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VIC-TO-RY OR WEST-MIN-STER AB-BEY," 
 
HISTORY OF ENGLAND 
 
 IN WORDS OF ONE SYLLABLE 
 
 BY 
 
 MRS. HELEN IF. PIERSON 
 
 AUTHOR OF "A HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES IN WORDS OF ONE SYLLABLE.' 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 OCT 2. 
 
 NEW YORK : 
 
 GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS 
 
 9 Lafayette Place 
 
IN UNIFOPvM STYLE, 
 Words of One Syllable. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 HISTORY OF EiYGLAXB, 
 HISTORY OF FRANCE, 
 HISTORY OF GERMANY, 
 HISTORY OF UNITED STATES. 
 
 GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS, 
 
 g Lafayette Place, New York 
 
 
 [THE LIBRARY I 
 OF CONGRESS] 
 
 WASHINGTON; 
 
 Copyright, 1883, 
 Bv Joseph L. Blamire. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 ^ CHAPTER I. 
 
 En-gland in the Old Times, 9 
 
 ^ CHAPTER H. 
 
 When the Sax-ons Came, i8 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 Al-fred the Great, 27 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 The Six Boy Kings, . . . •. 35 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Can-ute and the Dan-ish Kings, 44 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 WiL-LiAM The Con-quer-or, 52 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Hen-ry I., -59 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 RiCH-ARD I. Li-on Heart, . .69 
 
8 Contents. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 Ed-ward I , .... 82 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 Ed-ward H., . 87 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Hard Times, 95 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 HeN-RY v., of MON-MOUTH, 100 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 War of the Ros-es, - .112 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 Hen-ry VIII 122 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 Ma-ry, 131 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 E-liz-a-beth, 140 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 James I., 156 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 Charles I., 160 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 James II., 180 
 
Contents. 9 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 1 86 
 Queen Anne and the Geor-ges, 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 George HI., ' ' 
 
 CHAPTER XXn. 
 
 . . • 208 
 George IV., 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 214 
 
 ViC-TO-RI-A, 
 
History of England. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ENGLAND IN THE OLD TIMES. 
 
 If you will look on the map of the world you will 
 find far up at the left of the west half of it two isles 
 that lie in the sea. The large isle is known now as 
 En-gland and Scot-land ; the small one is Ire-land. 
 In the old times these isles lay there as they do 
 now, with the wild sea round them. The men who 
 had their homes there knew nauo^ht of the rest of 
 the world and none knew of them. The storms of 
 years beat on the high white cliffs, and the wild beasts 
 had their lairs in the woods, and the birds built in 
 trees or reeds with no one to fright them. A laree 
 part of the land was in woods and swamps. There 
 were no roads, no streets, not a bridge or a house to 
 be seen. The homes of these wild tribes were mere 
 huts with roofs of straw. They hid them in thick 
 woods, and made a ditch round them and a low wall 
 of mud or the trunks of trees. They ate the flesh 
 of their flocks for food, for they did not know how 
 to raise corn or wheat. They knew how to weave 
 
12 History of England. 
 
 the reeds that grew in their swamps, and tney could 
 make a coarse kind of cloth, and a rude sort of ware 
 out of the clay of the earth. From their rush w^ork 
 they made boats, and put the skins of beasts on 
 them to make them tight and strong. They had 
 swords made from tin and a red ore. But these 
 swords were of a queer shape and so soft that they 
 could be bent with a hard blow. They had shields 
 and spears. These spears they could jerk back by 
 a long strip of the skin of some beast when they 
 had thrown them at the foe. On the butt end of 
 their spears was a thing that made a noise to scare 
 the steeds of their foes. A group of their huts 
 made a town. Their beds were made of skins of 
 wild beasts, spread on dry grass or leaves. Bowls 
 of wood held their meat, and they drank out of cups 
 of wood or from the rude bowls of earth, such as 
 are shown to this day, or from cows' horns. In the 
 cold months these men wore the skins of wild 
 beasts for warmth. In the warm days they put on 
 a coat of paint for clothes, which must have been 
 cool and light. They were fond of a fine blue that 
 they made from a plant known as woad which grew 
 in their woods. When clad in a suit of this none 
 could say that their clothes did not fit them. Their 
 food was beef and deer, hares and wild birds, and 
 all that they could hunt or shoot. They had 
 
Ens'land in the Old Times. 
 
 <b 
 
 milk to drink, and knew how to make cheese. 
 They were brave in war, and all cut up in small 
 tribes, each of which had a king. 
 
 Of course they knew how to fight, as all wild 
 tribes do. They were fond of the horse and knew 
 how to break him in and train him. In their fights 
 they taught their steeds to stand still in all the din 
 ancl noise. They had a strange sort of war car in 
 which they drove to the fights. Each 
 of these held one man to drive and 
 three to fight. The steeds that drew 
 them had been taught so well that they 
 would dash on the rough stones or 
 through the woods and tread down the 
 foe with their hoofs. There were war car. 
 
 sharp blades of swords like scythes that stuck out 
 from the wheels of these war cars on all sides. 
 These would cut down all in their way. Then the 
 steeds would stop while at full speed at a word from 
 the one who drove them, and the men would leap 
 down and deal out blows like hail with their swords, 
 spring back to the car, and the steeds would rush 
 off once more. The old Brit-ons had not heard of 
 the true God, but they had a faith of their own. 
 They felt as all men do, that there must be a God 
 some where, and as they found that the oak tree 
 was one of the best trees in the wood, they thought 
 
14 History of England. 
 
 God might be there. So they chose men to be their 
 priests and to ask the gods to help them in the 
 shade of the oaks. These priests were known as 
 Dru-ids. They had long white beards, and had 
 fine white robes. 
 
 They made the folks think that they were wnse 
 and had strange might. They wore what they 
 said was a snake's egg in a gold case round their 
 necks, and the folks thought they could work 
 charms. They did know some cures for the sick, 
 made from plants that grew in the woods, and 
 they could make salves for burns or cuts. They 
 would not teach the folks how to use these things, 
 for they held them in this way. The folks gave 
 the Dru-ids part of all they had, of food, or skins 
 of beasts, or paint, or tin, for the cures they made. 
 There is an odd plant which does not grow on 
 the ground but on the branch of a tree. It has 
 a small white fruit. When this was found on an 
 oak tree and the fruit was ripe, the Dru-ids would 
 make a great feast and all the folks would come 
 to it. Then the most old of the Dru-id priests, 
 all clad in white, with a white band round his head, 
 would take a gold knife and go up to the trees 
 where this plant grew and cut it down, while the 
 rest sang songs. But all their rites were not so 
 free from blame as this one, for it is known that 
 
England in the Old Times. 15 
 
 they would slay men at times, or put men and 
 beasts in one cage and burn them. 
 
 These Dru-ids gave laws to the kings, and in fact 
 had the real strength and rule. No one could write 
 in those days, and the Dru-ids made songs on what 
 took place and taught them to the youth of the land. 
 Those who made the songs had the name of Bards. 
 
 These Dru-ids built great piles of stones, where 
 they held their rites, parts of which are seen at this 
 day. The one known as Stone-henge is the most 
 huge and strange. The blocks are so large that we 
 can not see how they were put there. Men could 
 not move them, and in those days they had not the 
 means that we have now to lift up such a mass of 
 stone. 
 
 At this time, while the Brit-ons were in such a 
 wild state, there was a race by the name of Ro- 
 mans, who knew a great deal. They were so wise 
 and brave that they had made the whole of the 
 known world their own. They had a chief by the 
 name of Ju-li-us Cae-sar, who heard in Gaul a great 
 deal of the land with the white cliffs and of the 
 brave tribes who dwelt there. So he thouo^ht he 
 would just go and win Brit-on with the rest. He 
 set sail with a fleet of ships and a host of men. 
 He thought he could make short work of it, but he 
 did not find it so light a task. For the Brit-ons 
 
i6 
 
 History of England. 
 
 w'ere as brave and bold then as now, and they 
 fouQ^ht so well that Cae-sar was orlad to make terms 
 with them and go home, much more wise than 
 when he came. The Ro-mans had found out that 
 
 the Brit-ons were 
 strong and well 
 made, and that the 
 land was fine, and 
 that tin and rich ore 
 lay in it. They saw 
 two shells by the 
 sea side in which 
 were the round 
 
 ;Ro^ white things which 
 we call pearls. Of 
 course they told 
 tales at home of all 
 Cj^ they had seen, and 
 the folks there 
 thought it would 
 be a grand thing to 
 get that land and 
 make slaves of its 
 folks and have all 
 the tin and gold and pearls, and all the rest of the 
 good things to take to Rome. So in the spring 
 Ju-li-us Cae-sar made a start once more for Brit-ain. 
 
 IN-VA-SION OF EN-GLAND. 
 
England in the Old Times. ij 
 
 He brought more men and more ships, but though 
 the Brit-ons had such poor clothes and bad arms, 
 they fought long and well ere they would give up a 
 rood of their land. At last, when the Ro-mans 
 had won a part of the land, they had to build strong 
 walls to keep it. The Brit-ons chose a chief who 
 led them well, and as Na-po-le-on said of them, they 
 did not know when they were beat, for they rose 
 and fought and fought, and fell with their swords in 
 their hands. There was one brave chief of the 
 Brit-ons by the name of Car-ac-ta-tus who fought the 
 Ro-mans in North Wales. But he lost the day, 
 and the foe took him and his wife and all his kin in 
 chains to Rome. As they led him through the 
 streets of Rome he had the air of a king, and the 
 folks there felt their hearts o^row kind at the si^ht. 
 So he was freed at last with all his dear ones, and 
 we hear no more of him. 
 
 But the Ro-mans won at last, and they made the 
 Brit-ons serve them. They made them cut down 
 the great trees and plant corn and dig the rich ores 
 out of the earth, or fish in the seas to find pearls for 
 the orrand Ro-man dames. But though the race 
 were ground down for a time they had a chance to 
 learn much from the Ro-mans. As they had to 
 work for them and help them build, they found out 
 that a house of stone or brick was more stronof than 
 
1 8 History of England. 
 
 their old huts. They found out, too, how to spin 
 and weave the wool that grew on their sheep, and 
 so they could have clothes to wear, and not coats of 
 paint. They saw the corn made into bread and 
 learnt to like it, and they found that they could 
 raise all sorts of good things from the ground if they 
 would go to work and plant seeds and roots. But 
 more than all the rest, the Ro-mans built schools 
 and had men to teach the young ones how to read 
 and write. In time some good men came in the 
 Ro-man ships and taught the folk to serve the true 
 God, and that they must love Him and make His 
 word the law of their lives. The Dru-ids did all 
 they could to put down this new faith, but in vain. 
 The folk found out that all went on just as well, 
 though the Dru-ids might curse them in their wrath. 
 So they lost faith in the Dru-ids and in the oaks 
 and the plant that creeps on it. More than one 
 church was built where the folk learnt to pray to God. 
 
 CHAPTER H. 
 
 WHEN THE SAXONS CAME. 
 
 When the Ro-mans came to Eng-land Lon-don 
 was a mere group of huts. The Romans cut down 
 the trees and built fine homes to live in, and a place 
 
Whc7i the Saxo7is Came. 
 
 19 
 
 where men could buy and sell. Then, of course, 
 coin came in use. They built, too, a good wall round 
 the town of brick and stone, and a high strong place 
 by the name of a tow-er, which could be made 
 safe to hold what was put in it. In times of war 
 they put their wives and maids and young ones in 
 this tow-er. 
 
 There were more towns which the Ro-mans made 
 fine. Bath was one of them. In Bath there are 
 springs that are said to be good for those who are 
 ill. So the Ro-mans built fine baths, and more than 
 one grand house, where they could live and bathe, 
 and drink from the springs. In York they built 
 some schools. To this day things are found that 
 the Ro-mans left in Brit-on. 
 ground to build a house they 
 some-times find old coins all 
 rust, or bits of the plates 
 from which the Ro-mans ate. 
 At times a man will turn up 
 with his plow a bit of the 
 old Ro-man tiles that they had to pave the streets. 
 Walls still are found that the Ro-mans made, and 
 old spear heads, and mounds where the dead Brit- 
 ons were laid to rest. On the bleak moors of 
 North-um-ber-land there is a long low wall, half hid 
 in moss and weeds. That is the wall of Se-ver-us ; 
 
 When men dig in the 
 
 BRIT-ISH COIN. 
 
20 History of England. 
 
 and Stone-henge still stands on Sal-is-bu-ry Plain. 
 At last the Ro-mans had to go home to take care 
 of their own land. As soon as they were gone, 
 the Picts and Scots came down on the folk in a 
 swarm by land, and the Sax-ons by sea. The 
 Brit-ons were in such hard straits that they sent 
 word to the Ro-mans to beg them to come back and 
 help them. They said : " The wild tribes chase us 
 to the sea, and the sea throws us back on them, so 
 that we have but the hard choice left us, to die by 
 the sword or by the waves." But just at that time 
 the foes of Rome were fierce and strong, and they 
 could give no help. At last the Brit-ons thought 
 the best plan would be to make peace with the 
 Sax-ons and get them to help drive out the Picts 
 and Scots. The prince who thought of this plan 
 was Vor-ti-ge-ra, and he made friends with Hen-gist 
 and Hor-sa, two chiefs who led the Sax-ons. Both 
 these names, in the old Sax-on tongue, mean horse. 
 It was the way of the Sax-ons to give men such 
 names as Horse, Wolf, Bear and Hound. So as 
 Hen-gist and Hor-sa drove out the Picts and Scots 
 the folks had to let them stay and bring their 
 friends. Hen-gist had a child, a fair girl by the 
 name of Row-e-na, who won the heart of Vor-ti-ge-ra. 
 She gave him wine in a cup of gold at one of the 
 feasts, and said in such a sweet voice, "Dear king, 
 
When the Saxons Came. 
 
 21 
 
 thy health," that he was won at once. He made 
 her his wife, and she kept him the friend of the 
 Sax-ons. We would not know much of those days 
 save for the tales and songs of the old bards who 
 went from house to house at the feasts. They sang 
 of a bold king Arthur, who had some friends by the 
 name of Knights, and how well they fought the 
 
 VOR-TI-GE-RA AT THE FEAST. 
 
 Sax-ons, and how they kept part of their land from 
 them for years. 
 
 The Sax-ons brought in more and more of their 
 friends, and took more and more land from the 
 Brit-ons, and went on to crowd them out, till the poor 
 folks had to live in Wales and the lands round it. 
 The Sax-ons did not know the true God, and for a 
 
2 2 History of England. 
 
 long time they staid in this new land, and did 
 not learn the Christ-ian faith. They were tall 
 with fair hair and blue eyes, kind to their friends 
 and fierce to their foes. They were known as 
 Sax-ons, but their real name was An-gles, and 
 the land took that name An-gle-land or En- 
 Hand. From them came the En-Q^lish race and 
 tongue. The old Brit-ons who had TOne into 
 Wales still talk their own tongue. The En-glish 
 call it Welsh. 
 
 The Sax-ons who had most of Brit-ain in their 
 hands had all sorts of gods. The chief of these 
 were Wo-den and Thor. Thor meant thun-der. 
 When they heard the great crash of a storm, and 
 the fierce light leaped in the sky, they thought that 
 Thor had struck a blow. They thought that their 
 gods kept the best place in the skies for the brave 
 who fell in a fight, and they did not well care for 
 acts of love, but all their aim was to fight, They 
 (lid all sorts of wrong things, and were not kind to 
 the poor. One of their worst acts was to steal the 
 young and send them to Rome to be sold as slaves. 
 But God brought good out of this great wrong. 
 One day when some girls and boys were set out in 
 the place in Rome where slaves were bought and 
 sold a good priest by the name of Greg-o-ry went by. 
 He saw the poor young things, so fair, with their 
 
When the Saxons Came. 23 
 
 blue eyes and long light hair, and the sight made 
 him sad. 
 
 " Who are they?" he said. 
 
 *' An-gles, from the isle of Brit-on." 
 
 ''An-gles!" said the good priest, ''say An-gels, 
 for they look fit to be the heirs of light." When he 
 found that these poor things knew naught of the 
 true God his heart was full of grief. He sought to 
 find out a way to send men to En-gland to teach 
 the faith of the Christ-ian. He was glad when he 
 heard that one of the chief En-glish kings had wed 
 a prin-cess from Par-is who was .a Chris-tian, and 
 that a priest had gone with her to her new home, 
 and a church had been built. 
 
 Greg-o-ry then sent a priest by the name of Au-gus- 
 tine to the king and queen, and they with a crowd 
 of folks met them at a tree in Can-ter-bu-ry, and 
 heard him preach of the true God. In time the 
 king and his court gave up Wo-den and Thor, and 
 on that same ground where they met that day now 
 stands the grand church of Can-ter-bu-ry. Se-bert, 
 one of the king's near kin, built on a bit of marsh 
 near Lon-don a church where now stands West-min- 
 ster Ab-bey, and one where St. Paul's stands now. 
 When this king was dead Ed-win, king of North- 
 um-bri-a, who was so good and had such a firm 
 rule that it was said a child mig^ht eo throug^h his 
 
24 History of England. 
 
 realm with a purse of gold and be safe, thought 
 that it would be best for his land if all had the 
 Christ-ian faith. He sent out to call in the folk 
 from all parts to hear the truth. One of the priests 
 ! ^ of the old creed 
 
 spoke for the new, 
 for he said he had 
 found out that the 
 old gods were 
 frauds. " Look at 
 me," he said, '' I 
 have sought to 
 serve them all my 
 life and they have 
 done naught for me. 
 If they had the 
 might they would 
 sure have had the 
 grace to have made 
 me rich, to pay for 
 all I have done for 
 them." At the end 
 of this odd speech 
 the priest rode off 
 and threw his lance at the place where he had so 
 oft plead for the rites of false gods. 
 
 DE-FY-ING THE I-DOLS. 
 
 So in the course of time all 
 
 the En-glish left 
 
When the Saxons Came. 25 
 
 their false gods and learned the Christ-ian faith. The 
 next prince of fame was Eg-bert. He laid claim to 
 the throne of Wes-sex. The king of Wes-sex had 
 a wife, Queen Ed-buya, who had a way by which 
 she dealt out death to those whom 
 she did not like. She would mix 
 some drug in a cup and give it to 
 her foe to drink. Once by chance 
 the king drank too, and at his com of eg-bert. 
 death the folk rose in great wrath and drove her out 
 of the land. When years had flown men said that 
 in the 'streets of Rome they had seen one in rags 
 who sought to beg her bread. They could see that 
 she had once been fair, and some knew that poor 
 wretch who had not a place to lay her head had 
 once been En-gland's queen. 
 
 So En-gland grew to be a Christ-ian land, but the 
 folk were still rude and rough. The men had not 
 much love for aught but the hunt or a feast. They 
 wore a lono^ dress like the smock of men who now 
 drive carts, and wound strips of cloth on their legs 
 for warmth. A house in those days was all on the 
 ground floor, and had a hole in the roof for the 
 smoke to go out. There was no glass in the land 
 save some that had been brought from It-a-ly for 
 the church in York, and it was thought a great 
 prize. When it was time to dine the folk sat on 
 
26 History of England, 
 
 stools with cross legs, or on a bench of wood. They 
 had square bits of wood for plates, and then the 
 meat was brought to them on spits. Each one cut 
 off a piece with his own knife. They had no forks, 
 and they drank out of cows' horns or rude cups. 
 Straw was laid on the floor, and from time to time 
 fresh straw was put on top of the old. 
 
 I-na was one of the kings in the part of En-gland 
 then known as Wes-sex. He had the wish to have 
 his folks learn, and old books say that he went from 
 house to house to get pence to send to Rome. 
 These were to pay for a school there where he could 
 send the young men. For at that time all the men 
 who knew much of books were in Rome. These 
 pence came to be known as " Pe-ter s Pence." So 
 some of the young men from En-gland went to Rome 
 to school, and they were taught to read and to write 
 and to count. They could paint, too, in books, as 
 was the mode then, and they knew how to sing and 
 play on the harp. When they came home they 
 taught the folks what they knew, and were their 
 priests. They took care of the poor and were kind 
 to the sick. Then the kings gave them gold and 
 lands, so that they might keep up the schools and 
 all their good works. In this way the church grew 
 to own much land. 
 
Alfred the Great. 27 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ALFRED THE GREAT. 
 
 New foes rose at this time, who came from the 
 North, and were known as North-men, or Danes. 
 They were at home on the sea, and were fierce and 
 hard. They came in ships and burst down the huts 
 of the folks and stole all they could in each place 
 where they made out to land. The Sax-ons had by 
 this time learned a great deal. They had made good 
 laws, so that a man felt as safe in his own house as 
 in a fort, for none could do him harm and not pay 
 for it in some way. There were men put in each 
 part of the land to hold courts and find out the 
 truth when a crime was done. If they could not 
 prove the crime in a clear way, or how it was done, 
 the man was let off free. At times the judge would 
 call in twelve men who knew the facts and see what 
 they thought. This is not the way we do in our 
 day, for now they try to find men who do not know 
 the facts, or if they have heard them have not made 
 up their minds and have no thoughts on the case. 
 When a kino: thouo^ht he would like to chano^e the 
 old laws or make new ones, he would call all these 
 men whom he had put at the head of things in 
 
28 History of England. 
 
 his land, and the folks of the towns, and let them 
 hear what the new law was like, and if they said that 
 it was good and right it was made a law. But if they 
 said no, it was not kept as a law. In time the 
 folks of a town chose three or four men to go at such 
 times to hear what the new law was to be, and they 
 told them what to say. Then the mass of them 
 could stay at home and mind the plow and the trade 
 and the shops. 
 
 When the king and these men met in one place 
 to talk of the laws, they gave the place a name which 
 meant where wise men meet. It was like what is 
 now known as '' Par-lia-ment," where they talk of 
 the laws ere they are made. 
 
 As I have told you, the Danes were fierce foes 
 at this time, and burned the towns and stole all they 
 could find. But a wise and good king, whose name 
 was Al-fred, came to the throne in En-gland, and in 
 time he freed his land from these bold men. 
 
 King Al-fred, like most men who grow up to be 
 of use in the world, was the son of a good dame. 
 Though he was a prince, he had not yet learned 
 to read when he was twelve years old. There 
 were no books in print in those days, for that art 
 had not been found out. Men wrote the books, 
 and some of them were done in fine style, and 
 were rich in brii^ht tints and o-old. The Oueen 
 
Alfred the Great. 29 
 
 read some Sax-on songs from one of these books one 
 day to her boys, and they all said they would like 
 to have that book for their own. The Oueen said: 
 'T will give to that one of you four who first learns 
 to read." Al-fred went at once to seek some one to 
 
 AL-FRED AND HIS MOTH-ER. 
 
 teach him, and in a short time he won the book. 
 He kept it all his life and learned the old songs by 
 heart. 
 
 In the first year of his reign he fought nine times 
 with the Danes. At times he made peace with 
 them, and they would swear that they would not 
 come back. But they did not care for their oaths, 
 and would come back all the same as soon as they 
 
30 History of England. 
 
 saw a good chance to fight and burn. Once in the 
 fourth year of King Al-fred's reign they spread out 
 through the whole of En-gland, and were so strong 
 that the king's men took flight and left him. He 
 had to hide in the hut of a cow-herd who did not 
 know his face. 
 
 He staid in this hut some time, and his friends 
 went to see him now and then to tell him how 
 things went on and to beg him to stay there till 
 they got men to fight the Danes. 
 
 The cow-herd's wife thought this strange man 
 ought to help her with her work, as he ate her 
 bread. So one day she left him to watch some 
 cakes which she put to bake on the hearth. The 
 king, whose mind was full of the woes of his folk 
 and plans to get rid of the Danes, did not think of 
 the cakes. So when the dame came back they were 
 all burned, and she was in a great rage. "What!" 
 she said, "you will be glad to eat them by and by, 
 yet you could not watch them." She did not think 
 that she spoke to a king. But just then the cow- 
 herd came in with some of King Al-fred's friends, 
 who told him that there had been a fight and that 
 the Danes had fled from that part of the land, so 
 that he might now leave the hut and take his place 
 as king. 
 
 You may think that the wife of the cow-herd felt 
 
AL-FRED THE GREAT AND THE LOAVES. 
 
32 History of England. 
 
 great shame at the harsh words she had said to her 
 king. But he had a kind heart and told her if she 
 would think no more of her burned cakes, he would 
 not keep in his mind her hard words, and he gave 
 the poor folks thanks that they had let him stay so 
 lono- with them. 
 
 Then King Al-fred went forth to have a great 
 fiorht with the Danes to teach them to leave En- 
 gland in peace. But first it was thought best to find 
 out how strong they were, and as King Al-fred 
 knew how to play on the harp well and to sing, he 
 put on the dress of a glee man and went to their 
 camp. He took his harp and sang his songs in the 
 tent of Guth-run, who led the Danes. But all the 
 time he sang he kept watch of all that went on. 
 He saw their tents, their arms and much more that 
 was of use to him. Then he set out at the head of 
 the En-glish troops, and put the foe to rout. He 
 laid siege to them for two weeks, and hosts were 
 slain. But he was good as well as brave, for he did 
 not kill them all, as he might have done. He said 
 if they would leave the west part of En-gland they 
 might have land and make homes in the east. But 
 they must be Christ-ians, and keep the laws of the 
 land. Guth-run said he would do so, and he kept 
 his word, and all his Danes did the same. They 
 burned and stole no more, but learned to plow and 
 
Alfred the Great. 
 
 Z2> 
 
 SOW and reap and lead good lives. And in time 
 they took Sax-on girls for wives. 
 
 But all the Danes were not so good as those led 
 by Guth-run. There was one bold man who came 
 with four score of ships up the Thames, and there 
 was a plague in the land, too, and food was scarce. 
 But King Al-fred had a stout heart. He thought 
 the best way to keep off the foe was to build ships 
 as good as theirs, and go and meet them on the sea 
 and fight them there. So he built scores of good 
 ships, and he was the first King of En-gland who 
 had fleets of his own. He was as great in peace as 
 he was in war, and he made up his mind that all 
 the young folks in his realm should have a chance 
 to learn to read and write. So he would talk with 
 wise men from far lands and write down what they 
 told him, so that his folk could read it. He learned 
 strange tongues, so that he might write the books 
 out in En-glish which were in 
 them. He made good laws, so 
 that all might feel safe, and he 
 was so hard on thieves that it 
 was said in his reign that gold 
 chains or strings of gems might 
 have been hung in the streets and none would 
 touch them. He built schools and sent to It-a-ly 
 for books and things that the En-glish did not 
 
 COIN OF AL-FRED. 
 
34 History of England. 
 
 then know how to make at home. And he sent ships 
 to Rus-sia to find if they had things which would 
 be of use in his realm. It was the great wish of 
 his heart to do right in all things, and to leave the 
 folks of his land more good and wise than he found 
 them. He had a time in each day for each task, 
 and as there were no clocks then he had to make a 
 way of his own to tell the time. He had a sort of 
 wax torch made and put in packs of the same size. 
 These he made out to notch in such a way that as 
 they burned down he could tell how the hours went. 
 But as a draught would blow them out the king 
 had each set in a case made of wood and white 
 horn. Do you know the name of a light that is set 
 in a case in these days ? 
 
 All this time the good King Al-fred was far 
 from well, but he bore his pains like a brave man. 
 When death took him his whole land was full of 
 grief, and his name has been kept in the hearts of 
 the folks of En-gland as one of her best and most 
 wise kings. 
 
 As soon as King Al-fred was dead his son 
 Ed-ward came to the throne, and he found he had 
 a great deal to do, for the Danes felt that now there 
 might be a chance to get more of En-gland But 
 though Ed-ward was not so great as Al-fred he 
 fought well, and the Danes fled and left the land in 
 
The Six Boy Kings. 35 
 
 peace for a long time. In the end En-gland was 
 made one, with one Sax-on king. By this time 
 there was a great change in the ways of its folk. 
 Their homes were no more huts, but built well, and 
 they had chairs and beds, and all sorts of things. 
 On the walls of the rich, silk was hung, with fine 
 work on it — birds, or leaves, or bright buds — done 
 by the wives or girls of the house. Knives and 
 spoons had come in use, and the folk ate from plates 
 of bone, or brass, or it might be gold. At a feast 
 there would be a harp on which all knew how to 
 play in those days. They would pass it from guest 
 to guest, and each one would sing and play when 
 his turn came. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE SIX BOY KINGS. 
 
 On the death of Ed-ward the son who came next 
 was A-thel-stane. He was a brave and wise man. 
 He knew that it was TOod for En-eland to have 
 ships to keep out the Danes and to bring in all the 
 things that they did not know how to make. So 
 he made a law that when a man built a ship and 
 
36 Histoiy of England. 
 
 went to sea three times in it he should have the 
 name of a Thane. This name would give him the 
 same rank as though he held lands. A-thel-stane 
 kept down the Danes and brought his own folks 
 in Wales and Corn-wall to a right mind, for they 
 were Brit-ons, you know, and did not quite like 
 the Saxon rule. 
 
 When A-thel-stane was dead Ed-ward, the first 
 of the six boy kings, came to the throne. He had 
 a short reign, and one full of strife with the Danes. 
 His life came to an end in this way. One night 
 when he was at a feast in his hall, he saw with 
 his guests a thief by the name of Leof, whom he 
 had once sent out of En-gland. He was in a rage 
 that the man should dare to come there, and he said : 
 *' There is a thief at this board, who for his crimes 
 was sent out of the land. He is a wolf, and it is 
 right for all to hunt him out. Send him forth at 
 once." *T will not go," said Leof. ''No?" said 
 the king. " No, by the Lord," said Leof. On that 
 the king rose from his seat and made a clutch at 
 the long hair of the thief to throw him down. But 
 the thief had a knife hid in his cloak and made a 
 stab at the king which was the cause of his death at 
 once. Then Leof set his back to the wall and 
 fought till the walls and floor were red with blood, 
 but he was slain at last. 
 
The Six Boy Kings. 37 
 
 The next boy king was Ed-red, who was weak 
 and sick, but had a strong mind. His troops 
 fought with the Danes and beat them for the time, 
 but his reign did not last long. 
 
 Then came the boy king Ed-wy, who had not 
 the real rule of the land, for that was in the hands 
 of a bold priest by the name of Dun-stan. This 
 man had a wish to make all do as he chose, 
 and he sought to rule the land. This did not 
 suit the king and his young wife at all times, and 
 so there was strife. Once when the young king 
 stole out from a feast to join his fair girl wife, 
 the priest sent for him and had men drag him 
 back by force, and said vile things to his sweet 
 young queen. The boy king kept all this in his 
 mind, and when he got a chance he brought a 
 charge that Dun-stan had kept some of the gold 
 of the last king. Dun-stan fled, but his friends 
 kept at work for him at home. O-do, a Dane, set 
 up young Ed-gar for king. Then he stole the 
 poor young queen from her home, had a brand 
 burned in her cheeks and sold her for a slave in 
 Ireland. But the good folks there felt sad for her, 
 and they said : '' We will cure her and send the poor 
 young thing back to the boy king." And so they 
 did cure her and sent her to join the king. But 
 that bad man Dun-stan, with his vile friend O-do, 
 
^S History of Ejigland. 
 
 laid in wait for her, and as she went on full of 
 joy at the thought that she would meet the king- 
 once more, they met her and she was hewn with 
 swords till she was left all cut and lame to die. 
 When Ed-wy, who was known as the " Fair," heard 
 of her sad fate it was said that his heart broke, 
 and so these two young lives came to an end. 
 
 The boy king, Ed-gar, was known as the Peace- 
 ful. He had to make friends with Dun-stan, or 
 you may be sure there would not have been peace. 
 He let Dun-stan have his own way in all things, so 
 this bad priest gave out that Ed-gar was the best of 
 kings. Church bells first came in use in his time. 
 King Ed-gar, though he was weak and did more 
 than one bad act, took good care of his land. He 
 went to all parts of it and had the ships kept in 
 good trim and new ones built. He sent men to 
 hunt the wolves and wild beasts that did so much 
 harm. And he made the kings of Scot-land and 
 Wales send him scores of wolves' heads each year 
 as a sort of tax. By this means Eng-land was freed 
 from wild beasts and men could sleep in peace. 
 
 When Ed-gar was dead his son Ed-ward was 
 made king, for he was the first born. But King 
 Ed-gar had been twice wed, so there was a young 
 boy, the son of his last wife. The bad queen 
 thought she would kill Ed-ward so that her child 
 
The Six Boy Kings. 
 
 39 
 
 micrht have the throne. 
 
 I will tell you how she did 
 it. Ed-ward was fond of the hunt, and one hot 
 day when he came from the chase he rode up to the 
 S^ate of the house where the bad Oueen El-fri-da 
 dwelt, to ask for a drink of wine. The Queen 
 brought it to him, but while he drank she made a 
 sign to one of her men to stab him in the back. 
 
 DEATH OF ED-WARD. 
 
 The King let fall the cup and put spurs to his horse 
 to ride off, but he soon grew faint with loss of blood 
 and fell to the ground. There they found him, his 
 fair young face torn with thorns and stones, and his 
 long curls full of mire and dirt — dead ! 
 
 The boy Eth-el-red, who had seen the young 
 
40 History of England. 
 
 king slain, is said to have wept at the sight, so that 
 the bad queen beat him with a torch in her rage. 
 He was the last of the boy kings and the folks did 
 not love him. They could not cease to think of the 
 crime that gave him the throne. But Dun-stan had 
 no one else to put on the throne so Eth-el-red was 
 made king. Dun-stan was old by this time, but 
 hard and stern as he had been all his life. He had 
 the rule still, as though he were king. The bad 
 Queen El-fri-da made her son do as she chose for a 
 time, but he grew to have a will of his own at last. 
 Then she left the court, and let us hope she saw 
 her sins in a true light. We know she built more 
 than one church, but we do not think she could 
 build out the sight of the fair boy whom she 
 had slain, with his bright curls dim with blood and 
 his young face torn by the stones. 
 
 In the tenth year of Eth-el-red's reign Dun-stan's 
 death came. They made him a saint, but we think 
 the king must have been glad to have been rid 
 of him. He was a weak king, and had the 
 name of the Un-read-y. The Danes found out 
 how weak he was, and one of them, by the 
 name of Sweyn, a son of the King of Den-mark, 
 came with a horde of men each year and took spoils 
 from the large towns. Eth-el-red gave these sea- 
 kings gold to coax them to go, but you may be sure 
 
The Six Boy Kings. 41 
 
 they came back for more. Each time he gave them 
 more and more, till he had to put a great tax on his 
 poor folks. Then, as they still came for more gold, 
 he thought it would be a good plan for him to take 
 a wife from some strong race who would lend him 
 men to fight for him. So he was wed with a fair 
 girl from Nor-man-dy. 
 
 In this reign was done a deed such as fills all 
 who have to speak or write of it with shame. The 
 king sent out word to all parts of his realm that at 
 a sign the folk should rise up and kill all the Danes, 
 men and their wives, the girls and the boys, the 
 babes at the breast — they must spare none. Of 
 course we know there were fierce, bad Danes who 
 had done great crimes, but there were good ones 
 too, who were Christ-ians, and led lives of peace, 
 and had wed En-glish wives. They were all slain. 
 They did not spare Gur-dil-da, who was the child 
 of a Dan-ish king, and had wed an En-glish lord. 
 Her lord was slain with her child in her sight, and 
 then they made an end of her too. When these 
 deeds of blood came to the ear of the sea king he 
 swore a great oath that he would make En-gland 
 pay for such crimes. He got a host of men and a 
 fleet such as had not been seen. In all his troops 
 there was not one slave or old man. Each man 
 was free and in the prime of life, and each swore 
 
42 History of England. 
 
 to do his best to wipe out In blood the great wrong 
 that had been done them. That fleet must have 
 been a grand sight. Each ship had its own flag, 
 with a beast or bird on it, and shields on the side 
 that shone in the sun. The ship that bore the flag 
 of the king had a great snake on it with coils cut 
 in the wood, and the king said he would trust his 
 gods no more if that snake did not strike its fangs 
 into En-gland's heart. 
 
 And so it did. The hosts of men went on shore 
 from the great fleet and took up their march 
 through the land. At each town they made the 
 Sax-ons give them a feast, and when they ate and 
 drank their fill they rose on their hosts and slew 
 them. For six years this went on. They burned 
 crops and barns and mills. They slew the men at 
 work in the fields, so that no seed could be sown. 
 They left heaps of burned stuff where they had 
 found rich towns. There was one brave man who 
 held out when the Danes laid siege to his town. 
 This was the Arch-bi-shop of Can-ter-bury. When 
 one of the men let in the foe through the gates, he 
 said in his chains: ''I will not buy my life with 
 gold wrung from the poor — do with me as you will ! " 
 
 The Danes had him brought to the feast hall 
 and said to him : " Now, bi-shop, we must have 
 gold." 
 
The Six Boy Kings. 43 
 
 He knew that his time was come, but he did not 
 flinch. 
 
 '' I have no gold," he said. 
 
 ''You must get it!" 
 
 '' I have told you I will not." 
 
 The crowd drew near with oaths and blows, but 
 he stood firm. They struck him with the great ox 
 bones from which they had torn the meat at their 
 feast, till at last one smote him dead with his ax. 
 
 Eth-el-red was not as brave as this good priest. 
 He paid more gold, a great sum, for the Danes to 
 go, but they came back the next year. The folks 
 of En-gland had by this time lost all faith in their 
 king, and all hope, so when Sweyn came once more 
 they were glad to see him. When the king fled 
 they made Sweyn king. 
 
 Yet when Sweyn's death came in a month from 
 the time he had been made king, they sent word to 
 Eth-el-red that they would have his son Ed-mund 
 for their king. But the Danes chose a king too, 
 and his name was Can-ute, so there was war once 
 more. The Sax-ons said they would not have 
 Can-ute to rule them. 
 
 The war did not end for three years, and then 
 the Un-ready came to his death. His son Ed- 
 mund did not live but two months, and then Can-ute 
 was sole King of En-gland. 
 
44 History of England. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 CANUTE AND THE DANISH KINGS. 
 
 Ca-nute was a wise man and did some good acts 
 in his reign, but he did not spare his foes. He 
 felt a fear of all who were kin to the late king and 
 had most of them slain. *'He who shall bring me 
 the head of one of my foes shall be dear to me as 
 my own blood," he said, and you may be sure there 
 were those who were swift to do his will. He sent 
 the two boys, the sons of Ed-mond, out of the land 
 to Swe-den. The King of Swe-den was a kind 
 man, and he brought them up with love and care. 
 
 Ca-nute wed the wife of the dead king, the fair 
 Nor-man girl, who did not seem to mourn for one 
 she had lost. As Ca-nute grew old he grew more 
 kind and did not shed blood as at first. He went 
 to Rome in a pil-grim's dress to pray for his sins. 
 He brought back some of the good laws of King 
 Al-fred's time, and built once more some of the 
 schools w^hich had been burnt in the war, and sent 
 some young men to Rome to learn in the schools 
 there. 
 
 A tale is told of King Ca-nute that as he took his 
 
Canute and the Danish Kings. 45 
 
 walk on the sea shore one day the lords of the court 
 sought to please him by praise. They told him 
 how great he was, and wise, and good, that the 
 winds and the waves must do as he said. Ca-nute 
 heard all this for some time, then he said : ''Bring 
 me a chair, I want to rest." He sat down on the 
 chair just where the tide would come in, and as the 
 waves crept on him more and more, he said to the 
 sea : '* I bid you not to let your waves wet my 
 feet." Of course the waves went on and rose so 
 high that the king was wet with them. Then he 
 stood up and said : ''Learn from what you see now 
 that there is no one great but God. He who made 
 the sea and holds it in His hand can tell it where 
 or when to stop." 
 
 Ca-nute left three sons, Sweyn, Har-old, and 
 Har-di-canute. The last was the child of his Nor- 
 man wife. He had been King of Den-mark and 
 Nor-way as well as Eng-land, and he left Eng-land 
 to Har-old. But the Sax-ons said they would have 
 Har-di-ca-nute for their king, or one of the sons of 
 the Un-read-y, who were in Nor-man-dy. You 
 know they were the sons, too, of Em-ma, the Nor- 
 man wife of Ca-nute. But she did not seem to care 
 for them. She gave all her love to Har-di-ca-nute, 
 her last born. So when Prince Ed-ward came with 
 some men to claim the crown, he found he had no 
 
46 History of England. 
 
 friend in her, and was glad to get back with his Hfe. 
 Prince Al-fred did not have as good luck, for in the 
 dead of night, when he and his men slept, they were 
 set on by the king's troops. They were then drawn 
 out in a line and slain, save each tenth man, who 
 was kept as a slave. Poor Prince Al-fred had his 
 clothes torn off and was bound fast to his horse and 
 sent out to the Isle of E-ly, where his eyes were 
 put out and death came to his help at last. 
 
 Har-old was king for four years. He was fond 
 of the hunt, and could run so fast that he was 
 known as Har-old Hare-foot. Har-di-ca-nute then 
 was king for a short time, and then came Ed-ward, 
 who was, as you know, a son of the Un-read-y. 
 He is known as the Con-fess-or, a name the monks 
 gave him. He was the tool of his friends, and 
 let bad men rule him. His home had been in 
 Nor-man-dy so long that he was more fond of that 
 land than he was of En-o^land. He broug^ht hosts 
 of Nor-man friends with him, and they saw what 
 a fair land En-gland was, good for corn and wheat, 
 and how the woods were full of deer, and there 
 was great wealth in the towns, so they thought 
 they would try and get this good place for their 
 duke when Ed-ward was dead. Their duke came 
 to see Ed-ward and to get him to say he would 
 leave the crown to him, as he had no son. 
 
Canute and the Six Danish Kings. 47 
 
 Now there was a young Prince by the name of 
 Ed-gar who was next of kin to Ed-ward, so that he 
 had no right to say that he would give his throne 
 to a Nor-man duke. The En-ghsh did not hke to 
 see the Nor-mans get all the best things, and to 
 hear the Nor-man tongue on all sides. 
 
 Ed-ward did one good thing in his reign. He 
 found the laws in a sad state. Some parts of the 
 land kept Danish law and some parts had the 
 Sax-on. So he had wise mento meet and read all 
 these laws and take the best and put them in one 
 book, so that all the folks could read and know 
 them and all have the same laws. 
 
 Ed-ward had made the child of Earl God-win 
 his wife, but though she was good, and fair, and kind, 
 he did not treat her with love. So the earl and his 
 sons did all they could to stir up the folks to strife, 
 and to make them hate the king and the Nor-mans 
 he had brought in. Then the king grew more and 
 more harsh with his wife, who had won the heart of 
 the folks by her kind ways. He took all her gold 
 and gems from her and sent her to a house where 
 the nuns dwelt, and left her with but one maid to wait 
 on her. There she was kept as if she were in jail. 
 
 He sent Earl God-win and his sons out of En- 
 gland and brought Wil-liam, Duke of Nor-man-dy 
 to his court. Wil-liam was a brave man, fond of a 
 
48 History of England, 
 
 fine horse and dogs and arms, so he was glad to 
 come, and all the Nor-mans met him with joy. 
 But the old Earl God-win, though he was not at 
 home, had spies there, and knew how the folks felt. 
 He thought the time was now ripe for his own son 
 to have a chance. For his son was En-glish and 
 had hosts of friends. So he came with a fleet up 
 the Thames and crowds met him with cheers. At 
 last the Nor-man friends of the king took fright and 
 made the best of their way out of En-gland. The 
 kinof had to rive back to Earl God-win all his lands. 
 The good queen was brought out of her jail and 
 sat once more in her chair of state, in her grand 
 robes and gems. But the Earl God-win did 
 not live long. He fell dead in a fit on the third 
 day from the time he had won his cause. His son 
 Har-old took his place and his wealth, and fought 
 well for the king. 
 
 When Ed-ward the Con-fes-sor was dead the 
 Duke of Nor-man-dy set up a claim to the throne 
 of En-gland. He knew that Har-old would fight 
 for this crown, so he thought it would be a good 
 plan for him to give him one of his fair girls for his 
 wife, so that he might bind him to his cause. So 
 Har-old was wed to A-dele, and then he took an 
 oath that he would aid the duke. Then Har-old 
 went back to En-gland and was made king at once. 
 
Camtte and the Six Danish Kings. 49 
 
 He had good cause to make haste. When the 
 news came to the Duke of Nor-man-dy he was out 
 on a hunt. He let the bow fall from his hands 
 and sent for all the great men of the land to talk 
 with them. The French said they would aid him, 
 and he sent word at once to Har-old that he must 
 keep his oath and give up the crown. Then the 
 Duke of Nor-man-dy set sail for En-gland with 
 ships full of men and made out to land in Sus-sex. 
 Har-old made haste to march on them. As he 
 drew near he saw the gleam of their spears. He 
 saw too that there was one tall man who wore a 
 blue robe and rode a fine horse. As his raze was 
 on this form he saw the horse make a false step 
 and throw the man to the ground. 
 
 " Who is that man?" he said to one of his chiefs. 
 
 ''The king of Nor-way," said the man. 
 
 "" He is a tall and grand king," said Har-old, "but 
 his end is near." 
 
 Now there was one of his own blood who fought 
 on the side of his foes, and he sent word to him 
 that if he would draw off his troops he would make 
 him Earl of North-um-ber-land, with great wealth. 
 
 ''And what will he give to my friend, the King 
 of Nor-way?" said the man. 
 
 "Sev-en feet of earth for a grave." 
 
 "No more?" 
 
50 History of England. 
 
 ''Well, as the King of Nor-way is a tall man, 
 there may be some more." 
 
 '' Ride back and tell King Har-old to come on to 
 the fight." 
 
 King Har-old did give them such a fight that 
 most of them were left dead on the field. But as 
 he kept the feast of joy at this he heard that the 
 Nor-mans were in Hast-ings. He broke up the 
 feast and made haste to Lon-don. But it took 
 him a week to get a force. He sent spies to 
 the Nor-man camp, and Wil-liam led them through 
 it all and sent them safe home. The spies said : 
 "These Nor-mans have no beards, but are smooth 
 in the face, like priests." ''You will find that these 
 priests can fight," said Har-old. 
 
 At last the Nor-mans and the En-glish came 
 front to front. With the first dawn of day they 
 met. The En-glish were on a hill, with woods at 
 their backs. In their midst was the flag of their 
 king. On it, wrought in gold thread and gems, was 
 the form of a knight in arms. At the foot of this 
 flag stood King Har-old. Round him, still as the 
 dead, stood the English troops, each man with his 
 shield on him and his war ax in his hand. 
 
 On the hill near was the force of the Nor-mans, 
 with their bows strung. All at once the Nor-man 
 war cry, "God help us," burst from their lips. The 
 
LAND-ING OF WIL-LIAM THE CON-QUER-OR. 
 
5 2 History of England. 
 
 En-glish gave back their own war cry, "God's 
 Rood." The En-ghsh fought well, though the Nor- 
 man darts fell on them like rain. They cut down 
 the horse-men as they rode up, like groves of young 
 trees. At last Duke Wil-liam made a feint, as 
 though he would fly. The English gave chase, but 
 then the foe sought to close in on them and slew 
 them in crowds. The sun rose high and sank, and 
 still the fight went on. The clash and din went on 
 till night, and the white light of the moon shone 
 on heaps of dead. King Har-old was half blind 
 from a dart that had struck his eye. Some Nor- 
 man knights made a rush for the En-glish flag, 
 and the king fell with a death wound. The day 
 was lost, and the Nor-mans had won. This was 
 known as the fight of Hastings. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 WIL-LIAM THE CON-QUER-OR. 
 
 WiL-LiAM had the crown set on his head in West- 
 min-ster Ab-bey. He was the first Wil-liam, but 
 he is best known as Wil-liam the Con-quer-or. He 
 made more than one great change in Eng-land. 
 
William the Conqueror. 53 
 
 He took from those who had fought with Har-old 
 all their lands and wealth and gave them to his own 
 Nor-man knights. These men built strong and 
 grand homes in all parts, and put high walls round 
 their lands, and made what we would now call game 
 laws. In the old time a poor man who found a 
 wild bird or a deer in his field or in the woods 
 could kill it and take it home to eat. But the Nor- 
 mans would let no one hunt or have game but their 
 own selves and a few Eng-lish lords. If they found 
 a poor man who had slain aught to eat they would 
 put out his eyes, or cut off his hand, or make him 
 pay a fine. 
 
 Wil-liam was so fond of the hunt that he took 
 land where he chose and made the poor folks give 
 up their homes to be torn down to make a great 
 woods where he and his men could hunt. This was 
 known as the ''New For-est." He made a law, 
 too, that all should have their fires and lights put 
 out at eight at night, and he had a bell in the 
 church to ring at that hour. This bell was known 
 as the cur-few bell. 
 
 For a long time the Eng-lish felt sad and sore, 
 and could not bear the new rule. But Wil-liam had 
 the might in his hands and the folks could not drive 
 him out, so at last they had to make up their minds 
 to serve him. So he went on to spoil them as he 
 
54 
 
 History of England. 
 
 chose and make his Nor-man knights rich ; but the 
 more he gave the men the more they sought to have. 
 He sent all through his land to find out all the 
 towns and a list of the folks who dwelt in them, and 
 he had all put down in a book, which was known as 
 the "Dooms-day Book." "Dooms-day" means a 
 day to judge things, and Wil-liam had this book to 
 show him how much land he had and how great a 
 
 force he could 
 raise to fight for 
 him. 
 
 Wil-liam the 
 Con-quer-or 
 found it hard to 
 please his Nor-mans and to keep the Eng-lish from 
 strife, and he had no peace with his own sons. He 
 had three of them, one known as Rob-ert Short-legs, 
 one Wil-liam Ru-fus, from his red hair, and one 
 Hen-ry, who was fond of books and had the name of 
 Beau-clerk, or ''fine schol-ar." When Rob-ert grew 
 up he thought he would like to have Nor-man-dy 
 for his own, but as the king* would not give it he 
 grew sour and cross and would give the rest no 
 peace. He was a gay youth who spent all he could 
 get in feast and dance and song. 
 
 Wil-liam at this time went to Rou-en to meet the 
 French king and set right some claim to land. He 
 
 DOOMS-DAY BOOK. 
 
William the Conqueror. 55 
 
 staid in bed most of the time and took drugs, for 
 he had grown to such a huge size that it was 
 thought best he should do so. But when he heard 
 that the King of France had made some jests on 
 this, he swore in a great rage that he should rue his 
 jests. So he went with his troops straight in to the 
 land he had come to talk of with the French king, 
 and burned all the crops and vines and fruit, and 
 set fire to the town of Nan-tes. But it was an ill 
 day for him, for as he rode on, his horse set his foot 
 on a hot coal and threw him in such a way that he 
 got a hurt which was the cause of his death. But 
 he lay sick for six weeks first, and made his will. 
 He gave En-gland to Wil-liam, Nor-man-dy to 
 Rob-ert, and a sum of gold to Hen-ry. Then all 
 his bad deeds came to his mind, and he sent word 
 that they should give gold to the En-glish church and 
 let all those that were in the jails for state crimes 
 go free. 
 
 As the sun rose the king woke at the sound of 
 the bell. *'What bell is that?" he said, in a faint 
 voice. 
 
 ^^The bell of the Church of St. Ma-ry." 
 
 Then he said that he would pray for St. Ma-ry 
 to help his soul, and so he drew his last breath. 
 
 As soon as his breath was gone from him those 
 who had been there to serve him went to work 
 
56 
 
 History of England. 
 
 to steal all they could and get off with it. In this 
 strife the corpse of the king fell from the bed and 
 lay for hours on the ground. There lay the great 
 Con-quer-or, till a good knight came to bear him off 
 
 to a church which 
 ^- he had built. But 
 he could not be laid 
 at rest in peace. 
 For as he was to 
 be let down, clad 
 in his robes of 
 state into a tomb 
 in this church, a 
 loud voice in the 
 crowd said: '*This 
 ground is mine! 
 On it stood the 
 home of my race. 
 This king took the 
 house and the 
 ground from my 
 kin to build this 
 church. In the 
 great name of God 
 I here say that this corpse shall not be put in 
 the earth that is my right." So they had to 
 buy the ground from the man ere they laid Wil- 
 
 BUR-I-AL OF WIL-LIAM THE CON-QUER-OR. 
 
William the Conqueror. 57 
 
 liam in the tomb, for they knew his claim 
 was just. 
 
 His son, Wil-Ham the Red, took small thought 
 of the dead king, but went in hot haste to get the 
 crown. He was the worst of the Con-quer-or's 
 sons. As soon as he had the throne he sent back 
 all the poor folks whom the Con-quer-or had set 
 free to jail once more. Rob-ert, who was Duke 
 of Nor-man-dy, let Wil-liam rule his land while he 
 went on a Cru-sade. The Cru-sades were wars 
 made on the Turks to get the 
 tomb of our Lord out of their 
 hands. Those who went on 
 them had a cross cut out of 
 cloth sewed on their clothes, so 
 they were known as Cru-sa-ders. The word Cru- 
 sa-der means one who fio^hts for the Cross. 
 
 So King Wil-liam Ru-fus had the rule of Nor- 
 man-dy as well as his own land. In the mean-time 
 Hen-ry, who did not feel that he had had his share 
 of the wealth, made his home in a place by the 
 name of St. Michael's Mount, on the sea shore of 
 Nor-man-dy. He and his men would dash out 
 and steal what they could when they had a chance. 
 So Wil-liam and Rob-ert got troops and went to 
 his place to drive him out. They laid siege to it 
 so that no food nor drink could go in, and at last 
 
 COIN OF WIL-LIAM II. 
 
58 History of England. 
 
 they heard that the poor folks were near dead with 
 thirst. Wil-ham was glad of it, for then he 
 thought they would soon give up. But Rob-ert's 
 heart was the best, for he gave Hen-ry leave to get 
 all he might need for his troops to drink, and sent 
 him some of his own best wine. 
 
 You see what sort of a hard heart the King of 
 En-gland had, so you may think there was not 
 much erief when the news came that he was dead. 
 It came to pass in the same New For-est which 
 the Con-quer-or had made from the lands of his 
 poor folks. He was out on a hunt with his train. 
 They had slept all night at a lodge in the woods, 
 and had made good cheer and drunk a great deal 
 of wine. Then they went their own ways, and the 
 king took with him one of his friends. Sir Wal-ter 
 Tyr-rell. That night a poor man, who by chance 
 went that way, saw a sad sight. There lay a dead 
 man in the road with a dart in his breast and the 
 blood still fell from the wound. The man got the 
 corpse in-to his cart and found out that it was the 
 king. Sir Wal-ter Tyr-rell, who fled to Nor-man- 
 dy, swore that the dart had been sped by one not 
 seen, and then in fear that the crime should be laid 
 on him, he had put spurs to his horse and fled to 
 the sea shore. But some men thought that it was 
 Sir Wal-ter's dart that had struck on a tree and 
 
Henry I. 
 
 59 
 
 made a turn to one side and found the heart of the 
 king-. But there was no o^rief in the land at the 
 news. 
 
 This king did so few good things that we must 
 tell you one. He built a fine bridge on the 
 Thames. He built, too, West-min-ster Ab-bey. 
 Part of the old wall still stands, but the best part 
 of the hall was built by Rich-ard H. 
 
 CHAPTER VH. 
 
 HEN-RY I. 
 
 When it was known that Wil-liam Ru-fus was 
 dead the En-glish chose Hen-ry, the Fine Schol-ar, 
 for their king, for Rob-ert was 
 at the war in the Ho-ly Land. 
 Hen-ry was brave and fond of 
 books, and brought wise men 
 round him. He took for his 
 wife a kind dame who was known as the "Good 
 Oueen Maude." She left two babes, Wil-liam and 
 Maude. Wil-liam was a wild youth, fond of wine, 
 and he had a hard heart. He was wont to say that 
 when he should be King of En-gland he would 
 
 COIN OF ED-WARD I. 
 
6o Histoiy of England. 
 
 yoke the men and drive them hke beasts ; but the 
 day did not come for him to be king. He came to 
 his death in this way : He had been in Nor-man- 
 dy with King Hen-ry, and when the time came for 
 him to start back he chose to go in a ship with 
 some gay young friends. They staid so long on 
 the shore at their feasts that the kingf was a Ions: 
 way on his course ere they set out. Then the 
 prince and his friends had drunk so much wine 
 that they did not know how to steer the ship, so 
 they ran on a rock and all went down in to the 
 sea. It is said that Prince Wil-liam did not seek 
 to save his life, as he might have done if he would 
 have left the ship. He staid to try and save a 
 young girl who was near kin to him. It is the one 
 good act that we hear of him. But all that gay 
 crowd went down save one who was left to tell the 
 tale. 
 
 For three days none dare go to the king with the 
 sad news. At last they sent a child who fell on 
 his knees at the king's feet and told him with a 
 burst of tears that the White Ship and all on board 
 of her were lost. The kino^ fell to the o^round like a 
 dead man, and m all his life from that day he was 
 not seen to smile. 
 
 As he had no son now, he set all his love on 
 Maude, whom he had wed with the Ger-man em- 
 
Henry L 6i 
 
 per-or, Hen-ry the Fifth, when she was but eight 
 years old. When the em-per-or was dead Hen-ry 
 made her wed Geof-frey, the Earl of An-jou. She 
 had three sons, and her first-born took the name of 
 Hen-ry. The king's plan was that she should be 
 Oueen of En-o^land when he was dead, and the 
 young Hen-ry the next king. He did all he could to 
 make his lords vow that Maude should be queen at 
 his death, and some did so, but they did not keep 
 their word. The king had been told by wise men 
 that he ought not to eat too much ; but one day a 
 dish of a kind of fish of which he was fond was set 
 on the board, and he ate so much that it was the 
 cause of his death. 
 
 Henry Fine Schol-ar was a man who did not 
 care for his word and took all means to gain his 
 own ends. He had a hard heart, as was seen by 
 the way he dealt with Rob-ert of Nor-man-dy, who 
 had the best claim to the throne. He said Rob-ert 
 had made plots with his foes, and he led troops in- 
 to Nor-man-dy and cast Rob-ert in jail for life. 
 They let him at times ride out with a guard, and 
 one day he broke from his guard and rode off. But 
 his horse stuck fast in a swamp, and so they found 
 him. When the king heard of it he had the eyes 
 of poor Rob-ert burnt out, and then he was left to 
 spend long years in a cell and to die there at last. 
 
62 History of England. 
 
 He left a boy of five years old, and the child would 
 have been put to death too if his friends had not 
 hid him. So you see Fine Schol-ar was a hard, bad 
 man, and there were few to mourn him when he 
 was dead. 
 
 When Hen-ry Fine Schol-ar was dead, all his 
 plans fell to bits like a heap of sand. Ste-phen, one 
 of the grand-sons of the Con-quer-or, laid claim to 
 the throne. Hen-ry had not thought of such a 
 thing. Ste-phen brought some one to swear that 
 the kinof had left him the throne on his death 
 bed, and he got the crown set on his head with 
 great haste. But there were some who kept their 
 oath and took the part of Em-press Maude and her 
 son Hen-ry. So once more the poor folk's land had 
 a war that did not come to an end for years. You 
 know Maude was the grand-child of a Scotch king, 
 so the Scots came to her help. Whole towns were 
 burned down and the land laid waste. The trees 
 were cut down, the sheep and herds were left with 
 none to care for them, and there was nought but 
 want and woe in all the land. At last the folks 
 were worn out, and they said Ste-phen might be 
 king in his lifetime, but Henry, the son of Maude, 
 should have the next claim to the throne. Ste-phen 
 did not live but a year from the time this peace was 
 made. Then Hen-ry the Sec-ond came to the 
 
Henry I. 63 
 
 throne. He was just of age and full of zeal. 
 He went to work to set things to rights in his realm. 
 The first thing he did was to send all the Nor-man 
 and French troops that had been brought into En- 
 gland to fight, back to their own homes. He 
 thought En-glish men were the best ones to fight 
 for En-gland. He built up the towns that had 
 been burnt in the wars, and sent men all throuo^h 
 the land to right the wrongs of the poor, and the 
 folks felt safe to build their homes and to plow 
 their fields. He put all the laws in force and 
 brought wise men to his court, 
 and he was fond of those who 
 wrote verse. In Hen-ry's time 
 there was strife in Ire-land. The 
 folks there were cut up in tribes, com of hen-ry and ste-phf.n. 
 and each tribe had a king. Now these kings were 
 all the time at war. One of them went to Hen-ry 
 to beg that he would help him. Hen-ry had too 
 much to do at home. But he gave his lords leave 
 to go and help the Irish king if they chose. And 
 Der-mot, King of Lein-ster, said that if they won 
 the cause, he and the rest of the I-rish kings would 
 serve En-gland, and the King of En-gland should 
 be lord of Ire-land from that day. 
 
 Then an earl, who got the name of Strong Bow, 
 got some troops and went to Ire-land to help 
 
64 History of England. 
 
 Der-mot. Now the En-glish knew so much more 
 of the arts of war in those days than the Irish 
 that they beat them, and from that time Ire-land has 
 had no king but the En-ghsh one. Scot-land in that 
 time had kings of her own. It was not so rich a land as 
 En-gland, and the folks were more rude and wild. 
 
 One of their kings, Wil-liam the Lion, when he 
 heard Hen-ry was in Nor-man-dy, thought there 
 would be a good chance to get some of the good 
 things so near him. He took men in to En-gland 
 to rob the towns and take off the corn and beasts. 
 Then the En-glish men rose up and went in to 
 the North and fought him and took him to Lon-don. 
 Hen-ry would not set him free till he took oath 
 that from that time all the kings of Scot-land should 
 do the will of the King of En-gland, and he should 
 be the real head of the land. 
 
 King Hen-ry had a friend by the name of 
 Thom-as a Beck-et to whom he gave much wealth. 
 He had grand homes, and a crowd of men to serve 
 him, and when he went in the street it was in 
 great pomp and state. Now Heil-ry said, "I will 
 give my friend a high place in the Church, then 
 he will do all things there to suit me." So he 
 made him Arch-bish-op of Can-ter-bury. Now 
 Thom-as a Beck-et was proud and had a strong 
 will of his own. He was fond of pomp and wealth, 
 
Henry I. 65 
 
 but he was more fond of his own way. So all 
 at once he made a great change in his life. He ate 
 coarse food and wore sack-cloth next his skin, and 
 would fast and pray all the time. Then he laid 
 claim to all the right to say who should give a 
 church to a priest. He chose to be, in fact, sole 
 Lord of the Church in all En-gland. When one 
 did not please him he laid the ban of the Church 
 on him. That meant a sort of curse that would 
 cling to him, when he rose up or when he sat down, 
 when he slept or woke, when he ate or drank. The 
 King could do naught, and he was full of wrath. 
 This sort of strife went on for years. One day the 
 King in a hot rage said in his court: ''Have I no 
 one here who will rid me of this man?" There 
 were four knights there who heard these words and 
 went out. They found the Arch-bish-op in the 
 church, and when his men would have shut the 
 doors, Beck-etsaid: ''No; that was the house of 
 God and not a fort." 
 
 The men trod the dark aisles with a cry, "Where is 
 the Arch-bish-op?" " I am here," he said. They told 
 him he must fly or go with them. He said that he 
 would not move. Then they struck him, but he stood 
 firm with his head bent down and gave up his soul 
 to God. Then the knights went on with their blows 
 till the Arch-bish-op fell on the floor dead. 
 
66 Histoiy of Ejigland. 
 
 The King had not meant death to the Arch-bish- 
 op by his rash words, and he was full of wrath when 
 he heard the news. The four knights had to fly, 
 and did not dare to be seen in the land. The 
 Pope put the ban of the Church on them, and they 
 went to Je-ru-sa-lem to kneel at the tomb of our 
 Lord and pray for their sin. This dark deed made 
 foes for the King in his own land, and it was some 
 time ere the Pope would make peace with him. 
 
 King Hen-ry was rich through his wife, Elean-or. 
 She had been so bad a wife to the French king that 
 he sent her off and gave her all the gold she had 
 brought with her to get rid of her. Now, Hen-ry 
 when a mere youth had wed this bad wife for her 
 gold. 
 
 She had four sons, Hen-ry, Rich-ard, Geof-frey 
 and John, and she brought them all up in a bad 
 way. She made her first-born, when a boy, think 
 that he would make a good king, and that he ought 
 to have part of the land. He did not rest till 
 Hen-ry let him have the crown put on his head. 
 Then the youth thought he would like to have all 
 in his hands, and he went to France to get men to 
 help him fight the King. 
 
 But the Prince fell ill in a French town, and 
 when he found he must die he sent for the King. 
 Hen-ry's friends thought this might be a trick, and 
 
"l AM HERE." 
 
68 History of England. 
 
 they would not let him go. But he sent a ring to 
 his son and told him that he would be friends with 
 him. The Prince took the ring with a kiss and tears. 
 He knew then what a bad son he had been, and he 
 said to the priest that knelt at his side: *'Oh, tie 
 a rope round me and draw me out of bed that I 
 may lie down in the dust of the floor and mourn for 
 my sins." 
 
 The three sons left were as bad as the one who 
 was dead, for the Queen led them to do wrong. 
 They went to war on the King to take his lands 
 from him. The King was worn out with the strife, 
 and at last, as he lay on his sick bed, some one 
 brought him the list of those who had gone to the 
 side of his foes, and the first name on the list was 
 John, his last born son, the most dear to his heart! 
 The sick king heard it with a cry. "Oh, John, 
 child of my heart. You for whom I strove through 
 all my grief. Have you, too, left me." Then with 
 a deep groan he said: "Now let the world go as it 
 will. I care not !" 
 
 And he did not seem to care to live from that 
 time. So death soon came to him and he was glad 
 to go. Henry the Sec-ond has been known as 
 Hen-ry Plant-a-ge-net. It was the mode in those 
 days for a man to wear a sort of shield for his face 
 when he went into a fight, so that he might not get 
 
Richard I. Lion Heart. 69 
 
 a wound in his head. This thing was Hke a cage 
 and had bars. It was hard to know who a man 
 was when he had such a thing on, so it grew to be 
 the style for men to wear some sign to show who 
 they were. The men of Hen-ry's race wore a spray 
 of broom, and that is what Plant-a-o^e-net means. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 RICH-ARD I. LION HEART. 
 
 It is told of Rich-ard that when he saw the dead 
 king he was full of grief, and said with tears: *' It 
 is I who am the cause of his death." But it was 
 too late for him to make up for what he had done. 
 Rich-ard was a brave and strong man, but he had a 
 hot head and did rash things. On the day that he 
 was made king there was a great mob that set on 
 the Jews and slew crowds of them. His first 
 thought was to go on a Cru-sade, and he went with 
 Phil-ip of France and the young girl whom he was 
 to wed. 
 
 The men who held the tomb of our Lord in those 
 days were known as Sar-a-cens, and they had a 
 brave Prince at their head by the name of Sal-a-din. 
 He was good and just and held fast to the truth, 
 
70 History of England. 
 
 and his men fought so well that the Cru-sa-ders had 
 a hard time to wm a rood of their land. But they 
 made out to get one town on the coast, by the name 
 of A-cre, and Duke Le-o-pold of Aus-tri-a set up his 
 flae on the walls. Rich-ard would not have this, 
 so he tore it down and threw it m the ditch. He 
 thought the Duke had no right to lay claim to the 
 town in that way. Then Le-o-pold and Phil-ip of 
 France made up their minds they would not stay 
 with Rich-ard and put up with his proud ways. 
 So Phil-ip said it was too hot for him in the Ho-ly 
 Land, and made him ill. He went back to France, 
 but Rich-ard staid, though he, too, felt the heat and 
 grew ill. Then Sal-a-dm sent him fruits and did 
 all he could for him. Once he sent him a horse, 
 but as soon as Rich-ard got on the back of the 
 beast it ran with him straight to the camp of the 
 Sar-a-cens. Sal-a-din thought Rich-ard would take 
 his gift as a trick to bring him into their hands, so 
 he gave him a more mild horse to ride back. Now 
 you see the way this Sar-a-cen dealt with his foes 
 might put some Christ-ians to the blush. Rich-ard 
 fought one hard fight at J op-pa. At last Le-o-pold 
 would not help with some work on hand, and said 
 he had come to fight, not to work, and the king 
 struck him a blow that sent him off in a rage to 
 his home. 
 
"rich-ard tore it down with his own hand. 
 
72 History of England. 
 
 Rich-ard knew it was the fault of his hot head 
 that he was left to fight on with none to help him. 
 So when he came to the top of the hill from w^hich 
 Je-ru-sa-lem might be seen, he would not look at it. 
 ''Those who are not fit to win it, are not fit to see 
 it," he said. There were none more brave than 
 Rich-ard in the fight, and he would turn his hand to 
 all sorts of work, though he was a king. 
 
 In the mean-time Prince John, with the King of 
 France, had set to work to stir up strife at home, so 
 Rich-ard had to make peace with the Sar-a-cens for 
 three years and start for En-gland. But on his 
 way there were such fierce storms, and he was set 
 on by sea-thieves, till at last there was no way for 
 him to eo save throuo^h the lands of Duke Le-o- 
 pold of Aus-tri-a. He went m the guise of a trades- 
 man and took but a small boy with him. But 
 he fell ill at an inn, and the boy went down to 
 get him aid. Some one saw a glove in the boy's 
 belt wrought with silk — the sort of thing worn but 
 by rich and great men in those days. The Duke 
 of Aus-tri-a heard of it and sent and took Rich-ard 
 and shut him up in a strong fort. Rich-ard's wife 
 and friends did not know where to seek for him. 
 A tale is told that Blon-del, a youth who sang 
 songs in his court, went from place and sang so that 
 the king might hear him, and that one day he sang 
 
Richard I. Lion Heart. 73 
 
 a song near the fort at Tri-fels and a voice took up 
 the strain, and he knew he had found the king. 
 But we know the En-ghsh paid a large sum of gold 
 and had him set free. 
 
 At last the king went home, but he found that 
 Prince John and the French king had made bad 
 work for him in Nor-man-dy. In a fight there a 
 dart struck the king. It did not seem bad at first, 
 but there was no one there who knew how to treat 
 it, and it was soon known that the king must die. 
 He sent for the young man who had sped the dart, 
 and said to him : 
 
 '' Knave ! what have I done to thee that thou 
 didst seek to take my life?" 
 
 ''What hast thou done to me?" said the young 
 man. ''Thou hast slain all my near kin with thine 
 own hands. Let me die now as thou wilt. I care 
 not, since thou, too, must die, and through me the 
 world is well quit of thee." 
 
 The king gave the young man one long look and 
 then said : " Go in peace — I will not hurt thee, 
 thou art free." Then he sank back on his couch 
 and was dead. His lords would not heed his last 
 words, but took the youth and slew him. 
 
 John, who had the name of Lack-Land, as a 
 sort of joke, was made king at once, though there 
 was a child who was the real heir of the throne. 
 
74 History of England. 
 
 This child was Ar-thur, the son of Geof-frey. The 
 boy was in the charge of the French king, but he 
 did not care for him, save to stir up strife for En- 
 gland. Poor Ar-thur was a fine boy, but with the 
 King of France and John of En-gland he was like 
 a lamb in the paws of a wolf. John had a fear 
 that the boy might be made king, and he would 
 have been glad to have put him out of the way but 
 did not quite dare to do so. So he thought he 
 would have Ar-thur's eyes put out, and then he 
 would not be fit to be a king and he could keep 
 him in jail all his life. He told a man who had 
 Ar-thur in charge to put his eyes out, but Hu-bert 
 paid two bad men to do it. When they came with 
 their red hot bars to burn his eyes, the poor child 
 wept and knelt and plead with them so sore that 
 none of them had the heart to do the work. 
 
 But King John had no such soft heart. Ar-thur 
 was in his way, as he thought, and he made up his 
 mind that the boy must die. So he took him from 
 Hu-bert, who was too kind to suit the king, and put 
 him in a sort of jail in Rou-en. There one night 
 Ar-thur heard a loud knock at the gate. You may 
 be sure his heart beat fast with fear when he saw 
 the king and one of his men, a tool who would 
 do as he was told. The name of this vile man was 
 Ma-luc. He took the boy by the arm and gave 
 
Richard I. Lion Heai^t. 75 
 
 him a death stab in his heart, then threw his corpse 
 in the Seine, while the king stood by to see it done. 
 
 This act was so vile that the lords and chief men 
 of the land sent word to the king that if he were 
 not more just and wise he must give up his crown, 
 for they would not have him to rule them. They 
 said John must swear to rule them by the good old 
 En-oflish laws which had come down from the times 
 ere the Nor-mans came. At first John would not 
 hear them, but when he found that he must do so 
 he said if they would fix a place he would meet 
 them and do the best for En-gland. So they met 
 the king at a place by the name of Run-ney-mede, 
 near Wind-sor There they gave him a sheet on 
 which were put down good laws by which kings 
 could be kept from too stern and harsh a rule, and 
 the folks might have some rights that none could 
 take from them. 
 
 King John did hate to put his seal to this, but 
 there was no way for him to get out of it and keep 
 the crown, so he had to do it. This was known as 
 Mag-na Char-ta, which means that it was a great 
 chart of TOod laws for En-g^land. 
 
 But John did not mean to keep it, though he had 
 put his seal to it. He had such a greed for gold 
 that it was hard for him not to throw folks in jail 
 and take all their wealth when he chose. So all 
 
76 History of England. 
 
 the time his aim was to cheat the lords and the 
 poor folks, and he did not keep his word. At last 
 the En-glish were at their wits' end and felt that 
 they could not bear it, so they sent word to the 
 French king that if he would come and free them 
 from this brute he might have En-gland. Of course 
 Lou-is came as fast as he could. John fled, and 
 half=sick with rage and grief he v/ent to spend a 
 night with some monks on the way, when some 
 fruit and ale made him so ill that death came in a 
 few days and rid the land of him, to its great joy. 
 
 Hen-ry the Third was but nine years old when 
 he was made king. The next thing was to get rid 
 of the French and to win those lords back who had 
 fought on his side. A good man by the name of 
 Hu-bert de Burgh took the charge of things while 
 the king was a child, and soon all the lords came 
 back to swear they would serve the young king. 
 Lou-is lost a fight at Lin-coln, and when his wife 
 sent him more troops Hu=bert de Burgh got ships 
 and sank those of the foe and drove them out so 
 that they had to go home and leave En-gland in 
 peace. 
 
 Hen-ry's reign was a long one and a sad one for 
 En-gland. As he grew up he took bad men for 
 his friends, and they made him do as they chose. 
 He was led to let them take the good Hu-bert de 
 
Richard I. Lion Heart. jy 
 
 Burgh and put him in jail. But when they sought 
 for a smith to put chains on his feet the man said 
 he would not forge chains for the feet of the brave 
 man who had freed his land from the French. So 
 at last the good man got free and went to Flan-ders 
 to live. The king and his men spent much gold 
 
 AR-REST OF HU-BERT DE BURGH. 
 
 and put more than one tax on the poor folks to get 
 it. The Par-lia-ment, which is the name of the 
 band of men who make the laws, made up their 
 minds that they would not let the king have more 
 funds to waste if they could help it. The king 
 was at his wits' end to get gold, and at last took 
 the cross as if he meant to go on a Cru-sade. 
 
78 Hzstoiy of England. 
 
 He thought by this means he would get some funds, 
 but he got none. 
 
 At last the Par-lla-ment said that if he would 
 swear to keep all the laws in the Great Char-ter 
 they would vote him a large sum. Of course 
 Hen-ry told them he would do so, and he met all 
 the great lords and chiefs of the land. The priests 
 stood up in their robes with lights in their hands, 
 and as the arch-bish-op read the curse for all 
 who should break the laws of the Great Char-ter 
 in En-gland, the lights were put out one by one, 
 and the king swore to keep the Char-ter, ''As I am 
 a man, as I am a Christ-ian, as I am a knight, 
 as I am a king." 
 
 It was a lio^ht thinor for this king to make oaths 
 or to break them. So as soon as he had the gold 
 he went on in the old way. When he had no more 
 funds he set to work in his old style to beg for 
 them. 
 
 Hen-ry HI. did one good thing for En-gland. 
 He built West-min-ster Ab-bey as it now stands. 
 When he had gold he gave it in a free way to those 
 in need. When a child was born to him he gave its 
 weight in coin to the poor. But things were left in 
 such a loose way that at times there would be nought 
 in the place for the king and queen to eat, till his 
 men went and took sheep or fowls from the poor men 
 
irawSPfM 
 
 
 THE PRIESTS AND THE LIGHTS. 
 
So History of England, 
 
 round. The king broke all the laws of Mag-na 
 Char-ta as he chose. The Par-lia-ment at last met, 
 and this time they came in arms. They told him 
 that as they found he would not keep his word, 
 they would have one of their own men to watch 
 him. The man they chose was Si-mon de Mont- 
 fort, and it was his work to see that the king did 
 not break the laws or take gold from the folks 
 who did not wish to give it. The king w^as in a 
 rage, but he had to swear that he would do as 
 they chose. But Hen-ry could not rest. He felt 
 that he was not a king while he was held by such 
 bonds. His son Ed-ward was now grown up, and 
 they both got the help of the king of France, who 
 thought that an oath made in such a way need not 
 be kept. So the king and his friends got troops to 
 go with them to fight for what they said were their 
 rights, and Si-mon de Mont-fort and the lords met 
 him at a place by the name of Lew-es. Si-mon and 
 the lords won the day and took the king, and Rich- 
 ard and Ed-ward had to give up. Si-mon de Mont- 
 fort had the real rule of the land for a time, though 
 he let Hen-ry still have the name of a king. He 
 kept a watch on him lest he should get out of En- 
 gland, and he held Ed-ward in jail. Si-mon was a 
 true and kind man, who had the best good of the 
 realm at heart, but he had sons who were proud 
 
Richard I. Lion Heart. 
 
 and hard, and prone to treat all who came in their 
 
 way so ill that the lords could not get on with them. 
 
 One of these lords sent Ed-ward a fine horse, and 
 
 one day when the prince took a ride with his guards 
 
 he said to them: "Try which oi you has the best 
 
 horse." So they went to work and ran a race till 
 
 their steeds were 
 
 quite worn out. 
 
 Then E d - w a r d 
 
 put spurs to his 
 
 fine fresh horse and 
 
 rode off to the 
 
 friends who were 
 
 in wait for him. 
 
 All who were not 
 
 friends to the 
 
 Mont-forts made 
 
 haste to join him, 
 
 so that he had soon 
 
 quite a large force. 
 
 He met Mont-fort 
 
 and his troops with the poor old king in their midst 
 
 at Eves-ham. In the fio^ht the V\x\^ would have 
 
 been thrown down and slain but for his cry, 
 
 ''Save me, save me! I am Hen-ry of Win- 
 
 ches-ter." His son heard the call, ran to him and 
 
 bore him off to a safe place. Mont-fort knew 
 
 BUR-I-AL OF HEN-RY III. 
 
82 History of England. 
 
 from the first that there was no hope for him, but he 
 fought on and fell like a brave man on the field of 
 the fight. 
 
 Ed-ward won the day and set King Hen-ry on 
 his throne once more in peace, but took good care 
 that the laws of Mag-na Char-ta should be kept. 
 Then he set out on a Cru-sade, and while he was 
 gone the King's death came to pass. There have 
 been few kinoes who have had such lonof reio^ns as 
 Hen-ry of Win-ches-ter. In his time the first Par- 
 lia-ment sat. The word is from the French, and 
 means a talk. The king has no right to get gold 
 from the folks save when the Par-lia-ment grants it. 
 The Par-lia-ment has a House of Lords, made up of 
 men of high birth, and there are, too, men who are 
 sent from the towns and farms to speak the minds 
 of the folks who live there. 
 
 CHAPTEPv IX. 
 
 ED-WARD I. 
 
 Ed-ward I. was one of the best and most wise 
 of kings. When he heard that Hen-ry was dead 
 he came home at once and brought with him his 
 
Edward I. 83 
 
 sweet and good wife El-ean-or of Castile, who had 
 been his nurse when he had a sore wound. He 
 had been brought back to health by her care. She 
 won the love of the whole land. Ed-ward kept 
 all the laws of Mag-na Char-ta, and taught the 
 folks what he had seen that was of use in the lands 
 where he had been in his youth, how to care for 
 their beasts, and to raise the best kind of grass for 
 them ; how to plant new things in their fields that 
 would be good for food. 
 
 You know that most of the old Brit-ons who had 
 fled from the Sax-ons had gone 
 to live in Wales, where the foes 
 could not get to them, as it is a 
 wild land of rocks and hills. 
 They had tribes each with a ^°^^ °^ ed-ward i. 
 prince of its own. There was one in North Wales 
 and one in South Wales, and one in the rest of the 
 land. The men on the line near En-gland thought 
 they still had a right to all they could take, and 
 they would go and burn a house and steal the 
 cows and sheep when they chose. King Ed-ward 
 sought to make friends with them and to get them 
 to keep the peace. But they would not, so he 
 had to go to war with them. The two men who 
 were at the head of the land were slain in this war, 
 and the king won the day. Then he told the Welsh 
 
84 History of England. 
 
 that if they would meet him at Caer-nar-von Castle 
 he would give them a prince who had been born 
 in their land and could not speak a word that was 
 not Welsh. They all came and the king met 
 them, with his new-born babe in his arms. It had 
 been born in Caer-nar-von Castle, and of course 
 it could not speak a word at all. The Welsh had 
 to take him for their prince, and the King had a 
 Welsh nurse for him, so that the first word he 
 spoke might be Welsh. Since that day the first- 
 born son of the King of En-gland is known as 
 the Prince of Wales. 
 
 For a long time Wales was in a sad state. The 
 En-glish kings did not treat the Welsh as well as 
 they did their own folks. The Welsh felt that 
 this was not right, and they would now and then 
 try to set up a prince of their own. 
 
 Now it came to pass that while Ed-ward was 
 king of En-gland death took the Scotch king, and 
 he left no sons. There were two young men near 
 kin to him, Rob-ert Bruce and John Ba-li-ol. Both 
 set up claims to the crown, but as they could not 
 both be kings they made up their minds to ask 
 King Ed-ward to judge for them. He chose John 
 Ba-li-ol for Scot-land's king, but at the same time he 
 said he was lord of Scot-land, and that he meant to see 
 that the laws were kept there. So if a Scotch-man 
 
Edward I. 
 
 85 
 
 thought that he had cause to find fault with aught, 
 he would go to the King of En-gland with his case. 
 This put the folks of Scot-land and John Ba-li-ol in 
 a rage, for they thought they ought to have the rule 
 of their own land. So the Scots went to war and 
 had the worst of it, for they lost, and all the best 
 part of their land fell into Ed-ward's hands. The 
 king, in fact, had made up his mind to join 
 land to En-o^land and rule it all as one land. 
 
 the Scots did not 
 
 th 
 
 le ::::>cots aia not see things in tne 
 same light. The men who were sent 
 to rule them were most harsh, and did 
 not treat them in the right way. 
 There was one man, Sir Wil-liam Wal- 
 lace, w^ho had lost his home, and wealth 
 at the hands of these men, who fled to 
 
 the woods and hills, and drew a ^ 
 
 large throng with him. They fought co^-o^a-tion chair. 
 Ed-ward's troops with the hope that they 
 might free Scot-land from his yoke, and at 
 first they won. The troops of Ed-ward fled, 
 and the Scots gave chase. Wal-lace led his 
 men into En-gland and burnt homes and laid 
 waste all in his course, to make up for what the 
 Scots had lost. But he could not stand in the face 
 of the large force brought by Ed-ward to fight him, 
 and he had to take to the woods once more. Ed- 
 
86 History of England. 
 
 ward sent out word that he would let all who would 
 lay down their arms go free. Most of the band 
 gave up, but Wal-lace still hid in the woods till one 
 of his own men was so vile as to tell the En-glish 
 where he was. They took him and sent him to 
 Lon-don, where the king had him put to death. 
 But his name still lives m songs and tales to this 
 day. This did not end the war, for Rob-ert Bruce 
 was now king, and he, too, sought to drive out the 
 En-glish troops who had been left to guard all the 
 Scotch towns. This made a new war for a long 
 time. Ed-ward was in a rage and set out with his 
 son and more troops to put down this new strife. 
 But first he gave a charge to his son that if he 
 should die ere the task was done he would take it 
 up and go on with it. The king was weak and ill 
 at the time, and he had a fear that the end was near. 
 Bruce lost a fight and fled to Ire-land, where he 
 lay hid for a long time. Ed-ward spent the time in 
 a raid on all that were kin to Bruce. He would 
 not spare one of them, young or old, but put all to 
 death and took their goods and lands. In the 
 spring Bruce came forth to the fray once more, and 
 at times he won, at times lost. Ed-ward, who was 
 worse in health and near his death, still held his 
 course, his face to the foe ; but at last he had to 
 yield to a foe more strong — death ! 
 
Ediuard II. 87 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 ED-WARD II. 
 
 Ed-ward the Sec-ond, the first Prince of Wales, 
 was now king. This young man had a friend by 
 the name of Pier Gav-es-ton. The old king did not 
 like this friend, and had made his son swear an 
 oath to him on his death bed that he would give 
 him up. But as soon as the king was dead his son 
 broke the oath. He sent for his friend, ran into 
 his arms, and was so full of joy at the sight of him 
 that he did not seem to care for aught else. Now 
 this young man. Pier Gav-es-ton, was wild and bad, 
 and led the king into all sorts of vice. The king 
 gave him great wealth and rank, so that the lords at 
 the court grew to hate and fear him. They said the 
 kmg should have no more gold till he got rid of 
 this bad man. Ed-ward sent Gav-es-ton off till he 
 got the funds, then he met him with them and the 
 two spent them in feasts and play. In the mean- 
 time Bruce went on with his plans to free Scot-land. 
 
 The lords once more took a vow that the king 
 must give up his friend and that if Gav-es-ton 
 should dare to come to En-gland he w^ould be put 
 
88 History of England. 
 
 to death. The poor weak king plead-ed for him with 
 tears in his eyes. Then he was so mad as to think 
 he might bring Gav-es-ton back in spite of them, 
 and he did so and gave him more rank and 
 wealth. The lords laid siege to a house where the 
 friend was, and took him. It had been Gav-es-ton's 
 way, when he was at court, to call the lords names 
 in jest, and to show that he did not fear them. So 
 the next day when he put on his clothes he was 
 sent for to come down to the court yard. It was 
 full of men in arms. He grew pale when the man 
 who led them said: 'T think you know me. I am 
 the Black Dog of Ar-denne." Gav-es-ton did know 
 him, and the name was one which he had been 
 wont to call him in scorn — but now he was to feel 
 the Black Dog's teeth. They took him out and 
 struck off his head. 
 
 The kino^ was full of o^rief and ra^e when he heard 
 of it, and made war on the lords at once. Both 
 sides were in arms for half a year. As soon as this 
 war was at an end Ed-ward had to go and meet 
 Bruce once more. A great fight took place at 
 Ban-nock-burn, and the Scots won the day, so 
 that Ed-ward was o^lad to eet back home and to 
 say that he would leave Scot-land free from that 
 time, and their kings should rule them with no help 
 from the kings of En-gland. Plague and want of 
 
Edward II. 
 
 89 
 
 food now came to add woe to the bad days for 
 En-gland. But the weak king took a new friend, 
 and did not seem to mind it at all. This new friend 
 was a brave, fine young man by the name of Hugh 
 De-spen-ser. He might have won the love of all 
 if he had not been the friend of 
 the king, but this made men hate 
 him. 
 
 At last the queen said that the 
 kine ofave all his wealth to his 
 
 COIN OF ED-WARD II. 
 
 '^ ^5" 
 
 friend, and there would be none left for the prince. 
 She had no love for the king, who had not sought 
 to win it, but spent all on his friends. So now the 
 queen went to France to get men to help her. All 
 who did not like De-spen-ser were her friends, and 
 she led the young prince to try to take the realm 
 from the king. Ed-ward fled to Wales, 
 but they took him at last, and put De- 
 spen-ser to death. 
 
 Then they made Ed-ward say that 
 he was not fit to reign, and that he 
 would give up the crown to his son. 
 They then threw him in jail and kept 
 him there with poor food and in great want and 
 scorn, and the guards would mock him and crown 
 him with hay. And when they found that he was 
 too strong to die of bad food and a damp cell 
 
 SHIP. 
 
90 History of England. 
 
 they had him slain one night in such a way that his 
 cries and shrieks were heard by all who were near 
 the house, but none were there who could help the 
 poor weak king. 
 
 The Queen Is-a-bel-la had a vile friend by the 
 name of Mor-ti-mer, and the two took the rule 
 of the land in their own hands. The young King 
 Ed-ward III. was a boy of twelve, but as soon as 
 he grew to know what vile acts had been clone, he 
 had some of the queen's worst friends put to death. 
 Mor-ti-mer was hung at Ty-burn. Then the king 
 shut up Queen Is-a-bel-la where she could work no 
 more harm. 
 
 Eel-ward III. had a good wife by the name of 
 Phil-lip-pa. She was fond of En-gland, and did a 
 great deal of good there. She brought men who 
 knew how to make cloth from her own land, and 
 they taught the En-glish their trade. So that now 
 En-gland is the chief place in the world for wool 
 and cloth. 
 
 Queen Phil-lip-pa had new schools built in Ox- 
 ford, and brought to En-gland a wise man by the 
 name of Frois-sart, that he might see the land 
 and write of it all, in a book which you may read 
 to this day. Chau-cer, the first man who wrote 
 verse of note, was a friend of the queen. And in 
 this reign folks left off the Nor-man French that 
 
Edward II. ot 
 
 they spoke and learn-ed to speak En-glish in much 
 the same way they do now. John Wick-hff, with 
 his friends, sought in this reign to write the Bi-ble 
 in En-ghsh, so that all might read it. 
 
 Queen Phil-lip-pa brought up her girls and boys 
 in the best way, and her first-born son, who was 
 known as the Black Prince, from his dress, was 
 thought to be one of the most brave youths in 
 the world. While war made the kino- leave his 
 home, the queen took good care of all. When 
 Charles King of France 
 was dead he left no sons, 
 so King Ed-ward, who 
 was near kin to him, set 
 up a claim to the throne. 
 But there was one Phil-ip 
 who w^as quite as near kin, and thought he 
 ouoht to be kino^, and the two went to war. The 
 poor folks in France and En-gland had a hard time 
 Vv^hile these wars went on, though some of the 
 great ones won fame by their brave deeds. The 
 Par-lia-ment were so Had for the En-Hish to win 
 that they gave great sums to keep up the war, 
 and the tax all fell on the poor, so that it was 
 hard for them to live. 
 
 At the first of this war there was a great sea 
 fight near a town by the name of Sluys, on the 
 
 SHOES. 
 
92 History of England. 
 
 coast of Flan-ders. In the place of guns to fire 
 from the ships, they had great stones for the men 
 to throw when they were near, and bows to shoot 
 when they were far off. There was, too, a great 
 fight on land which Ed-ward won, at a place by the 
 name of Cre-cy. The French had three times the 
 men that the English had at Cre-cy, so King Ed- 
 ward knew he must place his men with care or 
 they would lose the day. He sent his son on to 
 lead in this fight, though he was a mere boy. 
 It was three on a hot day when the first move 
 was made on the foe, and the fight was kept up 
 till dark. Some one had a fear that the young 
 prince would be hurt, and sent to beg the king to 
 come and help him. "Is he hurt?" said the king. 
 ''No." "Then," said the king, "he will do well, 
 and I choose that he shall win the fame of the day." 
 Two kings, who had come to help the French king, 
 and a host of men were slain. The En-glish lost 
 but few. When the king met his son he took him 
 in his arms with a cry of joy and said : " My brave 
 son, go on in this way; you have shown that you 
 are fit to be a king." 
 
 A year from that time King Ed-ward laid siege 
 to Ca-lais, which is on the coast of France. The 
 brave folks in it held out for a year, but then they had 
 to give up for want of food. The king had a mind 
 
THE BLACK PRINCE AND KING JOHN. 
 
94 History of England. 
 
 to deal with them in a most harsh way — in fact he 
 was in such a rage that they had held out so long, 
 he said he would hang them all. But his chief 
 men plead-ed for them. And then he said if six of 
 their chief men would come and bring him the keys 
 of the gates, with naught on but their shirts and 
 ropes round their necks, he would hang them and 
 spare the rest. 
 
 When the folks of Ca-lais heard these hard terms 
 they said they would all starve and die ere they 
 would give up their brave men to such a death. 
 
 But there were six good brave men who said 
 they would be glad to die to save the rest of the 
 town. So they took the keys and went out with 
 bare heads and bare feet and naught on but their 
 shirts and the ropes, as King Ed-ward had said. 
 
 When the king saw them he sent for the man to 
 cut off their heads ; but the queen was in his tent, 
 and she came out and fell on her knees and plead-ed 
 for them, and would not get up till the king said he 
 would spare their lives. But he kept Ca-lais, so 
 the war with France went on. 
 
 The next fight in which King Ed-warcl won fame 
 was at Poic-tiers. The Black Prince was there with 
 a small force, but he led them in such a way that 
 they won the day, though the French had five men 
 where he had one. The King of France and his 
 
Hard Tijnes. 95 
 
 son fell into the hands of the Black Prince, who 
 brought them to his tent and made them sup with 
 him and gave them the best he had to eat. When 
 Prince Ed-ward brought them to Lon-don he let 
 King John ride on his own fine white horse, while 
 he rode near to wait on him. John was set free 
 when peace was made, but his folks could not pay 
 the fine, so he went back of his own will into the 
 hands of the En-glish, and his death came to pass 
 in En-gland. 
 
 The Black Prince, on whom the En-glish had 
 set their hopes, did not live to wear the crown. 
 There was great grief for him, as he had shown 
 that he had a kind heart as well as a wise head, 
 and such kings were rare. He left a boy of ten, 
 who was made king at once when Ed-ward the 
 Third was dead. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 HARD TIMES. 
 
 It is hard for a land whose king is a child, and 
 so En-gland did not have good times when the son 
 of the Black Prince came to the throne. For there 
 
96 History of England. 
 
 were three sons of the old King Ed-ward who each 
 one sought to have the rule in his own hands, and 
 they did not care for the good of the young king 
 or for their land. The poor were ground down 
 and were slaves to the rich. They had to pay a 
 tax on this and a tax on that till they had scarce 
 food to eat. A new tax by the name of the poll 
 tax was made in King Rich-ard's reign, and the 
 folks rose in a rage at it. One of them by the 
 name of Wat Ty-ler struck down a rude man who 
 came to his house to get this poll tax, and the 
 blow was the cause of his death. The folks in the 
 town came with sticks, and scythes, and flails, and 
 took the part of Wat Ty-ler. He told them to 
 come with him and march up to Lon-don and tell 
 the king of their wrongs. As they went, more and 
 more folks came to join them, and It was a wild 
 throng by the time they got to Lon-don. They lay 
 in the grass all night round the Tower, and when 
 day came they said they must speak to the king. 
 He came in his barge to see them, but his friends, 
 who had seen the strange horde, had fear for his 
 life and took him back. The next day the king 
 rode on his horse in the midst of the mob to try 
 and find out the truth. While Wat Ty-ler spoke 
 to the king he laid his hand on him, and some 
 one thought that he meant to stab him, so the Lord 
 
Hard Times. 
 
 97 
 
 May-or rode up to him and dealt the poor man such 
 a blow that he fell from his horse, and some one 
 thrust him through with a sword. The mob did 
 not seem to know what to do, when the king rode 
 forth and said: ''Good folks, have you lost the man 
 who led you? That man was false. I, your king, 
 will lead you !" Then he rode at their head out 
 into the fields, and they were told to state their 
 wrongs, and he said he would do what he could for 
 them; so they went home. Rich-ard did seem to 
 wish to give up some of the laws that were so hard 
 on the poor, but his 
 lords would not let 
 him. He was a mere 
 youth, and he was 
 fond of feasts and 
 fine clothes, and glad 
 to let all things go and the world wag as it might if 
 he had a good time. He said his fun did not cost 
 as much as King Ed-ward's wars, so he made peace 
 with France, that he might have funds for his fine 
 clothes and his feasts and gifts for his friends. Thus 
 En-gland lost its fam'e, while the king spent the 
 gold of the land for gems, and rings, and fur robes 
 in which knights were dressed to ride and tilt in 
 sham fights. 
 
 The Duke of Glou-ces-ter was glad to find 
 
 ^ a 
 
 HEAD-DRESS-ES. 
 
98 History of England. 
 
 fault with the king and to stir up the En-ghsh to 
 do so, and Rich-ard grew to fear him. So he had 
 men to sieze the duke and take him to Ca-lais. In 
 three days news came that he was dead, and no one 
 knew if he had been put to death or if grief and 
 rage had brought on a fit. John, Duke of Lan- 
 cas-ter, and son, too, of King Ed-ward 1 1 1., was an 
 old man and did his best to be friends with the king, 
 but he had a son by the name of Hen-ry who was 
 a fine, brave young man, and Rich-ard had great 
 fear of him. So he made some charge and sent 
 him out of the land to stay ten years. Then, when 
 the Duke of Lan-cas-ter was dead, the king took 
 all his lands and wealth, to which, of course, he had 
 no right. Hen-ry, the duke's son, would not bear 
 this, and he knew that most of the En-glish thought 
 it was not fair. So he went at once to En-gland, 
 and as soon as he set foot on its shore the folks 
 came in crowds to join him. For by this time 
 they had naught but hate for their king. Hen-ry 
 thought there was a chance to get the crown, and 
 he made haste back from Ire-land. But he found 
 no friends save a false one, who gave him up to his 
 foes. They took him to Lon-don and made him 
 say in the face of Par-lia-ment that his rule had 
 been so bad he was not fit to be king. Then they 
 made him swear that he would give up the throne 
 
Hard Times. 99 
 
 to Hen-ry of Lan-cas-ter. He was sent to Pon-te- 
 fract Cas-tle and kept there all the rest of his life, 
 and we do not hear of him more. 
 
 Hen-ry IV. did not find a smooth path for his 
 feet when he did get the crown. The Welsh took 
 up arms for Rich-ard, and the Scotch gave him no 
 rest. The Earl of North-um-ber-land, who was 
 Rich-ard's false friend, thought the king could not 
 do too much for him for his help to win the crown. 
 This earl had a fine son who w^as so rash and brave 
 that he had the name of Har-ry Hot-spur. This 
 young man led the troops on the Scotch and beat 
 them and took hosts of them. The king sent to 
 have these Scotch-men brought to Lon-don, which 
 put the proud young Hot-spur in a rage, so he went 
 off to Wales and took his men with him. There 
 they found more to join them, and they got a large 
 force to fight King Hen-ry. The Prince of Wales, 
 whose name was Hen-ry, too, was a brave, fine 
 youth, and fought well. King Hen-ry won the 
 day, and Hot-spur got his death in this jfight. But 
 the Welsh were not put down, and the king had no 
 peace. He did not know whom to trust, for he 
 met plots on all sides. Friends were not true to 
 him, so at last he grew to think that all men were 
 his foes. In time he would not trust his son, 
 Prince Hal, and put slights on him of all sorts. 
 
lOO Histor-y of England. 
 
 He grew old ere his time, and was ill and had fits. 
 His last charge was to his son Hen-ry. He said 
 the Prince should keep up the war with France, or 
 the En-elish would not let him rest on his throne. 
 The death of Hen-ry IV. was m 1413. 
 
 CHAPTER XH. 
 
 HEN-RY v., OF MON-MOUTH. 
 
 The young Prince Hal had been a gay youth 
 and fond of all sorts of pranks, but it seems clear 
 that most of them were mere fun and did no harm. 
 When he was made a king he gave up all his wild 
 friends, and his aim was to lead a new life in a 
 grave and wise way. Still he thought it right to 
 make war on France. The poor old King of France 
 was mad, and his wife was bad, and the land was 
 in a sad state. Fights went on till the streets of 
 Par-is ran red with blood. Hen-ry thought he could 
 set things to rights, and he got troops and went into 
 Nor-man-dy. There he sent out a call to the folks 
 to own him as their true king, and then, he said, he 
 would let no harm come to them. 
 
 He laid siege to Har-fleur, both by sea and land, 
 
Henry V., of Monmouth. lOi 
 
 for five weeks, at which time the town gave up. 
 He let the folks go out of it with part of their 
 clothes and five pence each. All the rest that they 
 had he took for his own men, yet the troops were 
 still in want of much. But the king said he would 
 not go back till he had struck a great blow. So he 
 went on with his small force on the road to Ca-lais. 
 When he came to a stream by the name of Somme, 
 he could not cross, for there was a fort at the ford. 
 As he went on the right bank to look for a place to 
 cross, the French made a move on the left bank to 
 watch him. They laid in wait to fight when the 
 En-glish should try to cross. In the end the En- 
 glish did cross the stream. The French then sent 
 word to King Hen-ry to know by which road he 
 meant to go. '' By the road that will take me 
 straight to Ca-lais," said the king ; and he sent them 
 off with the gift of a sum of gold, for he sought to 
 make friends as far as he could. 
 
 The En-glish went on till they saw the French, 
 and then the king gave the word for them to form 
 the line for the fight. The French had six men to 
 one of the English, and most of them were of high 
 rank and the first blood in the land. 
 
 It had been their way to laugh at the bows of the 
 En-glish as things not fit for the hands of men of 
 birth. The French had spent the night in feasts 
 
I02 History of Eiigla7id, 
 
 and mirth, but the En-ghsh sought God's help, 
 while the king rode from tent to tent to see that 
 each man was in his place. He rode on a gray 
 horse and wore a gold crown on his head, and on 
 his clothes were wrought the arms of En-gland and 
 France. He told his men that he had made up his 
 mind to win the fight or die, and that En-gland 
 would not have to pay a price to the French for 
 him. He said he did not wish for one more man, 
 as the less their force the more great would be their 
 fame when they won the day. As the French did 
 not make a move he sent off two men, one to lie in 
 a wood to the left of the French and one to set fire 
 to a house at the back of them. Then the En- 
 glish rose up with a great shout and fell upon the 
 French. Each bow-man had a great stake with a 
 strong tip. This stake they thrust in the ground, 
 shot off their darts, and fell back. So when the grand 
 French knights rode up to the fray such a storm of 
 darts fell on them that they had to break and turn. 
 Horse and man would fall and roll in the dust. 
 Those who made out to get up and strive to charge 
 the bow-men found the ground so much of a bog 
 that they could not keep their feet, and the En- 
 glish cut them to bits root and branch. Then the 
 dense mass of French troops, whose arms were 
 of great weight, sank knee-deep in the mire, while 
 
HEN-RY THE FIFTH. 
 
I04 History of England. 
 
 the light EngHsh troops were as fresh and strong 
 as if they fought on a floor. And now the fight 
 grew more fierce and the Duke of Clar-ence fell. 
 The French came round him in a mass, but King 
 Hen-ry fought them off. Then came a band of 
 French knights, with a lord at their head, who had 
 sworn to kill or take the En-glish king. One of 
 them struck him such a blow with an ax that it 
 made him reel and fall on his knees ; but his men 
 made haste to close round him and they slew the 
 whole band, so that French lord could not keep his 
 oath. The French Duke of A-len-con saw this, 
 and he made a fierce charge and cut his way up to 
 the flao^ of En-Q^land to take it. He beat down the 
 Duke of York, who stood near, and when the king 
 came to his aid he struck off a piece of the crown 
 he wore. But that was the last blow he made, for 
 as he told the king who he was, he fell dead, struck 
 by a score of darts. 
 
 This death brought the fight to an end. The 
 third part of the French force, which had not yet 
 struck a blow, broke and fled. Then it was known 
 that the En-glish had won the fight. The loss was 
 great on the French side. Three dukes were slain 
 and seven counts, and hosts of knights and men of 
 birth lay dead on the field. This was known as the 
 fight of A-gin-court. 
 
He7i7y v., of Monmotith. 105 
 
 When the king went home once more he was met 
 with cheers, and men made a plunge in the waves 
 ere he could reach the shore to bear him to land on 
 their backs. Crowds came from each town throuo^h 
 which he went, and they hung rich stuffs out, and 
 wreaths, and made the founts run with wine as 
 the great field of A-gin-court had run with blood. 
 
 King Hen-ry kept Har-fleur and took a great 
 part of Nor-man-dy. He took, too, the great town 
 of Rou-en, which stood out a siege of a year. 
 This made the French think it would be a good 
 plan to talk of terms of peace. So they met the 
 En-glish on a plain by the Seine. The poor mad 
 king could not be there, but the queen came, and 
 with her the fair young Prin-cess Cath-a-rine, and 
 King Hen-ry saw her for the first time, and his 
 heart was won. And so In the end Hen-ry made 
 peace, on the terms that he should have the Prin- 
 cess Cath-a-rine for his wife, and that he should be 
 made Re-gent of France for the rest of the mad 
 king's life, and have the throne at his death. And 
 so peace came once more, and the poor French folk 
 were glad, though they were in such want of food 
 that some of them fell dead in the streets of Par-is. 
 And now with a fair wife to cheer him, and his 
 foes dead, and in time a son born to bring him 
 new joy, all was bright for the king. 
 
io6 History of England. 
 
 But his health was worn out by this time, and he 
 grew quite weak and ill. He sent for his friends 
 when he knew he was to die, and gave his son to 
 their charge. Then he told the priest to chant a 
 psalm for him, and ere it was done his last breath 
 was drawn. He had been a kind and wise king, 
 and he was most dear to the hearts of all En- 
 glish-men. There was great grief at his death. 
 He was in the prime of life, and so brave that his 
 mere name kept his foes in check. He had seen 
 that the laws were put in force for the good of 
 all, and more than this, he had sought to keep the 
 laws of God. 
 
 His son, Hen-ry the Sixth, was but a babe 
 when he was made King of En-gland and France. 
 He was a meek and mild child, not as brave and 
 strong and firm as his friends would have been 
 glad to have found him. The war in France 
 went on all the time, for the Dau-phin, the son of 
 King Charles, had friends who fought for him as 
 their real king. The Duke of Bed-ford held the 
 rights of Henry, and kept the lands that had been 
 won in the north and south-west. 
 
 But just at this time, when the French were 
 worn out with war, a strange thing came to pass to 
 help them. In a small place in the wild hills of 
 Lor-raine there dwelt a young girl by the name of 
 
Henry V., of Monmouth. 107 
 
 Joan of Arc. It had been her work as a child to 
 tend sheep on the wild hills, and she had heard 
 ghost tales and talk of dreams, and had seen strange 
 shapes in the clouds and mists that swept by. The 
 folk then in that part of the land had a child's 
 faith in dreams and signs, so it was not strange to 
 them to hear that the girl Joan had seen signs, 
 that saints had come to her with crowns on their 
 heads, or that a voice had said, ''Jeanne, thou art 
 sent by God to go and help France." There is 
 no doubt that Jean thought she heard and saw 
 these things. This went on till she could not rest, 
 but went off to find the Dau-phin. A French 
 lord bought her a horse and a sword, and gave 
 her two squires to lead her. The voice had told 
 Jean that she must wear a man's dress, so she put 
 one on and girt her sword to her side and bound 
 spurs to her heels and rode on till she came to the 
 place where the Dau-phin was. It was strange that 
 she knew how to pick him out at once from all the 
 rest. She told him that there was an old, old sword 
 in the church of St. Cath-a-rine, at Frei-bois, and 
 that it had five marks of a cross on it, and the voice 
 had said that was the sword she must wear. Just 
 at this time the En-glish had laid siege to Or-leans, 
 and there was sm.all hope for the French. So the 
 Dau-phin was glad to catch at a straw. Joan told 
 
lo8 History of England. 
 
 him God had sent her to get back his reahii for 
 him, and that she would drive out the En-gHsh 
 from the soil of France and lead him to Rheims, 
 where the crown of France should be set on his 
 head. 
 
 When she spoke of the old sword no one had 
 heard of it, but when they sought it in the church 
 it was found. So then the French put their trust 
 in the maid, and the En-glish were full of fear, for 
 they thought she was a witch. Joan got on a horse 
 once more and rode on and on till she came to Or- 
 leans. She rode now on a snow white war horse, 
 and her coat of arms shone in the sun. She bore 
 a white flag in front of her with the words " Je-su 
 Ma-ri-a" on it, and in this grand state, at the 
 head of a great mass of troops, they bore food to 
 the poor folks in Or-leans. When those on the 
 walls saw her there went up a shout : " The 
 Maid has come." And this and the sight of the 
 Maid at the head of their men made the French 
 so brave, and gave the En-glish such doubts, that 
 their line of forts soon gave way, the French troops 
 got in the town, and Or-leans was all their own once 
 more. From that time Joan was known as the 
 Maid of Or-leans. The En-glish troops were still 
 at the walls, but the men had no heart to fight, for, 
 they said, it was of no use to strive with a witch. 
 
Henry V., of Monmoitth. 109 
 
 Still they held the bridge and some strong posts on 
 the bridge, and here the Maid fought them for a 
 whole day. She was once struck by an En-glish 
 dart in the neck and fell in the trench ; but she 
 soon said that a voice spoke to her and the pain 
 was gone and she rose to fight once more. When 
 the En-glish, who had seen her fall and thought her 
 dead, saw this they had strange fears. Some of 
 them said that they saw Saint Mi-chael on a white 
 horse, and that he fought for the French. So they 
 lost heart and gave up the bridge. The next day 
 they set their chain of forts on fire and left the 
 place. They went, with Lord Suf-folk at their 
 head, to a town a few miles off, but the Maid of 
 Or-leans and her troops laid siege to them there and 
 took him. As her white flag was seen to scale the 
 walls, Joan was struck on the head with a stone, 
 and once more she fell in a ditch. But her cry was 
 *'On, on, my friends! Fear not, for the Lord will 
 give them into our hands." And so it was ; and 
 from that time she won all in her way. She then 
 told the Dau-phin, who had kept out of the way of 
 the fights, that he must go to Rheims for his crown. 
 The Dau-phin made no haste to do this, for Rheims 
 was a long way off, and the En-glish were still 
 strong in the land through which the road lay. 
 But at last he set forth with a laree force, and the 
 
1 1 o History of England. 
 
 Maid of Or-leans rode on her white war horse at 
 their head, and at last they came to Rheims. She 
 took all the towns in her way. 
 
 In the great church of Rheims it came to pass as 
 she had said, and the Dau-phin had the crown put 
 on his head with great pomp. The Maid stood 
 with her white flag at the side of the king in this 
 great hour. Then she knelt to him and said with 
 tears that what the voice had told her to do she had 
 done, and now all that she would ask for would be 
 leave to go back to her dear home. The king said 
 ''No," but that he would raise all her kin to high 
 rank, and he went on to fix a sum of gold for her 
 that she was to have each year. 
 
 So the Maid had to stay and go on and help the 
 king, and she did great things for him. She led a 
 good pure life, there is no doubt of that. And oft 
 she would beg and pray the king to let her go, and 
 once she took off her bright coat of arms and hung 
 it up in a church and said she would wear it no 
 more. But the king won her back, so she went on 
 to her doom. 
 
 At last, in a fight the poor maid was struck once 
 more and fell in a ditch. There she was left by the 
 troops and had to crawl out as best she could. The 
 chief men of the French did not like her. They 
 felt shame that a girl should have done what they 
 
Henry V., of Monmouth. m 
 
 could not do. At last, at the seige of Com-peign, 
 the troops left her in a base way. She fought to 
 the last, till an En-glish-man tore her off her horse. 
 Then they put her in jail, and they sought to make 
 her out a witch. They would bring her to court 
 and try to prove all sorts of things from her word, 
 and then take her back and shut her up once more. 
 The poor young thing clung to life, and at last said 
 she would not wear a man's dress or fight more. 
 Then they put her back in her cell, and the voice 
 came back to her. At last they said she must be 
 burnt for a witch in the great square at Rou-en. 
 There they brought her out, and some priests and 
 great men in the Church sat in the crowd to look 
 on. She was seen to hold the Cross in her hands 
 in all the fire and smoke, and she was last heard to 
 call on the name of Christ. So to the great shame 
 of En-gland and France the Maid of Or-leans was 
 put to death. The king, for whom she had won a 
 throne, did not lift a hand to save her. Not one in 
 his court said a word for her. She had been true 
 to them, brave and good, but they were false to her, 
 and it stands to their shame for all time to come. 
 
 In the square where this vile deed was done there 
 stands to-day, wrought in stone, the form of the 
 Maid of Or-leans. 
 
1 1 2 History of England. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 WAR OF THE RO-SES. 
 
 Henry the Sixth, of Wind-sor, grew to be a 
 weak man who had no strength of will. His wife, 
 Mar-ga-ret of An-jou, who was fierce and bold, had 
 things for the most part her own way. The king 
 was good and mild, and would read and pray and 
 praise God all the time, while his queen rode 
 rough shod, as it were, through his realm. He did 
 one good thing for his land. He built E-ton Col- 
 leo:e, a orrand school which has done much for the 
 minds of some of En-gland's best men. In the 
 mean time the folks grew to hate and fear the 
 queen, for they saw that her foes were put to 
 death in all sorts of ways. At last they thought 
 it would be best to take the crown from this weak 
 king, who was so ill at times that he did not 
 speak for days. The one they thought of for king 
 was the Duke of York. 
 
 It is said some of the chief lords spoke of this 
 one day as they took a walk in some grounds, 
 and one of them took the king's part. He said 
 that thouo^h the king: was weak his son Ed-ward 
 
War of the Roses. 
 
 113 
 
 might be wise, and that for his part he and his 
 house would fight for King Hen-ry. Then he 
 told all who were of the same mind to do as he 
 did and pluck a red rose and wear it in their caps 
 to show that they meant to fight for the House of 
 Lan-cas-ter. 
 
 Each of the lords who were for the Duke of 
 York took a white rose and put in his cap to 
 show they would be true to the House of York, 
 and so for a score and a half of 
 years there was a sad war in En- 
 gland, which took the name of 
 the War of the Ro-ses. The 
 first fight was at St. Al-bans, 
 and those for York won. Then 
 there was peace for a few years, 
 and the Duke of York had the 
 rule. But the queen found means to come back to 
 En-gland, and to get a great force with which she 
 fought the duke's troops more than once, and at last 
 beat them. She cut off the Duke of York's head 
 and stuck a mock crown on it and put it on one 
 of the gates of York. 
 
 Then a young son of the duke met his death at 
 the hands of one of Mar-ga-ret's friends in such a 
 way that the En-glish grew to hate her still more, 
 for they felt she had a hard, bad heart. And crowds 
 
 COSTUMES. 
 
114 Histo7'y of England. 
 
 of them left her and went on the side of the house of 
 York, and they made the dead duke's son, Ed-ward, 
 king, so that for ten years there were two kings 
 in En-gland, though one was poor Hen-ry who had 
 lost his wits by this time. Poor En-gland was torn 
 by wars from time to time, and no one felt safe, for 
 laws were not kept. At one time King Hen-ry had 
 to hide in Scot-land in woods and caves where he 
 could not get food and was like to die. 
 
 Queen Mar-ga-ret got more troops, but the 
 York-ists beat her at Hex-ham and sent the king to 
 the Tow-er. The queen and the young prince got 
 off to the w^oods. There they fell in the hands of 
 thieves who took the queen's rings and rich gems, 
 and then fought for who should have the most. 
 
 While they fought, the queen stole off with her 
 child by the hand, but they met a new foe. The 
 queen fell on her knees and told this man that this 
 boy was the son of his king. The man took them 
 in his care, got then some food, and found a way 
 for them to get to the sea, where they took a ship 
 for Flan-ders. 
 
 But though the queen was gone and Hen-ry was 
 in the Tow-er, there was no peace for En-gland, 
 for those of the king's own house now set to work 
 to stir up strife. These were the Duke of Clar- 
 ence and Rich-ard, Duke of Glou-ces-ter. Then 
 
War of the Roses. 
 
 115 
 
 there was the Earl of War-wick, who fought now on 
 this side, now on that, so that he got the name of 
 king-maker. Once he brought poor Hen-ry out 
 and put him on the throne and Ed-ward had to fly. 
 Then Ed-ward came back and War-wick was slain 
 in a bat-tie at Bar-net, and Hen-ry was sent back 
 to the Tow-er. 
 
 QUEEN MAR-GA-RET. ' 
 
 Oueen Mar-ga-ret came once more with her 
 young son and all the force she could get, and there 
 was a fight at Tewkes-bury. There the queen 
 and young Prince Ed-ward fell into the hands 
 of the fierce Duke of York. He said to the 
 boy : '* How didst thou dare come to En-gland ?" 
 '' I came to try and get back the crown for King 
 
1 1 6 Histojy of England. 
 
 Hen-ry," said the youth. King Ed-ward struck 
 him in the face, and at that sign Clar-ence and 
 Glou-ces-ter put an end to the poor boy's hfe. 
 Then King Ed-ward sent the queen to the Tow-er, 
 and at last the French king paid a large sum to 
 have her set free. Hen-ry was found dead one day 
 in his cell at the Tow-er, and it was thought he had 
 been put to death. So, as all his foes were slain, 
 King Ed-ward spent his time in feasts. The Duke 
 of Clar-ence, who did not like the queen or her kin, 
 was sent to the Tow-er. The near ties of blood 
 did not make Ed-ward spare him, and he was put 
 to death. But the king did not live long to taste 
 the joys of peace. There is not much good to be 
 said of him, save that he had a fine face and form 
 and was brave. But he was fierce to his foes, and 
 self was his god. He did not care for the folks of 
 his land, yet it was in this reign that books in print 
 were first brought in to En-gland. The art had 
 been found out in. Ger-man-y, but no one had set 
 up a press in En-gland till one Cax-ton put one 
 up in Lon-don. In this reign, too, small guns 
 were made that each man could bear in his arms, 
 so that there was a^o^reat chano^e in the mode of 
 war. 
 
 King Ed-ward did not live to see much of these 
 things, for his feasts had done so much harm to 
 
War of the Roses. iiy 
 
 his health that his Hfe came to an end ere he 
 was an old man. 
 
 King Ed-ward left two sons, who were boys at 
 the time of his death. The first-born, whose name 
 was Ed-ward, was sent for at once. Now Rich-ard, 
 Duke of Glou-ces-ter, of whom you have heard, 
 who was known as Crook-back, from his odd form, 
 had a wish to have the crown. But there were 
 lords in En-gland who had made up their mind 
 that this should not be. So when the young 
 prince was brought to Lon-don he was put in the 
 
 hirTafe!°as the t^f^^mfltomi^^HVf^llMiU 
 
 duke said. They t^^^ 
 did their best to spec-i-men of print-ing. 
 
 watch him and keep him from harm, but Rich-ard 
 of Glou-ces-ter was full of art. He made out 
 in some way to get the young Duke of York 
 in his hands, too, and lodge him in the Tow- 
 er with the young king. Then he had all the lords 
 and friends of the two boys meet him there, as he 
 said he would like to talk of the time when the 
 crown might be set on the head of the young 
 king in the face of all the folks of the land. When 
 he met the lords he came in a rage and said he had 
 heard of plans to put him to death with some drug. 
 With a glance at Lord Hast-ings, one of young Ed- 
 
1 1 8 History of England. 
 
 ward's best friends, he said, in a fierce way: "What 
 should be done with those who make such plans?" 
 "They should fare ill," said Hast-ings, "if they 
 have done so." ''If? Dost thou speak to me 
 with ifs?'' said Glou-ces-ter, with a roar. " By St. 
 Paul, I will not dine till thy head is off!" 
 
 As soon as he had said this he struck his hand 
 on the board and some men in arms came in. He 
 made a sign that they should take Hast-ings, and 
 they took him out into the court. Then they laid 
 him down with his neck on a log of wood and cut 
 off his head. 
 
 Rich-ard w^ent on from this time to put to death 
 more of the young king's friends, and the next thing 
 he did was to get the folks to make him king. 
 As he knew he had no right to the throne, he did 
 not feel at ease till he had made way with the 
 real heirs in the Tow-er. 
 
 There was a good man in charge of the Tow-er 
 whose name was Sir Rob-ert Brack-en-bur-y, and it 
 was found that no harm could come to the boys 
 while he was there, so he was sent out of the way. 
 Then one of Glou-ces-ter's tools, by the name of 
 Tyr-rell, was sent to take his place. He got two 
 men to go into the boys' room while they slept 
 and make an end of them. Then they took them 
 down a back stairs and put them in a chest in a 
 
War of the Roses. 119 
 
 great hole and threw a heap of stones on them. In 
 the course of years some men who were at work 
 there found their bones in that place in a chest. 
 Then they were put in an urn and laid in the 
 tombs of kings at West-min-ster Ab-bey. 
 
 Rich-ard Duke of Glou-ces-ter was made king, by 
 the name of Rich-ard III. He made some good 
 laws, and sought to gain the English heart, but they 
 could not like a base man. His reign was short 
 and full of strife. First there was the Duke of 
 Buck-ing-ham, who got some troops to help him 
 make war on Rich-ard, but he lost his head. Then 
 there was a man who was near kin to Rich-ard, 
 whose name was Hen-ry Tu-dor, Earl of Rich- 
 mond. Rich-ard did not love the Earl of Rich- 
 mond, as he knew some thought he ought to be 
 king. 
 
 Rich-mond wrote to his friends there if they 
 would help him, he would come and bring gold 
 and men, and En-gland might get rid of her bad 
 king. Some of the best men in the land said 
 they would join him. So Rich-mond came and 
 found men at the shore to greet him with joy. 
 
 Rich-ard was brave though he was so base ; 
 so he met Rich-mond at a place by the name of 
 Bos-worth Field, and there was a great fight. 
 Rich-ard was slain and his men fled from the 
 
1 20 History of England. 
 
 field. His crown was found on the ground and 
 it was set on the head of Hen-ry Tu-dor. This 
 fight put an end to the War of the Ro-ses. Hen- 
 ry Tu-dor was soon wed to E-hz-a-beth, the child 
 of Ed-ward the Fourth, and so the White Rose 
 and the Red Rose were made to blend. The king 
 took for his badge a great rose half red, half white. 
 You may see it now cut in the stone that marks his 
 tomb in West-min-ster. 
 
 Hen-ry the Sev-enth was a stiff, cold man, who, 
 though fond of show, was mean in his ways. 
 The En-glish had small love for him, but they were 
 worn out with war. It was said that he was not 
 kind to his wife. There were two young men who 
 set up claims to the throne in this reign. The first 
 said he was the son of that Duke of Clar-ence who 
 had been put to death in the Tow-er. He found 
 men to fight with him, but he lost the day at Stoke 
 and he was thrown in jail. His real name was 
 Lam-bert, and as the king found him to be a poor 
 weak lad who had been made a tool in the hands 
 of bad men, he took him and kept him to train his 
 hawks. 
 
 The next fraud was by a young man who said he 
 was the Duke of York, and that he had got off from 
 the Tow-er when the young King Ed-ward w^as 
 slain. He, too, found men to take his part, and the 
 
War of the Roses. 
 
 121 
 
 King of Scot-land put such faith in his tale that 
 he gave him a sweet young girl, one of his own 
 km, for his wife. 
 This man, Per- 
 kin War-beck by 
 name, took up his 
 march with his 
 troops through 
 En-gland and did 
 much harm ere 
 H e n - ry could 
 drive him out. 
 At last the king 
 took him and he 
 was hung at Ty- 
 burn. H e n -ry 
 sent for the wife 
 of this man and 
 took her to his 
 queen, who was 
 kind to her and 
 kept her at the 
 Court. 
 
 There was 
 peace in En- 
 gland for years, and the young men had time to 
 read books, w^hich were by that time in print, and 
 
 CROWN-ING OF HEN-RY THE SEV-ENTH. 
 
122 History of England. 
 
 learn things of use to them. In this reign men first 
 found their way to A-mer-i-ca. They told of the 
 new land, the strange trees, and birds, and beasts, 
 and they brought some of the new things with them 
 to show in their homes. 
 
 Though Hen-ry the Sev-enth was a mean man, 
 he spent much gold in right ways. He brought 
 men from It-a-ly who could paint and carve in 
 stone, and their works were bought for each grand 
 place that he built. He did much, too, for trade, 
 yet the En-glish did not mourn his death. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 HEN-RY Vni. 
 
 Hen-ry the Eighth now came to the throne in 
 1509. He had such frank, free ways, such good 
 looks, and skill in all sorts of games, that he won all 
 hearts at first. He was well read, too, and would 
 send for wise men to dine with him that he might 
 talk with them. But as he grew in years he did not 
 grow in grace. There was a great change in him, 
 and he grew hard and cold and fond of self. 
 
 He made war at once in Scot-land and France. 
 
116717^ VIII. 
 
 123 
 
 The troops were led in to Scot-land by the Earl of 
 
 Sur-rey, a brave and wise man, and he had with 
 
 him some high born lords and brave knights. The 
 
 Scotch army was made up of their best men, with 
 
 their own king, James the Sec-ond, at their head. 
 
 They met the En-glish at a place by the name of 
 
 Flod-den Field and fought all day. At one time 
 
 the Scotch had the best of it, then the En-glish 
 
 would seem to gain the day. But at last the 
 
 Scotch found they had 
 
 lost their king, and they 
 
 were full of grief. The 
 
 best and most brave of 
 
 their land had lost their 
 
 lives, too, in that sad 
 
 fight. So they had no 
 
 more hope and were glad to make peace with 
 
 En-gland. 
 
 King Hen-ry's war with France did not last 
 long. The young king thought he would like to 
 have some of the fame of war, but when one fieht 
 was fought he made peace. This was known as 
 the fight of the spurs, for it is said the French 
 made more use of their spurs to get off than they 
 did of their swords. And ere long there came a 
 young king to the French throne. He is known 
 as Fran-cis I. He was fond of gay feasts and had 
 
 COIN OF HEN-RY VIII. 
 
124 History of England. 
 
 as much love for rides and games and the dance as 
 Hen-ry. So the two gay young kings made a plan 
 to meet and have some good times, and so they did. 
 They met near a place by the name of Ar-dres in 
 France. The rich lords of France and En-gland 
 with their wives were there. The tents were of 
 silk and gold work, and the dames wore gowns 
 wrought with gold and gems, and the steeds wore 
 silk cloths with gold fringe, and there were feasts 
 and jousts and a dance each day. 
 
 This was known as the Field of the Cloth of 
 Gold, for there was so much of that rich ore shown 
 there, both in the tents and in the dress of the lords 
 and dames. 
 
 There was a great man who met with the two 
 kings at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. His name 
 was Wol-sey. He was a priest and was known to 
 be such a wise man that the pope gave him the 
 high rank of car-di-nal. A car-di-nal in those days 
 was a great man. He wore a long, fine silk robe 
 with fur on the edge, and in the street he had a red 
 hat on his head with a broad brim. 
 
 Car-din-al Wol-sey was a man who knew more 
 than most men of that day. He read Greek, and 
 he built Christ Church at Ox-ford, and a great 
 school at Ips-wich, with part of the wealth he got 
 from the king. But he was proud in his ways, and 
 
Henry VIII, 125 
 
 the En-glish thought he was to blame for the great 
 tax that was laid on them to pay for the king's wars. 
 So some of them told the king that the car-di-nal 
 spoke ill of him, and made a boast of his wealth as 
 though he were more rich and great than the kmg. 
 Then Hen-ry went in to a hot rage and sent to seize 
 all the wealth of the car-di-nal, and would have cut 
 off his head. But it came to pass that the car-di- 
 nal was so struck down by grief at the loss of all 
 that he held dear that he fell ill. And with his 
 last breath he said that if he had but "done as 
 much to serve God as he had done to serve his 
 king, He would not have left him in his old age." 
 The truth was that Hen-ry sought to cast off his 
 wife Kath-a-rine, so that he might take a new one, 
 and Wol-sey would not help him, for he knew it was 
 a sin. The king had cast his eyes on one of the 
 queen's maids by the name of An-ne Bo-leyn, and 
 he had made up his mind that she should be his 
 wife. He found out all at once that Kath-a-rine 
 was not his real wife, as she had been brought to 
 the court for Prince Ar-thur, the first-born son of 
 Hen-ry Sev-enth, who was dead. The pope would 
 not give him leave to do this, and time went on till 
 at last a priest by the name of Thom-as Cran-mer 
 said they might leave it to the wise men in the 
 great schools who knew most of law. Hen-ry said 
 
126 History of England. 
 
 he would have no more to do with the pope, but 
 would be the head of the church in En-gland and 
 would have things his own way. He said that Kath- 
 a-rine was not his wife, and all the rite that had bound 
 him to her was null and void ; so he sent her from 
 him and made haste to wed An-ne Bo-leyn. Poor 
 Kath-a-rine did not live but three years from that 
 time. Hen-ry said the En-glish must own him as 
 the head of the church, but there were some of the 
 best men in the land who would not do this, so 
 he had the heads of two of the great men cut off, 
 though they had been his best friends. These were 
 Bish-op Fish-er and Sir Thom-as More. 
 
 Sir Thom-as More was one of the most wise men 
 of the day. He had been at school in Ox-ford, 
 and was well read and could both write and read 
 Greek. He had learn-ed law, and was said to be 
 the first En-glish-man who could make a speech that 
 would sway the hearts of men as he chose. He 
 had a home where all the best men of the day wxre 
 glad to meet him and talk with him on grave things, 
 or hear his wife and young folks play and sing, and 
 there he found the best joys of his life. Hen-ry 
 had made him Chan-cel-lor of En-gland, which was 
 the place of most high rank on things of law. So 
 when the king chose to take a new wife he had a 
 hope that Sir Thom-as More would help him. But 
 
HEN-RY THE EIGHTH. 
 
128 History of England. 
 
 not all the kings in the world could have made the 
 chan-cel-lor do what he thought was wrong. He 
 did not wish Hen-ry to send off his good wife 
 Kath-a-rine of Ar-ra-gon, and he still held to the 
 pope as the head of the Church. So the king w^as 
 in a rage with him, and had him thrown in to jail 
 and kept him there a whole year. But he would 
 not say the king was in the right, or that he was the 
 head of the Church. The king then made up his 
 mind to put him to death, and at last said his head 
 should be cut off, and he would not let him see wife 
 or child. But one of his girls, Mar-ga-ret, lay in 
 wait in the street where he must pass as he was led 
 to his death, and ran out to kiss him and to beg 
 him to bless her. Those who saw it w^ept. So 
 this grand man lost his head, and the king had it 
 stuck on a pole on Lon-don Bridge, but Mar-ga-ret 
 soon made out to get it down, and when she was 
 dead it was put in the same grave with her. 
 
 Hen-ry VHI. had his own way and was wed to 
 An-ne Bo-leyn, but in time she, too, had to feel 
 that the king could change to her as he had done 
 to his first wife. A new face won him, and he 
 made out that the queen had done all sorts of bad 
 things, and then he had her head cut off. On the 
 day of her death she sent to beg that the king 
 would be kind to her child E-liz-a-beth. Her last 
 
Henry VIII. 129 
 
 words were to say that she had not done the bad 
 things they said, and to pray God to bless the 
 king and the En-ghsh folk, and then she laid her 
 head on the block. 
 
 The next day the king was wed to Jane Sey- 
 mour, who did not live long, or she might have met 
 a worse fate. She left one child who was Ed- 
 ward the Sixth. 
 
 The king's fourth wife was Anne of Cleves. The 
 king did not like her looks, so he soon put her out 
 of his way, but he did not kill her. He gave her a 
 house and funds for her needs, and that was all. 
 
 Then came the fifth wife, Lady Cath-a-rine 
 How-ard ; but in a few months the king found out 
 that she was not so good as he had thought, and he 
 made short work with her — her head was cut off. 
 
 Yet he found one more dame who did not fear to 
 wed with him. Cath-a-rine Parr did not seem to 
 mind the risk she ran, and she kept the king in a 
 good mood, so that she did not lose her head. He 
 was the first to die. 
 
 The time of Hen-ry the Eighth was a time of 
 change. In Ger-man-y Mar-tin Lu-ther stood 
 forth to teach men that pope or priest should have 
 no right to break laws. And there was a wise man 
 in En-gland by the name of E-ras-mus, who wrote 
 and taught truths that made the En-glish see how 
 
1 30 History of England. 
 
 much of wrong had crept into the Rom-ish Church. 
 Some grew to be foes to the pope and said the 
 priests had too much land and gold, and that some 
 of them led ill lives and made the poor pay too 
 much that they might live well and not work. 
 
 There were some who took the part of the pope, 
 and said the priests were wise men and should be 
 kept at ease that they might have time to teach. 
 Hen-ry at first was on the pope's side, and wrote a 
 book with his views and to show how wrong Mar- 
 tin Lu-ther was. But when he found that the pope 
 would not give him leave to wed as he chose, a 
 great change of mind took place. He thought that 
 it would be a good thing for En-gland to have her 
 king and not the pope at the head of her church, 
 and he set to work at once to break up all the 
 homes of the church to make the monks and the 
 nuns turn out. He said they could all go to work, 
 but some of them were too old, or they were not 
 strong, and there were those who had to beg or die 
 of want. Then he took the lands and wealth of the 
 church to do with as he chose. At the same tmie 
 he would not let all read the Bi-ble as they chose, 
 and they must serve God in his way and not in 
 their own. 
 
 Those who were not on the side of the pope and 
 who thouoht he had not the right to rule, were 
 
Mary, 131 
 
 known as Prot-est-ants. They would have all learn 
 to read the Bi-ble to find out the true way of life. 
 
 The men who did not think that the homes of 
 the church should be torn down, and who still held 
 to the pope as head of the church, were known as 
 Pa-pists. King Hen-ry made some harsh laws, 
 and had some who did not keep them burnt to 
 death. One of his worst crimes was that he had 
 the head of the young Earl of Sur-rey struck off but 
 a few days ere his own death, which came in time 
 to save some good men from the flames. There 
 was no one to mourn the death of such a king. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 MA-RY. 
 
 Ed-ward the Sixth was but nine years old at 
 the death of King Hen-ry the Eighth, and he was 
 made king at once. He was a mild boy and fond 
 of his book, but he was so young that of course he 
 had to have men to rule for him. Those who were 
 near kin to him and those who taught him were 
 Prot-est-ants, so there were laws made by which all 
 the En-glish were told that they must be Prot-est- 
 
132 History of England. 
 
 ants too. The Bi-ble was read by all, and those 
 who stood up to preach in church had to pray in 
 En-glish and not in Lat-in. The king was to be 
 held as head of the Church, the priests could take 
 wives, and all who were in jail were set free. 
 
 For all these things the reign of Ed-ward the 
 Sixth is thought to have been a good one for En- 
 gland. But there were some wrong things done in 
 this reign. The Duke of Som-er-set, who had all 
 the say, as the young king was in his care, took 
 troops into Scot-land and beat the Scots at the 
 fight of Pin-kie. Then Som-er-set said he would 
 make peace if they would give their young Queen 
 Ma-ry to be Ed-ward's wife when he was grown. 
 But Ma-ry's kin were Cath-o-lics, and they said she 
 should not wed a Prot-est-ant, so they sent her off 
 to France. 
 
 Some of the En-glish soon grew to hate Som-er- 
 set for his pride, and they made the young king 
 think ill of him. He had torn down more than 
 one church and grand house to build a fine home, 
 which still stands in the same place and bears the 
 name of Som-er-set House. 
 
 Now there was one who was as near kin to the 
 king as Som-er-set, and who thought he ought to 
 have all the rule in the land. This was Lord Sey- 
 mour, of Sude-ly, a brave but a bad man. Som-er- 
 
Mary. 133 
 
 set had him put to death, but soon his foes got 
 the king to sign for his death, too. The poor 
 boy had a kind heart and did not Hke to sign 
 such things. And though the great lords did not 
 love Som-er-set, the mass of the folk did, and there 
 was great grief when it was known that he was 
 to die. He had been kind to them, and had 
 made laws that were good for En-gland, and they 
 felt he was their friend. Som-er-set bore his fate 
 like a brave man, said a few kind words to those 
 who were in tears for him, and then laid his head 
 on the block. 
 
 The young king was not strong, and by this time 
 it grew plain to his friends that he had not long to 
 live. He had a sad, lone sort of life, spite of his 
 crown, for there were few to love him, and those 
 most near to him by blood did not seem to care 
 for him. He grew more and more weak, and they 
 took him to this place and that for change of air. 
 Now the one who was to reien in En-ofland in 
 case Ed-ward should die was the Prin-cess Ma-ry, 
 who was, as you know, the child of Hen-ry VHI. 
 and Kath-a-rine of Ar-ra-gon, and she was a Pa- 
 pist, so that all the Prot-est-ants were full of fear 
 for their cause. 
 
 The Duke of North-um-ber-land, whose name 
 had been Earl of War-wick, had a son who was wed 
 
134 History of Eiigland. 
 
 to a young girl, near kin to the king. These young 
 folks were both Prot-est-ants, and North-um-ber- 
 land thought there might be a chance for the young 
 wife, La-dy Jane Grey, to have the crown of En- 
 gland when Ed-ward was dead. Then as she was 
 wed to his son, he would rule in her name. So he 
 staid with the young king while he was ill and got 
 him to make a will by which he left the crown to 
 La-dy Jane Grey. Ed-ward did not live long, and 
 his death was a sad blow to the En-glish. He was 
 so mild and good and took such pains to do what 
 he thought right, that all the land had hopes that 
 they would have in him a good and wise king. 
 But it was the will of God that he should die, and 
 his last words were to ask God to save En-gland 
 and to keep pure the true faith. In two days La-dy 
 Jane Gray was said to be queen in Lon-don, but 
 the friends of La-dy Ma-ry held fast to her, and all 
 knew that she was the right queen. There were 
 some who would have been glad to have had the 
 La-dy Jane, for she was young, and fair, and wise, 
 and she was a Prot-est-ant. But the En-glish had 
 great fear of North-um-ber-land and they knew he 
 would rule them if his son's wife were to be queen. 
 So one and all of North-um-ber-land's friends left 
 him and took the part of La-dy Ma-ry, and the 
 La-dy Jane, who knew that a great wrong had been 
 
Mary. 
 
 135 
 
 done in her name, went back to her home with a 
 glad heart. She had borne the name of queen ten 
 days. There she might have spent her Hfe in 
 peace but for the plots of North-um-ber-land. 
 Queen Ma-ry had brought back the Pa-pist rites. 
 The folks had to pray in Lat-in once more, and the 
 
 QUEEN MA-RY. 
 
 pope was said to be the head of the church. Some 
 of the En-glish did not like this and the Prot-est- 
 ants felt still more fear when thev found that Oueen 
 Ma-ry was to wed Phil-ip of Spain. For he was a 
 fierce Pa-pist, grim and hard, and all Prot-est-ants 
 had great fear of him. So North-um-ber-land 
 thought he might raise friends to fight for the La-dy. 
 
136 History of England. 
 
 Jane, but Ma-ry soon put them down and had his 
 head cut off. All the chief men who had been 
 with him met a like fate. Then the queen felt she 
 would not be safe on her throne while the La-dy 
 Jane and Lord Guild-ford Dud-ley should live. So 
 she sent them to the Tow-er and kept them there 
 shut up for eight months. Then she said that 
 they must both be brought to the block ! 
 
 The La-dy Jane had been taught with the young 
 king, Ed-ward, and she was like him in her kind, 
 sweet ways. But she had been more quick to learn, 
 and read and wrote both Lat-in and Greek and all 
 the tongues in use at that day. She could paint, 
 too, and play. When North-um-ber-land first 
 sought to make her claim the crown she would not, 
 for, she said, she had no right to it. But at last, 
 with much words, they got her to let them set up a 
 claim for her. When she found that she must die 
 she was calm. She wrote to her friends to take 
 leave of them, and she had to see through the bars 
 of her cell Lord Guild-ford Dud-ley, her young 
 spouse, led out to his death. As she still knelt 
 there to pray she saw his corpse brought back in a 
 cart. Poor young thing, her fate was hard ! When 
 they led her out she had kind words to say to all 
 near her. The one who kept the Tow-er, as he led 
 her out to her doom, said : *' I pray thee, give me a 
 
Mary. 
 
 137 
 
 small thing to keep for thy sake," and she gave him 
 
 a book in which she wrote in Greek, in Lat-in, and 
 
 m En-glish. She said to all that she had meant 
 
 no wrong. Then she laid her fair young head on 
 
 the block. The new queen soon grew so harsh that 
 
 the En-^lish ofave her 
 
 the name of Blood-y 
 
 Ma-ry. She would not 
 
 let the Word of God 
 
 be read ; she made the 
 
 priests send off their 
 
 wives and did all she 
 
 could to bring back the 
 
 Ro-man Cath-o-lic 
 
 Church. All who 
 
 would not do as she 
 
 chose were put to 
 
 death. On one day 
 
 there were near three 
 
 score of the first men 
 
 of the land hung, and 
 
 their heads were stuck on poles in the streets. 
 
 She sent E-liz-a-beth to jail and for a time there 
 
 was fear for her life, but her friends got her to a 
 
 safe place. Then Ma-ry was wed to Phil-ip II., 
 
 King of Spain, and the En-glish did not like him. 
 
 He was not kind to the queen, who had lost the 
 
 BURN-ING AT THE STAKE. 
 
138 History of England. 
 
 charm of youth, and he did all he could to make 
 her hate the Prot-est-ants. The queen and king 
 knelt to the car-di-nal who was sent to them from 
 Rome, and said it was a great sin that En-gland 
 had done when she had cast off the pope's rule ; so 
 at last the pope said that En-gland might come 
 back to the true faith. The two men who did the 
 most to help the queen bring back En-gland to the 
 old creed were Gar-di-ner and Bon-ner. They 
 thought the true way was to burn up all who would 
 not think as they did. The first one burnt was a 
 good man by the name of Rog-ers. They sent him 
 to the great square at Smith-field, and he was bound 
 to the stake and a fire lit round him. His wife 
 met him with her ten boys and girls, and there they 
 took leave of him with tears. The next one to die 
 was Doc-tor Hoop-er, Bish-op of Glou-ces-ter. 
 With his last breath he said : 'T thank God that 
 I have had the strength to speak the truth." 
 
 Bish-op Lat-i-mer was one of the Prot-est-ants. 
 He was an old man, but Queen Ma-ry would not 
 spare him, and sent him with a friend of his by the 
 name of Bish-op Rid-ley to the stake. They spoke 
 words of love and cheer to all as the flames came 
 to them, and their death did much to make their 
 friends more strong in the faith. 
 
 Next came the wise and good Arch-bish-op 
 
Mary. 139 
 
 Cran-mer. He was a mild man, and his fears made 
 him seek to hve. He wrote to Queen Ma-ry and 
 plead for his hfe ; but though he did vow that he 
 would be a Pa-pist if she would spare him, she 
 sent him to be burnt. When they had bound him 
 to the stake he was seen to stretch out his right hand 
 in the flame that it might burn first, for he said that 
 hand had done false work, in that it wrote through 
 fear what he did not mean. He kept up a brave 
 heart through the fire, and was heard to pray to 
 God and praise Him. The way in which he bore 
 his death made all feel for him, and there was a 
 light lit in En-gland that day which did not soon 
 go out. 
 
 Queen Ma-ry went to war with France to please 
 Phil-ip, but she lost the day and the French took 
 back Ca-lais. Her death came in the same year in 
 which she lost Ca-lais, and she had been queen but 
 five years. She said when she was dead they would 
 find the word *' Ca-lais" on her heart, its loss had 
 been such a grief to her. 
 
140 History of England. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 E-LIZ-A-BETH. 
 
 E-Liz-A-BETH was the child of An-ne Bo-Ieyn, and 
 she was known as a Prot-est-ant. She had been 
 well taught, and knew both Lat-in and Greek. The 
 first thing she did was to set free all the Prot- 
 est-ants who were in the jails. Then she brought 
 back the Bi-ble, and had men pray in En-glish in 
 church. When E-liz-a-beth rode through Lon-don 
 to be made queen at West-min-ster Ab-bey, there 
 was great joy and all sorts of fine shows for her. 
 The streets were gay with flags, and here and there 
 an arch was made and bound with wreaths. As 
 the queen rode 'neath one of these a boy was let 
 down from cords who gave the queen a fine Bi-ble 
 and then was drawn up once more. The queen 
 was seen to kiss this Bi-ble and press it to her 
 heart, and she said it was the gift most dear to her 
 of all she had had that day. 
 
 Queen E-liz-a-beth took wise men to help her 
 rule the land, and with their aid En-gland was at 
 rest, and trade and all the arts of peace had a 
 chance to grow. The queen had a dread of war. 
 
Elizabeth. 
 
 141 
 
 and in all her reign did what she could to keep her 
 land free from it. In her reign Prot-est-ants came 
 from lands where they might be burnt for their 
 faith and made their homes in En-gland. Some 
 could spin and weave and dye cloth, and as they 
 set up the work of their trades in their new homes 
 the En-glish learnt new arts. You know there 
 
 AF-TER THE COR-O-NA-TION, 
 
 was a fair young Queen of Scot-land by the name 
 of Ma-ry, whom they had sought to wed to Ed- 
 ward the Sixth. She had been sent to France, 
 where she had wed the young King of France, but 
 he did not live long. Then the young Queen of 
 Scots went home to Scot-land. Her life in France 
 had been so gay that she did not love her new home 
 
142 History of England. 
 
 or its folks. She took her French friends with her, 
 and did not care for grave things. She sought to 
 feast and dance and sing with her gay friends. The 
 land had grown Prot-est-ant while she had been 
 gone, and this did not please her. At last there 
 was a war of Prot-est-ant and Pa-pist in her land, 
 and in the end the folks said she might be a Pa-pist 
 if she would let them be free to be Prot-est-ants and 
 serve God in the way they chose. But she had 
 to say that if she had a child it should be brought 
 up in the Prot-est-ant faith. Ma-ry had wed one 
 of her own kin, Hen-ry Stu-art, known as Lord 
 Darn-ley, and they had one son by the name of 
 James. Ma-ry did not care for Darn-ley, but chose 
 one Both-well for a friend. So when Darn-ley was 
 found slain it was thought that the vile plan to kill 
 him was hers, though she had been at a ball at the 
 time. And when she chose to wed with Both-well 
 in three months all were sure of her guilt, and the 
 Scots rose and said they would not have such a 
 queen. Then there was more war, and Ma-ry was 
 put in jail. But by help of one of her friends she 
 got out and sought to be queen once more. But 
 the Scots would not hear of it, and they made the 
 child James their king, with Lord Mur-ray and 
 some more lords to rule for him. 
 
 Ma-ry went to En-gland then to see if E-liz-a- 
 
Elizabeth. 
 
 143 
 
 beth would help her to get her crown back once 
 more. And she wrote to the Kings of France and 
 Spain to say that if they would help they might get 
 En-gland as well as Scot-land back to the pope's 
 rule. She wrote to the pope that if they could put 
 E-liz-a-beth out of the way all would be well. 
 
 At this time the Prot-est-ants in all lands were 
 not left free to serve God in their own way, and 
 were put to death for slight cause. All this went 
 to rouse the hearts of the Prot-est-ant En-glish and 
 to make them fear the 
 plots of Ma-ry. The 
 
 Pu-ri-tans, one and all, 
 were her foes, and said she 
 should be put to death. 
 At this time, too, took 
 place what is known as 
 the Mas-sa-cre of Saint Bar-thol-o-mew, a crime 
 that has left a stain on the fair fame of France 
 which all time can not wipe out. On the day 
 kept for Saint Bar-thol-o-mew all the great heads 
 of the Prot-est-ant Church were brought to Par-is 
 to see their young chief, the King of Na-varre, wed 
 to the Prin-cess Mar-guer-ite. The King of France, 
 Charles the Ninth, a young man, led by the fierce 
 Cath-o-lics to believe that there was a plot to take 
 his life, gave a sign that when a bell should toll a 
 
 COIxV OF E-LIZ-A-BETH. 
 
144 History of England. 
 
 great force should fall on the Prot-est-ants and slay 
 them all at once. When the hour was close at 
 hand the king was led to a place where he could see 
 the sad work. Through all one night and two days 
 the Prot-est-ants were shot — men, their wives and 
 babes — and were flung out in the streets till the 
 stones were red with blood. In all France the 
 same vile deeds were done. From that day the 
 king did not know an hour's peace. He would cry 
 out that he saw the Hu-gue-nots fall, and their 
 groans were at all times in his ears. He did not 
 live but a year from those days of crime and blood. 
 
 In En-gland the news of such a deed came 
 with a great shock to all, and the court wore black 
 for a sign of their grief. And just then a real plot 
 was found out that put an end to all hope for Ma-ry, 
 Queen of Scots. Some young men with weak 
 heads, with a Jes-u-it priest at their head, made a 
 plan to kill the queen. They were so proud of this 
 plan that they got some one to paint them all. But 
 there was one of them who told all to one of E-liz- 
 a-beth's chief men, and then the whole plot was 
 known. The men were caught and Ma-ry was told 
 that all had been found out. E-liz-a-beth was told 
 that while she kept Ma-ry she held ''the wolf that 
 would some day kill her." 
 
 They brought out the Queen of Scots to try her. 
 
Elizabeth. 
 
 145 
 
 She said that each charge was false, and that she 
 
 did not write what was shown in court. But it was 
 
 known to have been done by her hand. Queen 
 
 E-hz-a-beth sent word to Par-Ha-ment to know if 
 
 they could not find 
 
 some way to save 
 
 Ma-ry's Hfe. But 
 
 they said '* No," 
 
 there was no help 
 
 for it, Ma-ry must 
 
 die. 
 
 At last the 
 Queen, who felt 
 that the plots were 
 real and that she 
 could not be sure 
 of her own life if 
 she let Ma-ry live, 
 sent word that it 
 might be, and that 
 she would sign the 
 writ of death. The 
 Queen of Scots felt sure that her time had now 
 come, and she wrote to E-liz-a-beth to ask three 
 things. First, that her grave might be in France. 
 Then that her head might be cut off in the sight of 
 all ; and third, that all who had been her friends 
 
 MA-RY STU-ART. 
 
146 History of England. 
 
 should have what she left to them and be let go to 
 their homes in peace. It is said that E-liz-a-beth 
 shed tears as she read this, but she did not write to 
 Ma-ry. She put off from day to day the sad work, 
 and it is said was loth at last to sign her name to 
 the writ of death. 
 
 But at last it was done. Ma-ry, on the last night, 
 read her will and went to bed and slept some hours. 
 Then she rose and spent the rest of the time till the 
 break of day on her knees. At eight she was 
 drest in her best clothes and took leave of those 
 who were with her. She went down stairs with 
 the man who was sent for her, with her Bi-ble and 
 Cross in her hands. Two of her maids and four of 
 her men were with her. In the hall was a low block 
 two feet from the ground with a black cloth thrown 
 on it. The hall was full, and on one side of the 
 block stood the heads-man in a black suit. While 
 they read her doom to her she sat on a stool. When 
 they were done she said once more that the charge 
 of guilt was false, and that all the crimes laid to her 
 were part of a state plot to get her out of the way. 
 She said she would die in the Cath-o-lic faith. One 
 of her maids put a cloth on her face and she laid 
 her head on the block and said more than once in 
 Latin, *Tn to Thy hands, oh Lord." When her 
 head was cut off and held up it was seen that her 
 
THE TRI-AL OF MA-RY STU-ART. 
 
148 History of England. 
 
 hair was quite gray. She had borne her fate in a 
 brave, sweet way, and the fame of the fair face 
 that had long grown worn and sad with years and 
 grief, is still kept fresh and light in song and tales 
 to this day. 
 
 Phil-ip of Spain sought to wed with E-liz-a-beth, 
 but she would not hear of it; then one of the sons 
 of the old Queen of France was thought of for her. 
 The queen did not say **no" to this, for she sought 
 to keep friends with France. But at last she said 
 she would wed no one, and she thought she could 
 rule the land as welL 
 
 The queen knew that the best way to make En- 
 gland strong was to have good ships, so that she 
 could meet her foes and fight them on the sea, 
 and not let them land on her shores. She had some 
 wise men to sail her ships for her, and they went to 
 strange lands and brought back tales of the life 
 there, and men and things they had found. Sir 
 Fran-cis Drake was one of these. And Sir Wal- 
 ter Ra-leigh, who could fight on the land or take the 
 lead of a ship at sea, was one of the great men of 
 the time. He took out the first folks to North 
 A-mer-i-ca, and they gave the name of Vir-gin-i-a 
 to their homes. He first brought home from South 
 A-mer-i-ca a root which is much in use for food, and 
 a weed which men smoke and chew. The first 
 
Elizabeth. 
 
 149 
 
 time they saw Sir Wal-ter smoke in En-gland they 
 thought he was on fire, and sought to put him 
 out. Queen E-Hz-a-beth had her faults. In those 
 days it was not thought wrong for those on thrones 
 to say what they did not mean, and so men could 
 not trust the word of the queen or her chief, Lord 
 Bur-leigh, at all times. If they thought it best for 
 
 A SEA FIGHT. 
 
 the land they would say that they would do what 
 they did not mean to do. E-liz-a-beth was small, 
 it is said, but made out by her grand ways to 
 look the queen. As age came on she grew more 
 and more fond of dress. She wore big hoops and 
 tall ruffs of lace, and gems strewn on her robes. 
 She is said to have had more than ten score of 
 
150 History of England. 
 
 eowns and a score and a half of wio^s. She had 
 some grand men in her court, and Phil-ip Syd- 
 ney was one. There was great grief when he met 
 his death in Hol-Iand, where the queen had sent 
 some troops to help the Prot-est-ants, who were 
 in the harsh hands of Phil-ip of Spain. As Syd- 
 ney rode, faint with thirst, from the field of the 
 fight, some one brought him a drink in a cup. 
 Just as he went to raise it to his mouth he saw a 
 poor man worse hurt than he, who kept a sad 
 gaze on the cup. Syd-ney put the drink from 
 him and said: *'Take it, friend; thy need is more 
 than mine." Phil-ip of Spain at this time got up a 
 great fleet to come down on En-gland and bring 
 it back to the rule of the pope. The queen heard 
 of the plan and sent out one of her great sea men 
 who had been round the world, whose name was 
 Ad-mi-ral Drake. He set sail for the port of Ca- 
 diz, and took and burnt scores of the Span-ish 
 ships, and that kept them back for a whole year. 
 But in that time they had a great force, and gave 
 it the name of the 'Tn-vin-ci-ble Ar-ma-da," for 
 they felt sure it could not be beat. The heart of all 
 En-gland was like the heart of one man to rise up 
 and beat back this bold foe from their shores. The 
 great mass of the Cath-o-lics were true to their land, 
 and both sides of the Thames were made strong 
 
QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
152 History of England. 
 
 with forts, and all were in wait for the proud Span- 
 ish fleet. The queen rode out on a white horse 
 and made a speech to the brave troops, and was 
 heard with cheers of joy. Then came the Span- 
 ish Ar-ma-da, with its ships set in the form of a 
 half moon, and it was of such great size that it 
 was more than six miles broad. But the En-glish 
 were soon on it, and they took all the ships that got 
 out of the half moon. One night the bold Drake 
 sent eight fire ships right in the midst of it. Then 
 the Span-iards strove to get to sea, but the En- 
 glish gave them chase, and then there came a great 
 storm, just as the Ar-ma-da went through the 
 Straits of Do-ver. This drove the ships from their 
 course and broke them to bits, so that the coasts of 
 Ire-land and Scot-land were strewn with their 
 wrecks. The En-glish felt that God had come to 
 their help, and that wind and storm had fought 
 for them. 
 
 Lord Lei-ces-ter, who had been a great friend of 
 the queen's, and had at times thought he could get 
 her for his wife, was dead. E-liz-a-beth took his 
 step-son, the Earl of Es-sex, a brave young man, 
 for her best friend. He had the ill luck at last not 
 to please her and she sent him to rule Ire-land. 
 From the harsh way she wrote to him he thought 
 he must have some foes at court. So he did not 
 
WIL-LIAM SHAKE-SPEARE. 
 
154 History of England. 
 
 wait for leave but came home and went straight to 
 the queen. She was in a rage and would not hear 
 him, for she was vain and had been told that he 
 made fun of her. Then Es-sex, who was proud 
 and hurt, broke his sword in her sight and flung it 
 from him ; and what was worse, he got his friends 
 to stand up in a sort of mob for his rights. This 
 made the queen send him to his house. She told 
 him to stay there. But she still felt for him, for 
 when he was ill she sent him broth and shed tears 
 for him. He spent his time with his books, but 
 when he found that the queen took from him some 
 of his rights, he grew in a rage and said she was 
 vain and old, and no more straight in mind than in 
 her form. Some of the court dames were glad to 
 catch up these words and tell them to the queen. 
 
 But more than this, Es-sex and some of his 
 friends laid a plot to take the queen and make her 
 chanofe her head men and send some from her. 
 This was found out and Es-sex was sent for, but he 
 made out that he was ill. Then one day he made 
 a start with a few friends, with the cry : '' For the 
 queen, for the queen, a plot is laid for my life ! " 
 But no one came to their help and the Earl got 
 back to his house, where the troops came to take 
 him to the Tow-er. But the queen still had love 
 for him and thought she would keep him there till 
 
Elizabeth. 
 
 155 
 
 he sent some word or sign to her. But he did not, 
 and she thought he was too proud to beg for her 
 grace, and at last she set her name to the writ for 
 his death. So Es-sex lost his head on the block. 
 But when he was dead the queen found that he had 
 sent her a ring by one of the court dames, and that 
 this ring got in the hands of one who was a foe to 
 Es-sex and kept it back. When the one who had 
 done this was sick to death she sent for the queen 
 and gave her the ring and told her all. The heart 
 of the queen gave way, and from that time she 
 grew all at once old and weak. She would not lie 
 down, but sat up till she sank in death. She did 
 not speak for days, till at last she told the arch- 
 bish-op to pray for her ; and so death came to her 
 who had been so brave and strong in 1603. Shake- 
 speare wrote his great plays in the time of Queen 
 E-liz-a-beth. 
 
156 History of England 
 
 CHAPTER XVIL 
 
 JAMES I. 
 
 The heir to the throne was now the son of Ma-ry 
 Queen of Scots. He was the sixth James who 
 had been King of Scot-land, and he had been 
 brought up in a strict way by the Scotch Pu-ri-tans. 
 He knew books, but not court ways, and he had no 
 grace. He could not bear to see a drawn sword, 
 and had such a fear that some one would kill him 
 that he wore a dress all made thick with wool, 
 which did not lend much style to his form. 
 
 The En-glish were not proud of their new king, 
 though it was a great thing for En-gland and 
 Scot-land to have the same man to rule them at last, 
 for it put an end to their wars. 
 
 James had read much and was more wise than 
 men thought. He did not like the Pu-ri-tans as 
 well as the En-glish Church, for he thought that it 
 was best to fix a form by which men should pray, 
 and not for each one to pray in his own words. 
 But he could not change the Scots all at once, and 
 he set wise men to work on the Bi-ble to make it 
 all as plain and clear as it could be. 
 
James /. 
 
 157 
 
 But there were some of the Cath-o-Hcs at this time 
 who had got up a plot to get rid of the Prot-est-ants 
 and bring back the pope. They were to blow up 
 the House of Par-ha-ment on the day when it met. 
 They laid a mine 
 
 'neath it, and put 
 kegs of their stuff 
 there and hid them 
 with sticks of wood. 
 But one of these 
 men had a friend in 
 Par-lia-ment whom 
 he did not want 
 should die. So he 
 wrote to him in 
 such a way that he 
 woke fears in the 
 one who read it, 
 and search was 
 made in the vaults. 
 There they found 
 the kegs of stuff in 
 place to blow all up, 
 and a man with a 
 
 JAMES THE FIRST. 
 
 torch to set fire to the train. 
 This man, whose name was Guy Fawkes, told all 
 when they had laid hold of him. Some of those 
 who had been in the plot made out to get from En- 
 
158 
 
 History of England. 
 
 
 
 gland. All the land gave thanks that the plot was 
 brought to naught. For a long time that day, 5th 
 
 of No-vem-ber, 
 
 was kept and fire- 
 
 = works set off and 
 
 a shape like that 
 of Guy Fawkes 
 burnt. It is known 
 as '' Guy Fawkes s 
 day." 
 
 Hen-ry, Prince 
 of Wales, was a 
 fine youth, fond 
 of ships and apt 
 to talk of wars. 
 The hopes of En- 
 gland were set on 
 him, but he grew 
 ill, and his death 
 was a great blow 
 to all. 
 
 King James 
 chose friends for 
 
 DEATH OF RA-LEIGH. thclr O^Ood looks 
 
 and not for their good traits of mind and heart. 
 To one of them, the Duke of Buck-ing-ham, he gave 
 the pet name of Stee-nie, and he s^ave him his son 
 
 gave 
 
Ja77ies I. 159 
 
 Charles to bring up. When Charies was groom 
 they sought to get the child of the King of Spain 
 for his wife ; so Stee-nie took the young prince to 
 see her, and the two went in plain clothes and took 
 the plain name of '* Smith," so that none should 
 know them. But when they got to Mad-rid they 
 found that the young girl could not be seen, as the 
 rules of the Span-ish court were most strict. Charles, 
 who had seen the bright eyes of Hen-ri-et-ta Ma-ri-a 
 of France on his way, said he would take her for 
 his wife. But ere he did this the death of James 
 the First came to pass in the year 1625. There 
 had not been much peace in Scot-land in this reign, 
 as he strove to make all there use the forms of the 
 new En-glish church. One of the worst things he 
 did was to keep Sir Wal-ter Ra-leigh in the Tow-er 
 for years, and at last to cut off his head. James 
 was not a man of strict truth. He thought that 
 kings might lie, and he gave such lies the name of 
 king-craft. 
 
i6o History of England. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 CHARLES I. 
 
 Charles I. had good looks and grace of mien, 
 with none of the odd ways and tricks of James, so 
 that the En-ghsh were glad to hail him as king. 
 For some years all was peace, but there were some 
 who did not like his friend, the Duke of Buck- 
 ing-ham, and thought he had too much to say, and 
 they did not like to have a queen who was a' 
 Pa-pist. The Pu-ri-tans did not want the rules 
 of the Church of En-gland, and there was a man 
 by the name of Dr. Laud who was sent to 
 each church to put these rules in force. Some 
 went off to A-mer-i-ca, where they could serve 
 God in their own way, but those who were left 
 did not keep still. Then the king had need of 
 gold, and chose ways to raise it that the folks did 
 not think just. In old times King Al-fred had 
 made a tax to build ships. It was known as a 
 ship tax, but in time the funds were put to all sorts 
 of use. Then, too, gold was got from fines. When 
 a man was brought up for a fault they brought him 
 to a room known as a Star Cham-ber, and he had to 
 
vN^: 
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. 
 
1 62 History of England. 
 
 pay a good sum to get free. When Par-lia-ment 
 would not give the king gold he broke it up, and 
 sent through the land to raise funds by the ship 
 tax, but there were some who would not pay it. 
 They said the king broke the laws when he sought 
 to reign with no Par-lia-ment. But King Charles 
 would not call a Par-lia-ment for ten years. The folks 
 said the worst times had come back when kings 
 could rob the poor. Buck-ing-ham had met his 
 death by a stab to the heart from the hands of a 
 man by the name of Fel-ton. Charles had sent 
 help to the French Prot-est-ants at Ro-chelle, which 
 was in a state of siege. Buck-ing-ham was to have 
 led the troops, which did not please the En-glish at 
 all. He was a proud, cold man, and had not made 
 friends of them. All thought that the king would 
 do well now the bad friend was gone. But he went 
 on to try and make the Scots come back to the 
 Church. He had a hard time, too, in Ire-land, and 
 at last all those who did not like him made a league 
 to fight him, and he had to call his Par-lia-ment at 
 last to raise funds. They were not in a mood to 
 grant boons. They put an end at once to the ship 
 tax and the court of the Star Cham-ber, and they 
 threw the king's two great friends. Laud and Straf- 
 ford, into jail. The Earl of Straf-ford had charge 
 in Ire-land, and had kept strict rule there. Pie 
 
Charles I. 
 
 163 
 
 was thought a hard man, and he sought to make 
 the king rule with a strong hand. The Par-ha- 
 ment said he should have his head cut off, but 
 they could not do it save in the king's name. At 
 first Charles stood out and would not give up his 
 dear friend, but there was such a rao^e at this that 
 
 THE EN-GLISH FLEET. 
 
 the queen with tears plead with the king to save all 
 and put his name to the writ of death. He did so, 
 but did not cease to mourn the act till the end of 
 his life. The Par-lia-ment took thino^s more and 
 more in their own hands, and some of them went 
 on to rail at the king in such a way that Charles 
 went there to take five men who were the worst 
 
164 
 
 History of England. 
 
 of the lot. But by some means these men had 
 heard of it and were not there, and the Lon-don- 
 ers rose up in a great mob to cry down the king. 
 The queen, with the Prin-cess Ma-ry, went to Hol- 
 land, and there was a 
 match made for the 
 young girl with the 
 Prince of Orange. Then 
 the queen bought stacks 
 of guns for the troops 
 of King Charles, for 
 there was war now with 
 the kino- and his Par-lia- 
 ment. Those who held 
 with the king were 
 known as Cav-a-liers, 
 and those who were not 
 with him had the name 
 of Pu-ri-tans, or Round 
 Heads. They got this 
 last name from the way 
 in which they wore their 
 hair. It was the mode in that day to have the locks 
 long, but they chose to have their hair cut short round 
 their heads. The Pu-ri-tans had a hate for all the 
 forms of the Church of En-gland, and they were for 
 the most part strict and grave folks, who did not care 
 
 HEN-RI-ET-TA. 
 
OL-I-VER CROM-WET.L. 
 
1 66 History of England. 
 
 for feasts or fine clothes, while the Cav-a-liers^ 
 though they were fond of fine dress, were bold and 
 brave, full of dash, and fond of a good time. 
 
 Prince Ru-pert led the king's troops. He was a 
 brave young man, but was apt to think he had 
 won the day ere the work was half done. At first 
 the king's troops, who knew most of the arts of war, 
 eot the best of it. But there was one man on the 
 side of the Pu-ri-tans by the name of Ol-i-ver Crom- 
 well who soon made it plain that he was born to 
 lead men. From the time he was put at the head 
 of the Pu-ri-tans they won their cause. The three 
 chief fights were Edge-hill, Mars-ton Moor and 
 Nase-by. The Pu-ri-tans had all things their own 
 way. Arch-bish-op Laud was put to death, and at 
 the same time they put out the priests of each 
 church and put their own men in, and would not 
 keep in use the book from which the folks had been 
 wont to pray. They did not like such fine things, 
 and would smash all the glass of rich hues, and use 
 the font for a trough, and put their steeds in the 
 church. King Charles was in such a sad case he 
 thought he might find friends with the Scots, as he 
 had been born in Scot-land. But they did not 
 prove friends, and gave him up for a sum of gold to 
 the En-glish. So Charles was now in the hands of 
 the Lon^: Par-lia-ment, which did not wish to have 
 
CHARGE OF THE IRON-SIDES. 
 
i68 
 
 History of England. 
 
 a king at all. The king would have done much to 
 please them, but there was no end to the things this 
 Long Par-lia-ment chose to ask. At last Ol-i-ver 
 Crom-well sent some of his men to take the king out 
 of the hands of Par-lia-ment, and he set to work to 
 try him. First he sent one of his men to turn out 
 
 
 THE SOL-DIERS RE-MOV-IN^ CHARLES THE FIRST. 
 
 all in Par-lia-ment who would not do his will. Then 
 he made a sort of court to try the king. They 
 brought all kinds of things to his charge, but as 
 Charles thought they had no right to try him he 
 would not speak. So they said that in three days 
 he should have his head cut off. He bore all in a 
 meek, calm way, and was heard to pray for his foes. 
 The queen was in France, and his chil-dren, E-liz- 
 
Charles I. 
 
 169 
 
 a-beth, twelve years old, and Hen-ry of five, were 
 brought to see him the night ere he was to die. 
 He took his boy on his knee and told him to mark 
 
 CHIL-DREN OF CHARLES THE FIRST. 
 
 what he said, and to mind not to set up for a king 
 as long as Prince Charles and Prince James should 
 live. The boy said with tears : ''I will be torn to 
 bits first." Then there was nauo^ht but for the kinof 
 
1 70 History of England. 
 
 to kiss and bless them and give them his last good- 
 by. 
 
 The next day was Jan-u-a-ry 30, 1649. They let 
 the king have Bish-op Jux-on to read and pray 
 with him. Then he was led out to a place hung 
 with black, and was heard to pray God to bless 
 those who had been the cause of his death. 
 
 He did not fear to die, but he did not wish to 
 die hard. He said to one near: "Take care that 
 they do not put me to pain." He told the heads- 
 man : " I will pray a short time and then thrust out 
 my hands," and that was to be the sign to strike. 
 
 He said to Bish-op Jux-on : ''I have a good 
 cause and a God of grace on my side." The 
 bish-op told him he had but one imore stage to 
 go in this world, and that was a hard one, but it 
 was short and would take him a long way — all the 
 way from this earth up to the home of tjhe blest. 
 
 The king knelt down, laid his head on the block 
 and spread out his hands, and his head was struck 
 off at one blow and held up in the sight of all. A 
 great groan burst from the crowd. 
 
 He was put in a tomb at the Saint George 
 Chap-el, Wind-sor, by four friends in the dead of 
 nio^ht. It was a o^reat shock to the Scots when 
 they knew of this sad death of their king, and they 
 sent word to the young Prince Charles that if he 
 
DEATH OF CHARLES THE FIRST. 
 
172 History of England. 
 
 would come to them they would set him on the 
 throne. Charles came, but he found that the Scotch 
 were too strict and dull to suit him. The things 
 that made the joys of his life were sins in their 
 eyes. Still they gave him their help, and some of 
 the En-glish Cav-a-liers came to his aid. They 
 put the crown on his head at Scone, and he took 
 the head of the army and went on to Stir-ling. 
 Ol-i-ver Crom-well was ill in bed, but when he 
 heard of this march he got out of bed in no time, 
 and went to work with a will. He got in the rear 
 of the troops of Charles and cut them off from Scot- 
 land. There was naught for them to do then but 
 to go on to En-gland. Then Ol-i-ver came 
 up to them at quick speed and a great fight 
 took place at Wor-ces-ter. The Scotch fought in 
 such a brave way that it took five" hours for 
 Crom-well to beat them. Charles fled in the 
 night with some of his men to the house of a Cath- 
 o-lic dame. There he had his hair cut off and 
 went out at break of day as if to his work, in the 
 clothes of a poor man and with an ax in his hands. 
 Some men, whose work was to cut wood, went with 
 him and they made a bed for him in the woods. 
 From there he got on, and hid at times in barns. 
 Once he had to climb up into a fine old oak and 
 hide in the leaves, for he heard Crom-welFs troops 
 
Charles I. 
 
 173 
 
 ride by, and he could hear from his perch the crash 
 in the woods as they went on and beat the boughs. 
 Then he had to walk and walk for more than one 
 long day, and once when his foes gave chase to him 
 there was a young girl by the name of Miss Lane 
 who let him ride on the same horse with her and 
 
 
 BUR-IAL OF CHARLES I. 
 
 strove to pass him off as a youth she had to serve 
 her. But when they got to an inn he ran a great 
 risk, for he did not know how to turn a spit when the 
 cook bade him. But he got off safe, and a boat 
 took him to France w^here the queen then dwelt. 
 E-liz-a-beth and Hen-ry had been sent to the Isle 
 of Wight. The young girl was seen to pine day 
 
1 74 History of England. 
 
 by day, and one morn they found her dead, with 
 her face laid on the Word of God, which she held 
 in her hand. Then Hen-ry was sent to be with the 
 queen in France. James of York, the son who was 
 next in age to Charles II., was in Hol-land ; but at 
 last the two went into the French ranks to learn the 
 art of war. Ol-i-ver Crom-well, in the mean-time, 
 had kept up his rule. He put down the I-rish with 
 a strong hand, and when he did not want the Long 
 Par-lia-ment he just went in with some troops and 
 broke it up. Then he had a Par-lia-ment of his 
 own, made up of a few men who would do as he 
 bade them. The head man had the name of Bare- 
 bones, so this was known as the Bare-bones Par-lia- 
 ment. Ol-i-ver Crom-well did not have the name 
 of a king, but his reign was like one for five years, 
 with the same might as a real king. And he was 
 not a bad man to rule En-gland, for he thought it 
 was God's work and that God meant him to do it. 
 Though he made war on a king and put him to 
 death at last, he thought he was right. He felt that 
 he was sent from the Lord to fight with his Bi-ble 
 and his sword. The Cav-a-liers had a hard time 
 with him, and he made them pay fines and some 
 lost their lands. Some went to Holland or France, 
 and sent their wives home now and then to get 
 the rents. Crom-well was stern, but he sought to 
 
Charles I. 
 
 175 
 
 be just, and he had to do as he did to keep the reins 
 in his own hand. The Cav-a-hers could no more 
 
 THE BREAK-ING UP OF PAR-LIA-MENT. 
 
 have their own way in church, so they met in woods 
 and caves and vaults. 
 
1 76 History of England. 
 
 Crom-well's death came at the end of five years, 
 and his son RIch-ard had not the same strength of 
 mind and strong will. He found he could not rule 
 En-gland, so he gave it up and went home to his 
 own house. The folks gave him the name of ** Tum- 
 ble-down-Dick." 
 
 No one knew then what was the best move to 
 make, till Gen-er-al Monk, who was at the head of 
 the army, said they had best bring back the king. 
 So the Par-lia-ment sent word to Charles II., and 
 a fleet went to fetch him. He came and rode 
 through Lon-don streets, which were hung with 
 green boughs and silk flags, and all were glad to see 
 him back. But in the midst of the joy came the 
 death of Prince Hen-ry and then of the Prin-cess 
 Ma-ry, who had been the wife of Wil-liam of Or- 
 ange. She left one son, of whom you will hear 
 in time. 
 
 Then there was more change in all ways. In each 
 church the Pu-ri-tans gave way once more to those 
 of the Church of En-gland, and Jux-son, who had 
 been with Charles I. at his death, was made arch- 
 bish-op. The troops of Crom-well broke up, all but 
 one band of men, whom the king took as his 
 guards. 
 
 In the end, though they had brought back 
 Charles, Pu-ri-tans and Cav-a-liers both felt that 
 
Charles I. 177 
 
 they had cause to find fault. Each thought the 
 king should do more for him, and each had an ax 
 of his own to grind. So Cav-a-lier and Round- 
 head grew to have new names, and were known as 
 Tory and Whig. 
 
 A man had need be both strong and wise to have 
 dealt so as to please all, and Charles was a man 
 who sought most to please his own self. He was 
 bright, but not wise or good. He was full of wit 
 and said droll things, but he did not keep his word, 
 and none could trust him. He had a set of friends 
 who were a shame to his court, but he did not care 
 if that they made the time pass, so that he should 
 not be dull. These friends took gold from the 
 French king to get Charles not to help the Dutch 
 in their war with the French. Then the Dutch 
 went to war with the En-glish for this, and there 
 were some sea-fights in which James, Duke of York, 
 fought in a brave way. 
 
 In the year 1665 there was a sad plague in Lon- 
 don. Folks were struck with it in a strange way if 
 they went near those ill with it, and they would die 
 in a few hours. When the plague was in a house 
 the door was shut and a cross in red chalk put on 
 it as a sign that none should go out or in. Food 
 was set out-side of the door so the folks could get it, 
 and a cart came round each day which would stop 
 
17' 
 
 History of England. 
 
 at the house. The men who drove it would call, 
 *' Bring out your dead," and when a corpse was 
 brought out it was borne off and thrown in a deep, 
 long ditch. At last, by the grace of God, this sad 
 pest left Lon-don, and has not come since. The 
 
 next year there 
 ^ "was a great fire in 
 
 Lon-don, which 
 burnt down whole 
 streets. St. Paul's 
 Ca-the-dral was 
 burnt in this fire. 
 At last they had to 
 stop it in this way: 
 They blew up all 
 that stood in the 
 course of the flames, 
 so that there was a 
 space that the fire 
 could not leap. In 
 
 Scot-land the king 
 sought once more 
 JOHN MIL-TON. ^^ ^^k^ thcm usc 
 
 the mode of the Church of En-gland. Then the 
 Scots would not go to Church, but met on hills and 
 moors. Troops were sent to break this up, and there 
 were sad scenes. The king's men were the most 
 
Charles I. 179 
 
 strong and did harsh things, and vile acts were 
 done. 
 
 Charles had no heir, and the Duke of York 
 was a Cath-o-lic, so there was a plot, known as the 
 Rye House plot, to kill him, so that the throne 
 might go to the Duke of Mon-mouth. This young 
 man was the son of Kino^ Charles and a ^\x\ to 
 whom he had not been wed. This plot was found 
 out. The head men lost their lives, and Mon- 
 mouth fled to Hol-land. 
 
 Charles would let men preach to him and hear 
 what they said of his life with a smile, but he 
 did not leave off his bad ways. He spent the 
 last Sun-day of his life at play with his gay friends 
 at cards. Then he had a stroke and sent for a 
 Cath-o-lic priest. So it came out that he had been 
 a Cath-o-lic all his life, but had not let it be known 
 lest he should lose his crown. 
 
 In this reign there were two great books brought 
 out. John Mil-ton, who had lost his sight, wrote 
 ''Par-a-dise Lost." And John Bun-yan, a poor 
 man whose work was to mend pots and pans, 
 wrote the ''Pil-grim's Prog-ress." 
 
i8o History of England. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 JAMES II. 
 
 James II. was at least so far true in that he made 
 his faith known. He was a Cath-o-Hc, and he had 
 not the grace by which Charles II. had won En- 
 glish hearts. He was grave, sad and stern. The 
 Duke of Mon-mouth came back and found some 
 to call him king in the West of En-gland. Groups 
 of girls in white met him with wreaths, but that did 
 not help him win his cause. He lost the fight at 
 Sedge-moor and fled. He was found in a smock- 
 frock in a ditch. They took him to Lon-don, where 
 the Court went on to try him and he was hung. 
 James was most harsh with all who had lent aid to 
 Mon-mouth. He sent a man by the name of Jef- 
 freys to try them all, and most were hung. This 
 man was so fierce and coarse that his trip is known 
 since as the "Blood-y As-size." So the reign of 
 James II. was harsh from the first. He gave the 
 best posts in the Church and State to Ro-man Cath- 
 o-lics, and the Prot-est-ants saw this with more and 
 more fear. 
 
 James had no son, but he had two girls, the 
 
JAMES THE SEC-OND. 
 
1 82 Histoiy of England. 
 
 Prin-cess Mary, who was wed to the young Prince 
 of Or-ange, and An-ne, who was the wife of Prince 
 George, of Den-mark. He was a dull man, and it 
 was the mode to laugh at him, but he had a son of 
 whom there was much hope. 
 
 But James II. took it in his head to take a new 
 wife. She was a prin-cess from It-a-ly, and a Ro- 
 man Cath-o-lic. So when she had a son the Prot-est- 
 ants, who did not want more Cath-o-lic kings, said 
 they thought that this child was not the true son of 
 the king and queen, and all the land was in a sad 
 state. Then Wil-liam of Or-ange came, and crowds 
 went at once on his side, till James saw that it was 
 not safe for his wife and child in En-gland. So he 
 sent them to France and staid on for a while. 
 But when he heard that An-ne had gone on the 
 side of the Prince of Or-ange tears came in his 
 eyes and he said: '*God help me; my own child 
 leaves me." So he got off in plain clothes and 
 went to France, where he had St. Ger-main for 
 a home. 
 
 It was on the 4th of No-vem-ber, 1688, Wil- 
 liam of Or-ange set his foot on shore, and from that 
 time came the change known as the En-glish Rev- 
 o-lu-tion. Par-lia-ment gave the crown to Wil-liam 
 and Ma-ry. 
 
 But all the Ro-man Cath-o-lics were still of course 
 
Ja7nes II. 183 
 
 for James. They were known as Ja-cob-ites. They 
 thought that no one had a right to have his place 
 and they would not take the oath to serve the new 
 rule. Arch-bish-op San-croft, Bish-op Ker and 
 some more would not take the oath, but gave up all 
 their wealth and their high posts and led lives of 
 hard work and want. From time to time James 
 
 FLIGHT OF JAMES II. 
 
 strove to get his crown back, and Lou-is, King of 
 France, gave him aid, but all in vain. As most of 
 his friends, the Ro-man Cath-o-lics, were in Ire-land, 
 he went there to fight. He got on well in the south, 
 but in the north they would not help him. He laid 
 siege to Lon-don-der-ry, but it held out for more 
 than three months, so that all were like to die for 
 
1 84 
 
 History of England. 
 
 want of food. Then En-gland came to their aid. 
 Wil-ham came with troops and there the two met 
 and fought on the banks of the Boyne on the ist of 
 July, 1690. James was put to route and had to 
 leave Ire-land. All his friends there paid dear for 
 the aid they gave him. 
 
 In the mean-time, while Wil-liam of Or-ange 
 
 ft"' / V 
 
 
 KING WIL-LIAM THROWN FROM HIS HORSE. 
 
 fought the French in Hol-land, there was great 
 grief at the death of Ma-ry from small-pox. She had 
 left no child. Par-lia-ment said that Wil-liam could 
 be king and on his death Prin-cess An-ne should be 
 queen, and they made an act that no Ro-man Cath- 
 o-lic, nor one who was wed to a Ro-man Cath-o- 
 lic, should sit on En-gland's throne. The En-glish 
 
James II. 185 
 
 To-ries did not like this act, as they had not much 
 love for King Wil-liam. He was a thin, spare man, 
 with sharp, rough ways. He was not in good 
 health, and that may have made him more sharp. 
 He kept the reins, though, with a strong hand, but 
 he was at war with France all the time. Then 
 there rose a great war at this time as to who should 
 have the Span-ish throne, and of course Wil-liam 
 was not on the French side. But ere he went out 
 to fight in this fresh war, as he rode one day, his 
 horse trod in a mole hill and threw him. This hurt 
 his weak chest so much that he did not live but a 
 few days. The Ja-cob-ins were glad of his death. 
 
1 86 History of Erigland. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 QUEEN AN-NE AND THE GEOR-GES. 
 
 An-ne was made queen on the death of Wil- 
 Ham III. She meant well, but she was weak and 
 let her friends rule her. The one who could do as 
 she chose with her was Sa-rah Jen-nings, who was the 
 wife of a man in the troops by the name of John 
 Church-ill. This man was so brave he was in time 
 made a peer — the Duke of Marl-bor-ough. Though 
 An-ne was on the throne, the duch-ess was the real 
 queen. The duke went out with the troops to 
 fight the French, so that they should not get the 
 throne of Spain. The En-glish took Gib-ral-tar, 
 and have kept it from that time. Marl-bor-ough, 
 with the Ger-man Prince Eu-gene, beat the French 
 in a great fight at Blen-heim. For this the queen 
 gave him a grand place and a fine house, to which 
 they gave the name of Blen-heim. Marl-bor-ough 
 won more fights, and his wife took on more airs 
 and grew so proud that she thought the queen 
 could not get on save by her help. At times she 
 brought the poor queen to tears by her harsh 
 words, for she souc^ht to rule her in all thincxs. 
 
Queeji Anne aiid the Georges. 187 
 
 At last the queen could bear it no more. She 
 broke with her friend the duch-ess, and brought 
 Marl-bor-ough back in the midst of his fame, and 
 so she was set free from her bonds. There were 
 some who thought it time to end the war with 
 France, but the Whigs did not like to give it up 
 while En-gland won. Marl-bor-ough did not keep 
 his health long, for it was a great blow to him to be 
 brought back in the midst of his fame. In the 
 time of An-ne the Par-lia-ment of Scot-land and 
 that of En-gland were made one. This did not 
 please some of the Scots, and they went on the 
 side of the Ja-cob-ites. If the young James III., 
 as he was known by the Ja-cob-ites, would have 
 sw^orn to join the En-glish Church, he might have 
 had a chance to reign ; but he was too strong in 
 his faith, so An-ne would not help him. 
 
 In Queen An-ne's time there were some great 
 men who wrote books that we read to this day. 
 Pope wrote his verse then, and there was one book 
 that all young folks read now. The name of it 
 is ''Rob-in-son Cru-soe." 
 
 Queen An-ne had a hard time with her To-ry 
 friends. She was mild and fond of peace, but 
 they would not let her have it. The stroke which 
 was the cause of her death is said to have been 
 brought on by a fierce scene with them. Tea came 
 
GEORGE I. 
 
Quee7i Anne and the Georges. 189 
 
 in use in An-ne's reign. It was brought from 
 Chi-na. It was the mode to drink it out of small 
 cups, clear and thin as an egg-shell. Mr. Ad-di-son 
 wrote in this reign a news sheet, once a week, which 
 held up to scorn the faults of the day. The name 
 of it was the Spec-ta-tor. 
 
 You know the Prin-cess So-phi-a had wed the 
 E-lect-or of Han-o-ver, and she was to have the 
 throne when An-ne was dead. But she had been 
 the first to die, so her son George was now the heir. 
 He did not care much for it and he was so fond of 
 the land of his birth that he is said to have staid at 
 home for days in hopes that the En-glish would 
 take James Stu-art for their king. But they did not, 
 so at last he had to set out. He did not know much 
 En-glish and had to talk bad Lat-in or French. 
 He did not bring his queen with him., for he was 
 on bad terms with her and had shut her up in a 
 great house like a jail, in Ger-man-y. He had a 
 son, George, who had a bright young wife, Car-o- 
 line of Ans-pach, but the king did not seem fond of 
 them, and did not let them stay long in En-gland. 
 
 The Ja-cob-ins, who had made no move in the 
 right time to get the throne for James Stu-art, rose 
 when it was too late. The white rose was the 
 Ja-cob-ite mark, and they wore it when they fought 
 two fights on the same day, one in En-gland and 
 
I go History of Englafid. 
 
 one in Scot-land. The first one was at Sher-iff 
 muir, and was left in such doubt that there is a 
 Scotch song of it, in this wise : 
 
 " Some say that we won, 
 And some that they won, 
 Some say that none won 
 At a', mon. 
 
 " But of one thing I'm sure, 
 That at Sher-ijff muir 
 A fight there was — 
 That I saw, mon. 
 
 "And we ran and they ran, 
 And they ran and we ran, 
 And we ran and they ran 
 Awa', mon." 
 
 The En-glish fight was at Pres-ton, and the Ja- 
 cob-ites lost, and were for the most part thrown in 
 jail, so that when James Stu-art, who was known as 
 the Chev-a-lier, came to land, he found no friends 
 and had to go back to It-a-ly, where he spent the 
 rest of his life. The chiels of the Ja-cob-ins were 
 sent to Lon-don, and three of them had their heads 
 cut off. The wife of the Earl of Niths-dale made 
 out to save him. She went to see him in the 
 Tow-er and took a tall dame with her, who wore 
 two sets of clothes. This dame went off. Then, 
 when it was time for a change of guard, the earl 
 put on the clothes she had left and with the hood 
 low on his face went out. The wife staid for a 
 
Queen Anne and the Georges. 
 
 191 
 
 En-gland 
 
 o^rew 
 
 while and went on with her talk as though the earl 
 were there, till the time came when it was her wont 
 to leave him. Then she, too, went out and met her 
 lord and they hid till they could get to France. 
 
 in wealth while George I. was 
 king. In I n -d i a 
 towns sprang up 
 where there had been 
 but a house of trade 
 here and there. But 
 the En-glish did not 
 like George I., and 
 he was not fond of 
 them. He spent 
 most of his time in 
 Han-o-ver. As he 
 drove there in his 
 coach one day some 
 one threw in a note 
 to him. While he 
 read it he had a 
 stroke and was dead 
 in a few hours. 
 Some one said that 
 note spoke of his sins to his wife whom death 
 freed in the house where he had shut her up 
 
 was in 1725. 
 
 CHARLES ED-WARD. 
 
 the 
 had 
 
 so 
 
 long. 
 
 The death of George I 
 
192 
 
 Histo7y of England. 
 
 There was a change in the mode of dress in 
 this reign. The wigs were worn small, and young 
 men wore their own hair, with a sort of white dust 
 on it, and a long tail at the back known as a queue. 
 The dames wore 
 their hair in 
 
 a 
 
 high pile on the B 
 tops of their ' 
 heads, with the 
 same white dust 
 on it, and they 
 had great hoops, 
 and high heels to 
 their shoes. They 
 thought, too, a 
 black patch on 
 the face here and 
 there made them 
 look more fair. 
 All took snuff in 
 those days, so a £ 
 fine, rich snuff- ^ 
 box was part of 
 one's wealth. The reign of George II. was 
 full of wars. He was the last king of En- 
 gland who was in a fight. This was at Fon- 
 te-noy, and was part of a great war to fix who 
 
 DEATH OF GEORGK I. 
 
Queen Aniie and the Georges. 193 
 
 should be Em-per-or of Ger-man-y. France and 
 En-gland were not on the same sides. Charles 
 Ed-ward Stu-art, the son of James, who had been 
 known as the Chev-a-lier, thought there might now 
 be a chance for him to get back the crown of his 
 race. He was a young man of fine looks, and 
 when he stept on Scotch soil he won all hearts, 
 and the Scots brought their clans to fight for him, 
 so that he soon was at the head of a great force, 
 with which he took the town of Ed-in-burgh. Most 
 of the En-glish troops were off in Ger-man-y, so 
 he won the fight at Pres-ton Pans, and took up his 
 march straight on into En-gland. There was a 
 a great fight, for the clans m their plaids, with long 
 swords and strange speech, were like some wild 
 tribe to the Lon-don folks. They might have swept 
 all in their way if they had not grown so home- 
 sick in the strange land that Charles Ed-ward had 
 to let them turn back to their hills once more. Then 
 the En-glish troops got back in time to chase 
 them, and they lost men each day. But they made 
 a stand at the heath of Cul-lo-den. There there 
 was a great rout, and the prince had to fly for his 
 life and hide till he could find a way back to France. 
 The Duke of Cum-ber-land was not mild with 
 those he took in this fight. All those who had lent 
 aid to the young prince were put to death at Car- 
 
194 History of England. 
 
 lisle, for the most part. This rise was Known as 
 the '' Re-bel-lion of the For-ty-five," as it took 
 place in 1745. There were wars by sea and land 
 in the reign of George II. In A-mer-i-ca, where 
 some of the French and En-glish had found homes, 
 they fought and had a hard time, and the Red 
 Men were now on this side and now on that. 
 In the East In-dies, too, the French and En-glish 
 had made ports of trade. But all at once the In- 
 di-ans came down on Cal-cut-ta. Those of the 
 En-glish who could, got off on ships, but those who 
 could not were shut up in a small room, in the 
 most hot time of the year. There were 146 of 
 them in that place, with no air, and were in such a 
 crush that they could not breathe. When dawn 
 came not much more than a score had life left in 
 them. This is known as the Black Hole of Cal- 
 cut-ta. But next year En-gland, with Col-o-nel 
 Clive, won back Cal-cut-ta, and at last made the 
 French leave In-dia. 
 
 The death of George II. came when he was 
 quite an old man. His son Fred-er-ick was dead, 
 too, so his grand-son, George III., came to the 
 throne. 
 
George III. 195 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 GEORGE III. 
 
 George III. had been born in En-gland, so he 
 had some love for the land, its folks and its ways. 
 He was a good man, and sought to do what he 
 thought right, and he was firm as a rock when 
 he felt he was rio'ht. He would ride or walk 
 through a street or field as if he were just a plain 
 squire, with no pomp or state. He would talk to 
 the folks of their work and their lives, and ask all 
 sorts of things, and say, "What, what, what," in a 
 queer way that made them laugh. His wife was a 
 Ger-man princess by the name of Char-lotte, and 
 they brought up their boys and girls in the right 
 way; at least they did their best to make them 
 good. 
 
 As soon as George HI. came to the throne a war 
 broke out in A-mer-i-ca. They did not like a new 
 tax that had been laid on the tea which was in use 
 there. They got it straight from Chi-na, and 
 thought no one had a right to tax it. So though 
 they were more fond of this drink than the En- 
 glish in those days, they gave it up and threw 
 
GEORGE THE THIRD. 
 
George III. 197 
 
 whole ship-loads in the stream. Then they all rose 
 in a great fight to get free from En-glish rule, and 
 a man by the name of George Wash-ing-ton took 
 the head of the troops. The French, who were 
 not friends with the En-glish, lent help to the 
 A-mer-i-cans. There was a great man by the name 
 of Ben-ja-min Frank-lin sent to the Court of France 
 to win them as friends. He had found out strange 
 things. You know in a storm how there is a 
 fierce light at times which tears through a cloud 
 and .now and then strikes a house or barn and 
 burns it to the ground. Frank-lin found out how 
 to lead this from a house so that no harm could be 
 done. And now you can see wires that run down 
 the sides of a house or a church. They are set 
 in glass here and there, so that they lead the strange 
 force straight in to the ground and make the 
 house or church safe, so that it can not be struck. 
 
 On the 17th of June, 1775, a fight took place at 
 Bun-ker Hill, near Bos-ton. The day was hot. 
 The A-mer-i-cans had put their men back of a rail 
 fence, which they had made out to stuff with hay so 
 as to make it a sort of screen. They had no food, 
 and were for the most part raw troops who did not 
 know drill, and they had poor arms. But the 
 Brit-ish had to march through a field, and they were 
 in full sight. They felt the great heat, such as 
 
198 
 
 Histo7'y of England. 
 
 COIN OF GEORGE III. 
 
 they had not known in En-gland, and they had food 
 
 and stores in packs on their backs. When the 
 
 word ''fire" was heard and the smoke was gone, 
 
 the ground w^as seen strewn with Brit-ish dead. 
 
 A great cheer went up from the forts, and 
 
 cheers came from back of the rail fence. The 
 
 Brit-ish w^ore red coats, 
 
 and could be seen from 
 
 far, so their loss was 
 
 great. But in time 
 
 the A-mer-i-cans had 
 
 spent their last charge 
 
 and had to fall back 
 
 as best they could. The Brit-ish had shown stout 
 
 hearts to march up in the face of such a fire. 
 
 On Ju-ly the 4th, 1776, what is known as the 
 Dec-la-ra-tion of In-de-pen-dence was drawn up, 
 and some of the best men who were at the head of 
 things -in the States, put their names to it. All the 
 States but New York gave a vote for this, and then 
 it was thought to be time for the U-ni-ted States to 
 have a flag of its own. Con-gress said it should 
 have red and white stripes, a stripe for each of the 
 States and a white star for each State in a blue 
 field. When a new State comes in a new star is 
 put on the flag. 
 
 Lord Howe wrote to George W ash-ing-ton, Esq., 
 
George III. 199 
 
 to say what terms of peace King George would give 
 the A-mer-i-cans. But Wash-ing-ton chose to have 
 his name as head of the troops put on all his notes, 
 so he took no heed of this one. Then there was 
 naught left but for Howe to fight. At first the 
 A-mer-i-cans lost and Wash-ing-ton had to leave 
 New York in the hands of the Brit-ish. His men 
 were in want of clothes and some of them had no 
 shoes. He felt that he must strike a blow at once. 
 
 There were some Hes-sian troops at Tren-ton, 
 who' had come from Ger-man-y to help the En-glish. 
 It was Christ-mas and Wash-ino^-ton knew that 
 these folks would keep the day with feasts. So on 
 the night of that day in a storm of sleet he set out 
 to cross the Del-a-ware, and at day dawn he was on 
 the Hes-sians and took them all, and their head 
 man fell in this fi^ht. 
 
 So the A-mer-i-cans fought on year by year, and 
 all saw that they would have their rights and be 
 free. Some wise men told George HI. that he had 
 best give up the w^ar with them. The old Lord 
 Chat-ham did not think so and came up from his 
 home to make a speech, for he would not have En- 
 gland give up aught. But just as he went to speak 
 he fell to the floor in a faint and did not live but a 
 month from that time. 
 
 George HI. at last gave up all rights to the land 
 
/ 
 
 WIL-LIAM PITT, SON OF LORD CHAT-HAM. 
 
Gcoj'oc III. 20 1 
 
 <b 
 
 now known as the U-ni-ted States of A-mer-I-ca. 
 These States then set up a form of rule which has 
 gone on since that day. They have no king, but a 
 Pres-i-dent for whom they vote once in four years. 
 
 En-o^land won much in In-dia in this rei^^n. The 
 chief o^rief of Georo-e III. was that some of his sons 
 were wild and fast young men. The Prince of 
 Wales was vain of his fine looks, and his whole aim 
 was to dress well and set the mode in taste. He 
 spent vast sums in wrong ways and sought to vex 
 the king and queen as much as he could. He had 
 a scorn for their plain style of life. Wil-liam Pitt, 
 the son of Lord Chat-ham, was the chief man in 
 En-o^land in this reiofn. He souo^ht to brinof in a 
 bill by which the Ro-man Cath-o-lics should have 
 the same rights in all things as the Prot-est-ants. 
 George HI. thought it would not be right for him 
 to grant this, and there was so much strife that the 
 king's health and brain gave way for a time. 
 
 Just then there were sad scenes in France. The 
 poor had been ground down in past reigns, and now 
 when they had a good and kind king, Lou-is 
 XVI., they rose in all parts of the land. He had 
 to bear the scourge for the acts of a long line of 
 kings. Mob law was the rule, and the folk sought 
 to get rid of all the great ones in the land. 
 Kings, priests and men of rank lost their heads 
 
202 
 
 History of England. 
 
 
 each day. This sad time is now known as the 
 great French Rev-o-lu-tion. At last the French 
 grew sick of strife and blood. A young man rose 
 from the ranks by the name of Na-po-le-on Bo- 
 na-parte, and took 
 the head of the / ,' ^ ^^''^^y^/, 
 land, as the kmg 
 had been slain. He 
 beat the Ger-mans 
 and won all in his 
 course. It was 
 thought he would 
 make France too 
 strong for the rest 
 of the world if 
 they could not stop 
 him, so when he 
 went out to take 
 E-gypt and all the 
 East, Lord Nel- 
 son took some 
 ships and went 
 there too, and beat 
 the whole French fleet at the mouth of the Nile. Nel- 
 son next won in a fight with the Danes, and took all 
 the Dan-ish ships. Then when Spain made friends 
 with France, Nel-son beat them both at Cape 
 
 LORD CHAT-HAM. 
 
Gcoi'gc III. 203 
 
 Traf-al-gar. This was the last fight of this great 
 man, for he got his death wound there, to the grief 
 of all. The war made it hard for those at home in 
 En-gland. Food and all things else were dear, and 
 a high tax ground down the poor. But Na-po-le-on 
 was now em-per-or, and still had such strange luck 
 in his fights that all lands were in aw^e of him. En- 
 gland felt the best way to keep him in bounds was 
 to help the lands which w^ere at war with him. 
 
 The old king in his last days grew blind, and 
 then came the death of the Prin-cess A-me-lia, the 
 child oi whom he was most fond. The cloud came 
 on his mind once more, and he had to be shut up in 
 Wind-sor, where his good wife staid with him and did 
 her best for him till her death. When Geori^e III. 
 lost his mind his son, the Prince of Wales, was made 
 Re-gent. You know a re-gent is one who rules for a 
 king. He went on to help Spain, which was at war 
 with France in those days. Na-po-le-on had put one 
 of his own blood on the throne of Spain, and the 
 folks sent out a call on En-gland to help them. Sir 
 John Moore went with some troops and won a fight 
 at Co-run-na. But a shot struck him and they had 
 to wrap his cloak round him, put him in a grave 
 there at the dead of nioht, and leave him. 
 
 Then Sir Ar-thur Wel-les-ley was sent out to 
 Spain. In three years' time he drove the French 
 
DEATH OF NEL-SON. 
 
George III. 
 
 205 
 
 from that land and gave chase to them and won the 
 fight of Tou-louse on their own soil. This war was 
 known as the Pe-nin-su-lar War. Sir Ar-thur 
 Wel-les-ley was made Duke of Wel-hng-ton. By 
 
 time all the lands of 
 Eu-rope rose to fight 
 Na-po-le-on, and at 
 last thev made him 
 give up all he had 
 won, and they 
 brought back the 
 king, Lou-isXVIIL, 
 and Na-po-le-on was 
 sent to El-ba, a small 
 isle in the sea. But 
 the next vear he orot 
 back to France, 
 where the troops 
 were glad to see him. 
 King Lou-is had to 
 fly, and Na-po-le-on 
 was soon at the head 
 of a laree force. En-o^land and Prus-sia made 
 haste to meet him, with Blu-cher and Wel-ling-ton 
 to lead their troops. They met him on the field 
 of Wa-ter-loo, in Bel-gium, and beat him so that 
 he fled. He did not get off though, but fell in 
 
 J^y 
 
 
 WEL-LING-TON. 
 
BAT-TLE OF WA-TER-LOO. 
 
George III. 207 
 
 the hands of his foes, and at last was sent to a 
 lone isle in the At-lan-tic by the name of St. 
 Hel-e-na. There he was kept for five years, when 
 death set him free. 
 
 Eu-rope was at peace once more, but the blind 
 old kino: knew nauo^ht of it. More than one chanQ^e 
 took place in the reign of George III. En-gland 
 had orrown in wealth. Mails were sent in more 
 swift ways on smooth, fine roads, and news was 
 spread through the land each day. Books for the 
 young first came out in this reign. Wal-ter Scott 
 wrote his great tales, and there were three men who 
 wrote verse then, which we read to this day. Their 
 names are Words-worth, South-ey, and Cole-ridge. 
 Men left off wigs and wore their own hair short and 
 m curls. They wore blue coats and buff vests, and 
 had tight stocks on their necks, and great shirt-frills 
 in their breasts. The dames had their gowns made 
 short in the waist, and the skirts were plain and 
 scant, but the sleeves were of a great size. They 
 wore their hair in short curls low on the brows, and 
 had hats with high crowns and large fronts. The 
 death of George III. came in 1820. 
 
208 
 
 History of England. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 GEORGE IV. 
 
 George IV. was quite an old man when he came 
 to the throne. He had been made to take Prin- 
 cess Car-o-Hne of Bruns-wick for his wife, and he 
 
 QUEEN CAR-O-LINE AT WEST-MIN-STER. 
 
 could not bear her, so they did not live in the same 
 house. They had had one child, Char-lotte, a good, 
 bright girl, and all the hope of the land was set on 
 her. She was wed to Prince Le-o-pold of Sax-on-y, 
 
 c 
 
George IV. 209 
 
 but death took her in the bloom of her youth, to the 
 o^reat o^rief of the whole land. Georo^e IV. would 
 not have his wife with him when he took the crown. 
 He said she was not fit to be queen, and he sought 
 to get rid of her. There were those who took up 
 her cause, and so there was strife at once. When 
 the king went to have the crown put on his head, 
 in the midst of all the pomp the queen drove up to 
 take her place at his side, but she was kept back and 
 she had to go to her home. This made her fret 
 and pine till death put an end to her woes. Both 
 the king and queen were no doubt to blame, but 
 George had such a hate for his wife that when 
 Na-po-le-on was dead and some one told him that 
 his worst foe was gone, he said at once: ''When 
 did she die ?" 
 
 The health of George IV. was not good, and 
 he spent most of his time in a house he had 
 built, or in drives in the park at Windsor. He 
 had to let a bill pass for the Ro-man Cath-o-lics to 
 sit in Par-lia-ment, and he did not like that, but this 
 was an age of change. Steam had been brought in 
 and made to move ships, and to lend its aid to those 
 who wove cloth and to crush ore. And as we must 
 have fire for steam, there were great coal works set up 
 in the north of En-gland, and men went in crowds 
 to dig up the coal, so great towns grew up there. 
 
2IO 
 
 History of England. 
 
 George IV. had no child to take the throne, so it 
 came to the next in blood, Wil-liam, Duke of Clar- 
 ence, the third 
 son of George 
 III. He was a 
 dull man, but 
 good and kind, 
 and Queen Ad- 
 elaide won the 
 love of all. They 
 had lost their two 
 babes long since, 
 and all knew that 
 the next heir 
 must be the Prin- 
 cess Vic-to-ri-a, 
 the child of Ed- 
 ward, Duke of 
 Kent. 
 
 King Wil-liam 
 had shown that 
 he was a friend 
 of the Whigs, 
 and at this time 
 they sought to make a great change, to go as they 
 said to the root of things, and get more rights for 
 the folks. The Duke of Wel-ling-ton, who was as 
 
 WIL-LIAM THE FOURTH. 
 
Georo;e IV. 2 1 1 
 
 i3 
 
 great in peace as he was in war, strove to have time 
 to weigh things well, but these men would not wait. 
 The poor thought that if the king gave them the 
 new right they would grow rich all at once ; so they 
 were in a rage that all was not done at once, and 
 went through the land in bands to burn hay ricks 
 and stacks of corn. They thought no more of Wel- 
 ling-ton's great deeds, but set out to pelt him with 
 stones as he rode by. But his calm, cool ways held 
 them in check, and no one cast a stone. You see 
 he was at the head of things and they thought he 
 would not let the king help them. So he left his 
 place and the Whigs put one of their men in, and 
 an Act of Par-lia-ment, known as the Re-form Bill, 
 was made to set things to rights. By this all men 
 who could rent a house in a town had a vote as to 
 who should go to Par-lia-ment. The best thing 
 done in this reign was that the slaves were set free 
 in the West In-dies. In those days ships would 
 go to Af-ri-ca and the crews would steal or buy 
 black men and their wives and young ones, and 
 bring them to the West In-dies to work for them. 
 An En-glish-man, Wil-liam Wil-ber-force, had 
 sought for half his life to break up the slave trade, 
 and in 1834 '^ ^'^^ slaves in these Isles were set 
 free. 
 
 Kin(^ Wil-liam's reio^n was but short, and there 
 
WEL-LING-TON AND THE MOB. 
 
George IV. 
 
 213 
 
 were no wars In it. But rail-ways were made and 
 steam drew the cars on them for the first time, 
 from Liv-er-pool to Man-ches-ter, in 1830. It did 
 so well that more were built, and in time the 
 whole land had a net-work of rails laid on it, and 
 goods and folks could go with speed from place to 
 place. In this reign men went forth from En-gland 
 to make homes in Aus-tra-lia and Can-a-da. At 
 Wil-liam's death the En-glish lost the Ger-man state 
 of Han-o-ver, which must be held in the male line, 
 so it could not go to Vic-to-ri-a. 
 
2 1 4 History of England. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 VIC-TO-RI-A. 
 
 The Prin-cess Vic-to-ri-a was but a young girl 
 when the crown came to her, and in three years 
 she was wed to the Prince Al-bert of Co-burg, a 
 man who did his best to help her in her reign. 
 He had a fine mind and a clear head, and all felt 
 that he was one whom men could trust. Though 
 he kept in the back ground, he was strong. He 
 took much pains to help all arts and trades, and to 
 do this "he had what is known as a World's Fair. 
 To this could be sent things from all lands, and 
 the En-glish could see these works and get good 
 hints from them. The house in which this fair 
 was held on the ist of May, 185 1, was built of 
 elass, and was a fine sigiht. It was known as the 
 Crys-tal Pal-ace. There have been great fairs since, 
 but none so fine as that. 
 
 A year from that time a war broke out in Eu- 
 rope. The Turks had grown weak, and found it 
 ha^rd to keep peace in their land. Rus-sia saw 
 this, and thought it a good time to reach out a 
 strong hand and take Tur-key. But France and 
 
Victoria. 215 
 
 En-gland thought Rus-sia would be too strong if 
 she had all the land down to the Med-it-er-ra-ne- 
 an Sea, so they set out to help the Turks. They 
 thought the best way to do this was to fight the 
 Rus-sians on their own soil at the Cri-me-a. So 
 in 1854 ^he En-ghsh and French went to the 
 Cri-me-a and won at once in what is known as the 
 fight of the Al-ma. They went on to lay siege 
 to the town of Se-bas-to-pol. It was a long siege, 
 and the troops had a hard time from the cold 
 and damp, so that hosts of them grew ill. A kind 
 En-glish dame went out to nurse the sick, and 
 she and those with her did much good. Her 
 name was Flor-ence Nicfht-in-rale. The sieo^e, of 
 Se-bas-to-pol did not end for twelve months, for 
 the Rus-sians made a brave stand to keep it. 
 There were two great fights. In one of these the 
 troops were sent in the face of the Rus-sian fire, 
 and rode, as one has sung of them in verse, 
 
 " In-to the jaws of death," 
 
 though they saw the shot mow down all like a scythe. 
 Then it was found out at last that they should not 
 have been sent there at all. That is known as the 
 charge of Bal-ak-la-va. The Rus-sians crept out 
 late one night to take the En-glish by storm, and 
 there was a fierce fio-ht on the heio^hts of In-ker- 
 man. But at last the En-glish won. Lord Rag- 
 
QUEEN VIC-TO-RI-A. 
 
Victoria. 2 1 7 
 
 Ian, who led the En-ghsh, did not live to see the 
 town of Se-bas-to-pol won, nor did the Em-per-or 
 of Rus-sia see the end of the war. His son made 
 peace, and said Se-bas-to-pol should not be kept as 
 a fort, that he would leave Tur-key free, and keep 
 no fleet in the Black Sea. 
 
 At this time the strange force that Ben-ja-min 
 Frank-lin had drawn down with his kite had been 
 made to fly on wires and take news to all parts of 
 the land with the speed of a flash of light. You 
 see these wires now on poles in all parts. Peace 
 came then to En-gland, but it did not last long. The 
 En-glish who had gone to live in In-dia had grown 
 rich and got more and more land, and some of them 
 held high rank there. The En-glish troops there 
 had some of the sons of the land in their ranks 
 who had learnt to fight in En-glish style. These 
 men were known as Se-poys. They were not Chris- 
 tians, but held a strange faith, which taught them 
 all sorts of queer things. Part of their creed made 
 them think it a sin to kill a cow or touch the beef. 
 
 There came out at this time a new sort of charge 
 for the guns, and the Se-poys chose to think there 
 was cow's grease in it, and that it was a trick of the 
 En-glish to make them break the rules of their 
 faith and turn Chris-tians. They laid a deep plot 
 and all at once in all parts of In-dia they rose and 
 
2 1 8 Histo7'y of England. 
 
 shot the En-ghsh, and then went and slew their 
 wives and babes. Some few were hid by friends 
 and got off. Then the Se-poys went to Del-hi and 
 put to death all the En-glish left there, and set up 
 as kine an old man who had once worn their 
 crown. 
 
 The En-glish troops in Ben-gal made haste to 
 help their friends who were shut in town in a state 
 of siege. At Cawn-pore there was a strong place 
 that had a mud wall round it, and here some of the 
 En-glish were kept shut up with no food. If one 
 went out for a drink he was shot at once. You may 
 guess what they had to bear. There w^as an In- 
 di-an Prince by the name of Na-na Sa-hib whom 
 they had thought their friend. But he was their 
 worst foe. When they could bear their pangs no 
 more, they gave up to Na-na and he slew them all. 
 The men were shot the first day. Then he kept 
 the wives and the boys and girls for one night, but 
 when he heard the En-glish troops were near, in his 
 rage he sent in men to kill them all, and they were 
 thrown in a mass down a deep well. The En-glish 
 came the next day — too late ! They could not get 
 hold of Na-na, but the rest of the Se-poys had to 
 pay for this great crime. The En-glish in the city 
 of Luck-now were in a state of siege, but the troops 
 went first to Del-hi, blew up the gates of the town 
 
Victoria. 
 
 219 
 
 and took the old king. More troops were sent out 
 from En-gland to help them and they took up their 
 march to Luck-now. There week by week the 
 poor men with their wives and babes had held out, 
 while the shot fell on all sides and the food was so 
 poor and scant that some fell sick and the babes 
 could not get well. Sir Co-lin Camp-bell, who 
 had been sent out from En-gland, came to save them 
 at last. The Se-poys were put down in all parts of 
 the land and there was peace once more. In i860 
 the queen and all En-gland had a sad loss in the 
 death of the good Prince Al-bert. All the land 
 were his friends and his death was felt as a great 
 blow by all. He had done much for the growth of 
 the land, and the En-glish felt his worth when he 
 was gone. The Prin-cess Roy-al was wed to the 
 Prince of Prus-sia. 
 
 The Prince of Wales took for his wife the fair 
 young Prin-cess A-lex-an-dra, the child of the king 
 of Den-mark. The prince met her on board ship 
 in the mouth of the Thames, and there was great 
 joy through the land, and fires were lit on each hill 
 and towns were a-blaze with light. The Prin-cess 
 won all hearts at once and has kept her place in the 
 love of the En-glish from that day. 
 
 There is one part of Af-ri-ca south of E-gypt 
 known as A-bys-sin-i-a. The tribes who live there 
 
2 20 History of England. 
 
 had of late a king by the name of The-o-dore, who 
 was not so dull as the rest, but sought to have 
 Christ-ian men come and teach hhn and his folks. 
 They came, but ere long the king for some cause 
 threw them all in jail, and would not let them out, 
 till at last Gen-er-al Na-pier took some troops and 
 went to the place. The A-bys-sin-i-ans fled when 
 the charge was made, and they found The-o-dore 
 dead by one of the gates. En-gland did not keep 
 A-bys-sin-i-a, but left it to its own kings who had 
 been put off the throne by The-o-dore. The son of 
 The-o-dore, a boy of five, was brought to Lon-don, 
 but he could not bear the cold, so he was sent to a 
 school in In-dia. He did not live to grow up. 
 
 In 1878-79 there was some fear of a war with 
 Rus-sia, as the Rus-sians did not keep the terms of 
 their peace. A fleet was sent out to the Turk-ish 
 seas, and then Rus-sia gave up and said they would 
 do as was thought best by the lands of Eu-rope. 
 The Turks said if En-gland would help them keep 
 their rights they would let En-glish-men see that 
 the Christ-ians in their land did not meet with 
 wrong. They gave En-gland the isle of Cy-prus 
 for funds lent to them. 
 
 On the south-east coast of Af-ri-ca is a land 
 known as Na-tal. There are En-glish there. The 
 folks have the name of Kaf-firs. They are black, 
 
Victoria. 221 
 
 but have much sense and are brave. The great 
 tribe is the Zu-lus. They have had at times such 
 fierce and hard kings that some left their homes and 
 went to hve on land held by the En-glish. At the 
 west there is a great tract of land known as the 
 Trans-vaal. The folks there are for the most part 
 Dutch, and are known as Boers, which is the Dutch 
 word for one who tills the ground. The Boers and 
 the Kaf-firs had had fights, and crimes had been done 
 on each side. The En-glish had spread so far that 
 they thought they had the strength to take the 
 Trans-vaal in En-glish rule. Some of the Boers 
 and the folks thought this was not just, and the Zu- 
 lu king, Cet-a-way-o, who had been a friend to En- 
 gland, grew to be its foe, and put all in trim for a 
 fight. Troops were sent by the En-glish, but they 
 did not know how fierce and wild these tribes were. 
 The Zu-lus found some way to lure a great part of 
 the force out of the camp, and then slew them. But 
 a few were left to tell the tale. 
 
 Cet-a-way-o lost such hosts of his men that he 
 did not try to march in-to Na-tal. At last the 
 En-glish won all in their way, and took Cet-a-way-o 
 and sent him to Cape Town. They broke his land 
 up in parts and gave them out to chiefs. The Kaf- 
 firs who were in En-glish rule kept faith with En- 
 gland, and did not join their own friends. 
 
2 22 History of Ejigland. 
 
 A sad thing came to pass In this war. The son 
 of the Em-per-or Na-po-Ie-on the Third, who had 
 been brought up in the En-ghsh school at Wool- 
 wich, had a wish to share in the fight. He was a 
 brave young man and rash, so he was put in charge 
 of those more old and wise, and they were to see 
 that he did not risk his life. They were set on by 
 some Zu-lus who had been hid in the grass. The 
 rest made out to ride off, but the prince was slain 
 by the Zu-lus. His wounds made clear the fact 
 that he had fought in a brave way till he fell. At 
 this same time there was a war in a land north of 
 In-dia known as Af-ghan-is-tan. Its prince, who 
 has the name of A-meer, had some grudge at the 
 En-glish, and would not have one sent to his court, 
 but peace was made in 1879. The queen now has 
 the name of Em-press of In-dia, and she has ten 
 times the folks there that she has in En-Hand and 
 Wales. Some of the Dutch Boers had a wish that 
 their land should be part of En-gland, but as soon 
 as En-glish rule was felt they rose to fight for their 
 rights. Some En-glish troops were set on at the 
 steep hill of May-a-da, and the Boers, who are 
 good shots, slew most of them. In the mean time 
 En-gland made up its mind to leave the Boers to 
 rule their own land. 
 
 In time the En-glish put Cet-a-way-o on his 
 
Victoria. 223 
 
 throne once more. In 1882 there was in E-gypt 
 some who did not choose that En-gland and France 
 should have so much to say in their land, and they 
 rose and slew the En-glish in A-lex-an-dri-a. Ar- 
 a-bi Pa-shaw led these men, and the Khe-dive, who 
 was the real head of the land, had to call on En- 
 gland to help him. They sent troops and took 
 A-lex-an-dri-a, and the mob was put to rout at Tel- 
 el-Kebir and A-ra-bi Pa-shaw fell in the hands of 
 the En-glish. The court that was set to try him said 
 he should be put to death, but the En-glish made 
 up their minds to spare his life, and he w^as sent to 
 live in Cey-lon. 
 
 In this year, 1884, an Ar-ab by the name of El 
 Mah-di seeks, like a new Ma-hom-et, to drive out 
 all the English in his way. He is known as the 
 False Proph-et. Gen-er-al Gor-clon has been sent 
 to take charge of the En-glish troops. He said : *' I 
 come not to fight but to help you, and God is with 
 me." The Sheiks sent back word: 'Tf you are 
 with God, then you are with us, for God is with us." 
 Gen-er-al Gor-don has found that kind words will 
 not do, and that there must be more war. This 
 brings us down to these times. Others will tell 
 what shall be, in. the days to come, of fame or glory 
 for En-gland. 
 
 • THE END. 
 
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