal of Russia to withdraw from the invaded territory, England and France sent their combined fleets to the Black and Baltic Seas. The effort to reach St. Petersburg being defeated by the strength of the fortifications at Cronstadt, the allies concentrated their forces on the Crimea, and laid siege to Sebastopol, the great stronghold of Russia on the Black Sea. The allied armies landed near the town of Eupatoria, the 14th of September, 1854, but it was not until the 9th of September, 1855, that they occupied the deserted fortifications of Sebastopol. We cannot dwell on the painful and protracted siege. To the suf- ferings of the soldiers, insufficiently provided with food, clothing, and shelter, for a Russian winter, were added the horrors of a wasting pestilence rendered all VICTORIA. 291 the more fatal by a lack of medical stores. About eighteen thousand British soldiers died of disease during the siege, while only four thousand perished through the casualties of war. But the gloomy picture is illu- mined by a heroism more lofty than that of arms. A band of noble women, under the charge of Florence Nightingale, left the comforts of their English homes, to minister to the wants of their sick and wounded countrymen in the plague-stricken camp on the Crimea. The passage of the Alma, — the "Charge of the Light Brigade " at Balaklava, — the repulse of the Russians at Inkermann, — and the capture of the Malakoff Tower, — were the most interesting events of the war. The occupation of the Malakoff led to the fall of Sebas- topol, and forced the Czar of all the Eussias to sue for peace. By the treaty that followed, Russia consented to abandon all control over Moldavia, Wallachia, and Servia, to relinquish her claims to control the mouths of the Danube, to dismantle the fortifications of Sebas- topol, and to maintain no fleet and no naval station in the Black Sea. A few small armed vessels were allowed the principal nations, in the Black Sea, for the protection of commerce, which was made free to all nations. The Sepoy Rebellion. British India had gradually extended its boundaries to the Himalayas on the north, and to the Indus on the west. There was but a handful of English soldiers in the whole of this vast empire, the garrisons in the different departments being com- posed chiefly of native soldiers, called Sepoys, with English officers. ?9? VICTORIA.. The government had decided to supply their Indian troops with an improved rifle using a greased cartridge whoso end required to be bitten off in loading. The fat ot° cows or swine is an abomination to a Mahometan e\ ■ Hindoo, and the Sepoys, imagining that the gov srument was seeking to entrap them into Christianity by requiring them to use a greased cartridge, began to revolt. But there was another cause of revolt, a deep- seated disaffection on the part o{ the natives, growing out of the extortion practised by Kuglish officials. From the time of Warren Hasting;* * to the breaking out oi the revolt, the Kuglish had made otliee in India an avenue to wealth, and the long smothered resent- ment of the natives was ready to burst forth on the first occasion. The first movement oi the revolt oc- curred at Meerut. in Bengal, May 10, 1857. The gar- risons in the different districts following the example oi that at Meerut. all India was soon in a state of insurrection. Over the atrocities perpetrated on Kug- lish residents, and especially on helpless women and children, we must draw the veil. Indian soldiers, hitherto their trusted and faithful protectors, were sud- denly transformed into merciless fiends. llavelot'k and the Belief of Lucknow. Cawnpore on the borders, and Lucknow in the interior, ot' Oude, garrisoned by a small number oi British soldiers, were • Warren Hastings was a man Of marked ability. Originally a clerk in the ewploy of the Bast India Company, ho rose in 1774 to tho position of Governor Beneral. He name to tho government of India at a time of great danger. The French in alliance with native chiefs renewed the Straggle for the possession of tbf Carnatic. With a skill and vigor that remind ns of Robert Clire. Hast- ings not only re-established the English authority, but he also greatly extended the English dominion. His administration was as unscrupulous as it was able, and en his veinrn to England he was impeached for cruelty and extortion. His trial lasted from 1788 to 1796. and is one of the most remarkable on reeord. VICTORIA. 2\)'.\ besieged by a great multitude of savage natives. Gen- rnil Havelook, with a small foroe,of whom only fourteen hundred were English, pressed bravely forward to re lieve the beleaguered towns. He enoountered the Indian hordes under Nana Sahib (an enlightened and hitherto friendly eliief, but now the most lieree and I loodlhiisly of die rebels) in battle after battle. Though viotorious, he was every day getting deeper into the enemy's country, and his liiile force was slowly melting away. At last he reached ( Jawnpore only to learn that its 1, a civil war broke out in the United States, that early threatened to involve that country in another war with Great Britain. The revolted states organized a separate republic, under the name of "Tho Confederate States of America." Two commissioners, Mason and Slidell, were appointed to advance the Confederate interests at London and Paris. They succeeded in running the blockade, and reaching VICTORIA. 295 Havana, where they took passage on tho Trent, a British mail steamer bound lor Liverpool. This vessel was overhauled by the United States frigate San Ja- cinto, under tho command of Captain Wilkes, and tho Confederate commissioners and their secretaries were forcibly removed to the latter vessel, and brought to the United States. The excitement in England, created by this illegal act, was intense. Tho British government demanded the instant surrender of tho captured com- missioners, and, without waiting for the reply of the United States, began vigorous preparations for war. Her army and navy were speedily put on a war footing, and regiments were dispatched to Canada to secure the frontier. But tho excitement subsided as quickly as it had risen, for tho United States promptly disavowed tho act of her rash captain, and gracefully restored the Confederate commissioners to the protection of the British tlag. Tho Alabama Claims. But tho United States had a grievance against Great Britain, growing out of tho war, which tho latter country was not so ready to dis- avow and settle. Several vessels, the most noted of which was the Alabama, had been built and equipped in an English dock-yard on tho Clyde, for tho uso of tho Confederate States. Though notified by the American minister of tho destination of tho vessels, the English government took no measures to detain them, and they sailed away to prey upon Northern commerce. The United States could not afford, during the continuance of civil strife, to press claims that might lead to war, and so these claims were allowed to remain in abeyance. At the close of the war, they 296 VICTORIA, became the subject of diplomacy between the two nations. Finally, in 1871, a Joint High Commission, composed of five members on each side, met at 'Wash- ington and arranged the basis of a treaty. By this treaty all the questions at issue between the two countries were referred to a tribunal, composed of five arbitrators, to be selected, one each by the United States, Great Britain, Italy, Switzerland, and Brazil. This tribunal met on the 15th of June, 1872, at Geneva, Switzerland. It rejected the claims of the United States for indirect damages, but awarded as direct damages, on account of the depredations of the Ala- bama and other English-built privateers, the sum of $15,500,000, in gold. This award was promptly paid by Great Britain, and the relations of the two countries became once more harmonious. Queen Victoria. Victoria was but eighteen year- of age when she assumed the sovereignty of the vast em- pire of Great Britain. She was possessed of refined and unpretending manners, a cultivated mind, and a deeply religious spirit. Almost forty years have elapsed since the memorable morning of the 20th of dune, l^o7, when as an acknowledged queen she took her seat, for the first time, at the head of the Council table, and, in low but melodious tones, made the Declara- tion, of which the following is the opening clause : — "The severe and afflicting loss which the nation has sustained by the death of his majesty, my beloved uncle, has devolved upon me the duty of administering the government oi' this empire. This awful responsi- bility is imposed 141011 me so suddenly, and at so early a period of my life, that 1 should feel myself utterly VICTORIA. 297 oppressed by the burden, were I not sustained by the hope that Divine Providence, which has called me to this work, will give me strength for the performance of it, and that I shall find in the purity of my inten- tions, and in my zeal for the public welfare, that support and those resources which usually belong to a more mature age and to long experience." The rare fidelity with which, during a period already longer than that of most English reigns, the principles of this Declaration have been carried out, demonstrate that it was not the hollow utterance too common on such occasions. Few English sovereigns have been actuated by a more profound desire to promote the best inter- ests of the English people than the reigning queen. Moderately liberal, never partisan, and always con- scientious, she has followed, amidst the strife and excitement of party politics, the strict line of consti- tutional duty. When, in addition to this, we recall the virtues of her private life, her faithfulness as a wife, and her devotion as a mother, we can understand the love as well as the loyalty which she has inspired, so deeply and so generally, in the hearts of her people. Prince Albert. In 1840, Victoria married Prince Al- bert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. In 1861, the Prince died, deeply lamented by the English people. Although a German by birth, he came to feel all the deep solicitude for the welfare of the nation, that animated the queen herself. Possessed of marked ability, superior judg- ment, and liberal views, ho was an unostentatious, but an invaluable, counselor to the queen and to her ministry. To him is duo the inception of that series of International Exhibitions, that have apparently be- vmUw a kuo^ U \ aulatin^ . \ i . I'ho Fu.-.l.-iwl ol' l\'-,l.-.> . ■ ■ -omo trans . bass, sua : ■oLnvd England within ivaoh of th» KM ; tho p -uitlv ■ -.lorial (MT< ) w ise - : - ttian, ignit- ing i I the r t and national pi .1 enlighten tho people, has boon sho: Mid tho d ■ .-.tally tor all exoept tho most heinous Crimea flOTOBIAi 299 cruel punl 1 1 riM ni i of navy have yielded to a milder iukI \< brutalizing dl ciplino. The horrors of prison life have been mitigated, and Ux- poor and unfortunate of all kinds have been provided ivitfa comfortable :i j linn .. Reformatory Institutions have been estab- 1 1 1 1 * < I \'<>i juvenile delinquents and outcasts, where, in removed from circumstances <>f neglect or bru- tality, calculated to produce only paupers and crimi- nals, they are trained, l»y a management, both wIho and humane, to beoome good citizens • Sanitary pre- cautions have left few lurking places in town or city Imi the i" itilonoe that has so often wasted the popula- tion <>i England. Whatever concerns the physical, moral, and spiritual welfare of the English people, hoi engrossed English state imanship, and become tlm -» n I >- |eot of English legifhitioii< 300 THE KOYAL FAMILY. The Royal Family. Victoeia, Queen of the United Kingdom i>f Great Britain and Ireland, Duchess of Lancaster, Defender of the Faith, and Empress of India ; b. (born) May 24, 1S19 ; ascended the throne, June 20, 1837 ; m. (married) Feb. 10, 1840, Albert, Prince of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, who died Dec. 15, 1861. Victoria Adelaide Maria Louisa, Princess Royal ; b. Nov. 21, 1840; m. Frederick "William, Crown Prince of Prussia, and has had seven children. Albert Edward, his Royal Highness, Prince of Wales; b. Nov. 9, 1841; m. March 10, 1863, Princess Alexandra of Denmark, and has had five children. Alice Maud Mart, b. April 25, 1843 ; m. Frederick William, Prince of Hesse-Darmstadt, and has had six children ; died Dec. 14, 1878. Alfred Ernest Albert, Duke of Edinburgh ; b. Aug. 6, 1844 ; m. Grand Duchess Alexandrovna of Russia, and has had two children. Helena Augusta Yictoria ; b. May 25, 1846 ; m. Frederick, Prince of Sleswick-Holstein, and has had four children. Louisa Caroline Alberta ; b. March 18, 1848 ; m. John Douglass Campbell, Marquis of Lome, eldest son of the Duke of Argyle. Arthur William Patrick ALBERT,Duke of Connaught ; b. May 1, 1850 ; m. Pri ucess Louisa Margaret of Prussia, and has had one child. Leopold George Duncan Albert, Duke of Albany ; b. April 7, 1S53 ; m. Princess Helena of Waldeck Pyrmont. Beatrice Maria Yictoria Feodore ; b. April 14, 1857. THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT. 301 The British Government. The Executive Department. The British govern- ment consists of three departments, the Executive, Legislative, and Judiciary. The Executive power is vested in a hereditary sovereign, who rules through a Ministry or Cabinet, composed of prominent officials, as follows : — The First Lord of the Treasury, called Prime Minis- ter or Premier ; the Lord Chancellor ; the Lord Privy Seal ; the President of the Council ; the Home Secre- tary ; the Foreign Secretary ; the Colonial Secretary ; the Indian Secretary ; the War Secretary ; the Chancel- lor of the Exchequer ; the First Lord of the Admiralty ; the President of the Board of Trade ; the President of the Poor Law Board ; the Postmaster General ; the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster ; and the Chief Secretary for Ireland. The Cabinet Ministers form a standing committee of the Privy Council, a body of prominent men, selected by the sovereign as advisers in the administration of the government. The Cabinet holds frequent sessions, but the Privy Council is summoned only on important occasions. The Cabinet Ministers, usually called "the government," are held responsible for all the acts of the executive department, it being an established principle in the British government, that " The king can do no wrong." These Ministers remain in office only so long as they are sustained by a majority in the House of Commons. Whenever the vote of the House is cast against any important measure proposed by the minis- try, it is accepted by the latter as expressing "a want 302 THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT. of confidence in the government " on the part of the people. Two courses are now open to the ministry; they either resign at once, in which case the sovereign calls upon the leader of the opposite party to form.a new ministry ; or they can " appeal to the country,'' in which case the sovereign dissolves the Parliament, and issues writs for a new election. If the new House of Commons is in sympathy with the ministry, the latter remain in office ; if not, they promptly resign, and a new ministry is formed of the opposite party. As the result of the election is readily ascertained, the ministerial question is usually settled before the meet- ing of the new Parliament. An interesting fact may be mentioned in this con- nection, illustrating the authority attached in England to simple custom or usage. Although the Cabinet has existed as the real executive power, for more than a century and a half, it is an institution entirely unknown to the law, never having been recognized by any Act of Parliament. There is no official announcement of the names of its members, and no official record of its meetings is kept. The prerogatives of the Crown are : — the right to make peace or war ; to prorogue, dissolve, or summon Parliament ; to give or withhold assent to Acts of Par- liament ; to send and receive ambassadors ; to confer or create titles of nobility ; to grant pardons ; to coin money ; to appoint judges and inferior magistrates ; to give and revoke commissions in the army and navy ; and, as head of the established church, to nominate to vacancies in the leading church offices. THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT. 303 The Legislative Department. The legislative power is vested in a Parliament consisting of the House of Lords and the House of Commons. The House of Lords. The House of Lords is com- posed of Lords spiritual and Lords temporal. The Lords spiritual are the prelates of the Church of Eng- land, about thirty in number. The number of Lords tem- poral in England is entirely unsettled, but there are sixteen Scottish, and twenty-eight Irish, nobles, who are elected by the nobility, — those from Ireland for life, and those from Scotland for a year. The English Lords are hereditary. The House of Commons. The House of Commons consists of representatives of counties, cities, boroughs, and some of the Universities ; England and Wales having about five hundred, Scotland about fifty, and Ireland about one hundred. Bills may be proposed in either House, except those appropriating money, which can originate only in the House of Commons. The Lords can reject, but they cannot alter, money bills. Every bill must be read and passed by a majority vote, three times in each House, and receive the royal signature, before it can become law. Although the sovereign has the right to withhold the royal signature, this right has not been exercised since the reign of Queen Anne. By its control of the public funds, and by its ability, through a ministry necessarily in harmony with itself, to shape the entire policy of the government, the House of Commons ia the chief ruling power. 304 THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT. The Judiciary Department. The Judiciary depart- ment consists, in England and Ireland, of the Courts of Chancery, Queen's Bench, Common Pleas, and Ex- chequer; in Scotland, of the Court of Sessions and the High Court of Justiciary. In the rural districts Cir- cuit Courts are held twice a year by itinerant justices. The House of Lords is the highest law court in the empire. There are three kinds of law through which justice is administered in England ; Common law, Statute law, and the law of Equity. Common law is based on custom, or precedents established by former decisions of the Courts ; Statute law consists of Acts of Parliament ; and the law of Equity is administered by the Lord Chancellor, in cases not covered by Statute law, and where justice cannot be secured by the Com- mon law. TOPICAL INDEX. Preface, 8 Kings of England, 5 Names of Kings and Leading Topics, .... 6 Genealogical Table, 8 The British Empire 10 CHAPTER I. The Britons, 11 Druidism, 12 First Roman Invasion, 13 Second Roman Invasion, 13 Caractacus, 14 Slaughter of the Druids, ...... 14 Boadicea, 14 The Roman Conquest, 15 The Saxon Conquest, ........ 16 King Arthur, 17 The Heptarchy 18 Introduction of Christianity, 18 Anglo-Saxon Religion, 19 Anglo-Saxon Government 20 CHAPTER II. Kgrbert. The Danish Invasions, .... 21 Alfred tne ttreut. War with the Danes, . . 22 Alfred's Government, 23 Alfred's Successors, 21 Massacre of Danes, 24 The Danish Conquest, 114 Comparison between Saxon and Danish Conquests, . 25 CHAPTER HI. Canute the Great. The Reign of Canute, . 27 305 506 TOPICAL INDEX. Canute and the Christian Church, .... Edward the Confessor. Character of Edward, William, Duke of Normandy, Battle of Hastings, A.D. 1066, CHAPTER IV. William the Conqueror. Rolf, the Dane, Revolt of the English, Confiscation of English Estates, The Feudal System Established The Doomsday Book The Curfew Bell, The Norman Language, Character of William the Conqueror, .... William II. Rebellion of the Barons, . Character of William II., The Crusades, The Benefits of the Crusades, The System of Chivalry, Henry I. First Charter of Liberties, Robert, Duke of Normandy, Character and Reign of Henry, The White Ship Stephen. Civil War, Compromise between Stephen and Henry, The Robber Barons, The Outlaws of the Forest, CHAPTER V. Henry II. The Condition of England, The Establishment of Order, Contest between Church and State, The Council of Clarendon, Thomas a Becket and King Henry, The Death of Thomas >i Becket, The Judiciary System, Trial by Jury, .... Conquest of Ireland, Henry's Rebellious Sons, 28 29 29 30 31 31 32 33 34 34 34 34 37 37 38 38 39 40 41 42 42 43 44 44 45 47 48 48 49 49 5C 60 51 52 52 TOPICAL, INDEX. 307 Richard I. Slaughter of Jews, Richard in the Holy Land, Richard a Captive in the Tyrol, War with France and Death of Richard. Character of Richard, John. Character of John, Loss of Possessions in France, John's Quarrel with the Pope, The Papal Interdict, John's Submission to the Pope, Magna Charta, A.D. 1215, Patriotism of the Bishops of England, Henry III. The Regency, Redress the Condition of a Vote of Supplies, Henry's Attempt to Overthrow the Charter, Rebellion of the Barons, .... Simon de Montfort and the House of Commons, A Evesham, .... Edward I. Conquest of Wales, Arbitrary Taxation Forbidden, Beginning of the Wars with Scotland, Battle of Dunbar, William Wallace, Robert Bruce, , Character of Edward I., . Edward II. Character of Edward H., Piers Gaveston, .... Bannockburn, A.D. 1314, Queen Isabella in France, Deposition and Death of Edward, . Edward III. The Regency, . Treaty of Northampton, Fall of Isabella and Mortimer, Halidon Hill, The " Hundred Years' War " with France, Cressy, A.D, 1346, Calais, Neville's Cross, . Poictiers, A D. 1366 D. 1265, 308 TOPICAL, INDEX.. Loss of French Possessions, Internal Disorder, The Good Parliament, John Wickliffe, The English Language, . The English People, Change in the Methods of Warfare, The Two Houses of Parliament, Death of Edward, nichard II. The Regency, Causes of Wat Tyler's Rebellion, Emancipation, The Black Death, The Statute of Laborers, The Breaking out of the Rebellion, Wickliffe and the First Reformation, Otterburn and Chevy Chase, Chaucer, Tyranny of Richard, Deposition of Richard, CHAPTER VI. Henry IV. Henry's Title, The First Martyr at the Stake, Revolt in Behalf of Richard II., Revolt of the Welsh, Revolt of the Percies, The Poet-King of Scotland, Henry's Troubles, 11 envy V. The Wise Beginning of Henry's Reign, Suppression of the First Reformation, Renewal of the " Hundred Years' War, 1 ' Agincourt, A. D. 1415. Siege of Rouen, . Conquest of France and Treaty of Troyes, Beginning of the Navy, Henry VI. The Dauphin of France Assumes the Crown, 100 Joan of Arc, 100 Lo68 of all France, except Calais, .... 103 TOPICAL INDEX. 309 English Discontent, .... Jack Cade's Rebellion, .... Events Preceding the Wars of the Roses, Wars of the Roses, .... 103 104 J 05 106 CHAPTER VH. £dnard IV. Towton, A.D. 1461 108 Tewkesbury, A.D. 1471 109 Character and Government of Edward, . . . 11C Results of the Wars of the Roses, Ill The Destruction of the Ancient Nobility, ... Ill The Loss of Constitutional Liberty, .... 113 The Decline of Civilization, 115 Etlwartl V. Usurpation of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, 116 Iticlmrd III. The Elements of Opposition to Richard, 118 The Smothered Princes, 118 Bosworth Field 119 Character of Richard 120 CHAPTER VIII. Henry VII. Union of York and Lancaster, Lambert Simnel Perkin Warbeck The Statute of Allegiance The Discovery of America The Revival of Letters, The Character and Policy of Henry, Henry VIII. Character of Henry VIII. , Foreign Affairs, Divorce of Catherine of Arragon, Cardinal Wolsey, The Divorce of Catherine of Arragon Accomplished, The Oxford Reformers, Erasmus, Thomas More, Opposition to the Oxford Reformers, Martin Luther and the Reformation, The Reformation in England, .... Bishop Fisher and Thomas More Executed, . 124 124 125 126 126 127 128 131 131 132 133 135 135 136 137 137 138 140 141 310 TOPICAL INDEX. Henry Supreme in Church and State, The Suppression of the Religious Houses, The Bloody Statute, Henry's Wives, .... Henry's Death, .... Edward TI, The Regency, Edward and Mary, Queen of Scots, Peasant Revolts, .... Progress of the Reformation, Edward's Will, .... Mary. Lady Jane Grey, Catholicism Restored to England, The Martyrs at the Stake, Mary's Marriage with Philip of Spain, Loss of Calais, A.D. 1558, Extenuation of Mary's Cruelty, Elizabeth. ProteBtantism Restored The Puritans, .... The Dangers that Environed Elizabeth, Elizabeth's Polic}- Mary, Queen of Scots, The Maritime Growth of England, Elizabeth's Defiance of Philip, The Invincible Armada, Great Names, .... Death of Elizabeth, Character of Elizabeth, to En 2:1 and CHAPTER IX. James I. Union of Scotch and English Crowns, Persecution of Non-Conformists, , King James's Version of the Bible, The Gunpowder Plot, The Pilgrim Fathers, James's Assumption in Matters of Religion, James's Assumption in Matters of Government, Foreign Affairs The Parliament of 1621, .... Prince Charles. ..... TOPICAL INDEX. 311 Sir Walter Raleigh, Character of James I., Charles I. Constitutional Liberty at the Accession of Charles I., Renewal of the Constitutional Struggle, Petition of Right, A.D. 1628, .... The King Can Do No Wrong, 1 he Purpose of Charles to Rule Alone, . Laud, Strafford, and the Two Courts, The High Commission and Puritan Emigration, The Star Chamber and Illegal Taxation, Ship Money and John Hampden, The Attempt to Force Episcopacy upon the Scots, The Short Parliament, The Long Parliament, ..... The Attempt of Charles to Arrest the Five Members, Civil War Inevitable, .... Roundheads and Cavaliers, Presbyterianism Made the National Religion, Edgehill, A.D. 1642 Naseby, A.D. 1645, .... Struggle between Presbyterians and Independents Struggle between Parliament and the Army, The Army Becomes Supreme, The High Court of Justice, Tbe Commonnealtli. The Commonwealth and its Perils, Worcester, A.D. 1651, Parliament and the Army, The Expulsion of the Rump Parliament Cromwell Made Lord Protector, Cromwell Usurps the Government, Prosperity under Cromwell's Rale, Cromwell's Death, Cromwell's Character and Motives, Richard Cromwell, The Restoration, .... The Last Muster of the Puritan Army, Charles II. The Circumstances under which Charles Became King, 177 178 179 181 183 184 184 185 186 187 187 188 189 189 190 190 191 191 192 192 192 194 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 203 206 205 207 207 IIS TVFUVU EKDKX. .->! Revolution. i "he C . . - Spas opal Re'.-... A - B S . The Great Firo of I ... Oh;;-. - - lis MOO) 1\ . I ... ... - . at . J a hi 01 11. - - . : tyranny, 1 1 v.-.uou'.h. jnofTi ... Res C dan . tg tnd, . . Sei shops Willi... 1 Cdn the English Cr The Flight of James to France, fne Glorious B 1 P&aoeffclrj a. 3 . William and Jlarj. The Grand Alliance. ad, Battle ol Qm Boj da, of Rj B* BUI of Rights, A TV 1689, .'.md, [ ;- S liam, .4.11110. r. e War of the Spanish Ifai IbOl (High, On - ... Union of England mm) S Death, of Good Qneen Anno, ueee* CU AFTER \ Ca OTfe I. The Jacobites. The Pretender. The South Sea Scheme. 338 133 4;>9 TOPICAL INDEX. 313 The Septennial Act, Georg-e II. Robert Walpole, War with Spain, War of the Austrian Succession, The Young Pretender, Culloden, .... The Last of the Stuarts, . The. French and Indian War, . The Five Important Points, The Battle of Quebec, A Proud STear In English Warfare, The Struggle for Dominion in India, Plassey, Cioorgc III. The Peace of Paris, Causes of the American Revolution, The Repressive Policy of England, Search Warrants, The Stamp Act, .... Boston Port Bill, Pal Hoof Lexington, April 19th, 1776, Tho Declaration of Independence, Surrender of Burgoyne and Alliance with Krai William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, Yorktown, A. 1). 1781, . Peace of Paris, .... Causes of the French Revolution, The Despotic Rule of Louis XIV. The Corrupt Rule of Louis XV., The inefficient Ride of Louis XVI. The French Sceptics, . The Influence of tho American Revolution, Tho States-General, The Revolution Sweeps away Church and State, The Reign of Terror, .... Napoleon Bonaparte, Admiral Nelson, .... Tho Struggle on the Spanish Peninsula, Tho Invasion of Russia, The Battle of the Nations. 241 241 242 243 244 244 215 245 216 247 247 248 249 250 251 251 251 261 252 252 254 255 256 257 257 257 257 258 258 258 259 259 260 260 261 262 262 263 264 814 TOPICAL rVDEX. Napoleon at Elba. Waterloo, A.D. L81S Napoleon at St. Helena. Causes of England's Second War with the United States, Right of Search and Impressment of Seamen, . "Decrees* of Napoleon and "Orders" of English Council, Declaration of War by the United States, Battle of New Orleans Peace of Ghent. ........ The Regency. CSeorgre IV. England alter the Napoleonic Wars, The Corn Law, Agitation on the Subject of Reform The Repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts. The Catholic Emancipation Bill Daniel O'Connell, Navarino, A.D 1827 Character of George IV., William IT. State of Feeling in England at the Accession of William. The Reform Bill of 1832, Results of Reform Legislation. Abolition of Slavery in the Colonies, Character of William IV.. Victoria. Reform Legislation in the Repeal of the Corn Laws, The Chartists. .... The Disestablishment of the Irish Church, The Irish Land Bill, Reign of Victoria. The Education Bill, The Foreign Policy, War with Egypt, Wars with China. The Balance of Power, The Crimean War, The Sepoy Rebellion, Havelock and the Relief of Lucknow. Campbell and the Second Relief of Lucknow, The Affair of the Trent. 264 26 i 266 267 269 . B 268 269 269 269 271 271 273 273 27 I 275 276 277 273 279 279 281 282 28S 286 28 281 281 283 288 290 291 292 293 294 TOPICAL INDEX. 315 The Alabama Claims, .295 Queen Victoria, . 296 Prince Albert, . 297 The England of To-day, .... .298 The British Government. The Executive Department, 800 The Legislative Department, .... 302 The House of Lords 302 The Douse of Commons, 302 The Judiciary Department, SOS index. AUbnmA Clttuua !9(, Abysinla 287 Aero (r Settlement 980 Act of Supremacy 140. 111 Act of Uniformity 184,911 Af>ghan la-tan' 987 a In oourt(d tMn-koor 1 ), Buttle of07 A-jrrlo'o-la 15 Aix-i t'Chapelle (aAet-luA aha Treaty Qt 948 Al'bert, Prluoe 187 Alloe Lisle (.'./<•) 990 America. Disouvory of 198 Am. 1 loan Settlements 1 1 1, 189 Angles (an'gte)... 16 An glu sej 19 Anno Uoleyn (ooo('tm).... 183, 1 16, 146 anne of Clevea 146 Anti-Coi n Law League 981 An'solm Sti Ar»a-bel'la Stuart 178 Aron-an'gel i<;4 Ar'ool 949 Arthur, King, 17 Arthur, Prlnoe 57 Ion , r >i Austrian SuooeBSlon, War ol 948 Balance of Power 188 Hal-ak l.'i'va 94)1 Ba ii-ci, Edwaid 75 Ballol.John 67 Ban'nook-burn, Hatilo or 71 Bar'net, Battle 01' 110 Beoket, Thomas a 40, 50 Bode 19 Bel'glum -'77 Bonevolenee ill, 198, 188 Bengal (bruguwl 1 ) 999 Hill of Rights 998 Blaok Death 84 Black Hula of Calcutta 240 Blaok Prince 76, 77, s;> Blake, Admiral 199 Blenheim (6/e»»'a/m«), B.iUlo of... 984 Bloody Assise 2jo Bloody Statute in Bluchor (b.oo'ktr). General 966 Boadioe a. Queen u Bo'na-parte, Napoleon ... 981, jm, j»fl Bo na-parte, Louis Napoleon 881 Boston 187 Boston Port Bill SOU Bos'worth, Battle of in Both' well, Barl of lei Boyne, Battle of the 2M Bretigny (i:rttctnyt) 78 Bright, John 980 British Constitution 230 British Bmpirt 10 British Government 300 Brougham (oroo'om), Lord 980 Bruoe, Robert 07, 6;> Brus'sels J77 Buok'lng-ham, Duke of 117 Bun'yan, John 215 Bui goyno', General 256 Burgundy, Duchess of 198 By'ron, 1 ord 275 Ca-bal'. The 214 Oablnej 800 Cab'otB 127 Cade, .lack 104 UaVsar, fulliis 1.1 Calais (kiW is) 70, 152 Cal-out'ta 249 Campbell. Sir Col'ln 2!»;i ( lampeg'glo 188 Oa-rao'tA-ous 11 Car-nat'lo 949 Car'o-lino Of Brunswick 275 Cath'e-rine of AWra-gon l;>o, 135 Catherine of Bra-gan'ia 948 Catherine Howard 145 Catherine ran- us Catholic Associations 273 Cathollo Emancipation Bill 273 Cavallera 191 Cavalier Parliament 911 Cawnpore' ma Cazton, William 127 Chancery, Court of f>i>, :;o3 Charles Edward, the Pretender.. 244 Chartists 989,988 Chaucer (eAoWser) 87 Chev'y Chase 87 China, War with . 2$a Chivalry 30, 82 Church ofSngland 140, 154 Churchill, Lord -24, 2J4, 438 Clive, Robert 249 Cob'den, Richard ISO Columbus 198 Common Prayer, Book o( 143 Commonwealth 19(> Compur K»'iiou 641 318 INDEX. Constitution, British 830 Constitutions of Clarendon 49 Convention, Parliament 210 Corn-Laws 261,251 Corn-wallis, Lord 257 Corporation Act 211, 272 Court oi High Commission... 185, 186, 190 Court of Star Chamber.. ..185, 1ST, l!)0 Covenanters 188,212 Cranmer, 1 nomas . . . 135, 115, 117, 151 Cressy (kres'se), Battle of 76 Crl-me'a 2:'0 Cromwell, Thomas 144, 115 Cromwell, Oliver 192,200 Cromwell, Richard 206 Crusaded 3S Cul-lo'den, Battle of 211 Cumberland, Duke oi 280 Cur'tew Bell 31,42 Dane'geld 24 Darn'ley, Lord li;o "Decrees" of Napoleon 268 Declarat ion of lndu Igeuce 223 De-i'ra.. •••.•••«...•..... 10 32 De Kuvter (rifter) .*..*.".'. 199 Det'ting-en, Battleof j i3 Dooms'day Book 34 Drake, Sir Francis 165,166 Pru'idism 12 Dun'bar, Battles of 67, L97 Dun'kirk 203, 214 Du Quesne (A - ane\ Fort 246 East India Company 248, 294 Edgehill, Battle of 192 Education Bill 286 Egypt 287 El'ba, Island of. 254 Eleanor, [sister of Arthur] 57 Elgi'-va 24 El'i-ot, Sir John 182 Elizabeth, Queen of Henry VII... 119 Empson and Dudley 131 Eu-nis-kil'len 228 E-ras'mus 1*8, 136 Eugene, Priuce 234 Evesham„Battl6 of — 65 Falkirk 6S Feudal System 33 Field oi Cloth of Gold 132 Fire ot London 213 Fisher, Bishop 141 Flod'den Field, Battle oi 132 Fotu'er-iu-gay Castle 163 French Revolution 257 Fro'bish-er, Martin 164,167 Gaa'ooigne (-koin). Chief Justice. '04 Gaves-ton Biers 70 George, Prince of Denmark.. — 237 Ghent, Treaty of.. 269 Gibraltar (jib'-rawl'ter) .... 257 Glendower, Owen 92 Godwin 9.) Grand Alliance 227 Grand Alliance, Second 232 Greece 274 Qroy, Lord -. 116 Grey, Lady Jane 132. 148. US Grouchy fgroo BfteJ, Marshal.. •• 265 Guiana (ghe-ah nah) 178 Guise (y u-cez). Duke ol — 153 Gunpowder Plot 172 Guth'rum • 22 Guy Faw kea 172 Ha'be-aa Cor'pus Act 217 Halidon Hill, B.ittle of 76 Hampden, John 187, 192 Hanover 2-0 HarfLeur (liur'tfur) 9; Hastings, Battle oi 30 Hastings, Lord nt; Hastings. Warren 282 Hav'e-lock. General 292 Bawke, Admiral 218 Ilaw'kins, Admiral 164, 167 Hen'gistand Horsa 16 Henrietta Maria 177, 182 Heptarchy 18 High Court of Justice 19S Hong Kong 288 House of Commons 6!, f House of Lords 81, Howard, Lord 1H7 Huguenots [hu'ghe-nots) 182 Hundred Fears' War 97 Independents ■ 192 India 21S impressment of Seamen 267 Ink'er-man, Battle of. 291 Interdict 57.58 Invincible Armada 166 Irish Churcb 28"> Irish Land Bill.... 286 Isabella, Queen 72,74.76 Jac'o-bites 238 Jamestown 173 Jane Seymour 115 Jeffries, Judge 220, 221 Jews 53,69,202,285 Joan of Arc 100 John of Gaunt 124 Joint High Commission 2;t6 Judiciary System 50 Judiciary Department 303 Judgment of God 51 King's Evil 29 Kirke's Lambs 220 LaHogue (fidg), Battle of 229 Langside, Battleof 162 Lang'tou, Stephen 57, 61 Lat'i-mer, Bishop 151 Laud, Archbisho] — 185, 190 Leicester (ies**er), Karl 01 165 Loiyisio (lipe'sik). Battleof. 264 Lew 'os (lu'-is), Battleof 64 Lexington, Battleof 252 Limoges, (2ee-t»08&'J 65 Llew ei'lvn 65 Lochlev'en Castle ifti Lollards !)6 Londonderry 223 Long Parliament 189 : t; Louis XIV. of France 257 Louis XT. of Franco 208 INDEX. 319 Lords XVI. of France 258 Louis XVIII. of France 2(U Louis Philippe (loo'efe-leep 1 ) 276 Lonlsbnrg 243 Luck'-now 292,2!i3 Lather, Martin 138 Magna < harta 5!) MaFa-koff B91 Malplaquot (mul pl3 Navarino (n'.M CJLRDINAl DATES' OF BKQLI8H uisvokt. i;n Qsorg* It i:i> Of the tldei Pretender* it II Septfl v 17J? GtoOfgS II. tit] W ■ Ol I 10 Austrian Succession, wo Landing Of I •■. 'Pretender, 11 10 Battle of Cttllo \;is Peaoe of llx«la«Ch ipolle i id Indian. 01 Seven Years'. W • ,:>..i Battle of Qae ' I 111. 1769 l7lV . S ■ Lot, it: i Boston Port Bill, itt> Battle of i os l 7 7 1 ; I?:: Surrender of Burg Saratoga it' Wilha-n IV. 133 '.7. ,s;i Ibolition Of Slavery in the Colonies. ivjt Victoria. istt^ Repeal of the Oorn Laws. ism The Crimean War. is.-.t [In Sepoy Rebellion. IMS !'he government Of India assumed by the Crown iati Death of Pi wt, i<(V.» Disestablishment ot* the Irish Ohureh. 1870 i'he Education Bill.