Book__ _„_ GpjgM" COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. €y The Students Hume A HISTORY OF ENGLAND FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE REVOLUTION IN 1688 BASED ON THE HISTORY OP DAVID HUME Incorporating the Corrections and Researches of Recent Historians CONTINUED TO THE TREATY OF BERLIN IN 1878 NEW EDITION, REVISED AND CORRECTED By J. S. BREWER, M.A. LATE PROFESSOR OF MODERN HISTORY AND ENGLISH LITERATURE, KING'S COLLEGE, LONDON WITH AN APPENDIX BY AN AMERICAN EDITOR ILLUSTRATED BY MAPS AND ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD of coir,: N^f v.'.v NEW YORK HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE 1880 r |t THE STUDENT'S SERIES. 12mo, Cloth, vnifokm in style. MANUAL OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. By Philip Smith. Illustrated. $1 50. THE STUDENT'S CLASSICAL DICTION- ARY. Illustrated. $1 25. ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE EAST. By Philip Smith. Illustrated. $1 25. HISTORY OF GREECE. By Dr. William Smith. Illustrated. $1 25. COX'S GENERAL HISTORY OF GREECE. With Maps. $1 25. LIDDELL'S HISTORY OF ROME. Illustra- ted. $1 25. 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Published by HAEPER & BROTHERS, New York. tt^* Any of the above books sent by mail, postage prepaid, to any part of the United States, on receipt of the price. Copyright, 18S0, by Harper & Brothers. PEEFACB The Student's Hume was originally published in 1858. Its object was to supply a long-acknowledged want in our School and College Literature — a Student's History op England in a volume of moderate size, free from sectarian and party prejudice, containing the results of the researches of the best modern historians, tracing more particularly the development of the Constitution, and bringing out prominently the characters and actions of the great men of our country. That this object has been attained is attested by the approval the Work has received from those most competent to express an opinion upon the subject, by its continued use in many of our best Public Schools and Colleges, and by the very great and constant demand for new editions of the book. But the progress of events, and the publication of many important historical docu- ments, public and private, previously unknown, induced the Editor to subject the Work to a thorough revision ; and, in order to render the book as perfect as possible, he called to his aid the late Professor Brewer, who, possessing an unrivalled knowledge of all periods of English History, was, perhaps, the highest authority upon the subject in the present day. He bestowed unwearied pains upon the revision of the Work, and left it ready for publication a Vi PREFACE. few weeks before his lamented death. A short time previously, he gave, in a private letter written to the Editor, the following account of his labours and the principles which guided him in the revision. The italics are Mr. Brewer's. " I have brought," he says, " the Work down to the Treaty of Berlin, of course with the brevity compatible with your wish that the Work should not exceed its original dimensions. On the whole, I think it is the most handy and complete Manual of English History which exists for Schools, — and experience will prove it to be so. To keep -the Work to its title and its size, to intro- duce the corrections necessitated by the progress of original research, to remove positive misstatements, has required no small amount of care and judgment. But I have been guided, to the best of my ability, by historical truth, by the investigations of recent trustworthy historians, by the wants of the student, and by my own researches, now of some years' standing. In the most anxious of all periods — that of the seventeenth century — I have been guided by Banke and Bawson Gardiner, whose authority is not only the highest for that period, but to my mind — and I know what I am saying — is now the only authority worth re- garding. The research, the industry, the accuracy, the candour of Bawson Gardiner are unquestionable, though he is in politics and religion inclined to the Barliament strongly, and has no liking for the Stuarts ; but his more equitable way of considering the great controversies of the times must eventually prevail against the less careful statements and the prejudices of Brodie, Macaulay, Forster, and others I need not name. " The popularity of the Work must depend on its merits PREFACE. Vll for accuracy and ability, and its sufficiency as a good Manual. Competitive examinations have entirely put it out of any schoolmaster's power to exclude a thoroughly good History from his schoolroom, because he may have a sentimental dislike to some of its statements. I am fully convinced that the road to success is by careful investigations and temperate narrative, showing the reader that there is another side to the question than that which some recent writers have presented. " Wherever there was fair evidence for Hume's state- ments, I have retained them, and still more frequently Hume's estimate of motives and characters, when he had the jacts before him, because, though not entirely free from prejudice, he had excellent good sense and sound judg- ment." The present History, unlike some others of the same class, gives as full an account of Celtic and Eoman Britain as the limits of the work would allow. Mr. Brewer strongly disapproved of the modern fashion of ignoring the Boman occupation of Great Britain, and starting at once from the Anglo-Saxon invasion. He pointed out, in an article which he wrote in the Quarterly Beview* that the Celtic and Boman occupation of the island was closely connected with its subsequent history ; that the Saxon Conquest, though a change of the highest moment, did not break up society ; and that the Saxon State was built upon the ruins of the past. As much prominence as possible is given in the present Work to the rise and progress of the Constitution ; but in order to economize space, and at the same time not interrupt the narrative, much important information upon * See Quarterly Beview, vol. 141, p. 295, seqq. Vlii PREFACE. this subject is inserted in a smaller type in the " Notes and Illustrations," where the student will find an account of the " government, laws, and institutions of the Anglo- Saxons," of the "Anglo-Norman Constitution," of the " origin and progress of Parliament," and of other matters of a similar kind. Several constitutional documents, such as the Petition of Right and the Bill of Eights, are printed at length. These Notes and Illustrations, which contain discussions on various other historical and antiquarian subjects, have been drawn up mainly with the view of assisting the student in further enquiries ; and with the same object a copious list of authorities is appended. NOTE BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR. In the portions of this volume relating to America are a few errors and some important omissions. The errors have been corrected and the omissions supplied in some Supple- mentary Notes, which may be found immediately preceding the Index. At the head of each note, the page in the text to which it refers is given ; while in the text the number of the Note in the Supplement making corrections or additions is referred to. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. BOOK I. The Britons, Romans, and Anglo-Saxons, b.c. 55-a.d. 1066. CHAPTER I. The Bkitons and the Romans, b.c. 55-a.d. 450. B.C. PAGE 2 Earliest notices of Britain 55-4. Caesar's two invasions . . . . 7 A.D. 43. Invasion by Claudius. AuVus Plautius 8 BO. Caractacus carried captive to ■ Borne 9 58-61. Suetonius Paulinus. Mona. Boadicea 9, 10 78-85. Britain subdued by Agricola 10 120. Visit of Hadrian. The Roman vVall 11 139. Wall of Antoninus 11 208-211. Conquests and death of Severus 11 A.D. PAGE 286-296. Usurpation of Carausius and Allectus 12 306. Constantius Chlorus dies at York 12 367. Picts and Scots repulsed by Theodosius 388. Usurpation of Maximus 410. Departure of the Roman legions 443. Last vain supplication to Aetius 450. The Saxons are called in . . Britain under the Romans Christianity in Britain 432. Conversion of Ireland by St. Patrick 16 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. A. Cffisar's Voyages to Britain 16 B. The Roman Walls 16 C. The "Comes Littoris Saxonici" 17 D. The Scots and Picts 17 E. Government and Divisions of Britain under the Romans 18 F. Authorities for the Period 19 CHAPTER II. The Anglo-Saxons till the Reign op Egbert, a.d. 450-827. The Saxons, Angles, and Jutes 21 450. I. First settlement, of Jutes under Hengest and Horsa . . 24 455-473. Their battles. Kingdom of Kent 25, 26 477-519. II. Second settlement, of Saxons. Ella in Sussex . . 26 495-577. III. Cerdic and Cynric — Kingdom of Wessex . . 26, 27 526. IV Kingdom of the East Saxons 27 550 ? V. Kingdom of the East Angles 27 Norfolk and Suffolk 27 547 ? VI. Angles in Northumbria . . 28 Ida, king of Bernicia .. .. 28 Ella, king of Deira 28 617. Kingdom of Northumbria united under Edwin 28 1* 626. VII. Kingdom of Mercia under Penda 28 The Heptarchy. British States 28 The Bretwaldas 31 492. (1) Ella of Sussex 31 568. (2) Ceawlin of W%ssex .. . . 31 His victory over iEthelberht at Wimbledon 31 592. His great defeat at Wodesbeorg 31 (3) ^thelberht of Kent . . 31 597. His conversion by Augustine . . 32 610. Bishoprics of Canterbury, Lon- don, and Rochester . . . . 32 616. (4) Redwald of East Anglia . . 33 617. Victory over JEthelfrith of Northumbria 33 624. (5) Edwin of Northumbria . . 33 627. His conversion by Paulinus . . 31 CONTENTS. A.D. PAGE 633. Edwin slain by Penda of Mercia 34 634. (6) Oswald, son of iEthelfrith 34 Scottish Christianity in North- umbria 34 642. Oswald slain by Penda . . . . 34 655. (7) Oswy kills Penda . . . . 34 685. Ecgfrith killed by the Picts at at Nechtansmere 35 Literature in Northumbria. Great monasteries 35 A.D. PAGE Csedmon and Bede 35 793. Ravages of the .Northmen .. 35 795. Anarchy in Northumbria .. 35 688. Wessex. Laws of Ina . . . . 35 800. Egbert becomes king . . . . 36 716-755. Supremacy of Mercia under iEthelbald 36 755-796. Its climax under Offa . . 36 827. Utiion of the kingdoms under Egbert 38 A. The Frisians in Britain B. The Isle of Thanet NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 38 I C. Celtic Words in the English Language CHAPTER III. The Anglo-Saxons from the Union of England under Egbert till the Reign of Canute the Dane, a.d. 827-1016 830. 832, 836 853, 856, 858, 866. 870, 871. 875, 878, 893, 901. 922, 925. 927. 937. 940. 945. Egbert reduces Wales . . . . 40 Appearance of the Northmen 41 jEthelwulf and jEthelstan 42 iEthelwulf goes to Rome . . . . 42 Revolt of tEthelbald . . . . 42 .Ethelbald and jEthelberht 43 jEthelredI. Danish invasions 43 St; Edmund of East Anglia . . 43 Victory at Ashdown 43 Alfred the Great 43 First English naval victory . . 44 Guthrum in Wessex. Alfred a fugitive in Athelney . . . . 44 Treaty of Wedmore. England partitioned. The Danelagh . . 45 The Danish war renewed . . 46 Alfred's character and works . . 46 Laws ascribed to Alfred . . . . 48 Edward I. the Elder . . . . 48 Union of all Southern Britain 48 JEthelstan 49 Annexes Northumbria . . . . 49 His victory at Brunariburh . . 49 Edmund I. the Elder . . . . 49 Cumberland conquered ; and 51 given to Malcolm, of Scotland, to hold under Edmund 946. Edred. Power of Dunstan .. 955. Edwt. Quarrel with Dunstan 958. Revolt of Edgar Divorce of Elgiva 52 959. Edgar the Peaceable .. .. 52 959. Dunstan made archbishop . . 52 Laws of Edgar 52 975. Edward II. the Martyr . . 53 Ecclesiastical conflicts . . . . 53 979. jEthelred II. the Unready 53 988. Death of archbishop Dunstan 54 993. Invasion of Sweyn and Anlaf 54 997. The Danes again. Danegeld . . 54 1002. iEthelred marries Emma of Normandy 54 Nov. 13. Massacre of the Danes .. 55 1013. Sweyn conquers England . . 55 1014. Hisdeath. Return of iEthelred 55 1015. Canute's invasion 56 Death of iEthelred 56 1016. Edmund Ironside and Canute 56 Partition of England . . . . 56 Death of Edmund 56 CHAPTER IV. Danes and Anglo-Saxons from Canute to the Norman Conquest, a.d. 1016-1066. I. The Danish Kings. 1017. Canute marries Emma of Normandy 58 The four earldoms 58 Rise of Godwin 59 1031. Canute conquers Malcolm of Scotland. Macbeth .. .. 60 1035. Harold I. Harefoot . . . . 60 1036. Murder of Alfred, son of iEthelred 60 1040. Hardicanute 61 Danegeld reimposed 61 His sudden death 61 II. The Restored Line of Cerdic. 1042. Edward III. the Confessor 61 1051. Norman influence 62 Godwin banished 63 William of Normandy visits Edward 63 1052-3. Return and death of Godwin 64 1055. Power of Harold 64 1040-54. Scotland: Duncan, Macbeth, and Malcolm 64 1057. Return and death of Edward the Stranger. Designation of William as successor . . 65 CONTENTS. XI A.D. PAGE 1057. Harold's oath to William .. 65 1063. Harold reduces Wales . . . . 66 1065. Tostig, earl of Northumbria, deposed 66 1066. Death of Edward 66 His character and laws . . . . 66 A.D. PAGE 1066. Election of Harold II 67 Invasion of Tostig and Harold Hardrada 67 Sept. 25. Battle of Stamford Bridge 67 Oct. 14. Battle of Hastings ,. .. 68 Death of Harold 68 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. A. The Government, Laws, and Institutions of the Anglo-Saxons 70 B. Anglo-Saxon Language and Literature .. 76 C. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 77 D. Authorities for the Period 77 BOOK ir. The Norman and Early Plantagenet Kings, a.d. 1066-1199. CHAPTER V. William 1. th Conqueror, 6. 1027 ; r. 1066-1087. 911. 933. 942. 996. 1028. 1035. 1047. 1066. 1067. 1068. 1069. 1070. 1087. 1088. 1089. 1090. 1091 1093 1097 History of Normandy .. Rolf the Ganger becomes count of Neustria His son, William Longsword Richard I. the Fearless His son, Richard II. the Good His brother, Robert the Devil His natural son, William II. Secures Normandy William king of England . . William visits Normandy Revolt in England ; suppressed Insurrection of Edwin and Morcar Mulcolm swears fealty to William New rebellion Landing of Danes Marriage of Margaret the Saxon to Malcolm 1070. William devastates Yorkshire 87 Stigand deposed : Lanfranc made primate 87 1071. " Camp of Refuge" in Isle of Ely taken 88 Edgar iEtheling submits to William 88 1075. Insurrection of Norman barons 89 1076. Execution of earl Waltheof . . 90 1078. Norman wars. Revolt of Robert 90 1080-1. Wars with Scotland and Wales 91 1085. Threatened Danish invasion. Danegeld 91 1086. Domesday Book 91 1087. War with France 92 Death of William 92 His character and government 92 CHAPTER VI. William II., Henry I., Stephen, a.d. 1087-1154. William II. Rufus, 6 1060 ; r. 1087-1100 95 Rebellion of bishop Odo and Norman barons 95 Death of Lanfranc 95 William's tyranny 95 Wars in Normandy with Robert and Henry . . . . 95 Submission of Malcolm and Edgar jEtheling 96 Cumberland made an English county . . . . 96 First Crusade 96 Robert pledges Normandy . . 96 Anselm made archbishop . . 97 Quarrel between the king and primate 97 Death and character of William 97 Henry I. Beadclerk, b 1070 ; r. 1100-1135 98 His charter to the church, barons, and people . . . . 98 1100. Incorporation of London .. 99 Henry marries Maud, of the Saxon line 99 1101. Invasion of Robert 99 1105. Battle of Tinchebray . . . . 100 1106. Conquest of Normandy .. .. 100 1134. Death of Robert 100 Death of Edgar iEtheling . . 100 1106. End of the dispute with An- selm about investitures .. 101 1120. Prince William drowned .. 101 1121. Henry marries Adelais .. .. 102 1125. Death of the emperor Henry V., husband of Matilda, daughter of Henry 1 102 1126. The English nobles swear fealty to Matilda 102 1128. She marries Geoffrey, count of Anjou 102 1133. Birth of her son (Henry II.) .. 102 1135. Death and character of Henry 1 102 Xll CONTENTS. A.D. PAGE 103 103 1135. STEPHEN,&.1096;r.ll35-1154 Acknowledged in Normandy 1138. Scottish invasion. Battle of the Standard 104 1139. Invasion of Matilda. Civil war 104 1141. Stephen captured, and ex- changed for Robert, earl of Gloucester 105 1142. Flight of Matilda from Oxford 105 1145. Death of earl Robert . . . . 105 A.D. PAGE 1146. Departure of Matilda .. .. 105 1149. War renewed by Henry .. 105 1150. He succeeds his father in Anjou, and marries Eleanor 106 His great possessions . . . . 106 He invades England . . . . 106 Treaty of Wallingford . . . . 106 1154. Death and character of Stephen 106 CHAPTER VII. THE EARLY PLANTAGENET KINGS. Henry II. and Richard I., a.d. 1154-1199. 1154. Henry II., h. 1133; r. 1154- 1189. His vast continental possessions 107, 108 He restores order 108 1157. Thomas Becket chancellor .. 109 1162. Becket archbishop 110 His quarrel with Henry . . 110 1164. Constitutions of Clarendon 111 Oct. 6. Council of Northampton 112 Becket's flight 112 1170. Coronation of prince Henry.. 113 Return of Becket 113 New quarrel with Henry .. 113 Dec. 29. Murder of Becket .. .. 115 His character 115 1171. Henry submits to the pope . . 115 1172. Conquest of Ireland .. .. 117 1173. Rebellion of the king's sons 117 1174. His penance at Becket's tomb 118 Battle of Alnwick. William the Lion taken prisoner . . 118 1175. The Scots do homage .. .. 118 1183- 1187. 1189. 1190. 1191. 1193 1194 1199 Administration of Henry .. 118 Itinerant justices 118 6. Family discords. Deaths of young Henry and Geoffrey Jerusalem taken by Saladin The Second Crusade Rebellion of Richard and John Death and character of Henry Richard I., b. 1167 ; r. 1189- 1199. Third Crusade Meeting of Richard and Philip at Vezelay Richard in Sicily and Cyprus His marriage to Berengaria . . Takes Acre and Ascalon Concludes a truce with Saladin Made prisoner by Leopold of Austria League of John with Philip Richard before the diet Is ransomed and returns His death and character NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 119 119 119 119 119 120 121 121 121 121 122 122 122 122 123 123 A. The Anglo-Norman Constitution B. Authorities for Norman History C. Authorities for Anglo-Norman History .. 129 BOOK III. Development of the English Constitution. From the Accession of John to the Death op Richard III., a.d. 1199-1485. CHAPTER VIII. HOUSE OF PLANTAGENET— Cot John and Henry III. a.d. 1199-1272. 1199. John, 6. 1167 ; r. 1199-1216 . . 132 Arthur, duke of Brittany . . 132 1200. War and treaty with Philip Augustus of France . . . . 132 John marries Isabella of Angouleme 133 1202. War with France 133 Death of Arthur 133 120,4. Loss of Normandy, etc . . .. 133 1205. Quarrel with Innocent III. .. 134 1207. Stephen Langton primate .. 135 1208. Papal interdict 135 1212. Excommunication of John . . 135 1213. John becomes a vassal of the pope for England . . . . 135 Philip makes war on John . . 135 Naval victory at Damme . . 135 1214. John makes war in France .. 135 CONTENTS. Xlll A.D. 1214. 1215. 1216. 1217. 1219. 1232. 1236. 1242. 1245, l'AGE Battle of Bouvines 136 136 137 140 139 140 Confederacy of the barons . . John grants Magna Carta Charter to the city of London John obtains a dispensation Civil war. The barons call in prince Louis of France . . Death and character of John Henry III., 6. 1207; r. 1216-1272 William Marshal, earl of Pem- broke, protector 140 Confirmation of the Charter . . 141 The French depart 141 Government of Des Roches and De Burgh 142 War with Louis VIII 142 Character and government of Henry 142 Hubert de Burgh dismissed. Foreign favourites . . . . 142 Henry marries Eleanor of Provence 143 War with Louis IX 143 etc. Usurpations and exac- tions of Rome 143 A.D. 1255. 1257. 1253. 1261. 1264. 1270. 1272. PAGE Project for the conquest of Naples 144 Richard, earl of Cornwall, elected king of the Romans Renewal of the Great Charter Disputes with the barons. Simon de Montfort . The Mad I arliament . Provisions of Oxford . First public document in English Treaty with Louis IX. .. Final cession of Normandy The Barons' War Mediation of Louis IX. fails Battle and Mise of Lewes . . Parliament summoned by De Montfort : regarded as the origin of the House of Com- mons Battle of Evesham. Death of Simon de Montfort . . . . 148 The Dictum, de Kenilworth . . 148 Edward goes on a crusade . . 149 Death and character of Henry 149 144 144 145 145 145 183 147 147 147 147 147 148 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. B. Confirmations of the Great Charter .. 149 C. Trial by Jury 150 CHAPTER IX. HOUSE OF PLANTAGENET— Continued. Edward I. and Edward II. 1272. Edward I., 6. 1239 ; r. 1272 1297 1307 151 First recognition of a king's accession before his corona- tion : the " king's peace " proclaimed 152 1274. His return and coronation .. 152 1279. His administration 152 Statute of Mortmain .. .. 153 1283. Conquest of Wales 153 Execution of Llewelyn . . . . 153 1284. Statute of Wales. Birth of Edward, prince of Wales . . 154 1290. The Jews banished . . . . 155 1286. Death of Alexander III. of 1290. Scotland, and his granddaugh- ter, the maid of Norway . . 155 Competitors for the crown . . 156 The dispute submitted to Edward 156 1291. His supremacy acknowledged 156 1292. JohnBalliol king of Scotland 156 1294. War with France. Alliance of France and Scotland . . 157 1295. First model parliament .. 158 1296. Edward conquers Scotland .. 158 1297. War for recovery of Guienne 158 Confirmation of the Charters 159 1298. Peace with France 160 1290. Death of queen Eleanor .. 160 1299. Edward marries Margaret of France 160 1298, 1304. 1305, 1306. 1307 1308- 1312. 1314. 1321. 1322. 1323. 1325. 1326. 1327. A.D. 1272-1327. Revolt of William Wallace 160 His victory at Stirling . . .. 160 Edward's victory at Falkirk 160 Reconquest of Scotland . . 161 Execution of Wallace . . . . 161 Bruce flies to Scotland .. .. 161 He kills Comyn 161 His coronation at Scone .. 161 His defeat at Methven . . . . 162 Death and character of Ed- ward I 162 Edward II., 6. 1284 ; r. 1307- 1327 162 He marries Isabella of France 163 ■1312. Quarrel with the nobles about Gaveston 163 Execution of Gaveston by the earl of Lancaster .. .. 164 Battle of Bannockburn . . .. 164 Parliament at York. Condi- tions imposed on Edward 164 Banishment of the Despensers 164 Edward recovers power .. 165 Lancaster beheaded .. .. 165 End of the war. with Scotland 1 65 Conspiracy of queen Isabella and Mortimer 165 Civil war 166 The Spensers hanged .. .. 166 Deposition and murder of Edward 166 XIV CONTENTS. CHAPTER X. HOUSE OF PLANTAGENET— Continued. Edward III. and Richard II. a.d. 1327-1399. A.D. 1327. 1328. 1330. 1331. 1332. 1341. 1337. 1342. 1346. 1347. 1349. 1356. 1360. 1367. 1369. 1374. 1376. PAGE Edward III., 6. 1312; r. 1327-1377 .. .... .. 167 Earl of Lancaster protector . . 167 Independence of Scotland . . Fall of Mortimer and Isabella David Bruce, king of Scotland Edward Balliol set up by- England Berwick ceded to Edward III. Expulsion of Edward Balliol Battle of Halidon Hill . . Balliol restored David II. recalled from exile Edward claims the crown of France 170 Great naval victory off Sluys 171 Domestic disturbances .. .. 171 The Charter confirmed . . 171 Affairs of Brittany. Edward supports Montfort .. .. 172 Invasion of France .. .. 173 Battle of Crecy 173 David II. taken prisoner at Neville's Cross 175 Calais taken by Edward .. 175 New war in its defence . . 176 Order of the Garter .. .. 176 The Black Death 176 Statute of Labourers .. .. 176 Battle of Poitiers 177 Peace of Bretigny with France 179 The Black Prince in Spain . . 180 New war with France . . . . 181 Loss of the English conquests 181 The Good Parliament .. .. 181 Death of the Black Prince .. 181 168 169 169 169 170 170 170 170 170 A.D. 1377. 1351. 1353. 1380. 1381. 1385. 1386. 1389. 1388. 1394. 1396. 1397. 1398. 1399. 182 182 182 183 183 183 183 183 184 185 186 Death and character of Ed- ward III Influence of parliament Statute of Treasons Statute of Provisors Appeals to Rome forbidden . . Edward III. the father of English commerce French disused in pleadings Richard II., 6. 1366 ; r. 1377-1399 Poll tax. Rebellion The insurgents in London. Death of Wat Tyler . . Richard in Scotland Domestic troubles 186 Council of regency under Gloucester 186 The king resumes the govern- ment 187 Skirmish of Chevy Chase . . 187 Richard in Ireland 187 Truce with France. Richard marries Isabella 187 Counter revolution 187 Murder of Gloucester . . . . 188 Henry, duke of Hereford, banished Death of John of Gaunt Invasion of Henry, now duke of Lancaster Richard deposed His death and character John Wickliffe and Geoffrey Chaucer 188 188 190 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. A. Death of Richard II 191 I B. Statute of Prwmunire (16 Kic. II. c. 5) 191 CHAPTER XI. THE HOUSE OF LANCASTER. Henry IV., Henry V., Henry VI. a.d. 1399-1461. 1399. Henry IV., 6. 1366; r. 1399- 1413 1400. Plot betrayed by Rutland . . Persecution of the Lollards . . 1401. Statute against heresy .. First burning of a heretic in England Insurrection of Owen Glen- dower in Wales 193 1402. Battle of Homildon Hill. Douglas taken 193 1403. Rebellion of the Percies. Battle of Shrewsbury 1405-8. Deaths of archbishop Scrope, Nottingham, and Northumberland 1405. Captivity of prince James of 1406. Scotland (James I.) .. 192 193 193 193 193 194 194 195 1413. Death and character of Henry 195 Henry V., b. 1388 ; r. 1413- 1422 196 His youthful excesses and reformation 196 1413-18. Persecution of the Lol- lards. Oldcastle burnt . . 197 1415. Invasion of France .. .. 198 Battle of Agincourt . . . . 198 1417. Second invasion of France .. 199 1419. Conquest of Normandy . . 199 Capture of Rouen 199 1420. Treaty of Troyes. Henry marries Katharine . . . . 200 1421. The duke of Clarence killed at Beauge 200 1422. Henry dies at Vincennes .. 201 His character 201 CONTENTS. XV A.D. PAGE 1422. Henry VI., 6. 1421 ; r. 1422- 1461; ob. 1471 201 Gloucester protector ; bishop Beaufort guardian . . . . 201 Charles VII. claims the French crown 202 1424. Treaty with Scotland and re- lease of James 1 202 1427. Victory of Bedford at Verneuil 202 1429. Joan of Arc raises the siege of Orleans 202 Charles VII. crowned at Rheims 203 1430-1. Joan of Arc captured and burnt 204 1431. Henry VI. crowned at Paris 205 1435. Death of the duke of 1436 Bedford. The English ex- pelled from Paris 205 1444. Truce between England and France 205 Wars of 1455. First battle of St. Albans :— 209 Henry taken prisoner and Somerset killed 209 1459. The Lancastrians defeated at Bloreheath 210 The Duke of York's army dispersed at Ludlow .. .. 210 1460. Battle of Northampton. Henry captured 210 The peers declare York heir to the throne 210 A.D. PAGE 1444. Rivalry of Gloucester and the Beauforts 205 1445. Henry marries Margaret of Anjou 206 Power of De la Pole, earl of Suffolk 206 1447. Arrest and death of Gloucester 206 1451. The English expelled from France 207 Richard, duke of York and heir of Clarence 207 The earls of Westmoreland, Salisbury, and Warwick . . 207 1450. Impeachment and murder of Suffolk 208 Insurrection of Jack Cade . . 208 Edmund Beaufort, duke of Somerset, minister . . . . 209 1452. York takes up arms . . . . 209 1453. Birth of Edward, prince of Wales 209 1454. The duke of York protector 209 the Roses. 1460. Battle of Wakefield.:— York and Rutland killed . . 1461. Victory of Edward at Mor- Feb. 2. timer's Cross : Jasper Tudor taken and beheaded Feb. 17. Margaret defeats Warwick at St. Albans Feb. 28. Edward enters London .. Mar. 3. Proclaimed king 211 List of the Battles in the AVabs of the Roses .. 212 211 211 211 211 CHAPTER XII. THE HOUSE OF YORK. Edward IV, Edward 1461. Edward IV., 6. 1442; r. 1461-1483 His victory at Towton .. Escape of Margaret and the prince of Wales 1464. Battles of Eedgeley Moor and Hexham 214, 1466. Henry in the Tower 1463. Edward marries Elizabeth Woodville 1469-70. Alliance of Warwick and Clarence with Margaret . . 1470. Invasion of Warwick Flight of Edward Temporary restoration of Henry VI 1471. Edward IV. lands at Raven- spur Battle of Barnet. Death of Warwick Defeat of Margaret at Tewkes- bury. Murder of Edward, prince of Wales Death of Henry VI 1475. Edward invades France Peace of Pecquigny V., Richard III. a .d. 1461-1485. 1478. Death of Clarence in the Tower 218 1482. Death of Margaret of Anjou 218 1483. Death of Edward IV 219 Edward V., b. 1470 ; r. April 9— June 26, 1483 . . . . 219 Violent proceedings of the duke of Gloucester 219 He is appointed protector .. 219 Execution of Rivers, etc. . . 220 Execution of Hastings .. .. 221 Penance of Jane Shore . . . . 221 Gloucester accepts the crown 221 Murder of the king and duke of York 221 Richard III., o. 1450. r. 1483- 1485 222 Conspiracy on behalf of Henry, earl of Richmond . . . . 222 Execution of Buckingham . . 223 1485. Invasion of Henry 224 Battle of Bosworth .. .. 224 Death and character of Richard III 224 State of the nation under the Plantagenets 225 Invention of printing 219 n., 226 213 214 214 215 215 215 215 216 2)6 216 216 217 217 217 218 218 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. A. Origin and Progress of Parliament .. .. 226 | B. Authorities for Book III. XVI CONTENTS. BOOK IV. The House of Tudor, a.d. 1485-1603 CHAPTER XIII. Henry VII., b. a.d. 1456; r. 1485-1509. A.D. PAGE Epoch marked by the Tudor accession 229 1485. Nature of Henry's title . . 230 His coronation 231 1486. He marries Elizabeth of York 231 Abortive insurrection of Lovel 231 1487. Insurrection of Simnel . . 232 1488-91. Foreign affairs. France and Brittany 233 1491. Henry levies a Benevolence .. 233 1492. Henry invades France . . . . 234 Treaty of Estaples 234 Perkin Warbeck personates Richard of York .. .. 234 Proofs of the death of Edward V. and Richard 235 1493. Execution of sir William Stanley 235 1495. Perkin in Ireland 235 Poynings's Law .. . . 235 n. 1496. Perkin aided by James IV. of Scotland 236 A.D. PAGE 1497. Cornish insurgents defeated at Blackheath 236 Perkin lands in Cornwall; is taken and imprisoned . . 236 1499. Execution of Perkin and the earl of Warwick 237 1501-2. Marriage and death of Arthur, prince of Wales . . 237 1502. Katharine of Arragon be- trothed to prince Henry . . 237 Margaret Tudor married to James IV 234 1503. Death of queen Elizabeth .. 237 1504. The king's exactions .. .. 237 Empson and Dudley . . . . 237 1506. Henry's matrimonial negocia- tions 238 1509. His death and character . . 238 The Great Intercourse . . . . 239 The Star Chamber 239 1492. Discovery of America by Co- lumbus 239 1498. Voyage of Sebastian Cabot . . 239 CHAPTER XIV. Henry VIII., b. 1491 ; r. 1509-1547. From his Accession to the Death of Wolsey, a.d. 1509-1530. 1509. Henry's character and min- isters : Surrey and Fox . . 240 1510. Execution of Empson and Dudley .. 241 1509. Henry's marriage to Katharine 241 1509-11. He joins the Holy League against Louis XII 241 1511-12. Fruitless invasion of France 242 1513. Wolsey minister 242 Naval action at Conquet . . 243 Battle of the Spurs . . . . 243 Battle of Flodden Field . . . . 243 James IV. killed 243 1514. Peace with France. Mary Tudor marries Louis XII., who dies, Jan. 1, 1515 .. 244 1515. Mary marries Brandon, duke of Suffolk 244 Wolsey made cardinal and chancellor 244 1518. Treaty with France. Tournay ceded to Francis 1 245 1519. Election of Charles I. of Spain as the emperor Charles V. 245 1520. His visit to England . . . . 246 Meeting of Henry and Francis near Calais 246 1521. Henry mediates between Charles and Francis Execution of Stafford, duke of Buckingham Luther and the Protestant Reformation Henry styled Defender of the Faith 247 Adrian VI. pope 247 1522. Second visit of Charles V. to England War with France and Scot- land 1523. Wolsey's dispute with parlia- ment. Illegal taxation by royal authority alone Confederacy against France . . Clement VI. pope 1525. Battle of Pavia Francis taken prisoner Treaty between England and France 249 247 247 247 247 247 24ft 248 248 249 249 CONTENTS. XV11 A.D. PAGE 1525. The Amicable Loan. Popular discontents 249 1526. Liberation of Francis. His league with Henry . . . . 250 1527. Sack of Rome by the con- stable Bourbon 250 Henry renounces all claim to the French crown . . . . 250 Henry dtsires a divorce . . 251 Anne Boleyn 251 A.D. PAGE 1529. Trial legates Cam- peggio and Wolsey. The cause referred to Rome . . 251 Wolsey's impeachment and fall 252 Peace of Cambray 253 Rise of Cranmer 253 The Universities consulted on the divorce 253 1530. Arrest and death of Wolsey 254 Henry VIII.— CHAPTER XV. From the Death of Wolsey to the Death of the King, a.d. 1530-1547. 1531. The whole clergy subject to praemunire 256 Convocation declares the king the Protector and Supreme Bead of the Church of Eng- land 256 1532. Law against levying first- fruits 256 Sir Thomas More resigns the great seal 256 1533. Private marriage of Henry to Anne Boleyn (second wife) Archbishop Cranmer pro- nounces the divorce Elizabeth born at Greenwich 1534. Acts of parliament completing the separation of the English Church from. Rome Establishment of the succes- sion to the crown. Fisher and More sent to the Tower Act of supremacy, declaring the king the only supreme head on earth of the church of England Catholics and Protestants . . Henry adheres to Catholic doctrine Tyndale's Bible forbidden in England 1533-4. Conspiracy of the Holy Maid of Kent 259 1535. Execution of Fisher and More 260 Papal excommunication of Henry 260 Thomas Cromwell made vicar- general 261 1536. Death of queen Katharine . . 260 The lesser monasteries sup- pressed 261 Wales incorporated with Eng- land Parliament dissolved, having sat since 1529 Execution of queen Anne . . Henry marries Jane Seymour (third wife) 262 Settlement of the succession 262 1536-7. Insurrections. The Pil- grimage of Grace .. .. 262 1537. Birth of a son (Edward VI.) 263 Death of queen Jane . . . . 263 Suppression of the greater monasteries. New bishop- rics. Gifts to courtiers 263, 264 257 257 257 257 258 258 259 261 261 262 267 267 267 1544 1545, 1545 1546. Bull of excommunication published 264 Cardinal Pole's opposition to Henry. Execution of mem- bers of his family . . . . 264 New parliament 265 The Six Articles 265 The king's proclamation made equal to statutes 265 Cranmer's Bible set up in the churches 265 Marriage and divorce of Anne of Cleves (fourth wife) 266, 267 Execution of Cromwell . . 266 Henry's fifth wife, Katharine Howard 267 Burning of Protestants, and hanging of Catholics The countess of Salisbury beheaded Trial and execution of the queen and others War with Scotland. Battle of Solway Moss 268 Birth of Mary, queen of Scots, and death of James V. . . 268 Henry's scheme for uniting England and Scotland .. 268 Frustrated by cardinal Bea- ton and the Catholics . . 268 League of Henry and Charles against France 268 Henry's sixth and last wife, Katharine Parr 268 Capture of Boulogne by Henry 269 New settlement of the crown 271 French attempts at an in- vasion 269 Battle of Ancrum Muir . . 269 Peace made with France and Scotland The first English Prayer-book Henry's theological dogma- tism Burning of Anne Askew Danger and dexterity of queen Katharine Parr 270 Execution of Surrey, and attainder of Norfolk . . . . 271 Death and character of Henry 271 Educational foundations of the king and Wolsey . . . . 272 Flourishing state of learning in England 272 269 269 270 270 Will OONTKNTS. CHAPTER XVI. Edward VI., 6. 1537; r. 1517-1553. A.D. I 1517. Henry's will set aside .. Edward Seymour, earl of Hertford, protector .. .. New titles : Seymour made duke of Somerset Progress of the Reformation Visitation of the dioceses Opposition of Gardiner, Bon- ner, and princess Mary .. 1546, Scotland. Assassination of cardinal Ronton 1517. Somerset defeats tho Scots at Pinkie 1548, Mary, queen of Scots, sent to France Proceedings in parliament . . Further reformation 1519. Lord Seymour of Sudoley executed Act for Uniformity of Public worship A.GE 273 A.l>. 1550 273 271 274 275 1549 275 1551. 275 275 275 275 276 1552. 1553. 270 276 paob Heretics persecuted. Joan Bocher burnt 276 (ieneral discontent— its causes 276 Insurrections in Devon and Norfolk 277 War with Scotland and France 277 Fall of Somerset. Tower of Warwick 278 Peace with France and Scot- land 279 Second Prayer-book. The Forty-two Articles .. .. 279 Warwick made duke of North- umberland 280 1552. Trial and execution of Somer- set 280 L553. Schemes of Northumberland. Edward settles the crown on lady Jane Grey 280 The King's death 280 CHAPTER XVII. Iauy r., b. 1516 j r. 1553-1558. Philip and Mary, 1554-1558. 1 553. Proclamation of the lady Jane 282 Mary acknowledged as queen 283 Trial and execution of North- umberland 283 The Roman Catholic religion restored 284 Imprisonment of Ridley, Latimer, and Oranmer 281 Reform of the law of treason 284 Proposed marriage of Mary with Philip of Spain . . .. 285 1504. Insurrection of W'yatt .. .. 285 {Execution of lady Jane and lord Gtaildford Dudley .. 286 Tho princess K.li/.abeth .. .. 286 Marriage of KINO Philip and tJUEEN Mary 286 1 554. Cardinal Pole arrives as legate, and reconciles England with Rome 286 1555. The Marian persecution .. 287 Burning of Rogers, Hooper, Latimer, and Ridley . . .. 287 1556. Execution of Oranmer . . .. 288 Cardinal Pole archhishop .. 288 1557. Commission to Bonner, etc., against heretics 289 1556. Philip becomes king of Spain 1657. as Philip II.: involves England In war with France 289 1558. Loss of Calais. Grief of Mary 289 Her death and character .. 290 Death of cardinal Pole . . .. 290 Intercourse with Russia ., 290 CHAPTER XVIII. Elizabeth, b. 1533; r. 1658-1603. From her Accession to the Death OT Mauv, Queen op Scots, a.d. 1558-1587. 292 292 1668, Joy at Elizabeth's accession New councillors, Bacon and Ceoll. Caution i measures for restoring Protestantism 1559. Coronation by the bishop of Carlisle 292 Court of High Commission .. 293 Act s oi Supremacy and Uni- formity 293 Protestant bishops. Parker made primate 293 Peace of C. PAGE 1850. Death and character of sir Robert Peel 711 1850-1. Catholic bishoprics founded 712 Ecclesiastical Titles Act . . 712 1851. Exhibition in Hyde Park .. 712 Dec. 2. Coup d'etat of Louis Na- poleon Bonaparte in France 712 Dismissal of lord Palmer- ston 712 1852. Defeat of lord J. Russell. Lord Derby's first ministry 712 Death of Wellington . . . . 712 Dec. 2. Napoleon III. emperor of the French 713 Fall of lord Derby's ministry 713 Coalition ministry of lord Aberdeen 713 1853. Mr. Gladstone's first budget 713 War between Russia and Turkey. Alliance between England and France . . . . 713 1854. War with Russia 714 Invasion of the Crimea. Battle of the Alma .. . . 714 Siege of Sevastopol 714 Battle of Balaklava .. .. 714 Battle of Inkermann ., . . 715 1855. Fall of the government .. 715 Ministry of lord Palmerston. Secession of " Peelites " .. 715 Mar. 2. Death of the emperor Nicholas 715 Naval operations 715 Austrian occupation of the principalities. The allies joined by Sardinia .. .. 716 Sept. 10. Fall of Sevastopol. War in Asia 716 1856. Peace of Paris 717 1857. Japan. New war with China 717 Coalition against Palmerston 717 Fifth parliament 717 Indian Mutiny 717 Review of Indian history .. 717 1792. Alliance of Tippoo Sahib with the French 717 1798. Lord Mornington (marquess Wellesley) governor-gene- ral 717 1799. Capture of Sering-apatam. Death of Tippoo 717 1803. Mahratta war. Battles of Assaye and Argaum .. .. 717 War with Scindiah. Capture flf Delhi and Agra .'. . . 718 Annihilation ' of French in- fluence in India ' .. .. 718 1805. Governments of lords Corn- wallis and Minto .. .. 718 1813. LordMoira (marquess Hast- ings) governor-general . . 718 War with the Mahrattas and Pindarees 718 1822. Lord William Bentinck governor-general .. .. 718 1826. First war with Burmah. Capture of Bhurtpore .. 718 1836. Lord Auckland governor- general 718 A.D. 1838- 1842. 1843. 1844. 1845- 1848- 1856. 1857. 1860. 1861. 1861. 1862. 1861- 1864 1865 PAGE 40. First Afghan War. Shah Soojah set up at Cabul . . 718 Afghan insurrection. British army destroyed 718 Lord Ellenborough governor- general 718 Recapture and evacuation of Cabul 718 Battle of Meeanee, and con- quest of Scinde 719 Sir Henry (afterwards lord) Hardinge governor-general 719 6. War with the Sikhs. Aliwal and Sobraon .. .. 719 9. Second Sikh War, and con- quest of the Punjab .. .. 719 The British Empire over all India 719 Annexation of Oude .. .. 719 Mutiny of the sepoys. Loss and recapture of Delhi 719,720 Final suppression of the re- bellion by lord Clyde . . 720 Orsini's conspiracy against Napoleon III 720 Threats against England . . 720 The Volunteer s 720 Fall of lord Palmerston . . 721 Second ministry of lord Derby 720 The government of India placed under the Crown . . 721 Admission of the Jews to parliament 721 New oath for members of parliament 721 Defeat of the government on reform 721 Sixth parliament 721 Lord Palmerston's second ministry 721 War of France, Sardinia, and Austria, in Italy 721 Enterprise of Garibaldi. liberation of the two Sicilies 722 The kingdom of Italy .. .. 722 Great prosperity. Financial measures of Mr. Gladstone 722 Mr. Cobden's commercial treaty with France . . . . 722 End of the Chinese wars . . 723 Death of the Prince Consort 723 Second Exhibition of Industry 723 5. American civil war . . . . 723 Cotton famine in Lancashire 723 ■5. The Danish war about Schleswig-Holstein .. .. 724 Death of lord Palmerston . . 724 Review of his administration 724 Earl Russell'ssecond ministry 725 Seventh parliament . . . . 725 Reform Bill defeated 725 Lord Derby's third adminis- tration 7 2 5 War of Prussia and Italy against Austria T25, Battle of Sadowa 726 Supremacy of Prussia . . . . 72§ Venetia united to ltalv . . 726 CONTENTS. XXXV A.D. PAGE 1867. Second reform of parliament 726 1867-8. Expedition to Abyssinia .. 726 1866-7. Fenian agitation in Ireland 726 1868. Abolition of public executions 726 Mr. Disraeli's first adminis- tration ' 726 Ministry of Mr. Gladstone . . 727 Eighth parliament . . .. 727 1869. Disestablishment of the Irish church 727 Imprisonment for debt abo- lished 727 Abolition of religious tests in the universities 727 1870. Irish Land Act .727 National Education Act . . 727 War between France and Germany. Capture and deposition of Napoleon III. 727 1871. Siege of Paris 728 Peace of Versailles . . . . 728 William I. proclaimed German emperor 728 1873. Death of the ex-emperor Na- poleon 728 1873-8. Subsequent history of the French republic 728 1 870. New treaties for the indepen- dence of Belgium . . . . 729 1871. Purchase of army commissions abolished 729 Russia gets rid of the neu- trality of the Black Sea . . 729 Illness of the prince of Wales 729 1872. The Alabama claims . . .. 729 Act for ballot at parliamentary elections 729 1873. Mr. Gladstone's Irish Univer- sity Bill defeated . . . . 730 Act for a Supreme Court of Judicature 730 1873-4. The Ashantee War .. . . 730 1874. Conservative reaction. Sudden dissolution of parliament . . 730 Mr. Disraeli's second adminis- tration 730 Ninth parliament 731 Annexation of the Fiji Islands 731 1875. New sinking fund 731 Prince of Wales in India . . 731 1876. Lord Lytton viceroy of India 732 The queen proclaimed Empkkss of India . . 732 Purchase of shares in the Suez Canal 732 Mr. Disraeli made earl of Beaconsfield 732 Affairs of Turkey 732 1876. War with Servia and Mon- tenegro 732 A.D. PAGE Atrocities in Bulgaria . . . . 732 Designs of Russia. Conference at Constantinople . . . . 732 1877. War of Russia, Roumania, and Servia against Turkey . . 733 Approach of the Russians to Constantinople 734 1878. Parliament summoned .. .. 734 Divisions in the cabinet . . 734 The British fleet in the Sea of Marmora 734 Treaty of San Stefano . . . . 734 English preparations . . . . 735 Lord Salisbury's circular . . 735 Congress and Treaty of Berlin 735 Defensive alliance between Great Britain and Turkey 737 British occupation of Cyprus 737 The second Afghan War . . 737 Depression of trade . . . . 738 Death of princess Alice . . 738 Review of the period since the Revolution 738 Advance and security of poli- tical rights 738 Growth of England as a European power 738 Colonial and Indian empire . . 738 Increase of trade, wealth, and population 739 Potteries. Cotton manufac- tures 739 1775. James Watt's steam-engines 739 Spinning machines of Har- greaves and Crompton . . 739 1755-9. Canals. The duke of Bridgewater 739 Roads and coaches. Mac- Adam 739 1801. First act for a public railway 739 Mail coaches. Old and new postal systems 740 crease in steam- vessels since 1815 740 Other recent inventions . . 740 Foreign commerce. Results of free trade 740 Increase of population. The decennial census . . . . 740 Increase and reduction of the National Debt 741 Moral condition. Religion and missions 742 Mitigation of the criminal law. Education .. .. 743 Literature and art ?44 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. A. Poor Laws .. 745 B. Corn Laws .. .. .. .. 746 (J. Navigation Laws •• 747 D. Authorities for the Period comprised In - Book VI 747 E. State of the Representation 747 XXXVI CONTENTS. TABLES. PAGE Sovereigns of England since the Conquest 749 The principal European Sovereigns from the period of the Conquest . . 750-753 The Archbishops of Canterbury from the time of the Reformation .. .. 752-753 GENEALOGICAL TABLES. AA. Descent of Victoria I. from Egbert 754 A. The House of Cerdic . . 755 B. The Anglo-Danish kings of England 756 C. Family of Earl Godwin 756 T). The Norman line 757 E. The House of Plantagenet — „ Parti. From Henry II. to Edward 1 758 F. „ Part II. Descendants of Edward I. and his brother Edmund Crouchback 759 G. The House of Lancaster. Descendants of John of Gaunt. Also the descendants of Thomas of Woodstock 760 H. The House of York. Descendants of Lionel of Antwerp and Edmund Langley 761 I. The kings of France, from Philip III. to Charles VII. (In illustration of the wars between England and France) 762 K. The House of Tudor 763 L. The House of Stuart 764 M. The House of Brunswick 765 Also (in the body of the work)— The descendants of John II. of France. (In illustration of the French wars of Henry V.) 197 The descendants of Philip III. of Spain. (To illustrate the question of the Spanish succession) 538 Supplementary Notes 766 Index 781 LIST OF SEPAEATE MAPS. 1. Roman Britain To face 16 2. Saxon England ,, 48 3. English Possessions in France in the reign of Henry II. \ 4. English Possessions in France at the treaty of Bretigny, ' ,, 112 1360 '. \ 5. England in the Wars of the Roses ,, 208 6. England in the Great Rebellion ,, 400 7. English Possessions in North America , 612 8. A Chart of the World, showing the British Possessions and the dates of acquisition „„ . . „. , 736 fo( HISTORY OF ENGLAND. Stonehenge. BOOK I. THE BEITONS, EOMANS, and ANGLO-SAXONS. B.C. 55— a.d. 1066. CHAPTEE I. THE BEITONS AND EOMANS. § 1. Earliest notices of Britain. § 2. The earliest inhabitants of Britain were Celts of the Cymric stock. § 3. Religion of the Britons. § 4. Knights and bards. § 5. Manners and customs of the Britons. § 6. British tribes. § 7. Csesar's two invasions of Britain. § 8. History till the invasion of Claudius. § 9. Caractacus. § 10. Conquest of Mona ; Boadicea. § 11. Agricola. § 12. The Roman walls between the Sol way and the Tyne, and between the Clyde and the Forth. § 13. Saxon pirates ; Carausius. § 14. Picts and Scots. Departure of the Romans. § 15. Appear to Aetius. Groans of the Britons. The Saxons called in. § 16. Condition of Britain under the Romans. § 17. Christianity in Britain. THE BRITONS AND ROMANS. Chap. i. § 1. The south-western coasts of Britain were probably known to the Phoenician merchants several centuries before the Christian era. The Phoenician colonists of Tartessus and Gades in Spain, and especially of Carthage, were attracted to the shores of Britain by its abundant supply of tin, a metal of great importance in antiquity from the extensive use of bronze for the manufacture of weapons of war and implements of peace. It would seem that this metal was originally obtained from India, since the Grecian name for tin is of Indian origin, and must have been brought into Greece, together with the article itself.* Accordingly, when the voyagers obtained tin in Cornwall and Devon, whose high and indented shores might easily be mistaken for islands, these parts were called the Cassiterides or the Tin-islands, a name by which they were known to Herodotus f in the fifth century before the Christian era. Later writers mention the Britannic Islands as Albion and IerneJ in- cluding in the former England and Scotland, in the latter Ireland. The origin of the word Britain is disputed,§ but that of Albion is perhaps derived from a Celtic word signifying " white," a name probably given to the island by the Gauls, who could not fail to be struck with the chalky cliffs of the opposite coast. In addition to the Phoenician merchants, the Greek colonists of Massalia (Marseilles) and Narbo (Narbonne) carried on a trade at a very early period with the southern parts of Britain, by making overland journeys to the northern coast of Gaul. The principal British exports seem to have been tin, lead, skins, slaves, and hunt- ing-dogs employed by the Celts in war. When the Britons became more civilized, corn and cattle, gold, silver, and iron, and an inferior kind of pearl, were added to the list. An interesting account of the British tin-trade is given by Diodorus Siculus, a contemporary of Julius Caesar. || Diodorus relates that the in- habitants near the promontory of Belerium (Land's End), after the tin was formed into cubical blocks, conveyed it in waggons to an island named Ictis (supposed to be St. Michael's Mount), since at low tides the space between that island and Britain became dry. At Ictis the tin was purchased by the merchants and carried over to Gaul. § 2. The fabulous tale of the colonization of the island by Brut the Trojan, the great grandson of iEneas, deserves no other attention beyond the influence it has exercised on English literature. It * The Greek name for tin is kassiteros (Ka 14 THE BRITONS AND ROMANS. Chap, i. from the Wall at the mouth of the Tyne, through York, Derhy, and Birmingham, to St. David's ; Irmin or Hermin Street, running from St. David's to Southampton; and the Fossway, between Cornwall and Lincoln ; besides a network of minor roads. Roman civilization in Britain was more complete than is commonly supposed, though its traces are now few, in comparison with those of other provinces. Bede, and before him, Gildas, speak of ' the Boman towns, lighthouses, roads, and bridges, as existing in their times. Many remains of Roman buildings were visible in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, which have since disappeared. London, York, Chichester, Chester, and Lincoln retain portions of Roman walls ; the amphitheatres of Dorchester, Cirencester, and Silchester are still visible. The remote Caerleon on the Usk (Isca Silurum), as well as Bath, had their theatres, temples, and palaces. The grand remains of walls at Burgh Castle (Norfolk), Richborough, Lymne (Parties Lemanis), and Fevensey, attest the strength of the Roman castles on the Saxon coast. Even now, in London and other places once occupied hy the Romans, if the spade of the workman penetrates to an unusual depth below the soil, fragments of pottery, tesselated pavements, and other objects, are frequently discovered, which testify the presence of its former owners. So when the Angles and Saxons established themselves in Britain, they must have dwelt among Roman remains, and gazed with wonder on the magnificent trophies of Roman art. At the same time, it must be remembered that the Roman occu- pation of Britain was chiefly military, and that the country was never completely Romanized like the provinces of Gaul and Spain. The natives living at a distance from the towns continued to speak their own language ; the number of Latin words which have found a permanent place in the Welsh language is comparatively small ; and almost the only traces of the Roman occupation, existing in modern English, are confined to the word or termination Chester, caster, &c. (from castra, " camp "), which appears in Caistor (near Norwich), Manchester, Lancaster, &c. ; to coin (colonia), which is found in Colchester and Lincoln; to foss (fossa, "ditch"), in the Fossway and Foston; and to the two words street, from stratum or strata, and port, from portus, "harbour."* The condition of England under the Romans has been well compared by a modern writer to that of Ireland as it existed under English rule in the 17th century. " The towns were entirely peopled by the conquerors : they alone * All these elements mark military occupation. Wall, found in the names of places near Roman fortifications, comes probably from vallum, but it has also an English root. Port appears also in names, as Port-chester ; and port (for porta, gate) is used in some cities, as for the gates of Edinburgh. a.d. 180-446. INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY. 15 were capable of holding municipal privileges or power: and the country was covered with the houses of gentry and landholders, who were all descended either from the old conquerors or new settlers. The peasantry only were British — that class who were in ancient times equally slaves under one race of rulers or another, and who were only spurred into insurrection by political agitators or by foreign invasions. S'ill, as in Ireland, the peasantry, having no attachment to their lords, were easily excited to revolt ; and a successful inroad of the Caledonians would always be attended by a corresponding agitation among the Britons." * § 17. Christianity was introduced into Britain at an early period; in all probability, however, not through Eome, but from the East, by means of the Mediterranean commerce carried on through Gaul. It is known that the latter country had numerous Christian congre- gations in the second century. Tradition ascril >es the adoption of Christianity in Britain to a prince Lucius, or Lever Maur(the Great Light), who flourished some time in the latter half of the second century. Under Diocletian, Britain reckons the martyrdom of St. Alban at Yerulam, and of Aaron and Julius, two citizens of Caerleon on the Usk. This "city of legions" (Civitas Legionurri) and the commercial and military capitals of London and York (Eboracum) are named as the three archie] >iscopal sees of Britain. At the first council of Aries, in 314, three British bishops appeared, namely, Eborius of York, Eestitutus of London, and Adelfius, probably of Caeileon. In the observance of Easter Day the British differed from the Romish and followed the Eastern church. The monastery of Bangor, near Chester, was founded at an early period : its name (ban gor, or " the great choir ") was a generic one for a monastery, and thus we find more than one Bangor in Britain. Some of the British ecclesiastics were famous for their learning and acuteness. Pelagius, the opponent of St. Augustine, and founder of the sect which bore his name, is said to have been a Briton whose real name was Morgan (i.e. " near the sea "), whilst his disciple Celestius was an Irishman. St. Germain, bishop of Auxerre, and Lupus, bishop of Troyes, were sent over to Britain by pope Celestine to confute the Pelagians in 429 ; and St. Germain paid a second visit in 446 with Severus, bishop of Treves. The connection of Britain with the Western church continued when its political union with Bome had been severed. Christianity, extir- pated from England by the heathen conquerors, survived in Wales. Meanwhile, at the very time when Britain was lost to Rome, Ireland * Edinburgh Review, vol. xciv. p. 200. But to these causes ncust undoubtedly be added that of religion ; for those of the Britons who still adhered to their ancient faith would make common cause with Pagan invaders. 16 THE BRITONS AND ROMANS. Chap. i. appears in our history as receiving the Christian faith through the ministry of Palladius and St. Patrick, natives of Britain, but sent by the Eoman bishop to the " Scots in Ireland " (a.d. 432).* While England was ravaged by the heathen conquerors, Ireland is depicted, in colours probably much brighter than the truth, as peacefully enjoying the light and learning which earned for her the fond name of the " Island of the Saints." f * The story of the conversion of the southern or lowland Picts, as early as 396, by St. Ninian or Nynia is doubtful. f The origin of this boasted title has been traced, with great probability, to the old Greek form of the native name Eri, namely, >') lipavnaos, " the sacred island," popular tradition pointing to the west from time immemorial as the seat of the blessed. The native annals show no age in which Ireland was not the scene of feuds and wars, from the time when one of its chiefs fled to Agricola, to that when Dermot Macmorrogh invited its conquest by Henry II. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. A. CiESAR'S VOYAGES TO BRITAIN. The subject of Caesar's two voyages to Britain has given rise to much controversy. In relating his first voyage Ceesar merely says that he sailed from the country of the Morini, without specifying the precise spot ; but there can be little doubt that he started from the same place as in his second expedition, namely, the Portus Itius, which is supposed by D'Anville, who has been followed by most modern writers, to be Wissant, just east of Cape Grisnez, about halfway between Boulogne and Calais. In his first expedition Caesar must have landed on the 27th of August, since he tells us that it was full moon on the fourth day after his arrival in Britain ; and it has been calculated by the astro- nomer Dr. Halley that this full moon fell on the night of the 30th of August ( Philo- sophical Transactions, abridged to the end of the year 1700 by John Lowthorpe, vol. iii. p. 412). Dr. Halley maintained that Csesar landed at Deal, and his opinion has been adopted by almost all subse- quent writers ; but Mr. Lewin has urged strong arguments for supposing that Caesar landed at Lymne (near Hythe), the Roman Portus Lemanis, afterwards one of the castles of the Saxon coast (The Invasion of Britain by Julius Casar, 2nd edition, 1862). There is less to be said for the entirely new hypothesis of Sir George B. Airy, the Astronomer-Royal, who sup- poses that Cresar sailed from the estuary of the Somme and landed at the beach of Pevensey, on the coast of Sussex, near the spot where William the Conqueror disem- barked nearly eleven centuries afterwards. The reader will find the arguments of Sir George in the Archxologia, vol. xxxiv. p. 231, seq. At whichever place he landed there can be little doubt that the British camp stormed by Cresar (on his second invasion) was on the high ground about the Stour at Wye (probably at Cliallock Wood), and that he marched along the line of the old British track skirting the south edge of the North Downs, which was called in the Middle Ages the Pil- grim's Way, and, after crossing the Thames, up the valley of the Coin, to Verulamium (St. Albans). He had Mandubratius for his guide. He certainly did not march by the line of the later Watling Street (the modern Dover road) ; and it is only by pure invention, or a gross blunder (the source of which may be traced), that fabulous historians (such as Geoffrey of Monmouth) bring him to Lon- don, which he left far on his right. His return to the coast was evidently by the same route as his advance. B. THE ROMAN WALLS. 1. The Roman fortification which crosses England from the Solway Firth to the River Tyne, consists of a stone wall and an earthen rampart (or rather double, and in some places triple, lines of ram- © ROMAN BRITA -^~. ± ^pzfi^™' O Scale of Statute Miles ~TTV-^ v^Bodcrla ^ 10 20 30 40 50 GO > ^ .V A I/E / I A A ^P O C jE A ITU S am em iri c v~ s Bremenium -$■ /"" XtiguValUuin V Catarractonum '. todies Coccium V & **■ ffciiliidnniu,. Uanennium r6,f J ! i 'i u >"' V DE' Vrico, E S BBlTAKisriAt ^O ^E/STA^B- - ' S ^"%f)/f ...sKr-^K^ \t Win o^ ^fithon o c .E ^i j\t tj * x^^y/^i^ / . ve it air i v_s_^ Aj^, s „ s y« oTites _S,orbfoauimm ( / $y> Ba m -~-^ N T , V LoiiuBsriUM Durobrbpm- o ctflHttTUPLS: *~~ Sknehengeo] * 4°/ T 'r u " ns ^ "Kntiopolis JDcft .orbfoaunuml / ^LIt- ----- N ^ ' ^'-L Dubrze \&Magnus Regnn Portvs Z^£—\Ho3—f., Mus tortus ^-tAnderida Yecti&J. -Adumi? s k I T 5 W. of Greenwich New York; Harper & Brofhars Chap. i. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 17 parts, with ditches) running generally parallel with one another, at the distance of 60 or 70 yards ; but the riistance varies greatly with the nature of the ground. Dr. Bruce proves, in his work on the " Roman Wall," that the stone wall and the turf vallum both belong to one and the same fortification, and that they were erected by the emperor Hadrian at one and the same time, the former to check the Caledonians, the latter to repress any hostile attempts of the southern Britons. It is impossible in the limits of this note to cite the evidence by which Dr. Bruce sustains this view against the unfounded opinion that, as the vallum of Hadrian was not sufficient to check the Caledonians, it was strengthened, or rather superseded, by the wall of Severus. The inscriptions prove that the whole works, including the great camps along the lines, and the supporting stations to the north and south, were Hadrian's, and that the part of Severus was limited to considerable repairs. The wall must not be conceived of as a mere defence, but a military base for operations on both sides of it. The castles along it have gates to the north, and the many coins found there prove that the ground north of the wall was maintained down to the time of Carausius (286-294). On. the same evi- dence, and that of the important list of stations on the Wall in the Notitia Im- perii, we know that the Wall itself was held till the reign of Honorius, and the final withdrawal of the legions. 2. Along the line of the northern ' Wall of Antoninus " (Granule's, or more pro- perly Grimes, i.e. the " boundary," Dyke) many inscriptions have been found, men- tioning the work done by cohorts of the three legions (Ilnd, \ Ith, and XXth), and one which has the name of Lollids Ur- bicus as Praetorian Prefect of Antoninus Pius. It should be observed that Gildas, Bede, and Nennius connect the name of Severus with the northern wall, while they greatly confuse the two. C. THE COMES LITTORIS SAXONICI. Lappenberg, Kemble, and several others maintain that this officer derived his name, not from defending the coast which was exposed to the invasions of the Saxon pirates, but from his command- ing the Saxons who were settled along the coasts of Britain before the arrival of Hengist and Horsa in 450. But there seems no objection to the ordinary in- terpretation which has been adopted in the text. Dr. Guest correctly remarks that, as the Welsh marches in Shrop- shire and the Scotch marches in North- umberland were so called, not because they were inhabited by Welshmen or Scotchmen, but because they were open to the incursions of these two races, and were provided with a regular mili- tary organization for the purpose of repelling their incursions, so, for pre- cisely similar reasons, the south-eastern coast of Britain was called the Saxon Shore, or Frontier. The title first occurs in the Notitia Utriusque Imperii (a work compiled about the beginning of the fifth century), where the Saxon Shore is also called the Saxon Frontier (Limes Sax- onicus). The Notitia gives a list of the forces which held the nine great castles from Branodunum (Brancaster), on the north coast of Norfolk, to Portus Adurni (perhaps Aldrington, at the mouth of the Adur) in Sussex. The other seven were Garianonum (Burgh Castle, on the Yare), Othona (Ithancester, just below the Blackwater), Regulbium (Reculver), and Rutupia? (Richborough), which defended the two mouths of the Stour, then a strait cutting off Thanet ; Portus Dubris (Dover) ; Portus Lemanis (Lymne) ; Anderida (Pevensey). They were garri- soned by detachments and auxiliaries of the Second Legion, the head-quarters of which had been moved from Caerleon on the Usk to Richborough, to protect the communication with the continent. The walls at Burgh, Richborough, and Pevensey, may be traced by their splen- did ruins. Some of these castles (as at Richborough, Dover, and Lymne) date, doubtless, from the earliest time of the Roman occupation ; but there are grounds for ascribing the final organization of the system of defence to Theodosius. the general of Valentinian 1. D. THE SCOTS AND PICTS. From the second to the eleventh cen- tury the Scots are mentioned as the inhabitants of Ireland, and that island bore the name of Scotia. This is clearly proved by the authorities collected by 18 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Chap. i. Zeuss, Die Deutschfn und die Nachbar- stamrne, p. 568. Thus Claudian says — ' Scotorum cumulos flevit glacialis Ierne." lie I V. Cons. Hon. 33. The Gaelic spoken by the Scotch High- landers is the same language as the Erse spoken by the Irish, and there can be no doubt that it was brought into Britain by the Irish Scots. E. GOVERNMENT AND DIVISIONS OF BRITAIN UNDER THE RO- MANS. Britain, like the other distant pro- vinces of the empire, was under the immediate superintendence of the em- peror, and not of the senate. It was formed into a Roman province by the emperor Claudius after the campaign of a.d. 43, and was governed at first by a Legatus of consular rank : its financial affairs were administered by a procu- rator. It was subsequently divided by Septimius Severus into two parts, Bri- tannia Superior and Inferior, each go- verned by a Praises. The later organization of Britain is explained in the Notitia Imperii. When Diocletian divided the empire into four Prefectures, Britain formed the third great diocese in the prefecture of the Gauls, of which the Prsefectus Prsetorio resided, first at Treves, and afterwards at Aries. Britain was governed by a Vicarius, who resided at Eboracum (York), and was subdivided into four provinces, Britannia Prima, Britannia Secunda, Flavia Csesariensis, and Maxima Caasariensis : to which a fifth, Valentia, was added by Theodosius in a.d. 368. The exact extent of these provinces is very uncertain, and the detailed situation of them in most maps rests mainly upon the so-called work of Richard of Ciren- cester, a monk of the 14th century, a shameless forgery by Charles Bertram in the 18th century. Roman Military Commanders. The military forces were originally under the command of the Legatus, but after the separation of the civil and military ad- ministration of the provinces by Diocle- tian, they were placed under three chief military officers, who bore the titles of Comes Britanniarum, Comes Littoris Saxonici per Britanniam, and Dux Bri- tanniarum. The title of Comes, or Com- panion, was the highest, and the Comes Britanniarum had the chief command of the military forces in Britain. The Comes Littoris Saxonici has been already spoken of. The Dux Britanniarum had charge of the wall of Hadrian and the command of the troops in the northern part of the province. At the time of the Notitia the Roman army in Britain consisted of about 20,000 men. The four legions sent over by Claudius were these: — II. Augusta; IX. Hispana or Victrix ; XIV. Gemina; XX. Valeria Victrix; and the first and last remained in Britain during the four centuries of the Roman rule. The IXth was twice cut to pieces, in the revolt of Boadicea and under Agricola in Caledonia. The XlVth was twice withdrawn, by Nero and finally by Vespasian. The Vlth (Victrix), when brought over from Germany (probably with Hadrian), made up the permanent force of three legions, with their auxiliaries, including bar- barians from all parts of the empire. (This last fact is important in considering the influence of the Roman occupation on the population of Britain.) The Vlth legion always had its head-quarters at York for the defence of the Northern Frontier. It bore the chief part in build- ing the Wall, aided by detachments from the Hnd and XXth. The XXth was, after several removes, permanently fixed at Deva (Chester), the Civitas Legionum of North Wales (or Caerleon on the Dee), keeping watch on the mountaineers, and garrisoning the castles on the Cumbrian coast within the Wall. It had disappeared at the time of the Notitia. The Hnd, with which Vespasian overran the south and west, was fixed among the mountains of South Wales, at Isca Silurum, the southern Civitas Legionum (Caerleon on the Usk), whence it was finally transferred to Rutupiaj (Richborough), to guard the pas- sage to the continent and the castles of the Saxon Shore. There was a third Civitas Legionum in Mid-Britain (Lehester, from the A.S. Lege-ceaster, as Chester also was called) ; but it does not seem to have been the permanent head- quarters of any legion. The auxiliary troops, as we learn from their inscrip- tions, were a very colluvies gentium — Spaniards, Gauls, Batavians, Dalmatians, Chap. i. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 19 Pannonians, Dacians ; besides Asiatics, who brought the worship of the Sun-god into Britain ; and there was even a body of Parthian cavalry on the Severn at Uriconium ( Wroxeter). Britons served abroad, but of native troops serving in the island, as the Catuvellauni and Dum- nonii, among the builders of the Wall, the notices are few. F. AUTHORITIES. Some of the classical authorities re- specting the early history of Britain have been alluded to in the preceding pages, and must of the passages bearing on the subject in the Greek and Latin writers, as well as in the ancient English authors, will be found collected in the Monumenta Ilistorica Britannica, vol. i. 1848. The earliest English writer, Bede (a.d. 730), in his Ecclesiastical History and Chronicle, chiefly follows, for the Roman period, Jerome's version of the Chronicle of Eusebius, and other Latin chroniclers, the late and inaccurate Latin historians, Eutropius and the Universal History of Orosids, which comes down to a.d. 417. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle * follows Bede, and so do the later chroniclers, Florence of Worcester, Henry of Hun- tingdon, etc.; but those who wrote after the Norman Conquest are infected by the fabulous legends derived from Geoffrey of Monmouth. The Welsh Chronicles have few incidents of any value, but there are two early British writers professedly belonging to the age following the Roman dominion : (1.) Gildas the Wise, of whose life we have various accounts, appears in any case to have been a British ecclesiastic of high birth, born (as he himself tells us) in the year of the great battle of Mount Badon (516), and his death is placed in a.d. 570. His Liber Querulus de Excidio Britannia, which has come down to us in a very imperfect state, seems to have been written in Armorica (Brittany), where he had taken refuge from the advancing English conquerors, about a.d. 550. It is a history of Britain from the * See Note D at end of chapter iv. Roman invasion to his own time, fol- lowed by a most objurgatory letter to the British princes of Wales, written in a very inflated style. The work is printed in the Monumenta Historica Britannica. It has also been edited by the Rev. Joseph Stevenson, for the English Historical Society, 1838. (2.) The Historia Bri- tonum, from the Creation to 687, ascribed to Nennius, is less trustworthy. It is often ascribed to Gildas, from whose work much of it is taken. It appears to be the production of an anonymous author, copied and interpolated by a scribe, per- haps named Nennius, in a.d. 858. The author professes to have collected his materials from the tra litions of his elders, the monuments of the ancient Britons, the Latin chroniclers (Isidores, Jerome, Prosper, &c), and from the histories of the Scots and Saxons. It contains inte- resting traditions found here for the first time, but mixed with at least the germ of the fables collected by Geoffrey of Monmouth. It is edited in the Monumenta Historica Britannica, and by Mr. Steven- son. The most important modern works on Roman Britain are : — Camden's Bri- tannia ; Horsley's Britannia Romana ; Stukely's Stonehenge ; Whittaker's His- tory of Manchester ; Lappenberg's History of England, translated by Thorpe ; The Early and Middle Ages of England, by Professor Pearson ; Algernon Herbert's Britannia under the Romans ; Bruce's Roman Wall ; Booking's Notes on the Notitia Dignitatum, vol. ii. p. 496 ; Guest, On the Early English Settlements in South Britain, published in the Pro- ceedings of the Archaeological Institute, meeting at Salisbury, 1849 ; also, On the Four Roman Ways, On the Landing of Julius Cxsar, and On the Campaign of Aulus Plautius, in the Archaeological Journal, vols, xiv., xxi., xxiii. ; besides many papers by different authors in various antiquarian publications; Roach Smith's Cillectanea and Antiquities of Lymne, Richborough, and Reculver ; Wright's The Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon ; Gibbon's Decline and Fall ; and Dean Merivale's History of tlie Romans under the Empire, Map of the Isle of Thanet at the time of the landing of the Saxons. CHAPTEE II. THE ANGLO-SAXONS TILL THE REIGN OF EGBERT, A.D. 450-827. 1. The Saxons, Angles, and Jutes. § 2. Manners and religion of the Anglo-Saxons. § 3. Their ships and arms. § 4. First settlement of the German invaders — in Kent. British traditions. § 5. Saxon account. § 6. Second settlement of the German invaders — in Sussex. § 7. Third settlement of the German invaders — in Wessex. § 8. Fourth settlement of the German invaders — in Essex and Middlesex. § 9. Fifth settlement of the German invaders — in Norfolk and Suffolk. § 10. Sixth settlement of the German invaders — in Northumbria. •§ 11. The kingdom of Mercia. § 12. The Heptarchy. British States. § 13. The Bretwaldas, Ella f Sussex, Ceawlin of Wessex. § 14. jEthelberht of Kent, third Br e twalda. Introduction of Christianity. § 15. Death of iEthelberht. Redwald of East Anglia, fourth Bretwalda. Adventures of Edwin of Northumbria. § 16. Edwin, fifth Bretwalda. His con- version to Christianity. § 17. History of Northumbria. Oswald, sixth Bretwalda. § 18. Oswy of Northumbria, seventh Bretwalda. Decline of the kingdom of Northumbria. § 19. History of Wessex. Ina and Egbert. § 20. Hist6ry of Mercia. ^Ethelbald and Offa. § 21. Conquests of Egbert, who becomes sole king of England. a.d. 450. TEUTONIC SETTLEMENTS. 21 § 1. The people who ultimately succeeded in establishing them- selves in this country were a branch of the Germanic race, and, under the general name of Saxons, inhabited the north-western coast of Germany, from the Cimbric Chersonesus, or present Denmark, to the mouths of the Ehine. The Germanic tribes have always been divided into two great branches, to which modern writers have given the name of High German (the people in the interior or higher parts of Germany) and Low German (the people in the lower parts of the country near the coast). The invaders belonged to the Low Germanic branch, and their language was closely allied to that of the modern Dutch. The Low Germanic tribes (called by Tacitus by various names, among whom the Chauci* were dominant) were known to the Romans by the general name of Saxons. At the period of which we are speaking, we find them divided into three principal tribes, the Saxons proper, the Angles, and the Jutes. I. The Saxons.t — The Saxons are first mentioned in the second century by Ptolemy, who places them upon the narrow neck of the Cimbric Chersonesus, and in three islands opposite the mouth of the Elbe. Thence their power extended westward as far as the mouths of the Ehine. Among the tribes absorbed by them were the Frisians, who probably formed the majority of the Saxon invaders of England, though they are only mentioned under the general name of Saxons.J The country south of the Thames, with the exception of Kent and the Isle of Wight, was occupied by the Saxons proper or Frisians, who founded the kingdoms of the South Saxons (SvfS-seaxe, whence Sussex), of the West Saxons (West- seaxe, Wes-sex), and of the East Saxons (East-seaxe, Essex), the last including the Middle Saxons (whence Middle-sex). II. The Angles (Angle or Engle) seem to have been a more numerous and powerful race, as they peopled a larger district ot Britain, and at length gave their name to the whole land.§ The language which, with slight dialectic variations, was common to all the German invaders, was called English (Englisc), even before the island was called England (Engla-land). The Angles settled * These Chauci, and the Frisii, who appear as closely connected with them in Tacitus, seem to have the best claim to have been the ancestors of the English people. Their character and manners are described by Tacitus (Germ. 34, 35). f Their name is usually derived from the large knife or short sword, seax or sex, Which they carried. J See Notes and Illustrations (A). at an early period, a large native population still maintained its ground. This was likewise the case 30 ANGLO-SAXONS TILL THE REIGN OF EGBERT. CnAi>. n. in Devonshire long after its occupation by the Saxons ; whence the inhabitants of that district obtained the name of the " Welsh kind." Cambria, or Wales, was divided into several small kingdoms or principalities. The name of Welsh ( Wealas) was the German term for foreigners, or those who speak another language, and Walsch is still applied by the Germans to the Italians. The history of the Celts who dwelt in Cumbria, to the north of Wales, is involved in obscurity. Cumbria, or Cumberland, properly so called, included, besides the present county, Westmoreland and Lancashire, and extended into Northumbria, probably as far as the modern Leeds. Caerleol, or Carlisle, was its chief city. North of Cumbria, between the two Roman walls, and to the west of the kingdom of Bernicia, were situated two other British kingdoms : Beged, in the southern portion of the district, nearly identical perhaps with Annandale, in Dum- friesshire ; and Strathclyde, embracing the counties of Dumbarton, Benfrew, and Dumfries, and probably also those of Beebles, Selkirk, and Lanark. These kingdoms were sometimes united under one chief, or Pendracron, called also Tyern, or tymnnus, who, like other British princes, regarded himself as the successor, and even as the descendant, of Constantine or Maximus. The Welsh called all the Angles and Saxons by the name of Saxons, as they call the English to this day. Besides the Britons who found shelter in these western and mountainous regions from the fury of the Saxon and Anglian invaders, great numbers of them, under the conduct of their priests and chieftains, abandoned their native shores altogether, and settled in Armorica, on the western coast of France, which from them derived its subsequent name of Bretagne, or Biittany. The completeness of the conquest made by the Anglo-Saxons is inferred from the fact that their language forms to this day the staple of our own ; but with regard to their treatment of the conquered land, and their relations towards the natives, we are almost entirely in the dark. It is usually stated that the Saxons either exterminated the original population, or drove them into the western parts of the island ; but there are good reasons for believing that this was not uniformly the case ; and we may conclude from the Welsh traditions, and from the number of Celtic words still existing in the English language, that a considerable number of the Celtic inhabitants remained upon the soil as the slaves or subjects of their conquerors.* § 13. As it would be useless to follow the obscure and often doubtful details of the several Anglo-Saxon states, we shall content ourselves with selecting the more remnrkable events that occurred * This subject is more fully discussed in the Notes and Illustrations (C). A.D. 5G8-592. INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY. 31 down to the time when all the kingdoms were united under the authority of Egbert. The title of Brehvalda, or Brytenwealda, that is, supreme commander or emperor of Britain, which was given or assumed by him, is assigned in the Chronicle to seven earlier kings, whose supremacy among the Anglo-Saxon sovereigns affords some bond of connection to their histories.* The first why held this sort of supremacy, according to Bede,f was Ella, king of the South Saxons. Ceawlin, king of the West Saxons, or Wessex, the grandson of Cerdic, was the second. The iEscing, iEthelberhtJ of Kent, disputed the supremacy with him, but was overthrown in a great battle at Wibbandun (Wimbledon), which won Surrey for Wessex (568). Ceawlin united many districts to his kingdom ; but, from some unknown cause, the termination of his reign was singularly unprosperous. His own subjects, and even his own relations, with the Britons and Scots, united against him. He was defeated in a great battle at Wodesbeorg (probably Wanborough, near Swindon, in Wilts), in the year 592, and died in exile two years afterwards. § 14. After the expulsion of Ceawlin, iEthelberht of Kent obtained the supremacy, to which he had for so many years aspired. The most memorable event of his reign was the introduction of Chris- tianity among the Anglo-Saxons, for the reception of which the mind of iEthelberht had been prepared through his marriage with the Christian princess Bertha, daughter of Charibert, the Frank king of Paris. But the immediate cause of its introduction was an incident which occurred at Borne. It happened that Gregory, who afterwards, under the title of the Great, occupied the papal chair, had observed in the market-place of Rome some Anglian youths ex- posed for sale, whom the Boman merchants, in their trading voyages to Britain, had bought of their mercenary parents. Struck with the beauty of their fair complexions and blooming countenances, Gre- gory asked to what country they belonged. Being told that they were Angles, he replied that they ought more properly to be denomi- nated angels : for it was a pity, he said, that the prince of darkness should enjoy so fair a prey, and that so beautiful an exterior should cover a mind destitute of internal grace and righteousness. Inquiring * The existence of the Bretwaldas, at least in the earlier times, is disputed by- Mr. Hallam and Mr. Kemble. The title itself occurs, for the first and only time, in the Clironicle, in connection with the supremacy of Egbert, " the eighth king that was Bretwalda," and then the other seven are named. The list is taken from the passage in Bede, where he names iEthelberht as the third among the kings of the English race who held some sort of supremacy over all the provinces south of the Humber ; the limitation applying of course only to the first four, not to the three Northumbrians. f " Imperium hujusmodi," Bede, H. E. ii. 5. J Usually called Ethelbert, the corrupt form of the name. 32 ANGLO-SAXONS TILL THE REIGN OF EGBERT. Chap. it. further concerning the name of their province, he was informed that it was Deira, a district of Northumbria. " Deira," replied he, " that is good ! They are called to the mercy of God from his anger (de ira). But what is the name of the king of that province ? " He was told it was iEUa, or Alia. " Allelujah ! " cried he ; " we must endeavour that the praises of God be sung in their country." Moved by these auguries, which appeared to him so happy, Gregory deter- mined to undertake himself a mission into Britain, and, having obtained the Pope's approbation, prepared for the journey ; but his popularity at home was so great, that the Romans, unwilling to expose him to such dangers, opposed his design ; and he was obliged for the present to lay aside all further thoughts of executing his pious purpose.* After his accession to the pontificate, Gregory, anxious for the conversion of Britain, sent Augustine, a Roman monk, with forty associates, to preach the gospel in this island. Terrified with the danger of propagating the faith among so fierce a people, of whose language they were ignorant the missionaries stopped some time in Gaul, and sent back Augustine to lay the hazards and difficulties of the undertaking before the pope, and crave his permission to return. But Gregory exhorted them to persevere ; and Augustine, on his arrival in Kent in the year 597, found the danger much less than he had apprehended. iEthelherht, already well disposed towards the Christian faith, assigned him a habitation in the Isle of Thanet, and soon after admitted him to a conference. Encouraged by his favourable reception, and seeing now a prospect of success, Augustine proceeds! with redoubled zeal to preach the gospel to the people of Kent. Numbers were converted and baptized, and the king himself was persuaded to submit to the same rite. Augustine was consecrated archbishop of Canterbury, was endowed by Gregory with authority over all the British churches, and in token of his new dignity received the pall from Rome (601). Christianity was soon afterwards introduced into the kingdom of Essex whose sovereign, Sasberht or Sebert, was iEthelbevht's nephew ; and through the influence of iEtheiberht, Mellitus, who had been the apostle of Christianity in Essex, was appointed to the bishopric of London, where a church dedicated to St. Paul was erected, as some say, on the site of a former temple of Diana. Sebert also erected on Thorney Island, which was formed by the branches of a small river falling into the Thames, a church dedicated to St. Peter, where West- * This celebrated story is told by Bede (ii. 1), and is copied from him, with slight variations, by other medieval writers. The names indicate that the legend is nothing more than a monkish and poetical version of the introduction of Christianity into the North Anglian settlements of the island. a.d. 597-626. THE BRETWALDAS — EDWIN. 33 minster Abbey now stands. In Kent the see of Rochester was founded by Augustine, and bestowed upon Justus. § 15. The marriage of iEthelberht with Bertha, and, much more his adoption of Christianity, brought his subjects into connection with the Franks, Italians, and other nations of the continent, and tended to reclaim them from that gross ignorance and barbarity in which all the Saxon and Anglian tribes had been hitherto involved. iEthelberht also, with the advice of his counsellors, enacted a bodj' of laws, the first written laws promulgated by any of the German conquerors. He governed the kingdom of Kent 51 years, and, dying in 616, left the succession to his son Eadbald, who possessed neither the abilities nor the authority of his father. The supremacy among the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms south of the Humber passed to the fourth Bretwalda, Eedwald, king of the East Angles (586-624). The protection afforded by Redwald to young Edwin, the rightful heir of the kingdom of Deira, brought him into collision with iEthelfrith, king of Northumbria. It has been already men- tioned that iEthelfrith had united Deira to Bernicia, by seizing upon it at the death of Ella, whose daughter he had married, and expelling her infant brother Edwin. Redwald marched into North- umbria, and fought a battle with iEthelfrith, who was defeated and killed, on the banks of the Idle in Nottinghamshire (617). His sons, Eanfrid, Oswald, and Oswy, yet infants, were carried into the land of the Picts, and Edwin was restored to the crown. § 16. Edwin subsequently became the fifth Bretwalda, and all the Anglo-Saxon states, with the exception of Kent, acknowledged his supremacy. He distinguished himself by his influence over the other kingdoms, and by the strict execution of justice in his own. He reclaimed his subjects from the licentious life to which they had been accustomed ; and it was a common saying that during his reign a woman with her infant might go on foot from sea to sea without fear of violence or robbery. A remarkable instance has been transmitted to us of the affection borne him by his servants. His enemy, Cwicbelm, king of Wessex, finding himself unable to maintain open war against so powerful a prince, determined to use treachery against him, and employed one Eomer for that purpose. The assassin, having obtained admittance on pretence of delivering a message from Cwichelm, drew his dagger and rushed upon the king. His thegn Lilla, seeing his master's danger, and having no other means of defence, interposed his own person between the king and Eomer's dagger, which was pushed with such violence, that it wounded Edwin through the body of his faithful attendant (626).* * Bcde, ii. 9. S4j ANGLO-SAXONS TILL THE EEIGN OF EGBERT. Chap. ii. This event, as well as the birth of a daughter the same night, is said to have hastened Edwin's conversion to Christianity. After the death of his first consort, a Mercian princess, Edwin had mar- ried JEthelburga, the daughter of iEthelberht, king of Kent. This lady, emulating the glory of her mother Bertha, who had been instrumental in converting her husband and his people to Chris- tianity, carried Paulinus, a learned bishop, along with her; and, besides stipulating for toleration in the exercise of her own religion, which was readily granted her, she used every effort to persuade the king to .embrace it. Her exertions, seconded by those of Paulinus, were successful. Edwin was baptized on Easter Day, a.d. 627, at York, in a wooden church hastily erected for the occasion, and dedicated to St. Peter. Subsequently York was raised into an archbishopric ; Paulinus was appointed the first northern metro- politan, and a handsome church of stone was built for his cathedral. From York, as a centre, Christianity was propagated, though not without some vicissitudes, throughout the neighbouring Anglian countries. § 17. Evil days for Northumbria were now approaching. Edwin was slain in battle by Penda, the powerful king of Mercia (633). Northumbria was divided into two separate kingdoms, and the people, with their monarchs, relapsed into Paganism. In 634 Oswald, the son of iEthellrith, again united the kingdoms of North- umbria, and restored the Christian religion, in which he and his brothers had been brought up during their exile among the Picts. For, while South Britain was overrun by heathen conquerors, Christianity had been firmly planted among the Scots and Picts by the missionaries led from Ireland by St. Columba, who had his chief seat in the sacred island of Hii (Iona).* Oswald was also acknowledged as the sixth Bretwalda, aud reigned, according to the expression of Bede, over the four nations of Britain — the Angles, the Britons, the Picts, and the Scots. His reign, however, was short. He became involved in a war with Penda, a.d. 642, and, like Edwin, was defeated and slain. His corpse was treated with great brutality ; but he was canonized by the church as a saint and martyr ; his scattered limbs were collected as relics, and were held to be endowed with miraculous powers. Penda penetrated as far as Bamborough, the residence of the Northumbrian princes on the coast of Northumberland ; but, after a fruitless siege, he was obliged to retire and evacuate the kingdom § 18. On the death of Oswald his brother Oswy succeeded to his kingdom and to the dignity of Bretwalda. He defeated and slew the formidable Penda in a great battle near Leeds, in 655. The * St. Columba died in the same year in which Augustine came to England (^597). A.D. 626-795. ECGFRTTH — INA. 35 reign of Oswy was rendered memorable by a most destructive pestilence called the yellow plague, which, commencing in 664, ravaged the whole island for twenty years, with the exception of the northern Highlands. Oswy died in 670, and with him the dignity of Bretwalda expired, till it was revived by Egbert. His warlike successor, Ecgfrith, maintained and increased his power over Mercia ; but his ambition to subdue the land of the Picts led to the destruction of his army and his own death on the moor of Nechtansmere (685). The blow was fatal to the supremacy of Northumbria; but her decline was gilded by the dawning glories of English literature. The last half of the seventh and the first half of the eighth century saw the foundation of the monasteries of Whitby, Jarrow, and Wearmouth, and the great school of learn- ing at York ; and produced the poems of C^idmon and the history of Bede.* But this very culture tempted the Northumbrian kings to lay down the sword for the cloister; and during most of the eighth century the annals of Northumbria present little more than a series of seditions, usurpations, and murders. Agriculture was neglected ; the land was desolated by famine and pestilence. To fill up the measure of its calamities, the Northmen landed in Lindisfarn in 793 and in the following year at Eegferths-Minster (probably Wearmouth), plundering and destroying the chinches and monasteries in those places. After the death of iEthelred (a.d. 795) universal anarchy prevailed in Northumbria; and the people, having by so many fatal revolutions lost all attachment to their government and princes, were well prepared for subjection to a foreign yoke. This was finally imposed u^on them by Ecgbriht or Egbert, king of Wessex ; to the history of which kingdom, as finally swallowing up all the rest, we must now hasten. § 19. The history of the kings of Wessex presents nothing remark- able till we arrive at the reign of Ine or Ina, who ascended the throne in 688. Ina was remarkable for his justice, policy, and prudence. He treated the Britons of Somersetshire and the adjoining districts (the Wealas, or Welsh-kind), whom he had subdued, with a humanity hitherto unknown to the Saxon conquerors. He allowed the proprietors to retain possession of their lands, encouraged marriages and alliances between them and his ancient subjects, and granted them the privilege of being governed by the same laws. These laws he augmented and ascertained ; and, though he was disturbed by some insurrections at home, his long reign of 37 years may be regarded as one of the most glorious and most prosperous in the annals of the Anglo-Saxons. In the decline of his age he made a pilgrimage to Borne, where he died in 728. * See Notes and Illustrations to chapter iv. 36 ANGLO-SAXONS TILL THE REIGN OF EGBERT. Chap. n. Egbert was the fourth in descent from Ingild, Ina's brother ; and being a young man of the most promising hopes, gave great jealousy to the reigning king, Beorhtric (or Brihtric), both because he seemed by his birth better entitled to the crown, and had acquired in an eminent degree the affections of the people. Egbert, sensible of his danger from the suspicions of Brihtric, secretly withdrew into Gaul, where he was well received by Charles the Great, or Charlemagne, king of the Franks. By residing in the court and serving in the armies of that prince, the most able and most generous that had appeared in Europe during several ages, Egbert acquired those accomplishments which afterwards enabled him to make such a shining figure on the throne. It was not long before Egbert had an opportunity of displaying his natural and acquired abilities. Brihtric was accidentally killed by partaking of a cup of poison which his wife Eadburga, daughter of Offa, king of Mercia, had mixed for a young nobleman who had acquired her husband's friendship, and had on that account become the object of her jealousy. Egbert was now recalled from Gaul by the nobility of Wessex, and ascended the throne of his ancestors, a.d. 800. His future career may have been shaped by the example of Charles the Great, who, in the year of Egbert's recall, was crowned at Borne by pope Leo III., as Augustus or Emperor of the West (Christmas Day, 800). Egbert turned his arms against the Britons iu Cornwall and Wales, but was recalled from these conquests by an invasion of his dominions by Beornwulf, king of Mercia. To explain that circumstance, and close the history of the other Anglo-Saxon states, we must here take a retrospective glance at the events that had happened in Mercia. § 20. After the death of Penda, the history of Mercia presents little of importance till we arrive at the long reign of iEthelbald (716-755). This sovereign appears to have possessed as much power as any of the Bretwaldas, though he is not called by that title. He distinguished himself by many successful conflicts with the Britons, against whom he united under his standard East Anglia, Kent, Essex, and for a while also Wessex. At one period he asserted his supremacy over all England south of the Humber, and in a charter of the year 736 signs himself " King of Britain." He was defeated at Burford in 752 by the West Saxons, and perished three years after. iEthelbald, after a short period of usurpation by Beornred, was succeeded by Offa, the most celebrated of all the Mercian princes. This monarch, after he had gained several victories over the other Anglo-Saxon princes, turned his arms against the Britons of Cambria, whom he repeatedly defeated (776). He settled the level country to the east of the mountains, between A.D. 716-828. OFFA — EGBERT. 37 the Wye and the Severn, with Anglians ; for whose protection he constructed the mound or rampart between the mouth of the Dee and that of the Wye, known as Offa's Dyke, traces of which may still be discerned. The king of Mercia had now become so con- siderable, that Charles the Great entered into an alliance and friend- ship with him. As Charles was a great lover of learning and learned men, Offa, at his desire, sent to him Alcuin, a Northumbrian monk much celebrated for his scholarship. Alcuin received great honours from Charles, and even became his preceptor in the sciences. Charles, in return, made Offa many costly presents. But the glory and successes of Offa were stained by the treacherous murder of iEthelberht, king of the East Angles, whilst sojourning at his court as a suitor for his daughter, and by his violent seizure of vEthelberht's kingdom in 792. Overcome by remorse, Offa endeavoured to atone for his crime by liberality to the church. He founded the monastery of St. Albans. He en- gaged to pay the sovereign pontiff a yearly donation for the sup- port of an English college at Rome, and imposed the tax of a penny on each house possessed of thirty pence a year.* This imposition, levied afterwards on all England, was commonly denominated Pettr's-pence : and though conferred at first as a gift for the main- tenance of a college, it was afterwards claimed as a tribute by the Roman pontiff. Offa died in 796. The reigns of his successors deserve little attention. Mercia, instead of continuing to be the leading state among the Anglo- Saxons, fell rapidly into decay, through its internal dissensions, and was thus easily reduced by the arms of Egbert, to whose history we must now return. § 21. Egbert had already possessed the throne of Wessex for nearly a quarter of a century, when his dominions, as before noticed, were invaded by Beornwulf, king of Mercia. Egbert defeated the invaders at Ellendun (823), and subdued with facility the tributary kingdoms of Kent and Sussex; while the East Angles, out of hatred to the Mercian government, immediately rose in arms, and put themselves under the protection of Egbert. To engage the Mercians more easily to submission, Egbert allowed Wiglaf, their countryman, to retain the title of king, while he himself exercised the real sovereignty (828). The anarchy which prevailed in Northumbria, as already related, tempted him to carry his vic- torious arms still further ; and the inhabitants, unable to resist his * Less trustworthy authorities consider Offa's liberality as only a confirmation of that of Ina, king of the West-Saxons, who is also said to have founded a school 4 at Rome, and to have laid for its support a tax of one penny under the name of Bom-feoh, or Rome-scot, on every house in his kingdom. 38 ANGLO-SAXONS TILL THE REIGN OF EGBERT. Chap. n. power, and desirous of possessing some established form of govern- ment, were forward, on his first appearance, to send deputies, who submitted to his authority, and swore allegiance to him as their sovereign, at Dore, in Derbyshire. Egbert, however, still conceded to Northumbria, as he had done to Mercia and East Anglia, the power of electing their own kings, who paid him tribute and were dependent on him. These three subordinate kingdoms remained under their own sovereigns, as vassals of Egbert, till they were swallowed up by the Danish invasion. Thus all the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were united under the supremacy of one king, nearly 400 years after the first arrival of the Anglo-Saxons in Britain. This event took place in the year 827. NOTES AND ILLUSTEATIONS. A. THE FRISIANS TOOK PART IN THE SAXON INVASION OF BRI- TAIN. This appears from the following facts : — 1. Procopius says (Bell. Goth. iv. 20) that Britain was inhabited in his time (the 6th century) by three races, the Angles, Frisians, and Britons. The omission of the Saxons, and the substitution of the Frisians, can be accounted for only on the supposition that Frisians and Saxons were convertible terms. 2. The traditions of the Frisians and Flemings claim Hengest as their ancestor, and relate that he was banished from their country. 3. In old German poetry it is expressly stated that the Frisians were formerly called Saxons. 4. Many English words and some gram- matical forms are more closely allied to those of the old Friesic than to those of any other German dialect. For instance, the English sign of the infinitive mood, to, is found in the old Friesic, and not in any other German dialect. On this sub- ject see Davies " On the Races of Lanca- shire," in the Transactions of the Philo- logical Society for 1855. B. THE ISLE OF THANET. The Isle of Thanet was in Anglo-Saxon times, and long afterwards, separated from the rest of Kent by a broad strait, called by Bede the Wantsumu. The Stour, instead of being a narrow stream, as at present, was then a broad river, opening into a wide estuary between Sandwich and Ramsgate, in the direction of Pegwell Bay. Ships coming from France and Germany sailed up this estuary, and through the river, out at the other side by Reculver. Ebbes Fleet is the name given to a farmhouse on a strip of high ground rising out of Minster Marsh (Stanley, Memorials of Canterbury, p. 13). Thanet is the German name of the island. The Welsh name was Ruim, which probably signified a foreland, and is still preserved in the compound Rams- gate. In East Kent the gaps in the line of cliff which lead down to the shore are called gates ; hence Ramsgate is the gate or pass leading into Ruim (Guest, in Pro- ceedings of the Archaeological Institute for 1849, p. 32). C. CELTIC WORDS IN THE ENG- LISH LANGUAGE. Mr. Davies, in the valuable paper al- ready referred to, remarks : " The stoutest assertor of a pure Anglo-Saxon or Nor- man descent is convicted by the language of his daily life of belonging to a race that partakes largely of Celtic blood. If he calls for his coat (W. cota. Germ. rockX Chap. n. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 39 or tells of the basket of fish he has caught (W. basgawd, Germ. Jcorb), or the cart he employs on his land (W. cart, from car, a drag or sledge, Germ, wagen), or of the pranks of his youth or the prancing of his horse (W. prank, a trick ; prancio, to frolic) , or declares that he was happy when a gownsman at Oxford (W. hap, fortune, chance; Germ, gliick; W. gwn), or that his servant is pert (W. pert, spruce, dapper, insolent) ; or, descending to the language of the vulgar, he affirms that such assertions are balderdash, and the claim a sham (W. baldorddus, idle, prating ; siom, from shorn, a deceit, a sham), he is unconsciously maintaining the truth he would deny. A long list of Celtic words in the Eng- lish language will he found in Mr. Davies's essay, and also in another valuable paper by the late Mr. Garnett, likewise pub- lished in the Transactions of the Philo- logical Society (vol. i. p. 111). It ap- pears that a considerable proportion of the English words relating to the ordinary arts of life, such as agriculture, carpentry, and in general indoor and outdoor service, come from the Celtic. The following, which might be multiplied almost indefi- nitely, may serve as samples : — English. Welsh. basket basgawd. bran bran (a skin of wheat). crock, crockery crochan (a pot). drill rhill (a row). flannel gwlanen (from gwlan, wool). gown gwn (a robe). hem hem (a border). lath llath (a rod). mattock matog. pail paeol. peck peg. . pitcher piser (a jug). ridge rhic, rhig. solder sawduriaw (to join, cement). tackle tacl (instrument, tool). Mr. Davies also calls attention to the fact that in the Lancashire dialect (and the same holds good of other dialects) many low, burlesque, or obscene words can be traced to a Celtic source, and this cir- cumstance, together with the fact that no words connected with law, or government, or the luxuries of life, belong to this class, is distinct evidence that the Celtic race was held in a state of dependence or inferiority. Silver Penny of iEthelberht, king of Kent. Obverse : edilberht . . . ; bust right. Reverse : rex ; wolf and twins. (This coin, if genuine, is an evident imitation of those of Rome.) Golden Ring of yEthelwulf in the British Museum. It is decorated with a blueish- black enamel, firmly incorporated into the metal by fusion. CHAPTER III. THE ANGLO-SAXONS FBOM THE UNION OF ENGLAND UNDER EGBERT TILL THE REIGN OF CANUTE THE DANE, A.D. 827-1016. § 1. State of the kingdom. §2. Invasion of the Danes. Death of Egbert. § 3. Reign of iEthelwulf. His journey to Rome. § 4. Revolt of JSthel- bald. § 5. Reigns of jEthelbald, jEthelbertit, iEthelred. Continued inva- sions of the Danes. § 6. Accession of Alfred. Successes of the Danes. Flight of Alfred. § 7 Alfred defeats the Danes. Their settlement in East Anglia. The Danelagh. § 8. Wise regulations of Alfred. New Danish war. Death of Alfred. § 9. His character. His love of learn- ing. § 10. His policy and legislation. §11. Reign of Edward the Elder. § 12. Reign of /Ethelstan. His conquests, power, and foreign connections. § 13. Reign of Edmund I. His assassination. § 14. Reign of Edred. St. Dunstan ; his character and power. § 15. Reign of Edwy. His quarrel with St. Dunstan. § 16. Reign of Edgar. His good fortune. § 17. Reign of Edward. His assassination. § 18. Reign of JF.thelred II. Invasion of the Danes. Danegeld. § 19. Massacre of the Danes. § 20. Conquest of England by Sweyn. Flight of ^Ethelred. § 21. Death of Sweyn and return of /Ethelred. Invasion of Canute. Death of jEthelred. § 22. Division of England between Canute and Edmund Ironside. Murder of the latter. § 1. Egbert, a.d. 827-836. — Although England was not firmly cemented into one state under Egbert, as is usually represented, yet the power of this monarch and the union of so many provinces opened the prospect of future tranquillity. It now appeared more than probable that the Anglo-Saxons would henceforth become formidable to their neighbours, and not be exposed to their inroads and devastations. Indeed, in the year 830, Egbert led his victori- ous army into North Wales, penetrated into Denbighshire, laid waste the country as far as Snowdon, and reduced the Isle of Anglesey to subjection. Of all the territory that had been comprised in Roman Britain, Strathclyde and Cumbria alone were free from vassalage to the crown of Egbert. But these expectations were soon overcast A.D. 827-836. EGBERT. 41 by the appearance of the Northmen (832), who during the next two centuries kept the Anglo-Saxons in perpetual disquietude, committed the most barbarous ravages, permanently established themselves in many parts of the country, and founded a new race of kings. § 2. These pirates and freebooters inhabited the Scandinavian kingdoms of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden ; and the hordes which plundered England were drawn from all parts of both the Scandi- navian peninsulas. It was, however, chiefly the Danes who directed their attacks against the coasts of England ; the Nor- wegians made their descents for the most part upon Scotland, the Hebrides, and Ireland ; while the Swedes turned their arms against the eastern shores of the Baltic. These Scandinavians were in race and language closely connected with the Anglo-Saxons. The language of all the Scandinavian nations differs only slightly from the dialects of the Germanic tribes. Both races originally wor- shipped the same gods, and were distinguished by the same love of enterprise and freedom. But while the Anglo-Saxons had long since abjured their ancient faith, and had acquired the virtues and vices of civilization, their Scandinavian kinsmen still remained in their savage independence, still worshipped Odin as their national god, and still regarded the plunder of foreign lands as their chief occupation and delight. In the ninth century they inspired the same terror as the Anglo-Saxons had done in the fifth. Led by the younger sons of royal houses, the Vikings * swarmed in all the harbours and rivers of the surrounding countries. Their course was marked by fire and bloodshed. Buildings sacred and profane were burnt to the ground ; multitudes of people were murdered or dragged away into slavery. The terrified inhabitants fled at the approach of the enemy, and beheld in them the judgment of God foretold by the prophets. Their national flag was the figure of a black raven, woven on a blood-red ground, from whose movements the Northmen augured victory or defeat. When it fluttered its wings, they believed that Odin gave them a sign of victory; but if the wings hung down, they imagined that the god would not prosper their arms. Their swords were longer and heavier than those of the Anglo- Saxons, and their battle-axes are described as formidable weapons. These terrible Northmen appeared nearly simultaneously on the coasts of England, France, and Russia. They wrested from the French monarch one of his fairest provinces, which was called Nor- mandy after them ; and they founded in Russia a dynasty which reigned over that country above 700 years.f Their first appearance * Viking is in Danish a naval warrior, a pirate. f For their settlement in Normandy see chapter v. The Norse dynasty in Russia was founded at Novgorod by Ruric in 862. 42 ANGLO-SAXONS AND DANES. Chap. hi. in England is placed by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle under the year 787 ; but it was not till the latter part of Egbert's reign that they commenced their regular and systematic ravages of the country. At first they made merely brief and rapid descents upon the coasts, returning to their northern homes with the plunder they had gained ; but they soon began to take up their abode in England for the winter, and renewed their devastations in the spring. While England was trembling at this new evil, Egbert, who alone was able to provide effectually against it, unfortunately died (a.d. 836), and left the government to his son iEthelwulf. § 3. .ZEthelwulf, 836-858. — This prince had neither the abilities nor the vigour of his father, and was better qualified for governing a convent than a kingdom. He began his reign with a partition of his dominions, and delivered to his eldest son, iEthelstan, the newly conquered provinces of Essex, Kent, and Sussex. No inconve- nience seems to have arisen from this partition, as the continual terror of the Danish invasions prevented all domestic dissension. These incursions now became almost annual, and, from their sudden and unexpected nature, kept the English in continual alarm. The unsettled state of his kingdom did not hinder iEthelwulf from making a pilgrimage to Rome, and taking with him his fourth and favourite son, Alfred, then only six years of age (853). He passed a twelvemonth there in exercises of devotion, and in acts of liberality to the church. Besides giving presents to the more distinguished ecclesiastics, he made a perpetual grant of 300 mancuses * a year to that see ; one-third to support the lamps of St. Peter's, another for those of St. Paul's, a third to the pope himself. It has been main- tained by some writers that iEthelwulf first established tithes in England,! but this is founded on a misinterpretation of the ancient charters. Tithes were of earlier origin ; but iEthelwulf apppears to have established the first poor-law, by imposing on every ten hides of land the obligation of maintaining one indigent person. § 4. On his return from Rome (856) iEthelwulf married Judith, daughter of the French J king Charles the Bald, though she was then only twelve years of age ; but on his landing in England he met with an opposition he little expected. His eldest son, iEthel- stan, being dead, iEthelbald, his second son, who had assumed the government, formed, in concert with many of the nobles, a project * The mancus was a silver coin of about the weight of a half-crown. f What iEthelwulf appears to have done was to subject the royal demesnes to payment of tithes, from which they were exempt before. J The name of France may now first be properly used. The kingdom of France may be dated from the establishment of Charles the Bald as king of the West Franks, in the partition between him and his brothers, Lothair and Lewis, of the dominions of their grandfather, Charles the Great (843). a.d. 836-871. .ETHELWULF — ^ETHELBALD — ALFRED. 43 for excluding his father from the throne. The people were divided between the two princes, and a bloody civil war, joined to all the other calamities under which the English laboured, appeared inevitable, when iEthelwulf consented to a compromise. Retaining the eastern portion of Wessex and Kent, the least considerable, as well as the most exposed to invasion, he conceded the rest to iEthelbald. § 5. ./ETHELBALD, iETHELBERHT,and iETHELRED, A.D. 858-871. — iEthelwulf died in 858, and was buried at Winchester ; dividing his kingdom &# will between his two sons, iEthelbald and iEthelberht- iEthelbald, to the scandal of the age, married his stepmother Judith ; but dying soon after, his brother iEthelberht united Kent, Surrey, and Sussex to the kingdom of Wessex (860). At his death, iEthelred, fourth son of iEthelwulf, ascended the throne (866). Under these monarchs the Danes continued their ravages with renewed vigour, and penetrated into the very heart of the country. Not contenting themselves with mere incursions, they conquered a large part of England. In 867 they took York ; the next year they assaulted Nottingham ; in 870 they defeated and took prisoner Edmund, the king of East Anglia, to whom they proposed that he should renounce the Christian faith and rule under their supre- macy. As this proposal was rejected with scorn and horror, the Danes bound the king naked to a tree, scourged and wounded him with arrows, and finally beheaded him. The constancy with which Edmund met his death caused him to be canonized as a saint and a martyr ; and the place where his body was buried took the name of St. Edmundsbury, i.e. "St. Edmund's town" (Bury St. Edmund's), where a splendid monastery was erected in his honour. Thus ended the old line of the Uffingas, and East Anglia became a Danish possession, Led by Halfdan and another king into Wessex, the Danes fought no less than nine battles in one year. iEthelred died at Easter, 871, and was succeeded by his brother Alfred. § 6. Alfred, a.d. 871-901. This monarch, who was born at Wantage in Berkshire, in 849, had already given proofs of those great virtues and shining talents, by which he saved his country from utter subversion and ruin. His genius was first fired by the recital of Saxon poems, which he soon learned to read, and he then- proceeded to acquire the knowledge of the Latin tongue- In his twentieth year he took the field along with his brother against the pagan invaders, and it was owing to his intrepidity and courage that his countrymen gained a signal victory over the Danes at Ashdown in Berkshire (871). On the death of iEthelred soon afterwards, he was called to the throne in preference to his brother's children, as well by the will of his father as by the wishes of tho whole nation and the urgency of public affairs. 44 ANGLO-SAXONS AND DANES. Chap. hi. After an indecisive battle at Wilton, the Danes withdrew from Wessex for a time. But in 874 they gained full possession of Mercia, on the flight of Burhred, Alfred's brother-in-law. Thus ended the independent kingdom of Mercia ; and the Danes were now masters of the three great Anglian kingdoms, leaving to Alfred only Wessex, Kent, and Essex. The year 875 is distinguished as the date of the first naval victory known to have been won by an English king, when " Alfred went out to sea with a fleet, and fought against the crews of seven ships (in Swanage bay), and one of them he took and put the rest to flight." But fresh swarms of Northmen continually poured into the kingdom, and in 876 Wessex was again invaded by a great fleet and army under Guthorm, or Guthrum (in Danish Oormhinrige, " the mighty serpent "). Over- powered by superior numbers, Alfred was at length obliged to relinquish the ensigns of dignity, dismiss his servants, and seek shelter in the meanest disguises from the pursuit and fury of his enemies (878). " On a time," if we may trust the story, " being forced to hide himself with a cow-herd in Somersetshire, as he sat by the fire preparing his bow and shafts, the cow-herd's wife baking bread on the coals, threw the king's bow and shafts aside and said : ' Thou fellow, why dost thou not turn the bread which thou seest burn ; thou art glad to eat it ere it be half baked.' This woman thought not it had been king Alfred, who had made so many battles against the Danes." § 7. At length, collecting a few followers, Alfred retired into the centre of a bog formed by the stagnating waters of the Tone and the Barrett, in Somersetshire. Here, finding two acres of firm ground, he secured himself by a fortification, and still more by unknown and inaccessible roads which led to it, and by the forests and morasses with which it was environed. He called this place JEihdinga- eigg, or the Isle of Brinces; and it now bears the name of Athelney.* From this retreat he made frequent and unexpected sallies upon the Danes, who often felt the vigour of his arm, but knew not from what quarter the blow came. Thus encouraged, his followers were prepared for more important victories. Seven weeks after Easter, Alfred sallied from Athelney, and was joined by the men of Somersetshire, Wiltshire, and Hampshire at " Egbert's stone " (now Brixton), on the borders of Selwood Forest. The English, who had hoped to put an end to their calamities by servile submission, had found the insolence and rapacity of the conqueror more in- * A beautiful gold-enamelled jewel, found at this spot, and now in the Ash- molean Museum at Oxford, has the in- scription "JElfred mec heht gewurcan" {Alfred had me wrought). According to the testimony of his biographer, Asser, Alfred encouraged goldsmiths. a.d. 874-878. ALFRED. 45 tolerable than all past fatigues and dangers. Alfred led them to Ethandun (Edington, near Westbury), where the Danes were encamped ; and taking advantage of his previous knowledge of the place, he directed his attack against the most unguarded quarter of the enemy. The Danes, surprised to see an army of English, whom they considered as totally subdued, and still more astonished to hear that Alfred was at their head, made but a faint resistance, notwith- standing the superiority of their number, and were soon put to flight with great slaughter. The remainder of the routed army, with their prince, was besieged by Alfred in a fortified camp to which they fled ; but, beiug reduced to extremity by want and hunger, they had recourse to the clemency of the victor, and offered to submit. Alfred spared their lives, and even formed a scheme for converting them from mortal enemies into faithful subjects and confederates. As the kingdom of East Anglia was desolated by the frequent inroads of the Danes, he now proposed to repeople it by settling in it Guthrum and his followers, who might serve him as a defence against any future incursions of their countrymen. But before he ratified these mild conditions with the Danes, he re- quired, as a pledge of their submission, that they should embrace Christianity. Guthrum, with thirty of his officers, had no aversion to the proposal, and were admitted to baptism. The king answered for Guthrum at the font, and gave him the name of Athelstan. This treaty was made at Wedmore, near Athelney (a.d. 878). The greater part of the Danes settled peaceably in their new quar- ters. They had for some years occupied the towns of Derby, Leicester, Stamfurd, Lincoln, and Nottingham, thence called the Five Boroughs. Alfred ceded to the new converts a considerable part of the kingdom of Mercia, retaining however the western portion, or country of the Hwiccas, in Gloucestershire. It would, however, be an error to suppose that the Danes ever really became his subjects- On the contrary, they formed an independent state, retaining their own laws and institutions, down to the latest times of the Anglo- Saxon monarchy. The general boundary between the Danes and Anglo-Saxons was the old Roman road called Watling Street, which ran from London across England to Chester and the Irish Channel. The province of the Danes lying to the north and east of that road was called Danelagh, the Danes' Law or community. Eeceiving fresh accessions of numbers from their own "country, the Danes were long able to bid defiance to all the efforts of the Anglo-Saxon monarchs to reduce them to complete obedience. § 8. After the treaty with Guthrum, Alfred enjoyed tranquillity for some years. He employed the interval in restoring order to his dominions, shaken by so many violent convulsions; in 46 ANGLO-SAXONS AND DANES. Chap. in. establishing civil and military institutions; in habituating the minds of men to industry and justice; and in providing against the return of like calamities. After rebuilding the ruined cities, particularly London, which had been destroyed by the Danes in the reign of iEthelwulf, he established a regular militia for the defence of the kingdom. He increased his fleet both in number and strength, and trained his subjects to the practice as well of sailing as of naval action. He improved the construction of his vessels, which were higher, swifter, and steadier than those of the Danes, and nearly double the length, some of them having more than 60 rowers. A fleet of 120 ships of war was stationed upon the coast ; and being provided with warlike engines, as well as with expert seamen, both Frisians and English — for Alfred supplied the defects of his own subjects by engaging able, foreigners in his service — he maintained a superiority over those smaller bands with which England had so often been infested. Notwithstanding these pre- cautions, as the northern provinces of France, into which Hasting, the famous Danish chief, had penetrated, were afflicted with a grievous famine, the Danes set sail from Boulogne with a powerful fleet under his command, landed upon the coast of Kent, and committed most destructive ravages (893). It would be tedious to narrate the events of this new war, which occupied the attention of Alfred for the next few years. It is sufficient to relate that, after repeated defeats in different parts of the island, the small remains of the Danes either dispersed themselves among their countrymen in Northumbria and East Anglia, or had recourse again to the sea, where they exercised piracy under the command of Siegfrid, a Northumbrian. After Alfred had succeeded iu restoring full tran- quillity to England, he died (October 26th, 901), in the vigour of his age and the full strength of his faculties, and was buried at Winchester, after a glorious reign of 30 years and a half, in which he deservedly attained the appellation of Alfred the Great, and the title of Founder of the English Monarchy. § 9. The merits of this prince, both in private and public life, may with advantage be contrasted with those of any monarch which the annals of any age or nation can present us. His civil and his military virtues are almost equally the objects of our admiration. Nature, as if desirous that so bright a pro- duction of her skill should be set in the fairest light, had bestowed on him every bodily accomplishment, vigour of limbs, dijznity of shape and air, with a pleasing, engaging, and open countenance. When Alfred came to the throne he found the nation sunk into the grossest ignorance and barbarism, occasioned by the continued disorders in the government, and the ravages of the Danes. A.D. 893-901. ALFRED. 47 Monasteries were destroyed, the monks butchered or dispersed, and their libraries burnt ; and thus the only seats of learning in those ages were totally subverted. Alfred himself complains that on his accession he knew few even of the clergy south of the Thames, and not many in the northern parts, who could interpret the Latin service. He invited the most celebrated scholars from all parts of Europe; he established schools for the instruction of his people; and he enjoined by law all freeholders possessing two hides of land, or more, to send their children to school for instruction.* But the most effectual expedient employed by Alfred for the encouragement of learning was his own example, and the assiduity with which, not- withstanding the multiplicity and urgency of his affairs, he em- ployed himself in the pursuit of knowledge. He usually divided his time into three equal portions : -one was devoted to sleep, food, and exercise ; another to study and devotion ; a third to the despatch of business. To measure the hours more exactly, he made use of burning tapers of equal length, which he fixed in lanterns, an expedient suited to that rude age, when dialling and the mechanism of clocks and watches were totally unknown. By such regular distribution of his time, though he often laboured under great bodily infirmities, and had fought in person 56 battles by sea and land, he was able, during a life of no extraordinary length, to acquire more knowledge, and even to compose more books, thau falls to the lot of the most studious men, though blessed with the greatest leisure and application, and born in more fortunate ages. He translated into Anglo-Saxon the histories of Orosius and of Bede ; to the former he prefixed a description of Germany and the north of Europe, from the narratives of the travellers Wulfstan and Ohthere. To these must be added a version of Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy, besides several other translations which he either made or caused to be made from the Confessions of St. Augustine, St. Gregory's Pastoral Instructions, Dialogues, &c. Nor was he negligent in encouraging the mechanical arts. He invited from all quarters industrious foreigners to repeople the country, which had been desolated by the ravages of the Danes. He in- troduced and encouraged manufactures, and suffered no inventor or improver of any ingenious art to go unrewarded. He prompted men of activity to betake themselves to navigation, to push commerce into the most remote countries, and to acquire riches by promoting industry among their fellow-citizens. He set apart a seventh portion of his own revenue for maintaining a number of workmen, whom he constantly employed in rebuilding the ruined cities and mon- * The foundation of the University of Oxford has sometimes been erroneously attributed to Alfred. 48 ANGLO-SAXONS AND DANES. Chap. hi. asteries. Such was the popular estimate of his character ; and thus, living and dead, next to Charlemagne, Alfred was long regarded as the greatest prince that had appeared in Europe for several ages, and as one of the wisest and best that ever adorned the annals of any nation. § 10. Alfred's great reputation has caused many of the institutions prevalent among the Anglo-Saxons, the origin of which is lost in remote antiquity, to be ascribed to his wisdom: such as the division of England into shires, hundreds, and tithings, the law of frank- pledge, trial by jury, etc. ; some of which were certainly anterior, and others subsequent, to his time. Even the code of laws which he undoubtedly promulgated was little more than a new collection of the laws of iEthelberht, Offa, and Ina ; into which, with the assistance of his witan, or wise men, he inserted a few enactments only of his own. . § 11. By his wife, Ealhswith, daughter of a Mercian ealdorman, Alfred left two sons and three daughters. The younger, ^Ethel- ward, inherited his father's passion for letters, and lived a private life. The elder, Edward, succeeded to his father's power, being the first of that name who sat on the English throne. Edward I., 901-925. — Immediately on his accession, Edward, usually called Edward the Elder, had to contend with iEthel- wald, son of king iEthelred, the elder brother of Alfred, who, insisting on his preferable title to the throne, armed his partisans and took possession of Wimborne. On the approach of Edward, however, iEthelwald fled into Northumberland, where the people declared in his favour. Having thus connected his interests with the Danish tribes, he went beyond sea, and, collecting a body of these freebooters, excited the hopes of all those who had been accus- tomed to subsist by rapine and violence. He was also joined by the East Anglian Danes and the men of the Five Boroughs ; but Edward overthrew them in several actions, recovered the booty they had taken, and compelled them to retire into their own country. iEthelwald was killed in battle (905). The rest of Edward's reign was a scene of continued and successful action against the Danes, in which he was assisted by the activity and prudence of his sister iEtbelfied, widow of iEthelred, ealdorman of Mercia. The submission of the Danes in that province, as well as of East Anglia, and the acknowledgment of Edward's supre- macy by the Welsh, effected the first union of Southern Britain under an English king (922). In Edward's last year, the Chronicle adds, that not only all the Northumbrians^English, Danes, and Northmen — but the Strathclyde Welsh and the Scots, with their kings, " chose him for father and for lord." From this time his T>Tew York; Harper k Brothers a.d. 901-946 EDWARD I. — ^THELSTAN — EDMUND I. 49 successors generally style themselves " King of the Angles," or King of the Anglo-Saxons, that is, of all the Anglian and Saxon states, and not merely King of the West Saxons* Edward died in the year 925, and was succeeded by iEthelstan, his natural son, who was thirty years old — his legitimate children being of too tender years to rule a nation so much exposed to foreign invasion and domestic convulsions. He was crowned at Kingston. § 12. iETHELSTAN, 925-940. — This monarch likewise gained numerous victories over the Danes, and is justly regarded as one of the ablest and most active of the early English kings. He com- pleted his father's work by annexing Northumbria, on the death of its Danish ruler, whose son fled to Constantine II., king of the Scots (927). His signal victory over the united host of the Scots, Danes, and Strathclyde Welsh, at the battle of Brunanburh, is celebrated in an Anglo-Saxon war-song (937).f vEthelstan made many good laws, which were really for the most part new enact- ments, and not mere repetitions of older customs or codes. Among them was the remarkable one, that a merchant who had made three long voyages on his own account should be admitted to the rank of a thane or gentleman. This shows that commerce was now more honoured and encouraged than it had formerly been, and implies at the same time that some of the English cities had risen to a considerable pitch of prosperity and importance. At this time a more extensive intercourse sprang up with the continent, as is shown by the manifold relations of vEthelstan with foreign courts. Several foreign princes were intrusted to his guardianship and educated at his court, among whom was his own nephew Louis, son of his sister Edgiva and Charles the Simple, king of France. § 13. Edmund I., called the Elder, 940-946.— vEthelstan died at Gloucester in the year 940, and was succeeded by his half- brother, Edmund, who was only 18 years old at his accession, and 24 at his death ; yet he lived and reigned long enough to win the title of Edmund the Magnificent. A second song of triumph in the Chronicle celebrates the conquest over the revolted Danes of Northumbria and Mercia, and the recovery of the Five Boroughs, by "King Edmund, ruler of the Angles, protector of kinsmen, the refuge cf warriors " (941). He also conquered Cumberland from the Britons (945), and conferred that territory on Malcolm, * There is, however, no strict uniformity in their designation. vEthelstan styles him- self " King of all Britain ; "sometimes of all Albion. Edmund, Edred, and Edwy pre- fer the titles, King of the Angles and othrr circumjacent people. The last uses the title of Kin;/ of the Angul-Scexne, North- umbrians, etc. Edgar is King of all Britain, or all Albion. f The song is preserved in the Chron- icle. The site of the battle is unknown ; but it must have been in Northumbria, and near the coast. 50 ANGLO-SAXONS AND DANES. Chap. hi. king of Scotland, on condition that he should do homage, and protect the north from all future incursions of the Danes. Edmund was assassinated at Pucklechurch, iruthe year 946, by Liofa, a notorious outlaw, whom he had" senteBeed to banishment, but who had the boldness to enter the hall where the king himself was dining, and seat himself at the table among his attendants. On his refusing to leave the room, the king seized him by the hair; but the ruffian, pushed to extremity, drew his dagger, and gave Edmund a wound of which he expired immediately. He was buried at Glastonbury, by St. Dunstan, the abbot. ' § 14. Edbed, 946-955. — As Edmund's issue was young and incapable of governing the kingdom, his brother Edred was Tftised to the throne. He completed the conquest of the Northumbrian Danes, who had revolted, and invited Eric, the son of Harold Blaatand of Denmark, to be their king. The reign of this prince, like those of his predecessors, was disturbed by the rebellions and incursions of the Danes. After subduing them, Edred, in- structed by experience, took greater precautions against their future revolt. He fixed English garrisons in their most considerable towns, and placed over them an English governor,* who might watch all their motions, and suppress any insurrection on its first appearance. Edred, who must have been very young, was guided, as his brother had been, by the great minister Dunstan, whom Edmund had made abbot of Glastonbury (943). The best evidence of Dunstan's ability is furnished by the brilliant success of Edred and Edgar, who followed his counsels, and the disasters of Edwy> who quarrelled with him. He was born of noble parents, near Glaston- bury, and in the school of that monastery he studied with an ardour which for a time apparently unsettled his brain. Treated with scorn by the courtiers of iEthelred, he was persuaded by his kinsman Alphege, bishop of Winchester, to become a monk. The stories told of his asceticism seem to be exaggerated and opposed to his genial nature, his love of music and society, and his activity in work, both with head and hands, in which he was followed by a train of pupils. He returned to court on the accession of Edmund ; was falsely accused; and, finding his fortune blasted by such scandals, he was on the eve of returning to the cloister, when a narrow escape which befel the king in hunting struck him with * This governor was not called Ealdor- man, but by the Danish title of Earl (JarV). Under Edgar the earldom was divided into three parts ; the southern, between the Humber and Tees, the old kingdom of Deira, becoming the earldom of York. The northern, or Lothian, from the Tweed to the Forth, was probably granted to the Scotch king Kenneth ; the middle part, between Tees and Tweed, formed the new earldom of Northumberland, from which the part between Tees and Tyne was afterwards taken as the patrimony of St. Cuthbert and bishopric of Durham, A.d. 946-958. EDRED — EDWY. 51 remorse for his suspicions, and on the same day Edmund made Dunstan abbot of Glastonbury. The new abbot turned his attention to the reform of themonasteries, and the revival of learning, which had again fallen st^& the time of Alfred. He adopted the more rigid rules maintained by the Benedictines of Gaul, and introduced them into the convents of Glastonbury, Abingdon, and elsewhere. These religious houses had fallen into ruins during the incursions of the Danes, and their congregations had been dispersed. It was Dunstan's object to restore them, and to replace the secular clergy, who-had taken possession of the revenues, by the monastic. His prog «was somewhat retarded by the death of Edred, who ex- pired- -at Frome, in 955, after a reign of nine years. His children being infants, his nephew Edwy, son of Edmund, was raised to the throne. § 15. Edwy, 955-958. — Edwy, at the time of his accession, was not above fifteen or sixteen years of age.* According to the story, told some forty years afterwards, he had become entangled in an intrigue with a lady, who desired to secure his hand for her daughter, called Elgiva. On the day of his coronation, when his nobility were banqueting in a great hall, Edwy, forgetful of the dignity due to the occasion, had retired to this lady's apartment. This slight to the ealdormen, bishops, and great men was regarded as a gross insult, and two of their number were deputed to remon- strate with the king, and persuade him to reassume his seat at the banquet. Dunstan, with the bishop of Lichfield, proceeded to the apartment, upbraided Edwy for his absence, and, Avith bitter reproaches to the lady, brought back the king into the presence of the nobles with no little roughness. Edwy, at the suggestion of the lady, found an opportunity of revenge;. and, either on the complaint of discontented monks of Glastonbury, or some charge affecting the administration of the late king's treasure, which had been placed in that abbey, Dunstan was driven out of England, and fled to Ghent (956).f Headed by Odo the archbishop, a Dane, the Northumbrians and the Mercians rose in rebellion, and proclaimed Edgar, the brother of Edwy, as their king (958). They were joined by the East Anglians, and in short by all England north of the Thames. Edgar recalled Dunstan, and, in a council assembled at Bradford, gave him the sees of London and Worcester. Dunstan would have excused himself in this violation of the canons, but his objections were overruled by others, who referred to the examples of St. John and St. Paul. Even in * Both iEthelweard (the only contem- [ well of Edwy, and lament his early death, porary historian who was not a priest or f The whole story is traditional, and is monk) and Henry of Huntingdon speak | told in different ways. 52 ANGLO-SAXONS AND DANES. Chap. hi. the southern provinces the monastic party now gained the ascendancy. Edwy, finding it vain to resist, was obliged to consent to a divorce from Elgiva, which was pronounced by Odo, archbishop of Canterbury (958). The fate of the unhappy Elgiva is un- known; for the tales of inhuman cruelties inflicted on her by the primate's order, as well as of the murder of Edwy, are found only in late and doubtful authorities. It is only known for certain, that Edwy's divorce was followed by the death both of the arch- bishop and the king in 958 or 959. He was succeeded by his brother Edgar. § 16. Edgar, 959-975. — Edgar, surnamed the Peaceable, already king of the Mercians and Northumbrians (957), now succeeded to Wessex, with the consent of the whole kingdom.* One of his first acts was to promote Dunstan to the archbishopric of Canterbury. Of the first five years of his reign we have no memorials, except of his co-operation in the ecclesiastical reforms then in progress. To restore the monks, he displaced and degraded the secular clergy; he favoured the scheme for dispossessing the secular canons of all the great churches ; and he bestowed pre- ferment on none but their partisans. Above forty Benedictine convents are said to have been founded or repaired by Edgar. These merits have procured for him the highest panegyrics from the monkish historians. Freed from all disturbance on the side of the Danes, Edgar was enabled to employ his vast armaments against the neighbouring sovereigns ; and the king of Scotland, the princes of Wales, of the Isle of Man, and of the Orkneys, were reduced to submission.! After his coronation at Bath (972), he led his forces to Chester, where he was attended by six or eight vassal kings, who rowed his barge up the Dee to the abbey of St John the Baptist, Edgar holding the helm. The virtues of Edgar have been exaggerated by the monastic annalists. Even the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which again breaks forth into song in his praise, confesses that he loved foreign vices, and brought heathen manners and pernicious people into the land. Of the severity with which he enforced order we have an example in the devastation of Thanet (969)4 But the general excellence of his rule is attested by his extant laws, and by the consolidation of the various people under his authority. " One thing I would have common," he declared in the assembled Witan, " to all my subjects, * Florence of Worcester." f In his charters, Edgar assumes the titles of " King of the Angles and all the nations round about, " Ruler and Lord flf the whole Isle of Albion," " Basileus and Impo-ator of all Britain." The Greek Bao-iXew (king) was the title of the Emperor of the East, as Imperator was of the Western Emperor. J The people had plundered some Norse traders, who were under the king's protection. ad. 959-979. EDGAR — EDWARD II. — ^THELRED II. 53 to English, Danes, and Britons in every part of my dominions ; that both rich and poor possess without molestation what they have rightly acquired, and that no thief find refuge for securing his stolen property." His reign forms an epoch in English history, and in the growth of monastic influence. It is popularly stated that the extirpation of wolves in England was effected in this reign by converting the money payment imposed upon the Welsh princes into an annual tribute of 300 wolves' heads ; but these animals were found in the island at a much later period. § 17, Edgar died in the year 975, in the thirty-third year of his age, leaving two sons : Edward, aged thirteen, whom he had had by his first wife, iEthelfleda ; and iEthelred, then only five, by Elfrida. There can be no doubt that the former had the best claim to the succession ; and though Elfrida attempted to raise her son to the throne, Edward was crowned at Kingston by the vigorous determination of Dunstan. Edward II., called the Martyr, 975-979. — The kingdom was now again divided into two parties, and the short reign of Edward presents nothing memorable except the struggles between Dunstan and the Benedictines on the one hand, and the secular clergy on the other, who in some parts of Mercia had succeeded in expelling the monks. To settle this controversy several synods were held, and Dunstan is said to have wrought miracles. The death of young Edward was memorable and tragical.* He was hunting one day in Dorsetshire, and being led by the chase near Corfe Castle, where his stepmother Elfrida resided, he took the opportunity of paying her a visit, unattended by any of his retinue, and thus presented her with the opportunity she had long desired. Mounting his horse to depart, he called for a cup of wine, and while he was holding it to his lips, a servant of Elfrida approached and stabbed him behind. The prince, finding himself wounded, put spurs to his horse, but growing faint from loss of blood, he fell from the saddle, his foot stuck in the stirrup, and he was dragged along until he expired. Tracked by the blood, his body was found and privately interred at Wareham. The youth and innocence of this prince, with his tragical death, obtained for him the appellation of " Martyr." § 18. ^thelred II., 979-1016.— jEthelred II., the son of Elfrida, called by historians " the Unready," f now ascended the throne, * This is the story of William of | f This epithet means "counselless" Malmesbury. The early authorities agree | or "bad counsellor," a play upon the as to the place, but not as to the persons name of jEthelred" noble in counsel," who who instigated the murder. • ruined his country through unrced, " want 54 ANGLO-SAXONS AND DANES. Chap. ni. at the" early age of ten. Dunstan, who placed the crown on his head at Kingston, lived nine years longer, and died May 19, 988. A period, however, was approaching, when the heat of ecclesiastical disputes had to give place to the more important question respecting the very existence of the nation. Shortly after iEthelred's accession, the Danes and Northmen renewed their incursions, and iEthelred's long reign presents little else than a series of struggles with those piratical and pagan invaders. He adopted the fatal expedient of buying off their attacks, thus foolishly inviting their renewal.* In the year 993, having by their previous incursions become well acquainted with the defenceless condition of England, the Danes made a powerful descent under the command of Sweyn, king of Denmark, and of Anlaf or Olaf, afterwards king of Norway ; and, sailing up the Humber, they spread devastation on every side. The following year they ventured to attack the centre of the kingdom ; entered the Thames with 94 vessels, laid siege to London, and threatened it with total destruction. But the citizens, firmly united among themselves, made a bolder defence than the nobility and gentry; and the besiegers, after suffering the greatest hardships, were disappointed in their attempt. The Danes proceeded to plunder other quarters, until they were bought off with 16,000 pounds of silver. But in a few years they returned again, and in 997, and the five following years, committed dreadful devastations in various parts, till bought off again by another payment of 24,000 pounds. This tribute gave rise to an odious and oppressive impost, which, under the name of Danegeld, or Dane-money, continued to be levied on the laity long after the occasion for its imposition had ceased. Observing the close connection maintained among all the Danes, however divided in government or situation, iEthelred, being now a widower, made his addresses to Emma, sister to Bichard II., duke of Normandy, in the hope that such an alliance might serve to check the incursions of the Northmen. He suc- ceeded in his suit : the princess came over to England and was married to iEthelred in 1002. She received the English name of JElfgifu or Elgiva. From this marriage may be dated the Norman influence in England. The French language began to be spoken at the court, and the French followers of Emma were placed in high offices, both in church and state. § 19. Shortly after this marriage, iEthelred formed a design of of counsel" or " evil counsel," a term which the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle expressly applies to his foolish policy towards the Danes (s. a. 1011: "All these calamities befell us through unrede.") There can be little doubt of the origin of this epithet • but it is never applied to this king- by the earliest and best authorities. * He was not the first of the Anglo- Saxon kings who had recourse to this ex- pedient. A.D. 979-1016. jETHELRED II. 55 murdering the Danes throughout his dominions. But though ancient historians speak of this massacre as universal, such a repre- sentation of the matter is absolutely impossible, as the Danes formed a large part of the population of Northumbria and East Anglia, and were very numerous in Mercia. The animosity between the inhabitants of English and Danish race had, from repeated, injuries, risen to a great height; especially through the conduct of those Danish troops which the English monarchs had long been accustomed to keep in pay for their excellence as soldiers. These mercenaries, who were quartered about the country, committed many acts of violence. They had attained to such a height of luxury, according to later English writers, that they combed their hair once a day, bathed themselves once a week, and frequently changed their clothes ! Secret orders were given to commence the massacre on the festival of St. Brice (November 13th, 1002). The rage of the populace, excited by so many injuries, sanctioned by authority, and stimulated by example, spared neither sex nor age, and was not satiated without the tortures as well as death of the unhappy victims. Even Gunhilda, sister to the king of Denmark, who had married earl Paling, and had embraced Christianity, was seized and condemned to death, after she had seen her husband and her children butchered before her face. In the agonies of despair, this unhappy princess foretold that her murder would soon be avenged by the total ruin of the English nation. § 20. Never was prophecy more strictly fulfilled, and never did barbarous policy prove more fatal to its authors. Sweyn and his Danes appeared the next year off the western coast, and took full Tevenge for the slaughter of their countrymen. Twice was iEthelred reduced to the infamy of purchasing a precarious peace. At length, towards the close of 1013, Sweyn being virtually sovereign of Eng- land, and, the English nobility everywhere swearing allegiance to him, iEthelred, equally afraid of the violence of the enemy and of the treachery of his own subjects, fled into Normandy, whither he had already sent queen Emma and her two sons Alfred and Edward. § 21. The king had not been above six weeks in Normandy when he heard of the death of Sweyn, who expired at Gainsborough before he had been crowned, or had found time to establish himself in his newly acquired dominions. He is not reckoned among tha kings of England, but is called by the chroniclers " Sweyn the Tyrant " (i.e. Usurper). The English prelates and nobility, or the Witan, as they were called, taking advantage of this event, sent over a deputation to Normandy inviting iEtkelred to return. He complied, and was joyfully received by the people, in the spring of 56 ANGLO-SAXONS AND DANES. Chap. hi. 1014, with a promise of greater fidelity on their part and of juster government on his. On his death-bed at Gainsborough, Sweyn, with the approbation of the assembled Danes, named his son Canute,* who had accompanied him in the expedition, as his successor. But on the approach of iEthelred, who displayed on this occasion unwonted celerity, Canute embarked with his forces for Denmark. A ray of hope seemed now to dawn on England, but it was only transient. iEthelred soon relapsed into his usual incapacity and indolence ; and the kingdom became a scene of internal feud, treachery, and assassination. In 1015 Canute re- turned with a large fleet and overran Wessex. Edmund, the king's eldest son, made fruitless attempts to oppose his progress ; but, unsupported by his father and the nation, he was obliged to disband the greater part of his army and retire with the remainder to London, where ^Ethelred had shut himself up. Hither also Canute directed his course, in the hope of seizing iEthelred's person ; but the king expired before his arrival, after an unhappy and inglorious reign of 37 years. § 22. Edmund Ironside, April 23rd to Nov. 30th, 1016.— By the small party who had remained faithful to the royal cause, Edmund, whose hardy valour procured him the name of Ironside, was now elected king. Meanwhile Canute had arrived at London, where, as the bridge impeded his operations, he caused a canal to be dug on the south bank of the river, through which he conveyed his ships. He also surrounded the city on the land side with a deep trench, hoping by these means to cut off the supplies. But these measures failing, as well as a general assault, Canute proceeded to the western districts, where Edmund was engaging the Danes with considerable success. But, after the total defeat of his army at Assington in Suffolk, the Danish and English nobility obliged the two kings to come to a compromise, and divide the kingdom between them. Canute obtained Mercia, East Anglia, and North- umbria, which he had entirely subdued ; the southern parts were assigned to Edmund. This prince died about a month afterwards, on the 30th of November, murdered, as was said, by the machinations of Edrc, the ealdorman of Mercia, who thus made way for the succession of Canute the Dane to the crown of all England. * Knut is the proper orthography of I should be pronounced with the accent on the name. Canute is a corruption, and | the last syllable. Seal of Edward the Confessor. (British Museum.) sigillvm eadwardi angloevm basilei : King seated with sceptre and sword. CHAPTER IV. DANES AND ANGLO-SAXONS FROM THE REIGN OF CANUTE TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST, A.D. 1016-106(3. § 1. Accession of Canute. First acts of his reign. Marries Emma of Nor- mandy. § 2. Rise of earl Godwin. § 3. Canute's devotion. His re- proof of his courtiers. § 4. He reduces the king of Scotland. His death. § 5. Division of the kingdom. Reign of Harold Harefoot. § 6. Reign of Hardicanute. § 7. Accession of Edward the Confessor. § 8. Influence of the Normans. Revolt and banishment of earl God- win. § 9. William, duke of Normandy, visits England. Return of earl Godwin : his death. Rise of Harold. § 10. Siward restores Malcolm, king of Scotland. § 11. Edward invites his nephew from Hungary. § 12. Harold's visit to Normandy. § 13. Harold reduces Wales ; condemns his brother Tosti. Aspires to the succession. Death of Edward. § 14. His character. § 15. Accession of Harold. William assembles a fleet and army. Invasion of Tosti and of Harold Hardrada. Battle of Stamford Bridge. § 16. Norman invasion. Battle of Hastings. Death of Harold. I. The Danish Kings, a.d. 1016-1042. § 1. Canute, 1016-1035. — Edmund Ironside left a brother, Edwy, and two half-brothers, Alfred and Edward, the sons of iEthelred by his second wife, Emma of Normandy ; as well as two infant sons of his own, Edmund and Edward. But immediately after his death, 58 THE DANISH DYNASTY. Chap. iv. Canute assembled the nobles and clergy at London, and, partly by promises and partly by intimidation, was elected king, thus adding the dominions of Edmund to his own. This was the first time that a king of Wessex had been elected outside the line of Cerdic. To add a colour of legitimate right, the assembly is said to have declared falsely that Edmund had never designed his kingdom to pass to his brothers, and had appointed Canute to be guardian to his children. Edwy, the brother of Edmund, was outlawed and soon afterwards murdered (1017). Canute sent Edmund's children to his half-brother Olaf, king of Sweden, with a secret request to put them to death ; but Olaf, too generous to comply, had them conveyed to Stephen, king of Hungary, to be educated at his court. As Alfred and Edward were protected by their uncle Kichard, duke of Normandy, Canute, to acquire the friendship of the duke, paid his addresses to queen Emma, promising to leave the children whom he should have by that marri.ige in possession of the crown of England. Canute was now about 22, and Emma several years older.* Richard complied with his demand, and sent over his sister Emma to England, where she was soon after married to Canute, notwithstanding that he had been the mortal enemy of her former husband (1017). To reward his Danish followers, Canute found himself compelled to load the people with heavy exactions. At one time he demanded the sum of 72,000 pounds, besides 10,500 more which he levied on London alone. But resolving, like a wise prince, that the English should be reconciled to the Danish yoke by the justice and impar- tiality of his administration, he sent back to Denmark as many of his followers as could safely be spared. He made no distinction between Danes and English in the execution of justice: and he took care, by strict enforcement of the laws, to protect the lives and properties of all. In his reign England was divided into four great earl- doms — Northumberland, East Anglia (including Essex), Mercia, and "Wessex (including all England south of the Thames), 1017. Over the first two Canute set Danes, Eric (his sister's hus- band) and Thurkill. In the same year the English earl of Mercia, Edric, suffered the death he had long deserved for his repeated treasons to iEthelred and Edmund, and his earldom was given to Leofwine. The earldom of Wessex, which Canute had at first kept in his own hands, was bestowed in 1020 on Godwin, the son of * Canute had two sons, Harold and Sweyn, by another wife or concubine, Elgiva of Northampton, who was still alive. The time of these sons' birth is not known with certainty; but that one at least was already born is probable from Emma's stipulation for the succession of her own offspring. It was doubted by many whether they were really the sons of Canute. a.d. 1016-1035. CANUTE. 59 Wulfnoth, an Englishman,* who had already won the king's favour and been made an earl, as some say, of Kent, early in Canute's reign. § 2. When Canute had settled his power in England beyond all danger of a revolution, he appears in 1019 to have made a voyage to Denmark ; and the necessity of his affairs caused him frecpiently to repeat the visit, in order to make head against the Wends,f as well as against the kings of Sweden and Norway. On one of these occa- oions, earl Godwin, observing a favourable opportunity, attacked the enemy in the night, drove them from their trenches, and obtained a decisive victory. Next morning, Canute, seeing the English camp entirely abandoned, imagined that his disaffected troops had deserted, and was agreeably surprised to find that they were engaged in pursuit of the discomfited enemy. Gratified with this success, and the manner of obtaining it, be bestowed Gytha, the sister of earl Ulf (who was the king's brother- in-law), in marriage upon Godwin, and treated him ever after with entire confidence and regard. § 3. This semi-barbarous monarch, who had committed number- less murders and waded through slaughter to a throne, had never- theless many of the qualities of a great sovereign. He had become a Christian either before or at the time of his first election as -ZEthelreil's successor. He built churches, endowed monasteries, and even undertook one, if not two, pilgrimages to Rome. It appears, from a letter which he addressed to the English clergy, that he must have been in that city in the year 1027, when the emperor Conrad II. was also there for the purpose of his coronation. From the same letter we learn that he had obtained certain privileges for English pilgrims going to Eome, and an abatement of the large sums exacted from the archbishops for their palls. On the other hand, he enforced the payment of Peter's pence and other ecclesiastical dues. As an evidence of his magnanimity, tradition refers to Canute the following story : — When some of his courtiers had launched out one day in admiration of his grandeur, he commanded his chair to be set on the sea-shore. As the tide rose and the waters approached, he bade them recede and obey the voice of their lord, feigning * The origin of Earl Godwin still re- mains a problem. His father, Wulfnoth, is made by some of the early chroniclers a churl (or peasant) near Sherborne ; by others, a nephew of Edric, the traitor earl of Mercia ; by others, a man of rank or a child — (" A title nearly synonymous with atheling, but not confined to royalty."— Thorpe), " Child (riJd) Wulf- noth, the South Saxon." Mr. Freeman inclines to accept the last statement {Norman Conquest, vol. i. Appendix F). + The name of Wends was given by the Germans and Scandinavians to their Sla- vonic neighbours. 60 THE DANISH DYNASTY. Chap. iv. to sit some time in expectation of their submission. But as the sea still advanced and began to wet his feet, he turned to his courtiers, and said, " The power of kings is but vanity. He only is king whc- can say to the ocean, Thus far shalt thou go and no farther." And from that time he never bore his crown. § 4. The only memorable action which Canute performed, after his return from Eome, was an expedition against Malcolm II., king of Scotland, whom he reduced to subjection, with two under kings, one of whom was Macbeth (1031). Canute died at Shaftesbury in 1035, leaving by his first marriage two sons, Sweyn and Harold, and by Emma another son, named, from his bodily strength, Harthacnut or Hardicanute. To the last he had given Denmark ; on Sweyn he had bestowed Norway ; and Harold was in England at the time of his father's death. § 5. Harold I. Harefoot, 1035-1040. — According to Canute's marriage contract with Emma, Hardicanute should have succeeded him on the English throne : but the absence of that prince in Den- mark, as well as his unpopularity among the Danish part of the population, caused him to lose one-half of the kingdom. Leofric, now carl of Mercia, supported the pretensions of Harold, whose presence in England was of great service to his cause, whilst the powerful earl Godwin embraced the cause of Hardicanute. A civil war was, however, averted by a compromise. It was agreed that Harold should retain London, with all the provinces north of the Thames, while the possession of the south should remain to Hardi- canute. Till that prince should appear and take possession of his dominions, Emma fixed her residence at Winchester, and established her authority over her son's share of the partit'on, aided by Godwin, who governed it already as earl. Edward and Alfred, Emma's sons by iEthelred, still cherished hopes of ascending the throne. Their mother had sacrificed their claims on her marriage with Canute. Their uncle, duke Kobert of Normandy, had threatened, or even attempted, an invasion on their behalf (1029 or 1030).* The details of the story are differently told, but the English account is as follows : "This year the innocent astheling Alfred, son of king iEthelred, came hither (1036), and would go to his mother (Emma), who resided at Winchester ; but this earl Godwin would not permit, nor other men also, who could exercise much power ; because the public voice was then really in favour of Harold, though it was unjust. Godwin hindered him, set him in durance, and dispersed his companions. Some were slain, some sold for money, some burned, blinded, mutilated, and scalped. * The obscurity of this period is due I English, Norman, German, and Scandina- to the great conflict of the authorities | vian, (See Note A.) A.D. 1035-1042. HAROLD L, HAREFOOT — HARDICANUTE. 61 No bloodier deed was done in this country since the Danes came The jetheling was carried to Ely. As soon as the ship neared the land, they blinded him and committed him to the monks. After he died he was buried at the west end nigh to the steeple in the south porch." * The death of Alfred resulted in the election of Harold, who was " chosen over all for king ; " the people forsaking Hardicanute " because he stayed too long in Denmark " (1037). Fearful lest a similar fate should befal Edward, his mother sent him over to the continent. She herself shortly after was driven out, " with- out any mercy, against the stormy weather," and took refuge with count Baldwin at Bruges. These were the only memorable actions performed in the reign of Harold, who, from his agility in hunting, apparently his only accomplishment, obtained the name of Harefoot. He died on the 17th March, 1040. § 6. Hardicanute, 1040-1042. — On the intelligence of his brother's death, Hardicanute immediately proceeded to London, where he was acknowledged king of all England without opposition. His first act was to disinter the body of his brother Harold. The corpse was decapitated and thrown into the Thames ; but being found by a fisherman, was buried by the Danes of London in their cemetery at St. Clement's. Little memorable occurred in this reign. Hardicanute renewed the imposition of Danegeld, and obliged the nation to pay a great sum of money to the fleet which brought him from Denmark. The discontent in consequence ran high in many places, and especially at Worcester, which was set on fire and plun- dered by the soldiers. Hardicanute died suddenly about two years after his accession, whilst in the act of raising the cup to his lips at a marriage festival at Lambeth (a.d. 1042). II. The Kingdom is restored to the line of Cerdic, a.d. 1042-1066. § 7. Edward the Confessor, 1042-1066.— The death of Hardi- canute seemed to present to the English a favourable opportunity for recovering their liberty and shaking off the Danish yoke. Edward the astheling was in England on his half-brother's demise ; and though the son of Edmund Ironside was the more direct heir of the West Saxon family, his absence in so remote a country as Hun- gary appeared a sufficient reason for his exclusion. The claims of Edward were supported by Godwin, who only stipulated that he should marry the earl's daughter Editha, as he did two years later. Edward was crowned king with every demonstration of duty and * This account of the Anglo-Saxon I discussion see Freeman's Norman Con- Chronicle agrees with Florence ofWorces- quest, vol. i. pp. 542-560. ter and Simeon of Durham. For fuller ) 5 62 SAXON LINE RESTORED. Chap. iv. affection ; and, by the mildness of his character, he soon reconciled the Danes to his administration. One of the first acts of Edward was to strip his mother Emma of the immense treasures which she had amassed, " because she had done for him less than he would, before he was king, and also since." She was immurtd for the remainder of her life at Winchester, but he carried his rigour against her no further. As she was unpopular in England, the king's severity, though exposed to some censure, met with no general disapprobation. § 8. But, though freed from the incursions of the Danes, the nation was not yet delivered from the dominion of foreigners. Edward, having been educated in Normandy, had contracted an affection for the manners- of that country. The court was filled with Normans, who by their superior culture and the partiality of Edward soon rendered their language, customs, and laws fashionable in England. The church, above all, felt the influence of these strangers, some of whom were appointed to ecclesiastical dignities, and Robert, a Norman, was even promoted to the see of Canterbury (1051). These proceedings paved the way to the Nor- man Conquest, and excited the jealousy of earl Godwin and the English. Besides the southern parts of Wessex, Godwin had the counties of Kent and Sussex under his government. His eldest son, Sweyn, possessed the same authority in the northern parts of Wessex and in the south of Mercia, that is, in the counties of Oxford, Berks, Gloucester, Somerset, and Hereford ; whilst Harold, his second son, was earl of East Anglia, including Essex. The enormous influence of this family was supported by immense possessions and powerful alliances ; and the abilities, as well as ambition, of Godwin contributed to render him still more dan- gerous. He was opposed by Leofric and Siward, the earls of Mercia and Northumbria; and another earldom (including the shires of Warwick and Worcester) was carved out of Mercia for Ralph, the king's nephew, a Frenchman.* It was not long before the animosity against the Norman favourites broke out into action. Eustace, count of Boulogne, the stepfather of Ralph the earl, having paid a visit to the king, passed by Dover on his return (1051). One of his train, being refused admittance into a lodging which had been assigned to him, attempted to make his way by force, and in the contest wounded the owner of the house. The inhabitants flew to his assistance; a tumult ensued, in which nearly * He was the son of Goda, the king's sister, by her first husband, Drogo of Mantes, and commanded the Norman mercenaries. As leaders in war, the earls were also called dukes (from the Latin dux), just as the ealdormen had been called heretogas. A.D. 1042-1051. EDWARD THE CONFESSOR. 63 20 persons were killed on each side ; and Eustace, overpowered by numbers, was obliged to save bis life by flight from the fury of the populace. On the complaint of Eustace, the king gave orders to Godwin, in whose government Dover lay, to punish the inhabi- tants ; but " the earl would not agree, because he was loath to injure his own followers." Touched in so sensible a point, Edward threatened Godwin with the utmost effects of his resentment if he persisted in his disobedience. Whatever may have been the faults of Godwin, he had the good fortune, the policy, or the skill, to appear in the present conjuncture as the patriotic defender of the English cause against the foreign predilections of his sovereign. He had now gone too far to retreat, and therefore he and his sons, Sweyn and Harold, assembled their forces on the Cotswold Hills, for the purpose of overawing the king and compelling him to redress the grievances of the nation. But the two earls, Leofric of Mercia, and Siward of Northumberland, with the French earl Ealph, embraced the king's cause, and assem- bled a numerous army. To avoid bloodshed it was agreed, on the proposal of Leofric, to refer the quarrel to the Witan ; but when Godwin approached London for that purpose, his followers dropped away, and he found himself outnumbered. Sweyn was declared an outlaw; Godwin and Harold were summoned to take their trial, but, refusing to appear, unless hostages were given for their safety, they were ordered to leave the country within five days. Baldwin, earl of Flanders, gave protection to Godwin and his three sons, Sweyn, Gurth, and Tostig, the last of whom had married the daughter of that prince; Harold and Leofwine, his two other sons, took shelter in Ireland with Dermot, king of Leinster. The estates of the father and sons were confiscated, their governments given to others; queen Editha was shut up in a monastery at Wherwell, near Andover, where the king's sister was abbess. The greatness of this family, once so formidable, seemed now to be totally supplanted and overthrown (1051). § 9. The Norman influence was now again in the ascendant ; and before the end of tlie year, William, duke of Normandy, the king's near kinsman, paid a visit to Edward.* But Godwin had fixed his authority on too firm a basis, and was too strongly supported by alliances both foreign and domestic, not to occasion further disturb- ances, and make new efforts for his re-establishment. He fitted out a fleet in the Flemish harbours, and being joined at the Isle of Wight by his son Harold, with a squadron collected in Ireland, he entered the Thames, and, appearing before London, where the * William had become duke of Normandy by his father Robert's death in the year of Canute's death (1035). 64 SAXON LINE RESTORED. Chap. iv. people were favourably disposed to him, threw everything into confusion (1052). The king alone seemed resolved to defend him- self to the last extremity; but the interposition of the English nobility, many of whom favoured Godwin's pretensions, made Edward hearken to terms of accommodation, and it was agreed that hostages should be given on both sides. At a witena-gemot held outside the walls of London, Godwin and his sons were de- clared innocent of the charges laid against them, and were restored to their honours and possessions ; the French were outlawed ; the archbishop of Canterbury and the bishops of London and Dor- chester escaped into Normandy. Godwin's death, which happened soon after, while he was sitting at table with the king, prevented him from further establishing the authority he had acquired (1053). As his son Sweyn had died on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, Godwin was succeeded in his governments and offices by his son Harold, now earl of Wessex, who was actuated by an ambition equal to that of his father, and was superior to him in address, in insinu- ation, and in virtue. By a modest and gentle demeanour he acquired the goodwill of Edward, and, gaining every day new partisans by his bounty and affability, he proceeded in a more silent and therefore a more dangerous manner to augment his authority. § 10. The death of Siward of Northumbria, in 1055, removed the last obstacle to Harold's ambition. Besides his other merits, Siward had acquired honour by his successful conduct in the only foreign enterprise undertaken during the reign of Edward. Duncan I., king of Scotland, the successor of Malcolm II., was a young prince of a gentle disposition, but possessed not the genius or firmness required for governing so turbulent a country. Macbeda (Macbeth), the powerful chief of Moray, was married to Gruach (the Lady Macbeth of Shakspere), whose descent from Kenneth III. constituted a claim to the crown for Lulach, her son by a former marriage. In one of the frequent petty wars of that turbulent realm, Duncan was defeated and murdered on his retreat into Moray ; Malcolm Canmore (i.e. Greathead), his son and heir, was chased into England, and Macbeth seized the kingdom, which he ruled ably and well (1040). Some years later, Siward, whose kins- woman was married to Duncan, avenged, by Edward's orders, the royal cause. He marched an army into Scotland, defeated Macbeth at Dunsinane (1054), and set Malcolm on the throne. Macbeth and Lulach prolonged the contest till Macbeth was killed at the battle of Lumphanan, in Aberdeenshire (1056 or 1058). Siward died the year after the battle of Dunsinane ; and as his son, Wal- theof, appeared too young to be intrusted with the government of Northumberland, it was obtained by Harold's influence for his own brother Tostig. a.d 1052-10GG. EDWARD THE CONFESSOR. 65 §11. Meanwhile Edward, feeling himself far advanced in life, began to think of appointing a successor, and sent a deputation to Hungary to invite over his nephew Edward, called the " Stranger," or the " Outlaw," son of his elder brother, Edmund Ironside, and the only remaining heir of the West-Saxon line. That prince, . whose succession to the crown would have been easy and undis- puted, came to England with his young children, Edgar the setheling, Margaret, and Christina ; but his death, which happened a few days after his arrival (1057), threw the king into fresh diffi- culties. He saw that Harold was tempted by his great power and ambition to aspire to the throne, and that Edgar, a mere child, was very unfit to oppose the pretensions of so popular and enter- prising a rival. In this uncertainty he is said to have cast his eye towards his kinsman, William, duke of Normandy, as the only person whose power, reputation, and capacity could support any arrangement which might be made in his favour, to the exclusion of Harold and his family. § 12. In communicating his design to William, Edward, accord- ing to some accounts, chose Harold himself as his ambassador, commanding him to deliver to the duke a sword and a ring as pledges of his intention. But though Harold may have paid a visit to the court of the duke of Normandy, the circumstances attending it, and even the date, are involved in obscurity. The more probable account is that Harold was shipwrecked on the coast of Ponthieu, and thrown into prison by count Guy, until his ransom was paid. William claimed the prisoner from his vassal, and received Harold with honour and kindness; but he employed this opportunity to extort from Harold a promise that he would support his pretensions to the English throne, and made him swear that he would deliver up the castle of Dover. To render the oath more obligatory, he employed an artifice well suited to the superstition of the age. Unknown to Harold, he conveyed under the altar, on which Harold agreed to swear, the reliques of certain martyrs ; and when Harold had taken the oath, William showed him the reliques, and admonished him to observe religiously an engagement which had been ratified by so tremendous a sanction. Harold, dissembling his concern, renewed his professions, and was dismissed with all the marks of confidence by the duke, who promised to maintain him in all his possessions, and give him his daughter Adeliza in marriage.* § 13. In what manner Harold observed the oath thus extorted from him by fear, we shall presently see. Meanwhile, he continued to practise every art of popularity ; and fortune threw two incidents * As no altar in those days was without its relics, this could be no cause for Harold's astonishment. 66 SAXON LINE RESTORED. Chap, iv, in his way by which he was enabled to acquire fresh favour. The first of these was the reduction of Wales ; the second related to his brother Tostig, who, as earl of Northumberland, had acted with so much cruelty and injustice, that the inhabitants, taking advantage of his absence in the south, deposed him, and offered the earldom to Morcar, grandson of Leofric (1065). As Morcar led an army of his new subjects southwards, he was joined by his brother Edwin, the earl of Mercia. When met at Northampton by Harold, who had been commissioned by the king to reduce and chastise the Northumbrians, Morcar made so vigorous a remonstrance against Tostig's tyranny, that Harold found it prudent to abandon his brother's cause; and, returning to Edward, he persuaded him to pardon the Northumbrians and confirm Morcar in his new govern- ment. Tostig, in rage, took shelter in Flanders with earl Baldwin, his brother-in-law. Emboldened by these successes, as well as by the friendship of Morcar and Edwin, and his marriage with the widow of king Griffith, Edwin's sister, Harold now openly aspired to the crown. Broken with age and infirmities, Edward died on the 5th of January, 1066, in the 65th year of his age and 25th of his reign. By some authorities he is said, on his deathbed, to have recom- mended Harold for his successor. § 14. This prince, who about a century after his death was canonized with the surname of " the Confessor," by a bull of pope Alexander III., was the last of the direct Saxon line that ruled in England. Though his reign was peaceable and fortunate, he owed his prosperity less to his own abilities than to the conjuncture of the times. The Danes, employed in other enterprises, no longer attempted those incursions which had been so troublesome to all his predecessors, and so fatal to some of them. The facility of his disposition made him acquiesce in the designs of Godwin and his son Harold ; and their abilities, as well as their power, enabled them to preserve peace and tranquillity at home. The most com- mendable circumstance of Edward's government was his attention to the administration of justice, and his compilation, for that pur- pose, of a body of laws, collected from the laws of iEthelbert, Ina, and Alfred. Though now lost — for the code that passes under Edward's name was composed at a later period — it was long the object of affection to the English nation.* Edward was buried in Westminster Abbey, which was consecrated only a few days before his death. This church was erected by Edward and dedicated to * It was not the laws in this restricted sense that the people demanded — if ever they did demand them— but the milder rule and administration prevailing before the Conquest, as compared with the harsher rule after the Conquest. But as such com- plaints under such circumstances are uni- versal, they prove nothing. a.d. 1066. HAROLD II. 67 St. Peter, in pursuance of the directions of pope Leo IX., as the condition of the king's release from a pilgrimage to Eome. Its site was previously occupied by a church erected by Sebert, king of Essex, which had long gone to ruin. Only a few insignificant fragments of this first Norman church in England had survived its demolition in the thirteenth century, when the new minster was commenced by Henry III. in honour of the Confessor. Edward was the first sovereign who touched for the king's evil. § 15. Harold II., 1066. — Harold's accession to the throne was attended with as little opposition and disturbance as if he had succeeded by the most undoubted hereditary title. On the day after Edward's death he was crowned and anointed king by Aldred, archbishop of York ; and the whole nation seemed to acquiesce joyfully in his elevation. But in Normandy the intelligence of Harold's accession moved William to the highest pitch of indigna- tion. He sent an embassy to England, upbraiding him with breach of faith, and summoning him to resign immediately possession of the kingdom, or at least to keep his promise of marrying William's daughter and holding England as his vassal. Harold refused to comply. The answer was no other than William expected. He assembled a fleet oi nearly 1000 vessels, great and small, and an army, variously estimated, from 14,000 to 60,000 men. Several Euronean rulers declared in favour of his claim : but his most important ally was pope Alexander II., who proclaimed Harold a perjured usurper, denounced excommunication against him and his adherents, and, the more to encourage the duke of Normandy in his enterprise, sent him a consecrated banner, and a ring with one of St. Peter's hairs in it. The first blow, however, was struck by Harold's brother Tostig, who sailed in the spring of the year with a considerable fleet from the Flemish ports, and ravaged the southern and eastern coasts of England. Eepulsed by earls Morcar and Edwin, he took refuge with the Scottish king, Malcolm Canmore. On the appearance of a large fleet in the Tyne under Harold Hardrada, king of Norway, Tostig hastened to join his force with the invader, promising him half of England as the price of his assistance. Scarborough was taken and burned, and the earls Edwin and Morcar were defeated in a bloody battle at Fulford on the Ouse, near Bishopthorpe. Harold now hastened with a large army into the north ; and he reached the enemy at Stamford Bridge, near York, called afterwards Battle Bridge. A bloody but decisive action was fought on Monday, the 25th of September, which ended in the total rout of the Norwegians, with the death of Tostig and of Harold Hardrada. Harold had scarcely time to rejoice in his victory, when he received intelligence 68 SAXON LINE RESTORED. Chap. iv. that the duke of Normandy had landed with a great army in the south of England. § 16. The Norman fleet sailed from St. Valery-sur-Somme on the 27th of September, and arrived safely at Pevensey, in Sussex, on the eve of the feast of St. Michael. The army quietly disem- barked. The duke himself, as he leaped on shore, happened to stumble and fall ; but had the presence of mind, it is said, to turn the omen to his advantage, by calling aloud that he had taken possession of the country.* Harold hastened by quick marches to oppose the invader ; but, though he was reinforced at London and other places with fresh troops, he found himself weakened by the desertion of Edwin and Morcar, who kept back the great forces of their earldoms. His brother Gurth, a man of bravery and conduct, entertaining appre- hensions of the result, remonstrated with the king, urging him to defer an engagement. The enemy, he said, harassed with small skirmishes, straitened in*provisions, fatigued with bad weather and deep roads during the winter season, which was approaching, would fall an easy and a bloodless prey. But Harold was deaf to all these remonstrances. He resolved to give battle in person, and for that purpose drew near to the Normans, who had removed their camp and fleet to Hastings, where they fixed their quarters (Oct. 13). After fruitless negotiations on both sides, the English and Normans prepared for the combat. The two camps presented a very different aspect : the English spent the time in revelry and feasting ; the Normans in silence and prayer. On Saturday morn- ing, the 14th of October, the duke called together the most con- siderable of his commanders, and made them a speech suitable to the occasion. He then ordered the signal of battle to be given. The whole army, led on by the minstrel Taillefer, advanced in order and with alacrity towards the enemy, singing the hymn or song of Eoland, the peer of Charlemagne. Barring the road to London, Harold had seized the advantage of a rising ground at Senlac, eight miles from Hastings, and re- solved to stand on the defensive. He surrounded his camp with a stockade, crowned with a fence of wattled branches against the Norman arrows. The English, as was their invariable custom, fought on foot. The Kentishmen were placed in the van, a post which they had always claimed as their due ; the militia, who were poorly armed, were posted on the wings ; in the centre, the king, accompanied by his two valiant brothers, Gurth and Leof- * The incident might seem to have heen I the fact that one method of taking posses- borrowed from ancient times ; but its per- sion, according to feudal usage, consistedin tlnency oa this occasion is strengthened by | laving the hand on a wall or piece of land. a.d 1066. HAROLD II. 6£ wine, placed himself at the head of his mail-clad bodyguard (or house-carls), close to the royal standard. The spot where the standard was pitched was long marked by the site of the high altar of " Battle Abbey," which William had vowed to build on that very spot in honour of St. Martin. For some hours the battle raged with doubtful success, till William commanded his troops to make a hasty retreat, and allure the enemy from their ground by the appearance of flight. Heated by action, and san- guine of victory, the English precipitately followed the Normans into the plain, when William ordered the infantry to fate their pursuers. Assaulted upon their wings at the same moment by the Norman cavalry, the English were repulsed with great slaughter; but, being rallied by the bravery of Harold, they were stilljable to maintain their post. The duke tried the same stratagem a second time with the same success; but even after this second advantage he still found a great body of the English who seemed determined to dispute the ground to the last extremity. Ordering his heavy- armed infantry to advance, he posted his archers behind them to gall the enemy, who, exposed by the situation of the ground, were intent on defending themselves against the swords and spears of their assailants. The stratagem prevailed. Harold fell, pierced in the right eye by an arrow, while he was fighting with great bravery at the head of his men. His body was mangled by a band of Nor- man knights, who had vowed to take the standard, and cut their way through his valiant body-guards. His two brothers had already fallen. Thus the great and decisive victory of Hastings was gained, after a battle fought from morning till sunset, with an heroic valour on both sides, to decide the fate of a mighty kingdom.* The body of Harold, mutilated and defaced beyond recognition, was found on the field. William ordered it to be buried on the sea- shore under a cairn of stones, the well-known sign of execration, but afterwards allowed it to be removed to the abbey of Waltham, founded by Harold. It was entombed beside the high altar of the grand Norman church, but again removed to another spot in the choir, which was pulled down at the dissolution of the monastery (1540). Tid then a tomb used to be shown bearing the inscription : "Hie jacet Hakoldus infelix." * The battle of Hastings is depicted on the Bayeux tapestry. This curious piece of needlewoTk, 214 feet long and 19 inches broad, which is still preserved at Bayeux, represents the whole history of the expe- dition, as well as the battle. According to tradition, it was worked by Matilda, the wife of William the Conqueror; but it was 5* more probably worked for the Conqueror's brother, bishop Odo, as an ornament of his newly built cathedral at Bayeux. ' It may be regarded not only as a faithful representation of the costume of the period, but as a contemporary authority for the history of the invasion, though of course from a Norman point of view. 70 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Chap rv. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. A. THE GOVERNMENT, LAWS, AND INSTITUTIONS OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS. 1. Introduction. — The completeness of the Anglo-Saxon conquest has been in- ferred from the establishment of their language in England. Even the British names of places yielded to Anglo-Saxon ones, with some few exceptions, and those chiefly in the border counties and in Cornwall. "No one travelling through England," says Mr. Hallam (Middle Ages, ch. viii. note 4), "would discover that any people had ever in- habited it before the Saxons, save so far as the mighty Home has left traces of her empire in some enduring walls, and a few names that betray the colonial city, the Londinium, the Camalodunum, the Linilum." It follows that the laws and customs of England were mainly of German origin. See Stubbs's Constitu- tional History of England, vol. i., chapters i.-iv. 2. The King and Royal family. — The Teutonic tribes that invaded Britain, like their ancestors in the wilds and woods of Germany, had no regular or permanent king, but elected a supreme head as occasion required, who, as his office chiefly consisted in directing their warlike expeditions, obtained the name of Heretoga, or army-leader (in modern German herzog, "duke"). Among the Saxons and Frisians of the continent this state of things continued much longer than in England, where the acquisition of a territory by conquest raised the vic- torious chief to the position of king. Thus, in the Anglo-Saxun Chronicle, Hen- gest and Horsa are heretogas when they come to Britain (448) ; but after the battle of Aylesford (455) Hengest and his son jEsc took the kingdom (feng to rice) ; and in 488 jEsc succeeds his father as king (cyning),* that title being now first given to one of the conquerors. So Cordic and Cynric come as ealdormen (495), and in 519 they take the kingdom (rice) of the West-Saxons. The fact that, in each of these cases, the son is named as becoming * Tiiis word is supposed to be of Sanscrit origin, meaning "Father of the Family." (See Stubbs' f.'onst. Hist. vol. i. p. 140.) king with his father, stamps the office at once with a certain hereditary character, which was wanting in the old German elective chieftainship. In the early period of the Anglo-Saxon occupation the kingly dignity remained really or nomi- nally elective ; but the crown was re- tained in the royal family, except in great emergencies, where (as with Canute and William) the hard fact of conquest was veiled under the form of election. There was, however, no fixed rule of succession. If the eldest son of the deceased monarch was qualified, he had the preference, but not without the consent of the great council, which was often merely formal; their authority in this or other matters varying according to the power and character of the monarch. But if he was a minor, or otherwise dis- qualified, he was sometimes set aside, and another appointed from the reign- ing family. The right of election appears to have belonged to the whole nation, but it was really exercised by the Witan, consisting of the prelates and the nobles, the share of the people in the act being confined to the acclamations of such as might happen to be present at the "hal- lowing" of the king. This ceremony, which included both coronation and unc- tion, performed by the bishops, signified a religious sanction of the king's authority. In the same spirit, the king took an oath that he would govern rightly, and, under the successors of Alfred, when the idea of kingly sanctity had grown stronger, the people took an oath of allegiance. By degrees the kingly power grew stronger in England, especially after the separate kingdoms became merged into one. The kings then began to as- sume more high-flown titles ; as that of Basileus — borrowed from the Byzantine court — Imperator, Primicerius, Flavius, Augustus, etc. ; some of which are not very intelligible. Egbert, however, and his five immediate successors, contented themselves with the title of kings of Wessex. Edward the elder assumed the style of "king of the Angles" (rex Anglorum), whilst Athelstan called him- self " king of all Britain " (totius Britan- nia monarchus, rex, or rector), and was Chap. iv. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 71 the first to introduce the Greek name of basileus. Edwy and Edgar are remark- able for their pompous titles. The king, like the rest of his. subjects, had a wergild, or fixed price for his life, the amount of which varied in different kingdoms, but was of course considerably higher than that of his most distinguished subjects. This was increased b^Alfred, who made the compassing of the king's death a capital offence, attended with confiscation. The king's sons, or, in their default, those who had the next pretension to the succession, were called cethelings, or nobles.* The consort of an Anglo-Saxon king was styled em- phatically "the wife" (cweri), "the lady" (Jilcefdige). She was crowned and con- secrated like him, had a separate court, and a separate property, besides her dowry, or " morning gifts " (morgen-gifu). 3. Division of ranks. — The whole free population of England under the rank of royalty may be divided into two main classes of eorls (earls) and ceorls (churls) ; that is, gentle and simple, or nobles and yeomen. Ealdormen. — In ancient times the affairs of each tribe were directed by the elders (ealdorman, alderman), which name thus became synonymous with thief. Hence ealdorman was the chief title of nobility among the Anglo-Saxons. It was the next rank after the king, and was applied to any man in authority, but more especially to the governor of a shire, or a large district including several shires. The title of ealdorman corre- sponds to the princeps of Tacitus, the satrapa or subregulus of Bede, the dux of the Latin chroniclers, and the comes of the "Normans. The office was properly elective, but in the larger districts or sub-kingdoms it was to a considerable extent hereditary. In this case, the elec- tion apparently required the consent of the king and the Witan. In the 11th century, under the Danish monarchs, an important change was introduced in the appellation of ranks. The word eorl lost its general sense of good birth, and became an official title, equivalent to alderman, and was applied to the governor of a shire or province. In this sense, both the word eorl and the Danish jarl came to be merged in the title earl. The term * jEtheling is a patronymic from ^Ethel, "noble." which forms the prefix of so many of the Anglo-Saxon names. earl as a general designation of nobility was now supplanted by thane ; and hence in the later period of Anglo-Saxon muni- ments we find thane opposed to ceorl, as eorl is in the earlier (Hallam's Middle Ages, vol. ii. pp. 360, 361). The ealdor- man, or earl, and bishop were of equal rank, whilst the archbishop was equal to the atheling, or member of the royal house. After the Norman Conquest the title of alderman seems to have been restricted to the magistrates of cities and boroughs. Tlianes. — Next in degree to the alder- man was the thane (A.S. thegen or thegn).* There were different degrees ot thanes, the highest being those called king's thanes, the warrior comites of the king. It was necessary that the lesser thane should have five hides of land (about 500 acres) ; whilst the qualification of the alderman was forty, or eight times as much. This class formed a nobility -f- arising from office or service ; but subse- quently the hereditary possession of land produced an hereditary nobility ; and at length it became so much dependent upon property, that the mere possession of five hides of land, together with a chapel, a kitchen, a hall, and a hell, converted a churl into a thane. In like manner, as we have seen, by a law of Athelstan (which, however, was perhaps only a confirmation of an ancient charter), a merchant who had made three voyages on his own account became a thane. The thane was liable to military service, and was therefore on a par with the eques, or knight. Probably he had a vote in the national council. Ceorls or churls. — Between the thane and the serf, or slave, was the churl or freeman (sometimes also called frigman; in Lat. villanus ; Norm, villain). But every man was obliged by law to place himself under the protection of some lord, failing which he might be seized as a robber. The ceorls were for the most part not independent freeholders, and cultivated the lands of their lords, on which they were bound to reside, and * Commonly derived from thcrmian, " to serve," as if the king's servaut. But the proper meaning of the word seems to be a warrior ; and the second sense of service came from the military service rendered by the thanes. f It has often been stated that there was no nobility of blood, except in the royal family. Mr. Stubbs thinks that a class of nobles, descended from the ancient settlers {varies and isthel), were, gradually merged in the class of nobles by office and service (Stubbs Const. Hist. vol. i. p. 151). 72 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Chap. iv. could not quit, though in other respects they -were freemen. But there were Beveral conditions of ceorls, who in the Domesday Book form two-fifths of the registered inhabitants. We have already seen that the ceorl might acquire land, and that, if he obtained as much as five hides, he became forthwith a thane. Hence there must have been many ceorls in England who were independent free- holders possessing less than this quan- tity of land, (probably the Socmanni or Socmen of Domesday Book), whom Mr. Hallam describes as "the root of a noble plant, the free socage tenants, of English yeomanry, whose independence has stamped with peculiar features both our constitution and our national charac- ter " (Middle Ages, vol. ii. p. 274). Serfs. — The lowest class were the serfs, or servile population (theowas, esnas), of whom 25,000 are registered in Domes- day Book, or nearly one-eleventh of the registered population. Slaves were of two kinds— hereditary or penal. A free Anglo-Saxon could become a slave only through crime, or default of himself or forefathers in not paying a wergild; or by voluntary sale— the father having power to sell a child of seven, and a child of thirteen having power to sell itself. The great majority of slaves probably consisted of captured Celts or their descendants : a conclusion which seems to be corroborated by the fact that this class was by far the most numerous towards the Welsh borders, and that several Celtic words preserved in our language relate to menial employment. Clergy. — The clergy occupied an in- fluential station in society. They took a great share in the proceedings of the national council; and in the court of the shire the bishop presided along with the alderman. This influence was a natural result of their superior learn- ing in those ignorant ages, as well as of the veneration paid to their sacerdotal character. 4. The Witena-gemot. — The great nar tional council (corresponding at first with the concilium prin ipum of Tacitus), whether of each state, like Kent or Wessex, or of the whole united kingdom of the Angles and Saxons, must not be conceived of as a popular assembly, like the folkmoot of each shire. It was called Witena-gemot, assembly of the Witan (sapientes), wise, able, or noble men. Its constitution, numbers, and privileges are quite uncer- tain. It was generally composed, accord- ing to the expression, of bishops, abbots, and ealdormen, and of the noble and wise of the kingdom ; but who these last were is uncertain. Probably they com- prised the royal, if not the lower, thanes. But it is now generally admitted that the ceorls hjd not the smallest share in the deliberation of the national assembly ; that no traces exist of elective deputies, either of shires or cities; and that the Saxon Witena-gemot cannot therefore be considered as the prototype of the modern Parliament. The Anglo-Saxon laws are declared to have been made (in varied phraseology; by the king, with the counsel or consent of the Witan, or the wise. They are found associated with the king in making grants of land and in taxation ; and they exercised both civil and criminal judicature. Sometimes they elected the kings, and, when they could, deposed them. From the names subscribed to extant acts, the Witena-gemot must have been a small assembly, their number, time, and place of meeting depending apparently on the pleasure of the king. 5. Division of the soil. Folc-land and Boc-land. — The soil of England was distributed in the manner usual among the Germans upon the conti- nent. Part of the land remained the property of the state, and part was granted to individuals in perpetuity as freeholds. The former was called Folc- land, the land of the folk, or the people, and might either be occupied in com- mon, or parcelled out to individuals for a term, on the expiration of which it reverted to the state. The land de- tached from the folc-land, and granted to individuals in perpetuity as freehold, was called Boc-land, from hoc, a book or writing, because the possession of such estates was secured by a deed or charter. Originally they were conveyed by some token, such as a piece of turf, the branch of a tree, a spear, a drinking-horn, &c. ; and in the case of lands granted to the church, these tokens were solemnly de- posited upon the altar. There are instances of such conveyances as late as the Conquest. The title to land thus conveyed seems to have been equally valid with that of boc-land ; but the latter name can be applied with propriety only to such land as was conveyed by writing. Boc-land was exempt from all public Chap. tv. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 73 burthens, except those called the trinoda necessitas, or liability to military service, and of contributing to the repair of fort- resses and bridges (fyrd, burh-bot, and brycge-bdt). Boc-land was granted by the king with the consent of the Witan ; ft could be held by freemen of all ranks, and even bequeathed to females; but in the latter case only in usufruct, reverting after the death of a female holder to the male line. After the Norman conquest we hear no more of folc-land; what re- mained of it at that period became terra regis, or crown-land: except a remnant, of which there are traces in the common lands of the present day. This was a consequence of the feudalism introduced by the Normans, by which all England was regarded as the demesne of the king, held under him by feudal tenure. 6. Shires. — The territorial division of shires or counties, though ancient, was not common in England. They are first mentioned in connection with Wessex and the laws of king Ina. The smaller kingdoms and their subdivisions fell naturally into shires, as Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Essex, and Norfolk and Suffolk in East Anglia. At what time the complete distribution of counties was effected is unknown ; but they existed undoubtedly in their present state at the time of the Conquest. The counties of York and Lincoln, apparently from their great size, were divided, probably by the Danes, into thirds called tredings, which, under the corrupt name of ridings, still exist in the former. In the later Anglo- Saxon times a scir-gemot (shire-mote, or county court) was held twice a year — in the beginning of May and October — in which all the thanes were entitled to a seat and a vote. Its functions were judicial, and it was presided over by the ealdorrnan, or earl — the executive governor of the county — and by the bishop; for the ecclesiastical dioceses were originally identical with the counties. Hume justly remarks that, among a people who lived in so simple a manner as the Anglo- Saxons, the judicial power is always of more importance than the legislative; and the thanes were mainly indebted i r the preservation of their liberties to their possessing the judicial power in their own county courts. The scir-gerefa (shire- reeve, sheriff) was the executive officer appointed by the king to carry out the decrees of the court, to levy distresses, tike charge of prisoners, &c. The sheriff was at first only an assessor, but in pro- cess of time he became a joint president, and ultimately sole president. This court survived the Conquest; and it is the opinion of Mr. Hallam that it contri- buted in no small degree to fix the liberties of England by curbing the feudal aristocracy (Middle Ages, vol. ii. p. 277). 7. Hundreds. — Division into hundreds was ancient among the Teutonic races, and is mentioned by Tacitus (Germ. 6 and 12). It had a personal basis. Each pagus, or district, composed of several vici (villages or townships), sent its 100 warriors to the host, and its court had 100 assessors with the princeps (or ealdor- rnan), and both these may possibly re- present 100 free families to which the land of the district was originally allotted (Stubbs, Const. Hist. vol. i. p. 31). This, however, is only an hypothesis. In Eng- land the constitution of the hundreds is so anomalous, that it is impossible to ascertain the principle on which it was formed. Some of the smaller shires pre- sent the greatest number of hundreds; but this may have arisen from their being more densely populated. In the time of Edward the Confessor, the hundreds of Northamptonshire seem to have consisted of 100 hides of land. In the north of England the wapentake corresponded to the hundred of the southern districts. The name, which literally signifies " the touching of arms," was derived from the ceremony which took place on the in- auguration of the chief magistrate, when, having dismounted from his horse, he fixed his spear in the ground, which was then touched with the spears of those present. The hundred-mote, or court of the hundred, was held by its own hundred- man under the sheriffs writ, and was a court of justice for suitor* within the hundred. But all important cases were decided by the county court ; and in course of time the jurisdiction of the court of the hundred was confined to the punish- ment of petty offences and the mainte- nance of a local police. 8. The Township or Village (vicus, villata; tun, tunscipe) was the territorial unit of the system, and is itself based on the family, which is its original unit. The first element in the state was the indi- vidual freeman ; his first relation to the community is that of the family ; and the tie of kindred (mtegburh) was the first 74 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. CnAp. it. constitutional bond. A body of kinsmen, holding a district of land as their common property, and having their homesteads clustered together in its midst, is the first general type of a Germanic community ; and the original bond of kindred may probably still be traced in many of the names of places in England which end in the patronymic ing (with or without a local termination, as ham (home), ton (town), &c. But the cluster of homesteads formed the village (vicus, wick), or, with regard to its enclosure (tiln), the town or township. When fortified, it be- came the borough (burh).* The land around it, whether acquired by original colonization, or (as must have been usually the case in England) a division of territory allotted to a certain number of favour- ites, who cultivated it in common, and severed from neighbouring settlements by a belt of the original forest or waste, formed the marJc.f But as no certain t-aces of the mark are to be found in England, the basis of our political organization must rather be sought in the township. " The historical township is the body of allodial owners who have advanced beyond the stage of land-com- munity, retaining many vestiges of that organization; or, the body of tenants of a lord, who regulates them, or allows them to regulate themselves, on prin- ciples derived from the same" (Stubbs, i. p. 85). "It may represent the original allotment of the smallest subdivision of the free community, or the settlement of the kindred colonizing on their own account, or the estate of the great pro- prietor who has a tribe of dependants. Its headman is the tun-gerefa (town- reeve), who in the dependent townships is of course nominated by the lord, but in the independent ones may have been originally a chosen officer, although, when the central power has become stronger, he may be (as in the Frank villa) the * " The tun is originally the enclosure or hedge whether of the single farm " (still called in Scot- land the town), " or of the enclosed village, as the burh is the fortified house of the powerful man The corresponding word in Norse is yardr, our garth or yard. The equivalent German termina- tion is helm, our ham ; the Danish form is by (Norse bil = German ban). The notion of the dor/ or thor/w seems to stand a little further from the primitive settlement."— Stubhs, Const. Hist. vol. i. p. 82, note. _. t On the whole subject of the mark system, see btubbs, I. c. p. 83, and the authorities there quoted, and especially Sir Henry Maine, On. Village Com- munities, nominee of the king, or of his officer " (Ibid. p. 83). 9. Tythings. Frankpledge. — In the later Anglo-Saxon times, and in the southern districts of England, we also find another smaller subdivision, the teothing, or tything, i.e. tenth part (of the hundred), or collection of ten, synonymous in towns with ward. Every man, whose rank and property did not afford an ostensible guarantee for his good conduct, was compelled, after the reign of Athel- stan, to find a surety (borh). This surety was afforded by the tythings, the mem- bers of which formed, as it were, a per- petual bail for one another's appearance in cases of crime; with, apparently, an ultimate responsibility if the criminal escaped, or if his estate proved inadequate to defray the penalty incurred. In this view the tythings were also called frith- borhs, or securities for the peace ; a term which, having been corrupted into fri- borg, gave rise to the Norman appellation of frankpledge. The institution seems to have existed only partially in the north of England, where it was called tienmannatale (tenman's tale). Whether the tything arose out of the township or was a separate association of freemen by tens is very doubtful. 10. Punishments. — Almost every of- fence could be expiated with money; and in cases of murder and bodily in- juries, not only was a price set upon the corpse, called wergild, or leodgild, or simply wer or leod* but there was also a tariff for every part of the body, down to the teeth and nails. Considerable value seems to have been set on personal appearance, as the loss of a man's beard was valued at 20 shillings, the breaking of a thigh at only 12 ; the loss of a front tooth at 6 shillings, the breaking of a rib at only half that sum. In the case of a freeman this price was paid to his rela- tives, in that of a slave to his master. In this regulation we see but little ad- vance upon that barbarous state of society in which, in the absence of any public or general law, each family or tribe avenges its own injuries. The wergild is merely a substitute for personal ven- geance. The amount of the ivergild varied according to the rank and property of the individual, and in this sense every man had truly his price. For this pur- * Wer and leod both signify man, and gild money or payment. Chap. iv. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 75 post all society below the rank of the royal family and of an ealdorman was divided into three classes: first, the twyhynd man or ceorl, whose wergild, ac- cording to the laws of Mercia, was 200 shillings ; secondly, the sixhynd man, or lesser thane, whose wergild was 600 shil- lings ; and thirdly, the royal thane whose death could not be compensated under 1200 shillings. The wergild of an ealdor- man was twice as much as that of a royal thane ; that of an aatheling three times, that of a king commonly six times as much. The value of a man's oath was also estimated by his property. The evi- dence of a thane in a court of justice counterbalanced that of 12 ceorls, and that of an ealdorman the oath of 6 thanes. In cases of foul or wilful murder (morth), arson, and theft, capital punishment was sometimes inflicted, if the injured party preferred it to the acceptance of a wer- gild. Treason was a capital crime. Ban- ishment was a customary punishment for atrocious crimes. The banished crimi- nal became an outlaw, and was said to bear a wolfs head ; so that if he returned and attempted to defend himself it was lawful for any one to slay him. Cutting off the hands and feet was another punish- ment for theft. Adultery, though a penal offence, might be expiated, like murder, with a fine. 11. Courts of justice. — The two prin- cipal courts of justice were the shire- mote, or county court, and the hundred- mote, of the constitution of both of which we have already spoken. From the county court an appeal lay to the king. In the county court, as observed above, all the thanes had a right to vote ; but as so large and tumultuous an as- sembly was found inconvenient, it gradu- ally became the custom to intrust the finding of a verdict to a committee usually consisting of 12 of the principal thanes, but sometimes of 24, or even 36 : and in order to form a valid judgment it was necessary that two-thirds of them should concur. In the northern districts these judges were called lawmen (lahmen). Their decisions were submitted for the approval of the whole court. The accused, who was obliged to give security (tiorh) for his appearance, might clear himself by his own oath, together with that of a certain number of compurgators or fellow-swearers who were acquainted with him as neighbours, or at all events resident within the jurisdiction of the court. The compurgators therefore were witnesses to character, and their functions cannot be at all compared to those of a modern juryman. The thanes, or lahmen, who found the verdict, bore a nearer resemblance to a jury : yet it is evident, from the mode of trial by compurgation, as well as those by ordeal and judicial combat, of which we shall speak pre- sently, that they were not called upon, like a modern juryman, to form a judg- ment of the facts from the evidence and cross-examination of witnesses, but from their own knowledge of the facts or opinion of the accused person.* If the accused was a vassal, and bis hlaford, or lord, would not give testimony in his favour, then he was compelled to bring forward a triple number of compurgators. The accuser was also obliged to produce compurgators, who pledged themselves that he did not prosecute out of interested or vindictive motives. Ordeals, or God's judgments, were only resorted to when the accused could not produce compurgators, or when by some former crime he had lost all title to credibility. Some forms of ordeal, as the consecrated morsel and the cross-proof, were only calculated to work upon the imagination ; others, and the more cus- tomary, as those by hot water and fire, subjected the body to a painful and hazardous trial, from which it is difficult to see how even the most innocent person could ever have escaped, except through the collusion of his judges. These were conducted in a church under the super- intendence of the clergy. In the ordeal by hot water, the accused had to take out a stone or piece of iron with his naked hand and arm from a caldron of the boiling element; in that by fire, he had to carry a bar of heated iron for a certain distance that had been marked out. In both cases the injured member was wrapped up by the priest in a piece of clean linen cloth, which was secured with a seal : and if, on opening the cloth on the third day, the wound was found to be healed, the accused was acquitted, or, in the contrary event, was adjudged to pay the penalty of his offence. Ju- dicial combats, called by the Anglo- Saxons eornest, and by the Danes holm- gang, from their being generally fought * The origin of trial by jury is discussed io a note at the end of chapter viii. 76 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Chap. iv. on a small river-island, though not entirely unknown, appear to have been much rarer among those people than among their Norman successors. Within the verge of the king's court an accused person enjoyed sanctuary and refuge. Its limits, whether permanent or temporary, are defined with an exact- ness almost ludicrous, and as if there was something magical in the numbers, to be on every side from the burgh gate of the king's residence, 3 miles, 3 fur- longs, 3 acres, 9 feet, 9 palms, and 9 barleycorns. 12. Guilds. — The municipal guilds of the Anglo-Saxons may be traced to the heathen sacrificial guilds, an original feature of which was the common ban- quet. These devil's-guilds, as they are termed in the Christian laws, were not abolished, but converted into Christian institutions. There were even numerous ecclesiastical guilds. It was incumbent on them to preserve peace, and, in case of homicide by one of the members, the corporation paid part of the wergild. In London were several frith-gilds (peace- guilds) of different ranks ; and in the time of Athelstan we find them forming an association for the purpose of mutual indemnity against robbery. Ealdormen are usually found at the heads of the guilds as well as of the cities themselves. The chief magistrate of a town was the wic-gerefa, or town-reeve, who appears to have been appointed by the king. Other officers of the same kind were the port-reeve and burgh-reeve. The chief municipal court of London was the Bus- thing, literally, a court or assembly in a house, in contradistinction to one held in the open air; whence the modern hustings. This word was introduced by the Northmen, in whose language thii.g signified any judicial or deliberative assembly. 13. Commerce, manners, and customs. — England enjoyed a considerable foreign commerce. London was always a great emporium: Frisian merchants are found there and in York as early as the 8th century. Wool was the chief article of export, and was received back from the continent in a manufactured state. Mints were established in several cities and towns, with a limited number of privi- leged moneyers ; and many of the Anglo- Saxon coins still preserved exhibit con- siderable skill. The Anglo-Saxons loved to indulge in hospitality and feasting ; and at their cheerful meetings it was customary to send round the harp, that all might sing in turn. The men, as well as the women, sometimes wore necklaces, bracelets, and rings, which were of a more expensive kind than those used by the female sex. We have already adverted to king Alfred's taste for jewellery. The Anglo-Saxon ladies employed themselves much in spinning ; and thus even king Alfred himself calls the female part of his 'family "the spindle-side," in contradistinction to the spear, or male side. Hence the name of spinster for a young unmarried woman. B. ANGLO-SAXON LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. The Anglo-Saxon language was con- verted into modern English by a slow pro- cess of several centuries. It still remains the essential element of our language, all others being but grafts on the parent stock. The works of Alfred, and the Anglo-Saxon laws before the reign of Athelstan, present the language in its purest state. On an examination of Alfred's translations, Mr. Turner found that only about one-fifth of the words had become obsolete {Anglo-Saxons, vol. ii. p. 445) ; so that the great bulk of our vo- cabulary still remains Anglo-Saxon. The period of transition, called by some writers the Semi-Saxon, is commonly estimated to extend from the middle of the 12th to the middle of the 13th century. Anglo-Saxon became English chiefly through the effects of time ; and though the Norman conquest had undoubtedly some influence on the process, it was much less than has been commonly imagined. A few manuscripts of the 13th century are written in as pure Saxon as that which prevailed before the Conquest. The ad- mixture of Norman-French is exemplified in our literature, in the latter half of the 14th century, by the genius and writings of Chaucer. The Angles and the Saxons introduced two slightly different dialects. Subse- quently the Danes settled in the districts occupied by the Angles, and introduced many Scandinavian words. The bounda- ries between the Anglian and Saxon dialects may perhaps be roughly indi- Chap. rv. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 77 cated by a line drawn from the nortb of Essex to the north of Worcestershire. The earlier specimens of Anglo-Saxon literature are metrical; the metre being marked by accent and alliteration. The oldest extant specimen of Anglo-Saxon poetry is the "Gleeman's Song," the author of which flourished towards the end of the 4th and beginning of the 5th centuries, and consequently before the invasion of England : the oldest MS. of the poem, however, is five centuries later. Two other poems, also written before the Anglo-Saxon migration, are the " Battle of Finsburgh " and the " Tale of Beowulf." The songs of Caednion, a monk of Whitby, who flourished a little before the time of Bede, are probably the oldest specimens extant of Anglo-Saxon poetry written in this country. Ca?dinon remained for six centuries the great poet, sometimes styled the Milton of the Anglo-Saxons. Other poems and songs are extant, reaching to the 11th century. One of the noblest specimens of the last period is the Anglo-Saxon version of the Psalms. The most important Anglo- Saxon prose works are the Chronicles, composed at different times, and usually cited as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Of king Alfred's works, who must also be regarded as one of the Anglo-Saxon authors, we have already spoken. Other prose writers are St. Wulfstan (arch- bishop Wulfstan, better known by bis Latin name of Lupus), and vElfric, the strenuous defender of the English church in the 11th century against the innova- tions of Rome. C. THE ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE, called by Florence of Worcester Anglica Chronica, comprises a set of seven parallel (but not all independent) chronicles, which were kept in different monasteries, three of them at Canterbury, and the others at Winchester, Abingdon, Worcester, and Peterborough. Their range varies, but all begin either with the landing of Julius Caesar or from the Christiau era, and the latest (the Peterborough Chroni- cle) reaches to the accession of Henry II. in 1154 The early portions of the Chronicle for the most part follow Bede's Ecclesiastical History; a presumption that (at least, in its present form) the Chronicle was compiled after 731. But Bede (as he himself tells us) used early documents which were compiled in the monasteries from the first establishment of Christianity among the Anglo-Saxons, and which doubtless embodied the tradi- tions (if not written records) of the people since their arrival in England. The use of these original sources may be traced in the Chronicle by entries, relating chiefly to the details of the Conquest and other military events, which have no place in Bede. The first germ of the Chronicle, in its collected form, may be traced to king Alfred, who — if we may trust the Norman metrical chronicle of Geoffroi Gaimar {L'Estorie des Engles; time of Henry I.) — caused an English Book (un livre Engleis) to be written, " of adven- tures, and of laws, and of battles on land, and of the kings who made war ; " and this "Chronicle (cronez, cronike), a great book," was put forth by authority at Winchester, where the king had it fastened by a chain, for all who ivished to read it. An early, though probably not an original, copy of this Winchester Chronicle, forming the portion down to a.d. 891, was presented by archbishop Parker to Corpus Christi College, Cam- bridge (MS. C.C.C. clxiii.). Professor Earle traces marks of division, indi- cating the composition of successive sections of the Chronicle, at the years 682, 755, 822, and 855, and the hand of one editor through the whole portion from 455 to 855. At the year 851 we have the decisive proof of original con- temporary authorship in the use of the first person, and in the phrase, " the present day." After Alfred, the marks of contemporary authorship are constant in this and the other editions of the Chronicle, and the continuations by dif- ferent hands may be traced at certain epochs. (See the Introduction to Prof. Earle's edition, " Two of the Saxon Chronicles parallel, with Supplementary Extracts from the Others," and Sir T. D. Hardy's Catalogue, etc., in the Rolls Series). The last complete edition, in the Rolls series, exhibits the chronicles in a parallel form, with a translation by Benjamin Thorpe. D. AUTHORITIES. The principal ancient historical sources for the Anglo-Saxon times are: Bede, Chronicon and Historia Ecclesiastica ; the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle; Gildas, Be 78 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Chap, iv. Excidio Britannice; Nennius, Historia Britonum ; Asser, Be Rebus Gestis JElfredi; Ethelweard, Chronicon; Flo- rence of Worcester, Clironicon; Simeon of Durham, Historia de Gestis Anglorum, continued by John of Hexham ; Henry of Huntingdon, Hist. Anglorum; Geoffroi Gaimar, L'Estorie des Engles. The pre- ceding works, so far as they extend to the Conquest, will be found in the Monu- mental, Historica Britannica, as well as in other collections and separate editions. In the collection just referred to are also contained the following anonymous pieces referring to the period in question : An- nates Cambrics; Brut y Tywysogion, or Chronicle of the Princes of Wales ; Car- men de Bello Hastingensi. All these are in Latin, except the Anglo-Saxon Chroni- cle, the Brut, y Tywysogion, and the Norman-French poem of Gaimar. To these sources may be added Michel's Chroniques Anglo- Nor mandi:s. The other principal collections in which these and other historical works relating to the Anglo-Saxon period will be found are : Parker's Collections ; Savile's Collection ; Camden, Anglica, Normannica, Hibernica, Cambrica, a veteribus scripta; Fulman, Quinque Scriptores; Gale, Historia? Anglicanm Scriptores Quinque, and Scriptores Quin- decim ; Hearne's Collections ; Twysden, Histories Anglicanm Scriptores Decern; Sparke, Hist. Anglicanm Scriptores va- rii; Wharton, Anglid Sacra. These collections contain the following authors, besides most of those already enumerated as in the Monumenta Historica: Ailred of Rievaulx, Life of Edward the Con- fessor, &c. [Twysden] ; John Brompton, Clironicles [ibid.] ; Eadmer, Historia Novorum, etc. ; Roger Hoveden, Annates [Savile] ; * William of Malmesbury, Be Gestis Regum Anglorum and De Gesits Pontificum Angl. [Savile] ; Hugo Can- didus, Historia [Sparke] ; Peter Langtoft, Metrical Chronicle [Hearne] ; St. Neot Clironicon [Gale] ; the Florcs Historia- rum, wrongly attributed to Matthew of Westminster [Parker]. The following authors are published * Ingulphus, Hist. Croylandcnsis [Savile and Fulman], is now proved to be spurious. in the foreign collection of Dnchesne: Gervase of Tilbury ; Emmce Anglice Be- ginaz Encomium. The most complete collection (when the plan is fully executed) will be that of Ihe Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain and Ireland during the Middle Ages, published by the authority of her Majesty's Treasury, under the direction of the Master of the Rolls. This series is in large 8vo. each work being intrusted to a competent editor, and furnished with historical and critical in^ troductions, besides notes and (in some cases) translations. The English translations of a large number of the old chronicles in Bohn's Antiquarian Library are of various degrees of merit (and demerit), but of use and interest for the English reader. The English Historical Society has published the following works : a Col- lection of Saxon Charters, edited by the .late Mr. J. M. Kemble, under the title of Codex Diplomaticus JEvi Saxonici ; also, the Chronica of Roger of Wen- dover, by the Rev. H. 0. Coxe ; and valuable editions of Gildas, Nennius, Bede, and Richard of Devizes, by the Rev. J. Stevenson. The best modern works on the Anglo- Saxon period are : Turner's History of the Anglo-Saxons, 3 vols. 8vo. ; Palgrave's Rise and Progress oj the English Com- monwealth during the Anglo-Saxon Period, 2 vols. 4to- , and, History oj England, Anglo-Saxon Period [Family Library, vol. xxi,] ; Kemble's Saxons in England, 2 vols. 8vo. ; Lappen berg's Eng- land under the Anglo-Saxon Kings, trans- lated from the German, with additions, by Thorpe, 2 vols. 8vo. ; Pearson's History qf England; Pmili's Life oj King Alfred ; Thorpe's Ancient Laws and Institutes of the Anglo-Saxon Kings; Freeman's History of the Norman Con- quest, and Old English History; Pro- fessor Stubbs's Documents Illustrative cj English History, vol. i., and Con- stitutional History of England. On the influence of the Danes in England, the best work is : Worsaee, An A ccount of the Danes and Norwegians in England, Scotland, and Ireland Silver Penny of William the Conqueror, struck at Chester — unique. Obverse : + willelm eex ; bust, front face, crowned, with sceptre in right hand. Reverse: + vnnvlf on cestre; cross potent, in each angle, a circle, containing respectively paxs. BOOK II. THE NOEMAN AND EARLY PLANTAGENET KINGS. a.d. 1066-1199. CHAPTER V. WILLIAM I., SURNAMED THE CONQUEROR, b. 1027 ; r. 1066-1087. § 1. History of Normandy. Rolf the Ganger. William I. Longue-epee. Richard I. Sans-peur. § 2. Richard II. le Bon. Richard III. Robert the Devil. William II. of Normandy and I. of England. § 3. Norman manners. § 4. Consequences of the battle of Hastings. Submission of the English. § 5. Settlement of the government. § 6. William's return to Normandy. Revolts of the English, suppressed upon William's return to England. § 7. New insurrections in 1068. § 8. Insurrections in 1069. Landing of the Danes. § 9. Deposition of Stigand and the Anglo- Saxon prelates. § 10. Last struggle of the English. Conquest of Hereward. § 11. Insurrection of the Norman barons. § 12. Revolt of prince Robert. § 13. Projected invasion of Canute. Domesday Book. War with France and death of William. § 14. Character of William. His administration. Forest laws. Curfew-bell. § 1. The Norman conquest produced a complete revolution in the manners as well as in the government of the English ; and we must, therefore, here pause a while in order to take a brief survey of the conquerors in their native homes. For a long period the coasts of Gaul, like those of England, were ravaged by the Northmen ; and for the greater part of a century the monks made the Neustrian churches re-echo with the dismal 80 WILLIAM I. Chap. v. chant of the litany, A furore Normannorum libera nos, Domine. Thus the way was prepared for the final subjugation of the country by Rolf, or Rollo, son of the Norwegian jarl Rbgnwald. Rollo is said to have been so large of limb that no horse could be found to carry him, whence his name of " Eolf the Ganger," or walker. It was in November, 876, that Rollo first landed in Neustria; but he made no settlement there on that occasion, and he had to fight and struggle long before he could obtain possession of his future dominions. In 911 the French king, Charles the Simple, conciliated him by the cession of a considerable part of Neustria. As a condition of this gift, Rollo, next year, abjuring his pagan gods, became a Christian ; was baptised by the archbishop of Rouen, and married Gisla, Charles's daughter. After the completion of the treaty, when Rollo was required to do homage to Charles for his newly acquired domains, the bold Northman started back with indignation, exclaiming, Ne si, by Oott I But as the ceremony was insisted on, Rollo deputed one of his soldiers to perform it ; who, proudly raising Charles's foot to his mouth, in a standing position, threw the monarch on his back ! Homage performed in such a fashion did not promise a very obedient vassal ; and in the course of a few years Rollo's risings and rebellions extorted new cessions of territory. But towards the close of his life he found it expedient to connect himself more closely with the court of France, and he allowed his son William to receive in- vestiture from king Charles at Eu. Rollo died in 931. In 933 we find his son and successor, Guillaume Longue-epee, or William Long- sword, doing homage to king Rudolf, and receiving Cornouaille, subsequently known as the Cotentin, from that monarch, thus extending the western boundary of Normandy to the sea. The name of " Normandy " (Normannia), however, does not appear till the 11th century ; and in the earlier times the county and the count, for it was not at first a dukedom, appear to have been called after the capital, Eouen. Already in the time of William, though only the second ruler, the court had become entirely French in language and manners ; whilst a pure Norwegian population still occupied the parts near the coast. Hence William, who wished that his son and heir, Richard, should be able to speak to his Norse subjects in their own tongue, sent him to Bayeux to be educated. William was murdered by Flemings in 942. He had, however, previously engaged his subjects to acknowledge his youthful son, Richard, afterwards known by the surname of Sans-peur or the Fearless. This prince married Emma, daughter of Hugh le Grand, duke of France, and was one of the chief partisans who established his son Hugh Capet on the throne of France. Richard was engaged in a a.d. 876-10G6. THE NORMANS. 81 war with England, the causes of which remain unexplained. It was terminated through the mediation of pope John XV., by a treaty of peace signed at Kouen on the 1st March, 991. § 2. By the sister of Hugh Capet, Eichard Sans-peur had no children ; but by Gunnor, his second wife, he left five sons and three daughters, among whom, beside his successor, Richard II., or le Bon, was Emma, wife of Ethelred II. of England, and subsequently of Canute. As Richard II., like his father, was a minor at his accession in 996, the oppressed peasantry took advantage and rose in rebellion ; but the insurrection was soon put down. Richard's reign is peculiarly interesting to us in consequence of his intimate connection with England ; and as this was continued under his suc- cessor Robert, it contributed much to introduce Norman civilization and influence into this country, and to effect its moral subjugation before its actual conquest. Richard le Bon died in 1026. His eldest son and successor, Richard III., died after a short reign, poisoned, as some suspected,. by his brother Robert, surnamed the Devil, and also the Magnificent. Robert assumed the reins of government in 1028, not without a struggle. His short reign was marked by a fresh acquisition of territory ; but a few years after his accession he resolved to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and died on his return, as it is said by poison, at Nice in Bithynia, in the summer of 1035. Before his departure to the Holy Land he had induced the Norman barons to acknowledge as his successor his natural son William, born of a concubine named Herletta at Falaise in 1027, to whom he was much attached. But upon the death of Robert many of the barons refused to acknowledge William ; and during his minority the country was disturbed by the feuds of the nobility. When William arrived at manhood, he asserted his rights by force of arms. Active and prudent, just though rigorous, he triumphed over all his adversaries. His success and energy caused him to be feared and courted by the other princes of Europe ; and Baldwin, count of Flanders, bestowed upon him his daughter Matilda in marriage. Like the rest of the Normans, William was remarkable for his munificence and devotion to the church of Rome. § 3. When the Normans invaded England, they had lost all trace of their northern origin in language and manners ; and, though little goodwill existed between them and their French neighbours, they had become in these respects completely French. It has been already remarked that, under the second Norman prince, the Danish language had become obsolete in the Norman capital. It was in Normandy, indeed, as Sir F. Palgrave observes, " that the langue d'oil acquired its greatest polish and regularity. The 82 WILLIAM I. Chap, v earliest specimens of the French language, in the proper sense of the term, are now surrendered by the French philologists to the Normans." * They were thus completely estranged from their Norwegian brethren, who would willingly have rescued England from their grasp. Yet the more essential attributes of body and mind are not so easily shaken off as language and conventional manners ; and the Normans were still distinguished from the other natives of France by their large limbs, their fair complexions, and their moral qualities. William himself represents them as proud, hard to govern, and litigious, and the imputation of craft and vin- dictiveness, brought against them by Malaterra, is confirmed by several French proverbs.f To return. § 4. Nothing could exceed the consternation which seized the English when they received intelligence of the unfortunate battle of Hastings,^ the death of their king, the slaughter of their principal nobility and of their bravest warriors, and the rout and dispersion of the rest. That they might not, however, be altogether wanting in this extreme necessity, they took some steps towards uniting themselves against the common enemy. The two potent earls, Edwin and Morcar, who hastened to London on the news of Harold's fall, combined with the citizens and the arch- bishop of York to raise Edgar, nephew of Edmund Ironside, to the throne. But when the Londoners prepared to risk another battle, the earls withdrew to Northumbria with their forces, in which the only hope of resistance lay. William proceeded to make sure of the south-eastern coast, and advanced against Dover, which imme- diately capitulated. From Canterbury, where he was detained a month by illness, he despatched messengers to Winchester; on his recovery, he advanced with quick marches to London. A repulse which a body of Londoners received from 500 Norman horse, and the burning of the suburb of Southwark, renewed in the city the terror of the great defeat at Hastings. As soon as William had passed the Thames at Wallingford, and reached Berkhampstead, Stigand, the primate, and Aldred, archbishop of York, made their submissions : and before he arrived within sight of the city, the chief nobility, with Edgar himself, the newly elected king,' came into his camp, and declared their intention of acknowledging his authority.§ Orders were immediately issued for his coronation; * Normandy and England, vol. i. d. 703. •f As Eeponse Normande, for an am- biguous answer: tin fin Normand, a sly fellow, not much to be relied on ; and Reconciliation Normande, for a pretended reconciliation, -which does not banish all projects of vengeance. These, however, were the taunts of their enemies. I Strictly, of Senlac. $ The authorities confuse the order of the submissions. A.D. 1066. CORONATION OF WILLIAM I. 83 and William, asserting that the primate had obtained his pall in an irregular manner from pope Benedict IX., who was himself a usurper, refused to be consecrated by him, and conferred this honour on Aldred, archbishop of York. The ceremony was performed in Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day (1066). The most con- siderable of the nobility, both English and Norman, attended on this occasion. Aldred, in a short speech, asked the English whether they agreed to accept of William as their king; the bishop of Coutances put the same question to the Normans; and as both answered with acclamations, Aldred administered to the duke the usual coronation oath, by which he bound himself to protect the church, to administer justice, and to repress violence. He then anointed William, and placed the crown upon his head. Nothing but joy appeared in the countenances of the spectators ; but in that very moment the strongest symptoms of the jealousy and animosity which prevailed between the two nations burst forth, and continued to increase during the reign. The Norman soldiers, who were posted outside in order to guard the church, hearing the shouts within, pretended to believe that the English were offering violence to their duke, immediately assaulted the populace, and set fire to the neighbouring houses. The alarm was conveyed to the nobility who surrounded the prince. Both English and Normans, full of apprehensions, rushed out to secure themselves from the present danger ; and it was with difficulty that William himself was able to appease the tumult. § 5. William claimed the throne by a pretended promise of king Edward, and had won it by force of arms ; but to cover the weakness of his title, and the appearance of having gamed it by violence, he prudently submitted to the formality of a popular election. He now retired from London to Barking in Esses, and there received the submissions of all those who had not atteuded his coronation. Even Edwin and Morcar, with the other principal noblemen of England, came and swore fealty to him, were received into favour, and were confirmed in the possession of their estates and dignities. William sent Harold's standard to the pope, accompanied with many valuable presents : all the considerable monasteries and churches in France, where prayers had been put up for his success, now tasted of his bounty : the English monks found him disposed to favour their order : and on the battle-field, near Hastings, he built Battle Abbey, as a lasting memorial of his victory. William introduced into England that strict execution of justice for which his administration had been celebrated in Normandy; and his new subjects were treated with affability and regard. No signs of suspicion appeared, not even towards Edgar iEtheling, the 84 CORONATION OF WILLIAM I. Chap. heir of the ancient royal family, whom he affected to treat with the greatest kindness, as nephew to the Confessor, his friend and benefactor. Though he confiscated the estates of Harold and of those who had fought at Hastings, yet in many instances the property was left in the hands of its former possessors.* He confirmed the liberties and immunities of London and other cities ; and his whole administration bore a semblance of a legitimate king, and not of a conqueror. But amidst all this confidence and friendship which he professed for the English, he took care to place all real power in the hands of his Normans, and kept possession of the sword, to which he was sensible he owed his advancement to sovereign authority. He disarmed the city of London and all warlike and populous places; he built a castle in the capital,! as well as in Winchester, Hereford, and other cities best situated for commanding the kingdom ; in all of them he quartered Norman soldiers, and left nowhere any force able to resist or oppose him. Nothing tended more to break down the power of the great territorial chiefs, and to make the central government supreme, than William's division of England into smaller earldoms, generally one for each of the shires, which thus came to assume the name of counties. § 6. By this mixture of vigour and lenity he had so soothed the minds of his new subjects, that in the course of the year 1067 he thought he might safely revisit his native country. He left the administration in the hands of his uterine brother, Odo, bishop of Bayeux, and of William Fitz-Osbern, the latter of whom had rendered him important services in the conquest of England. That their authority might be exposed to less danger, he carried over with him the most considerable of the nobility of England that still survived : and while they served to grace his court by their presence and magnificent retinues, they were in reality hostages for the fidelity of their nation. Among these were Edgar iEtheling, Stigand the primate, the earls Edwin, Morcar, and Waltheof,J with * It seems that, at the very beginning of his reign, William assorted the right of conquest, though without fully acting on it, by which both the public land (folc-land) became the king's {terra regis), and the estates of the conquered were at his disposal. Distinct mention is found of cases in which those who sub- mitted had their lands granted back to them, or bought them of William for money. (See Freeman's Norman Con- quest, vol. iv. pp. 14, 25.) •)- This is the keep, or White Tower, of the Tower of London, which a mis- taken tradition ascribed (like the Norman keep at other castles) to the Romans. Its builder was Gundulph, bishop of Rochester. It was re-faced by Sir Chris- topher Wren, but parts of the original surface are visible. The interior is little altered. (See Mr. G. T. Clark's paper on "The Military Architecture of the Tower " in the Proceedings of the Archaeological Institute, held at London, entitled " Old London," 1867 .) J Waltheof, son of Siward, had been made earl of the shires of Northampton and Huntingdon in the famous Witena- gemot held at Oxford (1065). There was a fpurth great earl, Oswulf of Northumber- A.D. 1067-1068 THE ENGLISH REBEL. 85 others eminent for the greatness of their fortunes and families, or for their ecclesiastical and civil dignities. At the abbey of Fecamp, where he resided during some time, he was visited by Budolph, uncle to the king of France, and by many powerful princes and nobles, who had contributed to his enterprise, and were desirous of participating in its advantages. His English courtiers, willing to ingratiate themselves with their new sovereign, outvied each other in equipages and entertainments, and made a display of riches which struck the foreigners with astonishment. William of Poitiers, a Norman historian, who was present, speaks with admira- tion of the beauty of their persons, the size and workmanship of their silver plate, the costliness of their embroideries — an art in which the English then excelled ; — and he expresses himself in such terms as tend much to exalt our idea of the opulence and culture of the people. But the departure of William was the immediate cause of all the calamities which befel the English in this and the subsequent reigns. It gave rise to those mutual jealousies and animosities between them and the Normans, which were never appeased tili, after a long tract of time, the two nations had gradually united into one people. During the king's absence discontents and com- plaints multiplied everywhere; secret conspiracies were formed against the government, and hostilities had already begun in many places. The king, informed of these dangers, hastened over to England ; and by his presence, and the vigorous measures which he pursued, disconcerted the schemes of the conspirators. But he now began^ if not before, to regard the English as irreclaimable enemies, and thenceforth resolved to reduce tfiem to more complete subjection. After subduing Cornwall, quelling some disturbances in the west of England, excited by Gytha, king Harold's mother, and building a fortress to overawe the city of Exeter, William returned to Winchester, and dispersed his army into their quarters. § 7. At Winchester he was joined by his wife Matilda, who had not before visited England, and whom he now ordered to be crowned by archbishop Aldred (1068). The English formed a league for expelling the Normans and restoring Edgar. The two earls Edwin and Morcar, the former of whom William had disgusted by refusing him the hand of his daughter, which he had promised, were the chief instigators of the rebellion. Cospatric, earl of North- umberland beyond the Tyne, and Malcolm, king of Scotland, )and north of the Tyne (the present l his successor met with violent deaths county), which had scarcely yet lost the soon after. The earldom was thea name of Bernicia. He appears to have bought of William by Cospatric been deposed by William. Both he and j 6 86 WILLIAM I. Chap. v. agreed to take up arms. The conspirators seem to have received promises of assistance from the sons of Harold, who had fied to Ireland after the battle of Hastings; from Blethwallon, or Bleddyon, king of North Waies ;. and from Sweyn, king of Den- mark. William immediately marched northwards, and took up his position at Warwick, in the heart of Mercia. When Edwin and Morcar approached, they did not venture a battle with the Conqueror. The sons of Harold, landing upon the western coast of England, were defeated and compelled to retire to Ireland. In the north the Normans were equally successful. York, the only fortress in the country was taken, and Cospatric, accompanied by Edgar iEtheling and his sisters, fled to the court of Malcolm in Scotland. The latter concluded a peace with William, to whom he swore fealty.* With this act the conquest' of England may be regarded as complete. § 8. In 1069 the insurrection broke out a second time in the north. The Danes, after two or three vain attempts on the south- eastern coast, landed in the Humber, with 240 ships, under the command of the brother of king Sweyn ; Edgar iEtheling, with Cospatric and other leaders, appeared from Scotland, and earl Waltheof left William's court to join them. York was taken by assault, and the Norman garrison, to the number of 3000 men, was put to the sword. This success proved a signal for disaffec- tion in many parts of England. The inhabitants, repenting of their former easy submission, seemed determined to make one great effort for the recovery of their liberties and the expulsion of their oppressors. William first marched against the rebels in the north, and engaged the Danes by large presents to retire. Having thus got rid of his most formidable opponents, he found no difficulty in crushing the rest of his enemies. Waltheof and Cospatric submitted to the Conqueror, and, while both were confirmed in their earldoms, Waltheof was rewarded with the hand of Judith, William's niece. Three years later, the son of Siward was restored to that part of the Northumbrian earldom which had been held by Cospatric, to which that of Northumberland was subsequently added. Malcolm, king of Scotland, coming too late to the support of his confederates, was constrained to retire ; the English submitted, the rebels dispersed, and left the Normans undisputed masters of the kingdom. Edgar iEtheling, with his followers, sought once more a retreat in Scotland from the pursuit of his enemies, where his sister Margaret * Ordericus Vitalis (p. BIId), the sole i a word about Cumberland, for which authority for this, says, " Guillelmo Regi historians have assumed that the homage fidele obsequium juravit." There, is not | was done. A.D. 1068-1070. DEPOSITION OF STIGAND. 87 was shortly afterwards married to Malcolm (1070). In her daughter's subsequent marriage with Henry I., the English and Norman royal lines were united. William, who passed the winter in the north, issued orders for laying waste the entire country for the extent of sixty miles between the H umber and the Tees. The lives of 100,000 persons, who died by lamine, are computed to have been sacrificed to this stroke of barbarous policy, and the country was reduced to such a state of desolation, that for several years after- wards there was hardly an inhabitant left. This act, attributed to William's vengeance, was rather, perhaps, a stern measure of precau- tion against the incursions of the Scots and Danes. It is not likely that so avaricious and sagacious a prince should have resorted to a measure that crippled his own power and revenue merely out of a spirit of revenge. The same barbarous measure was resorted to in France in much more civilized times, when the constable Montmorency completely desolated Provence in order to check the advance of the emperor Charles V. Insurrections and conspiracies in so many parts of the kingdom had involved the bulk of the landed proprietors, more or less, in the guilt of treason ; and the king took the opportunity for enforcing against them, with the utmost rigour, the laws of attainder and forfeiture. Their lives were indeed commonly spared ; but their estates were confiscated, and either annexed to the royal demesnes, or conferred with the most lavish bounty on the Normans and other foreigners. Several of the English nobles, despairing of the fortunes of their country, fled abroad. Some took refuge at the court of Constantinople, where they entered the service of the Greek emperor, and, being incorporated with Danes and others, formed, under the name of Varangians, the imperial body- guard. § 9. The Conqueror now proceeded to deprive the English of all offices in the state, as well ecclesiastical as civil. The Anglo-Saxon church had, to a certain extent, maintained its independence of the Roman see; and accordingly pope Alexander willingly assisted William in depriving the native prelates of their benefices. Three papal legates were despatched into England, who summoned a council of prelates and abbots at Winchester in 1070. In this council the legate, upon some frivolous charges, degraded Stigand, the primate : William confiscated his estate, and confined him at Winchester, where he died. Like rigour was exercised against other English bishops ; and Wulstan of Worcester was the only one that escaped the general proscription. Even monasteries were plundered, and their plate carried off to the royal treasury. Lanfranc, an Italian celebrated for his learning and piety who, 88 WILLIAM I. Chap. v. as prior of Bee in Normandy, had long been William's chosen friend and counsellor, was now promoted to the vacant see of Canterbury. He was rigid in defending the prerogatives of his see ; and, after a long process before the pope, obliged Thomas, a Norman monk, who had been appointed to York, to acknowledge the primacy of Canterbury. § 10. The two earls, Morcar and Edwin, sensible that they had entirely lost their dignity, and could not even hope to remain long in safety, determined, though too late, to share the fate of their countrymen. " They fled from William's court, and made some ineffectual attempts to gather followers. Edwin was slain on his way to Scotland, either by his own men, or by the Normans to whom he was betrayed. Morcar took shelter with the brave Hereward in the Isle of Ely, then really an island amidst the waters of the fens, where the English had formed their last " Camp of Refuge." The exploits of Hereward against the Normans lived long in the memory of the English, invested with the romance of patriotic legends. Of his parentage and early life nothing is known except that he possessed estates in Lincolnshire and Warwickshire. According to one account, he was in Flanders at the time of the Conquest ; but, hearing that his mother had been deprived of her estate by a foreigner, he returned to England, drove out the intruder, and erected the banner of independence. He was quickly joined by other bold spirits, and, protected by the fens and morasses of the Isle of Ely, was able to bid defiance to William. The king found it necessary to employ all his endeavours to subdue their stronghold, and having surrounded it with flat-bottomed boats, and made a causeway through the morasses to the extent of two miles, he obliged the rebels to surrender at discretion (1071). Hereward alone escaped, with a small band, in ships to the open sea. After long harassing the Normans, he married a rich Englishwoman, made his peace with William, but was at last murdered in hia own house by a band of Normans. Eomantic as this story may appear, thus much is certain, that a Hereward is found in Domes- day Book as a holder of lands under Norman lords in Warwick and Worcester shires.* Earl Morcar was thrown into prison, and long after died in confinement, in Normandy. To complete these successes, Edgar iEtheling himself, weary of a fugitive life, sub- mitted to his enemy; and, receiving a decent pension for his subsistence, was permitted to live at Bouen despised and unmo- lested. § 11. As William had now nothing to fear from his English sub- * See Freeman's Norman Conquest, vol. iv. pp. 455-485, and Appendix 00, " The Legend of Hereward." a.d. 1071-1075. INSURRECTION OF NORMAN BARONS. 89 jects, it was his policy to conciliate and protect them. But he had to encounter the jealousy and disaffection of his companions in arms. His resolute opposition to their feudal aggressions, in the maintenance of his royal authority, had excited general discontent among the haughty Norman nobles. Even Eoger, earl of Hereford, son and heir of Fitz-Osbern, the king's chief favourite,was strongly infected with it. Intending to marry his sister to Ealph de Guader, earl of Norfolk, Roger had thought it his duty to inform the king and desire his consent ; but meeting with a refusal, he proceeded nevertheless to complete the nuptials, and assembled his own friends, and those ot Guader, to attend the solemnity (1075). The two earls here prepared measures for a revolt ; and during the gaiety of the festival, while the company was heated with wine, they opened the project to their guests. Inflamed with the same senti- ments, the whole company entered into a solemn engagement to shake off the royal authority. Even earl Waltheof, who had married the Conqueror's niece, inconsiderately expressed his ap- probation of the plot, and promised his concurrence towards its success. But, on cooler judgment, he foresaw that the con- spiracy of these discontented barons was not likely to prove suc- cessful against the established power of William ; and he opened his mind to his wife, Judith, of whose fidelity he entertained no suspicion, but who, having secretly fixed her affections on another, took this opportunity of ruining her easy and credulous husband. She conveyed intelligence of the conspiracy to the king, aggra- vating every circumstance which she believed would tend to incense him against Waltheof, and render him absolutely implacable. Meanwhile the earl, at the suggestion of Lanfranc, to whom he had discovered the secret, went over to Normandy, whither William had gone some time previously to quell an insurrection in his province of Maine ; but though he was well received by the king, and thanked for his fidelity, the account previously transmitted by Judith sunk deep into William's mind, and had destroyed the merit of her husband's repentance. Hearing of Waltheof s departure, the conspirators immediately concluded that their design was betrayed, and flew to arms before their schemes were ripe for execution. They were defeated at every point. The prisoners had their right feet cut off to mark them for the future (1075).* William returned to England, accompanied by Waltheof, who was soon afterwards arrested. The earls were condemned, in a council held at Westminster, to stricter imprison- * " Ut notificentur," to be known or i Freeman's Norman Conquest, vol. iv. detected (Orderic. p. 535b). On the pp. 278, 581. custom of mutilating prisoners of war, see | 90 WILLIAM I. Chap. v. merit. Ealph, who had escaped, and the earl of Hereford, suffered forfeiture of their estates ; and the latter was kept a prisoner till his death. But Waltheof, being an Englishman, was treated with less humanity. At the instigation of Judith, and of the rapacious courtiers, who longed for so rich a forfeiture, he was tried, condemned, and executed (1076). His body was removed by the monks of Orowland to the abbey, which he had befriended and enriched. The English, who considered this nobleman as the last prop of their nation, grievously lamented his fate, and held him for a saint and martyr. The legend adds that the infamous Judith, falling soon after under the king's displeasure, was abandoned by all the world, and passed the rest of her life in contempt, remorse, and misery. It is more certain that the execution of Waltheof marks the turning point in William's prosperous career.* § 12. The king now spent some years in passing between England and Normandy, where he was involved in a series of unsuccessful wars. The climax of these troubles was the revolt of his eldest son Eobert, to whom William had caused the nobles of Normandy to swear fealty as his successor. When Robert, instigated by the French king, Philip I., demanded the full possession of the duchy, his father replied with the taunt, " I am not used to take off my clothes before I go to bed." After various disputes Eobert openly levied war upon his father (1078). William called over an army of English under his ancient captains, who soon ex- pelled Eobert and his adherents from their retreats, and restored the authority of the sovereign in all his dominions. The young duke was obliged to take shelter in the castle of Gerberoi, in the district of Beauvais, which the king of France, who secretly fomented all these dissensions, had provided for him (1079). Under the walls of the castle many rencounters took place, which resembled more the single combats of chivalry than the military actions of armies. One of them was remarkable for its circum- stances and its event. Eobert happened to engage the king, who was concealed by his helmet ; and both of them being valiant, a fierce combat ensued, till at last the young duke wounded his father in the hand, and unhorsed him. On calling out for assist- ance, the king's voice was recognized by his son, who quickly dismounted, set his father on his horse again, and let him depart * The descendants of Waltheof occupy an important place in the history of the Scotch and English royal families. In the famous contest for the Scottish crown, the question occurs, " How did the ancestor of the claimant come to be earl oj Huntingdon f " It was thus : — Matilda, the daughter of Waltheof, married (for her second husband) David, son of Malcolm and Margaret (afterwards David I.), and thus brought the earldom of Huntingdon into the Scottish royal family, and made Waltheof an ancestor of our royal line. a.d. 1076-1087. DOMESDAY BOOK. 91 with his defeated soldiers. The interposition of the queen and the nobles of Normandy at length brought about a reconciliation. The king seemed so fully appeased, that he even took Kobert with him into England ; where he intrusted him with the command of an army, in order to repel an inroad of Malcolm, king of Scotland. This expedition is memorable for the foundation of the New Castle on the Tyne, which gave name to the modern chief town of North- umberland. It was followed by a fresh quarrel between the king and his son, who departed in anger to France (1080). About the same time William marched into Wales as far as St. Davids, and the Welsh, unable to resist his power, were compelled to make a compensation for their incursions. The whole land was now reduced to tranquillity (lOcil). § 13. The remaining transactions of William's reign are not of much importance. In the year 1085, Canute, who had succeeded Sweyn in the kingdom of Denmark, collected a large fleet with the design of invading England ; and though from various causes it was not carried into execution, it nevertheless occasioned some calamity to the nation. The odious tax of Danegeld was reimposed ; a large army of foreigners was brought over from the continent; and the lands adjoining the sea-coast were laid waste in order to deprive the expected enemy of support. In the following year (August, 1086) William received at Salisbury the oath of fealty from all holders of land in the kingdom : thus enforcing direct homage to himself, and not as before to their immediate lords ; a modification of feudalism which formed the strongest bond of union to the whole state. This great change had been prepared for by the compilation of their Domesday Booh* In 1087 William was detained on the continent by a misunder- * The origin and meaning of the word Domesday is quite uncertain. It was sometimes called the Book of Winchester, because the requisitions of the commis- sioners appointed to make the survey were returned to Winchester, and hence some have thought ihat the name is a corruption of Domus Dei, the name of the chapel in Winchester Cathedral where it was preserved. Though not complete for all the counties, it shows the extent, nature, and divisions of the landed pro- perty in each, in the time of Edward the Confessor, and at the time of the survey ; the products of various kinds, as woods, fisheries, mines, etc. It was ordered by William at his Christmas court at Gloucester (1085), and such was the expedition used that it was finished by July, 1086. It consists of two volumes, a large and smaller folio, written on vellum. It was printed by the govern- ment in 1783, and fac similes of it in photo-zincography have lately been pub- lished by the Ordnance Survey Office. A complete account of it will be found in Sir H. Ellis's General Introduction to Domes- day, 2 vols. 8vo. By its division into modern counties it shows that already this arrangement had become perfectly familiar and was universally recognized. The whole number of persons registered in Domesday Book is 283,242. But aa the work was not intended for a record of population, all inferences on that head are uncertain. The tenants in capite are generally Normans ; the inferior tenants often Anglo-Saxons. 92 WILLIAM I. Chap. v. standing between himself and the king of France, occasioned by the inroads made into Normandy by French nobles on the fron- tiers. His displeasure was increased by the account he received of some railleries which that monarch had thrown out against him, William, who had become corpulent, had been detained in bed some time by sickness; upon which Philip expressed his surprise that his brother of England should be so long in lying in. The king sent him word that, as soon as he was up, he would present so many lights at Notre Dame as would perhaps give little pleasure to the king of France— alluding to the usual practice at that time of women after childbirth. Immediately on his recovery he led an army into L'Isle de France, and laid it waste with fire and sword. But the progress of these hostilities was stopped by an accident which soon after put an end to William's life. His soldiers having burnt the town of Mantes, William rode to the scene of action, and as his horse treading upon some hot ashes started aside, the king was thrown violently on the pommel of his saddle. Being in a bad habit of body, as well as somewhat advanced in years, he began to apprehend the consequences, and ordered himself to be carried in a litter to the monastery of St. Gervais, near Bouen. Finding his illness increase, and sensible of the approach of death, he was struck with remorse for those acts of violence which he had committed during the course of his reign over England. He endeavoured to make atonement by presents to churches and monas- teries, and issued orders that several prisoners should be set at liberty. He left Normandy and Maine to his eldest son Bobert. Lanfranc was directed to crown William king of England ; and to Henry he bequeathed 5000 pounds of silver. His second son, Bichard, had been killed long before, whilst hunting in the New Forest. § 14. William expired on the 9th of September, 1087, in the 61st year of his age, in the 21st year of his reign over England, and in the 54th of that over Normandy. He was buried in the church of St. Stephen at Caen. Few princes have been more fortunate than this great monarch, or better entitled to grandeur and prosperity, from the abilities and the vigour of mind which he displayed in all his conduct. His spirit was bold and enterprising, yet guided by prudence. His ambition did not always submit to the restraints of justice, still less to those of humanity, but was controlled by the dictates of sound policy. Born in an age when the minds of men were intractable and unused to obedience, he was yet able to direct them to his purposes; and, partly by the ascendancy of his energetic character, partly by policy, he was enabled to establish and maintain his authority* a.d. 1087. HIS ADMINISTRATION. 93 Though not insensible to generosity, he was too often hardened against compassion. In the difficult enterprise of subduing a brave and warlike people he succeeded so completely that he transmitted his power to his descendants, and it would be difficult to find in all history a revolution attended with a more com- plete subjection of the ancient inhabitants. For a time the English name became a term of reproach, and generations elapsed before one family of native pedigree was raised to any considerable bonours. The administration of "William was more severely displayed in the Forest Laws. Like all the Normans, William was fond of hunting; and, according to the quaint expression of the Anglo- Saxon chronicler, " loved tbe tall game as if he had been their father." The forests had been protected before the Conquest ; but William, for the preservation of the game, established more rigid penalties. The killing of a deer or boar, or even a hare, was punished with the loss of the delinquent's eyes, at a time when man- slaughter could be atoned for by a fine or composition. In forming the New Forest in the neighbourhood of his palace at Winchester, the country around was "afforested," that is, subjected to the forest laws. For that purpose, churches and villages were destroyed; but the number has been probably exaggerated. The numerous Castles erected in all parts of England during the reign of the Conqueror were at once the means and the visible emblems of English subjection. Of these strongholds no fewer than 48 are recorded in Domesday as erected since the time of Edward the Confessor. William is said to have introduced the curfew (i.e. couvre feu) bell, upon the ringing of which all fires had to be covered up at sunset in summer, and about eight at night in the winter. The custom was brought over from Normandy, and has been thought by some to have been used in many countries as a pre- caution against fire. But it was probably of ecclesiastical origin, and served originally for devotional purposes. . 6* Henry of Blois, bishop of Winchester and brother of king Stephen, enamelled plate in the British Museum.* From CHAPTEE VI. WILLIAM II., HENRY I., STEPHEN. A.D. 1087-1154. § 1. Accession of William Rtjf'tjs. Conspiracy against the king. § 2. Invasion of Normandy, and other wars. § 3. Acquisition of Normandy, § 4. Quarrel with Anselm, the primate. § 5. Transactions in France. Death and character of Rufus. § 6. Accession of Henry I. His charter. § 7. Marriage of the king. § 8. Duke Robert invades England. Accom- modation with him. § 9. Henry invades and conquers Normandy. § 10. Ecclesiastical affairs. Disputes respecting investitures. § 11. Wars * For an explanation of the inscription, see Labarte, Arts of the Middle Ages, p. xxiv. A.D. 1087-1090. INVASION OF NOEMANDY. 95 abroad. Death of prince William. § 12. Henry's second marriage. Marriage of his daughter. His death and character. § 13. Accession of Stephen. Measures for securing the government. § 14. Stephen acknowledged in Normandy. Disturbances in England. § 15. Matilda invades England and obtains the crown. Her flight. § 16. Prince Henry in England. Acknowledged as Stephen's successor. Death and character of Stephen. § 1. William II., b. a.d. 1060 ; r. 1087-1100.— William, surnamed Rvfus, or the Red, from the colour of his hair, had no sooner pro- cured his father's commendatory letter to Lanfranc, the primate, than he hastened to England before intelligence of his father's death could arrive. Pretending orders from the king, he secured the fortresses of Dover, Pevensey, and Hastings ; and got possession of the royal treasure at Winchester, amounting to the sum of (i0,000 pounds. Assembling some of the bishops and princii al nobles, the primate proceeded at once to crown the new king (September 26), and thus anticipate all faction and resistance. The Norman barons, however, who for many reasons preferred Robert, with Odo, bishop of Bayeux, and Robert, count of Mor- taigne, maternal brothers of the Conqueror, envying the great credit of Lanfranc, engaged their partisans in a formal conspiracy against the king. William, who had gained the affections of the English by general promises of good treatment, and an amelioration of the forest laws, was soon in a situation to take the field. The rapidity of his movements speedily crushed the rebellion (1088). Freed from immediate danger, he took little care to fulfil his promises. The English still found themselves exposed to the same oppressions as in the reign of the Conqueror, oppressions augmented by the new king's violent and impetuous temper. The death of Lanfranc (1089), who had been William's tutor and had retained great influence over him, gave full scope to his tyranny ; and all orders of men found reason to complain of arbitrary and illegal ad- ministration. Even the privileges of the church, usually held sacred in those days, proved a feeble rampart against his usurpations. The terror of William's authority, confirmed by the suppression of the late insurrections, retained every one in subjection, and preserved the general tranquillity of England. § 2. Thus strengthened at home, William invaded the dominions of his brother Robert in Normandy (1090). The war, however, was brought to an end by the mediation of the nobles on both sides, who were strongly connected by interest and alliances. It was stipulated that, on the demise of either brother without issue, the survivor should inherit all his dominions. Henry, disgusted that little care had been taken of his interests in this accommo- dation, retired to St. Michael's Mount, a strong fortress on the 96 WILLIAM II. Chap. vi. coast of Normandy, and infested the neighbourhood with his incur- sions. He was besieged by Eobert and William, with their joint forces, and had been nearly reduced by scarcity of water, when Eobert, hearing of his distress, granted him permission to supply himself, and also sent him some pipes of wine for his own table. Eeproved by William for this ill-timed generosity, he replied, " What, shall I suffer my brother to die of thirst ? Where shall we find another when he is gone ? " During this siege, William performed an act of generosity little in accordance with his character. Riding out one day alone, to take a survey of the fortress, he was attacked by two soldiers and dismounted. One of them drew his sword in order to despatch him, when the king exclaimed, " Hold, knave! I am the king of England." The soldier suspended his blow ; and, raising the king from the ground with expressions of respect, received a handsome reward, and was taken into his service. Soon after Henry was obliged to capitulate ; and being despoiled of his patrimony, was reduced to great poverty. William, attended by Eobert, returned to England ; and soon after, accompanied by his brother, led an army into Scotland, and obliged Malcolm to accept terms of peace (1091), which were mediated by Eobert on the part of William, and by Edgar iEtheling on that of Malcolm. Advantageous conditions were stipulated for Edgar, who returned to England ; Malcolm consented to do homage to William ; and Cumberland, formerly held by the Scottish kings as a fief under the English crown, was now reduced to an English county, and secured by the fortification of Carlisle. Its settlement by an English colony extinguished its Celtic character, though in memory of them it retains to this day the name of the Cymry. § 3. At the preaching of the Crusade by Peter the Hermit for the recovery of the holy sepulchre at Jerusalem,* Eobert enlisted himself among the Crusaders. To provide himself with money, he resolved to mortgage his dominions for a term of five years ; and he offered them to William for the inadequate sum of 10,000 marks. The bargain was concluded ; the king raised the money by violent extortions from his subjects of all ranks, even the religious houses, which were obliged to melt their plate to furnish the quota demanded. William was put in possession of Normandy and Maine; and Eobert, providing himself with a magnificent train, set out for the Holy Land (1095). § 4. Devoid alike of religious feeling and religious principle, William, during the latter part of his reign, was engaged in dis- putes with the church. After the death of Lanfranc he retained in his own hands, for several years, the revenues of Canterbury, and * The history of the Crusades is narrated in the Student's Gibbon, pp. 545, seq. A.D. 1090-1100. QUARREL WITH ANSELM. 97 of other vacant bishoprics ; but falling into a dangerous sickness, he was seized with remorse, and resolved, therefore, to supply instantly the vacancy of Canterbury (1093). For this purpose he sent for Anselm, a native of Aosta in Piedmont, abbot of Bee in Normandy, who was much celebrated for his learning and piety, and whom he persuaded with difficulty to accept the primacy. But William's passions returned with returning health. He re- tained ecclesiastical benefices ; the sale of spiritual dignities con- tinued as openly as ever. He refused to surrender the temporalities of Canterbury to Anselm. The division between them grew more serious. The new primate had determined to receive his pall in Borne from the hands of Urban VI., contrary to the king's wishes, who had espoused the cause of the antipope. Enraged at this attempt, William summoned a council with an intention of deposing Anselm : but he was at last prevailed upon by other motives to give the preference to Urban. Anselm received the pall from that pontiff ; and matters seemed to be accommodated between the king and the primate, when the quarrel broke out afresh from a new cause. In 1097 William had undertaken an expedition against Wales, and, requiring the archbishop to furnish his quota of soldiers for that service, accused him of insufficiently fulfilling his feudal obligations. Anselm retorted by demanding that the revenues of his see should be restored. He appealed to Borne against the king's injustice ; and, finding it dangerous to remain in the kingdom, obtained the king's permission to retire beyond sea the same year. His temporalities were seized by William ; the archbishop was received with great respect by Urban, who menaced the king, for his proceedings against the primate and the church, with sentence of excommunication. § 5. In 1099 the Crusaders became masters of Jerusalem. Their success stimulated others to follow their example; and William, duke of Guienne and count of Poitou, like Bobert, offered to mort- gage his dominions to William, in order to raise money for the purpose of proceeding to the Holy Land with an immense body of followers. The king accepted the offer, had prepared a fleet and an army in order to transport the money and take possession of the rich provinces of Guienne and Poitou, when an accident put an end to his life and all his ambitious projects. He was engaged in hunting in the New Forest, attended, among others, by Francis Walter, surnamed Tyrrel, a French gentleman, remarkable for his address in archery. As William had dismounted after the chase, impatient to show his dexterity, Tyrrel let fly an arrow at a stag which suddenly started before him. The arrow, glancing from a tree, struck the king in the breast, and killed him in- 98 HENRY I. Chap, vu stantaneously.* Without informing any one of the accident, Tyrrel put spurs to his horse, hastened to the sea shore, embarked for France, and joined the Crusade. The body of William was found in the forest by the country people, and was buried at Winchester. Tradition long pointed out the tree struck by the arrow, and a stone still commemorates the spot where it stood. William was a violent and tyrannical prince; a perfidious, encroaching, and dangerous neighbour ; an unkind and ungenerous relative. He was equally prodigal and rapacious in the manage- ment of his treasury ; and if he possessed abilities, he lay so much under the government of impetuous passions, that he made little use of them in his administration. He built a new bridge across the Thames at London, surrounded the Tower with a wall, and erected Westminster Hall, which still retains portions of the original fabric. It was remarked in that age that Richard, an elder brother of William, had perished by an accident in the New Forest ; and that Richard, his nephew, natural son of duke Robert, had lately lost his life in the same place, after the same manner. As the Conqueror had been guilty of extreme violence in ex- pelling the inhabitants to make room for his game, popular belief ascribed the death of his posterity to the just vengeance of Heaven. William was killed August 2nd, 1100, in the 13th year of his reign, and about the 40th of his age. He died unmarried. HENRY I. § 6. Henry I., surnamed Beauclerk, b. A.r>. 1070, r. 1100-1135. — Henry was hunting with Rufus in the New Forest when intelli- gence was brought him of that monarch's death. Sensible of the advantage attending the conjuncture, he hurried to Winchester, to secure the royal treasure. Without losing a moment, he hastened to London, and having assembled such of the nobles and prelates as adhered to his party, he was suddenly elected, or rather saluted, as king. In less than three days after his brother's death, he was crowned by Maurice, bishop of London (August 5). As the barons would have preferred the more popular rule of Robert, who had not yet returned from Palestine, Henry resolved, by fair professions at least, to gain the affections of his subjects. He granted a charter, in which he promised — to the church, that he would not seize the revenues of any see or abbey during a vacancy — to the barons and other tenants of the crown, that he would * Such is the account, as related by the contemporary chronicler, Florence of Worcester, and his immediate follower, William of Malmesbury. Some deny the charge against Tyrrel. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle simply says that William was shot "by one of his men." a.d. 1100, 1101. ROBERT INVADES ENGLAND. 99 not oppress them with unlawful reliefs — and to the people, that he would observe the laws of Edward the Confessor. Whilst attempt- ing, by granting special boons to each order in the state, to secure the goodwill of all, Henry definitively committed himself to the duties of a national king.* Henry at the same time granted a charter to London, which seems to have been the first step towards rendering that city a corporation.! § 7. Sensible of the great authority acquired by Anselm, Henry invited him to return. On his arrival the king had recourse to his advice and authority respecting his marriage with Matilda, daughter of Malcolm III., king of Scotland, niece to Edgar iEtheling, and great-granddaughter of Edmund Ironside. This lady, whom the English called Edith, had been educated under her aunt Christina in the nunnery of Romsey. She had taken the veil, but not the vows required of a nun, and doubts arose concerning the lawfulness of the act contemplated by Henry. The affair was examined by Anselm, in a council of the prelates and nobles summoned at Lam- beth. Matilda proved that she had put on the veil, not with a view of entering a religious life, but as other English ladies had done, to protect her chastity from the brutal violence of the Normans. The council pronounced that she was free to marry; and her espousals with Henry were celebrated by Anselm with great pomp and solemnity, to the delight of his English subjects. His marriage with the " good queen Maud," the heiress " of the right royal race of England " as she is styled in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, united the English and Norman blood in the person of her grandson, Henry II. § 8. Meanwhile Robert had taken possession of Normandy without opposition, and immediately made preparations for re- covering England. The fame which he had acquired in the East assisted his pretensions, and many of the Norman barons, still further alienated by the king's marriage, invited Robert to take the crown, and promised to join him in the attempt with all their forces. At the end of July, 1101, Robert landed at Portsmouth; and Henry, who had collected his forces chiefly through the in- fluence of the primate, advanced to meet him. The two armies lay in sight of each other for some days without coming to action, and both princes, apprehensive of the result, hearkened the more willingly to the couusels of Anselm and others, who mediated an accommodation between them. It was agreed that Robert should * The term vntan, that is, the Anglo- Saxon term for any council or assembly of nobles and prelates, now drops out of use, and is supplanted, as in this cliarter, by the Latin equivalent barones. The witan and barons, however, to whom Henry owed his election, consisted of four only. f Both charters are printed in Professor Stubbs's Documents illustrative of Eng- lish History. 100 HENRY I. Chap. vi. resign his pretensions to England, and receive in lieu of then) an annual pension of 3000 marks ; that, if either of the princes died without issue, the other should succeed to his dominions; that the adherents of each should be pardoned and restored to their possessions, whether in Normandy or in England ; and that neither Kohert nor Henry should thenceforth encourage, receive, or protect the enemies of the other. § 9. The indiscretion of Eobert soon made him a victim to Henry's ambitious schemes. During the reign of this indulgent and disso- lute prince, Normandy became a scene of violence and depredation ; and Henry, finding that the nobility were more disposed to pay submission to him than to their legal sovereign, collected a great army and treasure in England, and landed in Normandy in 1105. In the second campaign he gained a decisive victory before the castle of Tinchebray, in which nearly 10,000 prisoners were taken, among whom was Robert himself, and the most considerable barons who adhered to his interests. This victory was followed by the final reduction of Normandy (1106). Having received the homage of all the vassals of the duchy, Henry returned into England, and carried the duke along with him. The unfortunate prince was detained in custody during the remainder of his life, for no less a period than 28 years, and died in the castle of Cardiff, in Glamorganshire (1134). William, his only son, who had also been captured, was committed to the care of Helie de St. Saen, who had married Robert's natural daughter, and, being a man of probity and honour, he executed the trust with great affection and fidelity. To Edgar iEtheling, who had followed Robert in the expedition to Jerusalem, had lived with him ever since in Normandy, and was taken at Tinchebray, Henry granted his liberty and a small pension. He lived to a good old age in England, totally neglected and forgotten. This prince was distinguished by personal bravery ; but nothing can be a stronger proof of the meanness of his talents than that he was allowed to live unmolested and go to his grave in peace. § 10. A controversy had long been depending between Henry and Anselm, with regard to investitures. Before bishops took posses- sion of their dignities they had been accustomed, since the days of Charlemagne, to pass through two ceremonies. From the hands of the sovereign they received a ring and a crozier, as symbols of their spiritual office, and this was called their investiture ; they also made those submissions to the sovereign for their lands which were required of all vassals by the feudal law, and this act was known by the name of homage. As the king might refuse both investiture and homage, he could neutralize the right of election granted to the chapter by the Lateran council of 1059, and engross the sole power A.D. 1105-1128. DEATH OF PRINCE WILLIAM. 101 of appointing prelates. In 1074 Gregory VII. had forbidden the practice. His example was followed by Pascal II., who now filled the papal throne, and who supported Anselm in his refusal to accept investiture from Henry's hands, and threatened to excommunicate the king for persisting in his demands. But Henry had established his power so firmly in England and Normandy, that the pope con- sented to a compromise. Henry resigned the right of granting investitures, by which the spiritual dignity was supposed to be conferred ; and Pascal allowed the bishops to do homage for their temporal possessions. The pontiff was well pleased to have gained this advantage, which he hoped would in time secure the whole ; whilst the king, anxious to escape from a dangerous situation, was content to retain a substantial authority in the election of prelates. § 11. The acquisition of Normandy had been a great object of Henry's ambition; but it proved the source of great dis- quietude, involved him in frequent wars, and obliged him to impose on his English subjects those heavy and arbitrary taxes of which the historians of that age complain. The cause of William, the son of Eobert, was espoused by Louis the Fat, kiug of France, and by other continental princes. The wars which ensued required Henry's frequent presence in Normandy ; and, though he was generally successful, he was not released from anxiety on this account till the year 1128, when his nephew was killed in a skirmish, shortly after he had been created count of Flanders by the French monarch. Eight years previously, Henry had received a terrible blow in the loss of his only son William. In 1120 the king, having concluded in Normandy a treaty of peace with the French king, set sail from Barfieur on his return, and was soon carried by a fair wind out of sight of land. His son William and his young companions, who were to follow in a vessel called the White Ship, wasted the time in feasting and revelry. On leaving the harbour, the ship was heedlessly carried on a rock, and immediately foundered. William, escaping in the long boat, had got clear of the ship, when, hearing the cries of his natural sister, Adela, countess of Perche, he ordered the seamen to put back in hopes of saving her ; but the numbers who crowded in sunk the boat, and the prince, with all his retinue, perished. Above 140 young nobles, of the principal families of England and Normandy, were lost on this occasion. Bertold, a butcher of Eouen, who alone escaped to tell the tale, clung to the mast, and was taken up next morning by fishermen. Fitz-Stephen, the captain of the ship, who had also gained the mast, being in- formed by the butcher that prince William was lost, refused to sur- vive the disaster, and perished in the sea. For three days Henry 102 HENRY I. Chap, vl entertained hopes that his son had escaped to some distant port of England; but when certain intelligence of the calamity was brought him he fainted away ; and it was remarked that he never after was seen to smile, nor ever recovered his former cheer- fulness. § 12. William left no children, and the king now turned his thoughts to Matilda, his only surviving child, whom, in 1110, he had betrothed, though only eight years of age, to the emperor Henry V., and had sent over to be educated in Germany. The king had lost his consort, " the good queen Maud," in 1118, and after the death of his son he was induced to marry, in 1121, Adelais, daughter of Godfrey, duke of Louvain, and niece of pope Calixtus II. As the emperor died without issue in 1125, Henry sent for his widowed daughter, and endeavoured to insure her succession by having her recognized as heir to all his dominions, and obliging the barons, both of Normandy and England, to swear fealty to her at Christmas, 1126. Two years later, motives of policy led him to give Matilda in marriage to Geoffrey the Hand- some, son of his most formidable enemy, Fulk, count of Anjou. Geoffrey succeeded his father in 1129; and in 1131 Henry brought Matilda to England, and caused the nobles to renew their oath to her at Northampton. In 1133 she bore a son, at Le Mans, who was named Henry after his grandfather. During the latter years of his reign Henry resided chiefly in Normandy, where he died December 1, 1135, from a surfeit of lampreys, in the 67th year of his age, and the 35th of his reign. By his will he left Matilda heir of all his dominions, without making any mention of her husband Geoffrey, who had given him several causes of displeasure. His bjody was carried to England, and interred at Beading, in the abbey of St. Mary, which he had founded. Henry, like his father, was a monarch of great ability, and possessed many qualities both of body and mind, natural and acquired, fitted for the high station to which he attained. His person was manly, his countenance engaging, his eyes clear, serene, and penetrating. From his early progress in letters he acquired the name of Beauclerc, or the Scholar ; but his application to such sedentary pursuits abated nothing, in after life, of the activity and vigilance of his government. He carried the oppressions of the forest laws to an extreme, and, though he restrained the tyranny of his nobles, he set no limits to his own arbitrary and avaricious temper. He was susceptible of the sentiments as well of friendship as of resentment ; but his conduct towards his brother and nephew showed that he was too disposed to sacrifice to his ambition all the dictates of justice and equity. A.D. 1120-1135. STEPHEN. 103 § 13. Stephen, 6. a.d. 1096, r. 1135-1154. — Adela, fourth daughter of William the Conqueror, had been married to Stephen, count of Blois, and had brought him several sons, among whom Henry and Stephen, the two now surviving, had been invited over to England by the late king. Henry was created bishop of Win- chester, and Stephen was endowed with great estates. In 1107 the king married him to Matilda, daughter and heir of Eustace, count of Boulogne, who brought him, besides a feudal sovereignty in France, immense property in England. Stephen, in return, pro- fessed great attachment to his uncle, and had been among the first to take the oath for the succession of Matilda. But no sooner had Henry breathed his last, than, insensible to all the ties of gratitude and fidelity, he hastened over to England, and stopped not till he arrived in London, where he was hailed by the citizens as their deliverer, and immediately saluted king. This irregular election was confirmed by the nobles, who disliked Matilda and her Angevin marriage, and hoped for license under a sovereign who had a doubt- ful title and an easy temper. It was pretended that the late king on his deathbed had disinherited Matilda, and had expressed an intention of leaving Stephen heir to all his dominions. William, archbishop of Canterbury, with some misgivings, placed the crown upon Stephen's head on St. Stephen's Day (December 26). To secure the favour of his subjects, and strengthen his tottering throne, Stephen granted a charter, and promised to maintain the immunities of the church, the laws and liberties of his subjects, and to observe the good customs of the Confessor. He invited over from the continent, particularly from Brittany and Flanders, great numbers of mercenary and disorderly soldiers, with whom every country in Europe at that time abounded ; and he procured a bull from Rome, which ratified his title. § 14. Matilda and her husband, Geoffrey, were as unfortunate in Normandy as they had been in England. The Norman nobility, hearing that Stephen had obtained the English crown, put him in possession of their government. Even Robert, earl of Gloucester, natural son of the late king, who was much attached to the in- terests of his sister Matilda and zealous for the lineal succession, submitted to Stephen, and took the oath of fealty, but with an express condition that his rights and dignities should be preserved inviolate. In return for their submission, Stephen allowed many of the barons to fortify castles and put themselves in a posture of defence. As the king found himself totally unable to refuse these exorbitant demands, England was immediately filled with fortresses, which the nobles garrisoned cither with their vassals, or with mercenary soldiers, who flocked to them from all quarters. 104 STEPHEN. Chap. vi. In 1138 David, king of Scotland, appeared at the head of an army in defence of his niece's title, and penetrated into Yorkshire, where his wild Galwegians and Highlanders committed the most "barbarous ravages. Enraged by this cruelty, the northern clergy and nobility assembled an army, with which they encamped at Northallerton, and awaited the arrival of the enemy. A great battle was fought, called the battle of the Standard, from the consecrated banners of St. Cuthbert of Durham, St. Peter of York, St. John of Beverley, and St. Wilfrid of Ripon, which were erected by the English on a waggon, and carried along with the army as a military ensign. The king of Scots was defeated, and he himself, as well as his son Henry, narrowly escaped falling into the hands of the English (August 22, 1138). § 15. This success might have given some stability to Stephen's throne, had he not, with incredible imprudence, engaged in a controversy with the clergy. In imitation of the nobility, the bishops of Salisbury, Ely, and Lincoln had erected strong fortresses, and Stephen, who was now sensible from experience of the mischiefs attending these multiplied citadels, resolved to begin with destroy- ing those of the clergy. Accordingly, he first seized the bishops of Salisbury and Lincoln, threw them into prison, and obliging them by menaces to deliver up the strongholds they had lately erected, he then turned his arms against the bishop of Ely. To the surprise of Stephen, the cause of the prelates was espoused by his own brother, Henry, bishop of Winchester, and papal legate. At a synod assembled at Winchester, complaints were made of the king's proceedings, and Stephen promised redress ; but the empress Matilda, invited by this opportunity, and encouraged by the legate himself, had now landed in England, with Robert, earl of Gloucester (who had renounced his allegiance the year before), and a small retinue of knights (1139). She fixed her residence first at Arundel castle. The gates were opened to her by Adelais, her stepmother. Many barons declared for her, and open war broke out between the two parties. A fright- ful state of anarchy ensued. The castles of the nobility had become receptacles of licensed robbers, who, sallying forth day and night, committed spoil in the open country, the defenceless villages, and even the cities. They put their captives to torture, in order to make them reveal their treasures ; sold their persons into slavery ; and set fire to their houses after they had pillaged them of every- thing valuable. The land was left unfilled; the instruments of husbandry were destroyed or abandoned; and a grievous famine, the natural result of those disorders, affected equally both parties, and reduced the spoilers and their victims to the extremity of indigence and hunger. A.D. 1138-1150. FLIGHT OF MATILDA. 105 The unexpected capture of Stephen himself by the earl of Gloucester, at Lincoln, seemed to promise an end to these calamities. He was conducted to Gloucester, and, though at first treated with humanity, was soon after loaded with irons, and imprisoned at Bristol (1141). The claims of Matilda were solemnly recognized in a synod held at Winchester by Stephen's brother, the legate. The Londoners, who clamoured in vain for Stephen's release, were obliged to submit ; and Matilda's authority, by the prudence of earl Robert, seemed to be established over the whole kingdom. But besides the disadvantage of her sex, which weakened her influence over a turbulent and martial people, Matilda was of a passionate, imperious spirit, and knew not how to temper with affability the harshness of a refusal. Stephen's queen, seconded by many of the nobility, and by the citizens of London, petitioned for the liberty of her husband, and undertook that on this con- dition he should renounce the crown and retire into a convent. The offended legate, who desired that his nephew Eustace might inherit Boulogne and the other patrimonial estates of his father, retired to Winchester in disgust, and sided with Stephen's partisans. The Londoners were alienated by a heavy fine imposed upon them for the support they had given to Stephen. To check the designs of the legate, he was besieged by the empress at Winchester. The bishop held his palace and Maud the castle ; and the burning of that ancient capital put an end to its rivalry with London. At length the legate, having joined his force to that of the Londoners, besieged Matilda. Hard pressed by famine, she made her escape ; but in the flight earl Bobert, her brother, while covering her retreat, fell into the hands of the enemy. This nobleman was as much the life and soul of one party, as Stephen was of the other; and Matilda, sensible of his merit and importance, consented to exchange prisoners on equal terms (Nov. 1, 1141). Next year the civil war was again kindled with greater fury than ever. Matilda retired to Oxford, was besieged by the legate, and escaped through the snow to Walsingford, scantily attended (Dec. 20). The war continued to rage for three years longer with variable success ; the empress holding the west of England, and Stephen the east and London, the barons being too disaffected towards both to bring the contest to a decision. Earl Bobert died in 1145, and the empress retired into Normandy (1146). § 16. In 1149 Matilda's son, Henry of Anjou, proceeded into Scotland, from which place he made various incursions into England, but with little success. By his dexterity and vigour, his valour in war, and his prudent conduct, he roused the hopes of his party, and gave indications of those great qualities which he afterwards dis- 106 STEPHEN. Chap. vi. played when he mounted the throne. After his return to Normandy he was, by Matilda's consent, invested with the duchy, and upon the death of his father, Geoffrey, in 1150, he took possession of Anjou. His dominions were still further augmented by his marriage with Eleanor, daughter and heir of William, duke of Guienne and count of Poitou (1152), whom Louis VII. of France had divorced on account of the levity of her conduct. By this marriage he obtained possession of Guienne, Poitou, and other provinces in the south of France included under the name of Aquitaine. Enabled to push his fortunes in England with greater chance of success, Henry was encouraged to make an invasion ; and landing in England at the end of 1152, he gained some advantages over Stephen, who had finally broken with the church by his attempt to procure the coronation of his son Eustace, which had been forbidden by a papal bull obtained by archbishop Theobald. A decisive action was every day expected; when the great men of both sides, and especially the archbishop and Henry, the legate, terrified at the prospect of further bloodshed and confusion, inter- posed with their good offices, and set on foot a negociation between the rival princes. The death of Stephen's son, Eustace (August 18), facilitated arrangements. It was agreed by the treaty of Wallingford that Stephen should enjoy the crown during his life- time, and that upon his demise Henry should succeed to the kingdom (November, 1153). After all the barons had sworn to the observance of this treaty, and done homage to Henry, as heir to the crown, that prince evacuated the kingdom ; and the death of Stephen, which happened the next year after a short illness (October 25, 1154), prevented all those quarrels and jealousies which were likely to have ensued from so delicate a situation. England suffered great miseries during the reign of this prince, but his personal character was not liable to any great exception. He possessed industry, activity, and courage to a great degree. Though not endowed with a sound judgment, he was not deficient in abilities. He had the talent of gaining men's affections ; and notwithstanding his precarious situation, he never indulged himself in the exercise of cruelty or revenge. He is commonly branded as a usurper ; but as the right of direct lineal sucession was not firmly established till the time of Edward I., his seizing of the crown, regarded in itself, was no more an act of usurpation than that of his two predecessors. He must, however, be condemned for breaking his oath of fealty to Matilda, the daughter of his benefactor. Henry II. From his monument at Fontevraud. CHAPTEK VII. THE EAELY PLANTAGENET KINGS. HENRY II. AND RICHARD I. A.D. 1154-1199. § 1. Accession of Henry II. First acts of his government. § 2. His wars and acquisitions in France. § 3. Ecclesiastical disputes. Thomas Becket. § 4. Constitutions of Clarendon. § '5. Opposed by Becket. § 6. Compromise with Becket and return of that prelate. § 7. Becket" assassinated. § 8. Grief and submission of the king. § 9. Conquest of Ireland. § 10. Revolt of the young king Henry and his brothers. § 11. Henry's penance at the tomb of Becket. Peace with his sons. § 12. Death of the young king Henry. § 13. Preparations for a Crusade. Family misfortunes and death of the king. His character. § 14. Acces- sion of Richard i. Preparations for the Crusade. § 15. Adventures on the voyage. § 16. Transactions In Palestine. § 17. The king's return and captivity in Germany. His brother John and Philip of France invade his dominions. § 18. Liberation of Richard and return to England. § 19. War with France. Death and character of the king. § 1. Henry II., I. 1133 ; r. 1154-1189.— Henry II., who now- ascended the throne, was the first monarch of the house of the Plantagenets, whose name was derived from the planta genista, the Spanish broom-plant, a sprig of which was commonly worn in his hat by Geoffrey, Henry's father. The Plantagenets reigned over England for more than three centuries, and to this family all the English monarchs belonged from Henry II. to Eichard III. (a.d. 1154-1485) ; but after the deposition of Richard II. the line 108 HENRY II. Chap. vii. was divided into the houses of Lancaster and York. To Lancaster belonged Henry IV., Henry V., and Henry VI. (1399-1461), and to York Edward IV., Edward V., and Eichard III. (1461-1485). The name of Plantagenet was especially used as a distinctive surname by Edward IV. Henry II. and his two sons are also called Angevins. They were more intimately connected with France by their character and possessions than even the Norman princes, and it was not till the loss of Normandy under John, that the interests of the royal house were exclusively centred in England. No opposition was offered to the accession of Henry. He was in Normandy at the time of Stephen's death, and upon his arrival in England he was received with the acclamations of all orders of men. He was crowned on Sunday, the 19th of December. The first acts of his government corresponded to the idea entertained of his abilities, and prognosticated the re-establishment of that justice and tranquillity, of which the kingdom had so long been bereaved. He dismissed the mercenary soldiers who had committed great disorders ; revoked all grants made by his predecessor, even those which necessity had extorted from' the empress Matilda; and he reformed the coin, which had been extremely debased during the reign of his predecessor. He was rigorous in the execution of justice, and in the suppression of robbery and violence. To main- tain his authority, he caused all the newly erected castles to be demolished, which had proved so many sanctuaries for freebooters and rebels. § 2. The continental possessions of Henry were far more exten- sive than those of any of his predecessors. In the right of his father, he held Anjou, Maine, and Touraine ; in that of his mother, Normandy ; in the right of his wife, Guienne, Poitou, Saintogne, Auvergne, Perigord, Angoumois, and the Limousin. These pro- vinces composed above a third of the whole of France, and were much superior, in extent and opulence, to the territories imme- diately subjected to the jurisdiction and government of the French monarch. On the death of his brother Geoffrey in 1158, Henry laid claim to Nantes, which had been put into Geoffrey's hands by the inhabitants, after they had expelled count Hoel, their former prince. That Louis VII. might not interpose and obstruct his design, Henry paid him a visit, and by the skilful diplomacy of Thomas a Becket it was arranged that young Henry, heir to the English monarchy, should be affianced to Margaret of France, though the former was only five years of age and the latter was still in her cradle. Secure against all interruption on this side, Henry now advanced with an army into Brittany. The duke Conan, A.D. 1154-1162. THOMAS A BECKET. 109 in despair of being able to resist, not only delivered up tbe crnnty of Nantes, which he had seized on pretence of being wrongfully dispossessed, but also betrothed his daughter and only child, yet an infant, to Geoffrey, the king's third son, who was of the same tender years. On the death of the duke of Brittany, about seven years after, Henry, as mesne lord and natural guardian to his son and daughter-in-law, took possession of that principality, and an- nexed it to his other dominions. § 3. In 1162 commenced the long and memorable struggle be- tween Henry II. and Thomas a Becket. Thomas Becket, or a Becket, as he is generally called, was the first man of English birth who, since the Norman conquest, had risen to any considerable station. He was born (1119) of respect- able parents, in the city of London ; * was educated by the prior of Merton, sent to Oxford, and afterwards to Paris. Introduced into the household of archbishop Theobald, he readily acquired great in- fluence over the primate ; was enabled by his means to study juris- prudence at Bologna ; and on his return to England was promoted to the archdeaconry of Canterbury, to the provostship of Beverley, and other valuable preferments. His genius, intrepidity, and know- ledge of the law, were of great service to Theobald in the trouble- some times of king Stephen ; and shortly after Henry's accession, he was recommended by his patron to the new king's notice. He soon ingratiated himself with Henry, as he had done with the archbishop, and in 1157 was appointed chancellor. Besides this high office, he held several baronies that had escheated to the crown ; and, to enhance his greatness, he was intrusted with the education of Henry, the king's eldest son, and heir to the monarchy. The pomp of his retinue, the sumptuousness of his furniture, the luxury of his table, the munificence of his presents, corresponded to these great preferments. His historian and secretary, Fitz- Stephen, mentions, among other particulars, that his apartments were every day in winter covered with clean straw or hay, and in summer with green rushes or boughs, lest the gentlemen who paid court to him, and could not, by reason of their great number, find a place at table, should soil their fine clothes by sitting on the floor. A great number of knights were retained in his service ; the greatest barons were proud of being received at his table ; his house was a place of education for the sons of the chief nobility ; and the king himself frequently vouchsafed to partake of his entertainments, and lay aside with his favourite the dignity of royalty. Becket, who by his complaisance and good humour had rendered * An anonymous author states that his parents hai migrated from Normandy. 110 HENRY II. Chap. vn. himself agreeable, and by his industry and abilities useful, to his master, appeared to be the fittest person for supplying the vacancy caused by the death of Theobald. As he was well acquainted with the king's intentions of retrenching the ecclesiasticaLprivileges of the clergy, Henry, never expecting any resistance, immediately issued orders for electing Becket archbishop of Canterbury (May 24, 1162). Nor was he inclined to waver in his purpose, though Becket, it is said, had warned him not to expect from him, as archbishop, the same undivided devotion to the royal interests he had exhibited as chancellor. No sooner was he installed in this new dignity, than he altered his demeanour and conduct. Without waiting for Henry's return from Normandy, he resigned into his hands his commission as chancellor ; and he now stood forth as the champion of the church, the assertor of its rights, and of his own privileges, as the highest constitutional adviser of the crown. He maintained, in his retinue and attendants at his table and in public, his ancient pomp and lustre ; but in his own person he practised the greatest austerity. He wore sackcloth next his skin ; was strictly temperate in his diet, and abundant in his charity to the poor, feeding them with the dishes from his own table. In person, or by deputy, he washed daily on his knees, in imitation of Christ, the feet of thirteen beggars. Relying on a sort of promise made to him by the king, the new archbishop proceeded to demand from his former associates the restitution of estates belonging to his see, which he accused them of retaining unjustly. He thus became embarked, as he had been in the days of Theobald, in defence of the church's rights against the powerful barons ; and as the king was equally zealous in maintaining and augmenting the power of the monarchy, a rupture beween them became imminent. The tenants in chief in different counties had been accustomed to pay two shillings for every hide of land to the sheriffs, as a voluntary gift, for their own security. This money the king desired to confiscate to his own use, and thus convert a voluntary into a compulsory tax. He broached this proposal at a council at Woodstock, and when all stood blank with astonishment, Becket ventured to object. " By God's eyes ! " said the king, " it shall be paid as I require." " By the reverence of those eyes by which you have sworn," replied the archbishop, " it shall never be paid from my lands whilst I am alive." " He carried his point," says Professor Pearson, " and is the first English- man on record who defeated an unjust tax." * * Hist, of England, i. 495. See Roger | to was the Danegeld ; but this supposition of Pounteney, p. 113, and Grim, 21. Pro- is irreconcilable with the statements of fessor Stubbs thinks that the tax referred Grim and Roger. a.d. 1162-1164. CONSTITUTIONS OF CLAEENDON. Ill Three months after, a fresh quarrel ensued. Since the Conquest the spiritual and temporal jurisdiction had been sharply divided. The priest was no longer to judge the offences of laymen, and by parity of argument, the layman was not to judge the priest. But whilst the temporal laws were severe, and could restrain crime by death or mutilation, the clerical tribunals were regulated by the milder code of the canon law, which forbad the shedding of blood. Its utmost censure proceeded no farther than degrading the ecclesiastic and reducing him to the condition of the laity, when he might be punished by the lay tribunals for a fresh offence, but not for any he had formerly committed. In the disorders of the last reign discipline had been wholly relaxed, and many unworthy clerks had entered the church to shelter themselves and their crimes under its immunities. Henry proposed, at a council at Westminster (1163), that clerks guilty of felony should be degraded, and then handed over to the lay tribunals, to be hanged or mutilated, as justice might require. The proposal was opposed by Becket, as contrary to the customs of the nation and the privileges of the church. He insisted that clerks should be tried in the ecclesiastical courts, and be degraded if found guilty, but not be punished twice for the same offence. Shortly after the king required of the bishops and clergy to observe the laws of his grandfather, Henry I. But as no one could tell what those laws were, and to allow them to be deter- mined by secular judges would have surrendered the whole question in dispute, Becket prevailed upon the bishops to consent, " saving the honour of God and their order." The king dismissed the assembly in wrath, took from the archbishop the manors of Eye and Berkhampstead, and persistently refused all his offers of recon- ciliation. § 4. Eesolved to carry out his purpose, Henry summoned a general council of the nobility and prelates at Clarendon (January 25, 1164), when the laws, commonly called the Constitutions of Clarendon,* Avere enacted. They consisted of 16 articles, of which the following are the most important : — That bishops and abbots should do homage to the king, as their liege lord — that they should not appeal to Eome, or quit the country without his leave — that they should neither be elected without his consent, nor excom- municate any tenant in capite without the king's permission — that the sons of serfs should not be ordained without consent of their lord — finally, that the clergy should be amenable to the king's courts in all causes not exclusively spiritual. § 5. To these articles, which seemed to aim at the independence * The Assize of Clarendon was not I Constitutions will be found in Stubbs, issued till the year 1166. This and the | Documents, &c, p. 129. 112 HENRY II. Chap. vii. of the church — the only body which, in the absence of parliament or public opinion, could at that time exercise any moral control over kings or their officers — Becket demurred. Moved at last by the entreaties of his brethren, whom the king had terrified into compliance, the primate gave a reluctant and general consent, but immediately repented of his act. He redoubled his penance, sus- pended himself from offering mass, and wrote to the pope for absolution. Resolved upon his ruin, the king summoned a council at Northampton (Oct. 6, 1164). Becket was condemned for not having personally appeared to a suit instituted against him respecting certain lands, and as wanting in the fealty he had sworn to his sovereign. His goods and chattels were confiscated. Not content with this sentence, the king further demanded of him, on various pretexts, large sums of money; and finally required him to give in the accounts of his administration while chancellor, and to pay the balance due from the revenues of all the prelacies, abbeys, and baronies which had, during that time, been subjected to his management. By the advice of the bishop of Winchester, Becket offered 2000 marks as a general satisfaction for all demands ; but his offer was rejected. On the seventh and last day of the council (Oct. 13), the archbishop entered the king's hall, bearing his cross before him. It was understood that he had come to forbid his suffragans to take any further part in the proceedings. Fierce words ensued. As he moved to the door, the nobles cried out, " Traitor and perjurer ; " but the people fell on their knees and implored his blessing. Considering his life in danger, he asked Henry's permission to leave Northampton. On his refusal, he with- drew secretly, proceeded to the Kentish coast disguised as a monk, under the name of Brother Christian, and at last took shipping and arrived safely at Gravelines. Henry revenged himself by sequestrating the revenues of the see of Canterbury, and banishing the adherents and kinsfolk of the archbishop, to the number of 400, in the depth of winter. § 6. Louis VII., king of France, jealous of the rising greatness of Henry, and the pope, whose interests were more immediately con- cerned in supporting Becket, received him with the greatest marks of distinction. A war ensued between Louis and Henry ; and the pope menaced Henry with excommunication. In 1169 peace was concluded between the two monarchs ; and the pope and Henry began at last to perceive that, in the present situation of affairs, neither of them could expect a final and decisive victory. After many negociations, all difficulties were adjusted (July, 1170). The king allowed Becket to return, after six years' banishment. But the king attained not that tranquillity he had hoped. During New "York; Harper & Brothers a.d. 1164-1170. BECKET S RETURN. 113 the heat of his quarrel with Becket, while he was every day expecting excommunication, he had thought it prudent to have his son Henry, now fifteen years old, associated with him in the kingdom. He was consequently crowned by Roger, archbishop of York (June 14, 1170).* But Becket, claiming the sole right, as archbishop of Canterbury, of officiating in the coronation, had in- hibited all the prelates of England from assisting at the ceremony, and had procured from the pope a mandate to the same purpose.. On his arrival in England on the first of December, he notified to the archbishop of York the sentence of suspension, and to the bishops of London and Salisbury that of excommunication, which, at his solicitation, the pope had pronounced against them. As he proceeded to take possession of his diocese, he was received in Rochester, and all the towns through which he passed, with the shouts and acclamations of the populace. In Southwark the clergy, the laity, men of all ranks and ages, came forth to meet him, and celebrated with hymns of joy his triumphant return. § 7. Arriving at his see, he found that the property had been grievously wasted in his absence by Ranulph de Broc, the se- questrator appointed by the king, and he fulminated the church's censures against the offender. Meanwhile, the suspended and excommunicated prelates arrived at Bur, near Bayeux, where the king then resided, and complained of the violent proceedings of Becket. Henry, furious at their report, declaimed more than once against the ingratitude of his courtiers, who were slow to avenga him on a base-born priest. Taking these passionate expi-es- sions for a hint, four gentlemen of his household, Beginald Fitz- Urse, William de Tracy, Hugh de Morville, and Richard Brito, or the Breton, immediately took counsel ; and, swearing to avenge their prince's quarrel, secretly withdrew from court. Some menacing expressions which they had dropped gave a suspicion of their design ; and the king despatched a messenger after them, charging them to attempt nothing against the person of the primate: but these orders arrived too late to prevent their fatal purpose. Repairing by different routes to Saltwood,f where De Broc resided (Dec. 28), they spent that night, the Feast of The Holy Innocents, in planning the murder. Next day they proceeded in great haste to the archiepiscopal palace of Canter- • Prince Henry was called " the young king," and his father "the old king," though he was only thirty-seven years old now and fifty-six when he died. The young king is often styled Henry III. in old books. f This castle, which was claimed by Becket as belonging to his see, was held for the king by the royal officers, Robert and Ranulf de Broc. Robert accompanied the knights to Canterbury, and Ranulf sheltered them for the uight, after the murder. 114 HENRY II. Chap, vil bury, pretending business from the king. They found the primate slenderly attended ; and, among other menaces and reproaches, required him to quit the country, or absolve the excommunicated prelates. Alarmed by the threats of the knights, the monks hurried the archbishop into the transept, where vespers had already commenced. The assassins, who had retired to arm them- selves, reappeared at the church door, which the monks would have fastened, but Becket forbad them to convert the house of God into a fortress. In the dim twilight the trembling monks con- cealed themselves under the altars and behind the pillars of the church. Becket was mounting the steps that led from the north transept into the choir, when the murderers rushed in ; he then turned round, came down, and confronted them. Fitz-Urse, wield- ing in his hand a glittering axe, was the first to approach him, exclaiming," Where is the traitor? Where is the archbishop ? " At the second call Becket replied, " Beginald, here I am, no traitor, but an archbishop and priest of God : what do you wish ? " and passing by him, took up his station between the central pillar and the massive wall which still forms the south-west corner of what was then the chapel of St. Benedict. On his repeated refusal to revoke the excommunication, the assassins attempted to drag him out of the church, in order to despatch him outside the sacred precincts. But Becket resisted with all his might, and, exerting his great strength, flung Tracy down upon the pavement. Finding it hopeless to remove him, Fitz-Urse approached him with his drawn sword, and, waving it over his head, dashed off his cowl. Thereupon Tracy sprang forward and struck a more decisive blow. Grim, a monk of Cambridge, who up to this moment had his arm round Becket, threw it up to intercept the blade. The blow lighted upon the arm of the monk, which fell wounded or broken, and the spent force of the stroke descending on Becket's head, grazed the crown, and finally resting on the left shoulder, cut through the clothes and skin. At the next blow, struck by Tracy or Fitz-Urse, upon his bleeding head, Becket drew back, as if stunned, and then raised his clasped hands above it. The blood from the first blow was trickling down his face in a, thin streak ; he wiped it with his arm, and when he saw the stain he said, " Into thy hands, Lord, I commend my spirit." At the third stroke, he sank on his knees, and murmured in a low voice, "For the name of Jesus and in defence of the church I am willing to die." Without moving hand or foot, he fell flat on his face as he spoke, and, while in this posture, received from Richard the Breton a tremendous blow upon the skull. A subdeacon named Hugh, an associate of the assassins, planting his foot on . the neck of the corpse, caused a.d. 1170. MURDER OF BBCKET. 115 the blood and brains to spirt out upon the pavement. This foul deed was perpetrated on Tuesday, the 29th December (a.d. 1170) a day long memorable in England as the martyrdom of St. Thomas, Thomas Becket was a prelate of the most lofty, intrepid, and inflexible spirit, and no one who enters into the genius of that age can reasonably doubt of his sincerity. Nor does it detract from his sincerity, that he was sometimes actuated by mixed motives, in which it was difficult to determine whether his zeal for the church or his own personal wrongs and offended dignity had the upper hand. He had to contend, as he believed, for the independence of the clergy, against a monarch no less powerful, energetic, and absolute than Henry II. He had to defend the spiritual against the aggressions of the temporal authority, armed with all the wealth, the territorial possessions, and the influence of a monarch more powerful than any in Christendom. Right as it undoubtedly was for Henry to maintain the supremacy of the crown, and render the clergy amenable for criminal offences to the temporal courts, the assertion of an authority vesting on some higher sanction than the will of the monarch was no less needful and important. § 8. The intelligence of the murder threw the king into great consternation. The point of chief importance to Henry was to con- vince the pope of his innocence ; or, rather, to persuade him that he would reap greater advantages from the submission of England than from proceeding to extremities against that kingdom. By the skill of his ambassadors he found means to appease the pontiff, whose anathemas were only levelled in general against all the actors, accomplices, and abettors of Becket's murder. The cardinals Albert and Theotwin were appointed legates to examine the cause, and were ordered to proceed to Normandy for that purpose. Henry made his submission, denying all complicity in the murder of the archbishop, and rescinding the Constitutions of Clarendon. Three years after his death. Becket was canonized by pope Alexander III. ; his body was removed to a magnificent shrine, enriched with presents, and visited by pilgrims from all parts of Christendom. § 9. As soon as Henry found that he was in no immediate danger from the thunders of the Vatican, he undertook a long-projected expedition into Ireland. As Britain was first peopled from Gaul, so was Ireland probably from Britain. The Irish were converted to Christianity by St. Patrick, about the middle of the 5th century ; and the ecclesiastics of that country preserved a considerable share of learning when other nations were buried in ignorance. The invasions of the Danes 116 HENRY II. Chap. vu. and Northmen in the eighth century plunged Ireland again into barbarism, from which, however, the towns which those invaders founded on the coast — Dublin, Waterford, Cork, and Limerick — ■ were now beginning to emerge. Besides many small tribes, there were, in the age of Henry II., five principal sovereignties in the. island — Munster, Leinster, Meath, Ulster, and Connaught; one or other of which was commonly paramount in Ireland. Roderic O'Connor, king of Connaught, held that dignity at this time. The ambition of Henry, very early in his reign, had been set on attempt- ing the subjection of Ireland. A pretext only was wanting. For this purpose he had recourse to Rome, which assumed a right to dispose of kingdoms and empires, and especially of islands, according to the alleged donation of Constantine. Adrian IV. (Breakspear), the only Englishman who has ever sat upon the papal throne, gladly availed himself of the opportunity of bringing the Irish church under the dominion of Rome ; and therefore, in the year 1155, he issued a bull in favour of Henry, giving him entire right and authority over Ireland. The king, however, was at that time prevented by various causes from putting his design into execution. Dermot Macmorrogh, king of Leinster, had carried off Dervorghal, wife of O'Ruarc, prince of Breffny (Leitrim). Her husband, collect- ing his forces, and strengthened by the alliance of Roderic, king of Connaught, invaded the dominions of Dermot, and drove him from his kingdom. The exiled prince craved the assistance of Henry, and offered, in the event of being restored to his kingdom, to hold it in vassalage under the crown of England (1168). Embarrassed by the rebellions of his French subjects at that time, as well as by his disputes with the see of Rome, Henry gave Dermot no further assistance than letters patent, empowering all his subjects to aid the Irish prince in the recovery of his dominions. Supported by this authority, Dermot formed an alliance with Richard, earl of Chepstow or Strigul, surnamed Strongbow, son of Gilbert de Clare. Richard had dissipated his fortune ; and being ready for any desperate undertaking, he promised to assist Dermot on condition of espousing Eva, daughter of that prince, and being declared heir to the kingdom of Leinster. While Richard was assembling his forces, Dermot engaged the assistance of two other knights in South Wales, Robert Fitz-Stephen and Maurice Fitz-Gerald. In 1170 Fitz-Stephen crossed over to Ireland with a small force and took the town of Wexford ; and was shortly afterwards joined by Fitz-Gerald. Next year Richard de Clare, having obtained an ambiguous permission from Henry to embark in the enterprise, landed in Ireland, took Waterford and Dublin, and, marrying Eva., A.D. 1170-1173. CONQUEST OF IRELAND. 117 became soon after, by the death of Dermot, master of Leinster, and prepared to extend his authority over the rest of Ireland. Roderic, and other Irish princes, alarmed at the danger, besieged Dublin with an army of 30,000 men : but earl Richard, making a sudden sally at the head of 90 knights with their followers, put this numerous army to rout, chased them from the field, and pursued them with great slaughter. None in Ireland now dared to oppose themselves to the English. Henry now determined to attack Ireland in person, and landed at Waterford at the head of 400 knights and 4000 soldiers. He found the Irish so dispirited by their late misfortunes, that, in a progress which he made through the island, he had no other occupation than to receive the homage of his new subjects. The clergy, in a synod at Cashel, not only made submission to Henry, but agreed to alterations which brought the native church nearer to the English model (1172). Appointing Richard seneschal of Ireland, he returned in triumph to England, after a stay of six months. Thus was Ireland subdued and annexed to the English crown, whose king became " Lord of Ireland." § 10. The king's precaution in establishing the several branches of his family seemed well calculated to prevent all jealousy among his children. He had appointed Henry, his eldest surviving son,* to be his successor in the kingdom of England, the duchy of Nor- mandy, and the counties of Anjou, Maine, and Touraine ; Richard, his third son, was invested with the duchy of Guienne and county of Poiton ; Geoffrey, his fourth son, by right of his wife, had the duchy of Brittany ; and the new conquest of Ireland was destined as an appanage for John, the youngest. But his hopes were frustrated. In 1173 his three eldest sons fled to the court of France, and demanded of their father immediate possession of a portion, at any rate, of the territories promised them. They had been encouraged in their filial disobedience by their mother, Eleanor, who, offended with her husband on account of his infidelities, had attempted to fly to France, but was seized and thrown into confinement. Young Henry had also been in- stigated by his father-in-law, Louis VII., who persuaded him that the fact of his having been crowned as king conferred upon him the right of participating in the throne. Many of the Norman nobility deserted to the prince. The Breton and Gascon barons seemed equally disposed to embrace the quarrel of Geoffrey and Richard. Disaffection crept in among the English; and the earls of Leicester and Chester, in particular, openly declared against the king. On the continent, however, Henry obtained at all points, and without much * His firstburn, William, had died an infant, in 1156. T* 118 HENRY II. Chap. vii. difficulty, the advantage over his enemies. The defeat of Leicester, at Forneham, in Suffolk (October, 1173), was followed by fresh hostilities the next year. William the Lion, king of Scotland, also entered into this great confederacy ; and a plan was concerted for a general invasion at different parts of the king's extensive and factious dominions. The king of Scots crossed the border. Several of the counties were in open revolt. The belief gained ground that the king had been privy to the murder of the archbishop, and that these disasters were a judgment upon him. § 11. Under these circumstances Henry resolved to make a pil- grimage to the tomb of the martyr, and humble himself before the ashes of the saint. He crossed over from Normandy in 1174, and on July 12 entered Canterbury. As soon as he came within sight of the cathedral he dismounted, walked barefoot towards it, prostrated himself before the shrine of St. Thomas, remained in fasting and prayer for a whole day, and watched all night the holy reliques. He even submitted to a penance still more humiliating. He assembled a chapter of the monks, disrobed himself before them, put a scourge of discipline into the hands of each, and presented his bare shoul- ders to the lashes successively inflicted upon him. Next day he received absolution ; and departing for London, received soon after the welcome intelligence of a great victory over the Scots at Alnwick, and of the capture of their king. As this success was gained on the very day of his absolution, it was regarded as the earnest of his final reconciliation with Heaven and with St. Thomas. The victory proved decisive. In less than three weeks all opposition disappeared, and Henry's rebellious subjects hastened to make their submissions. Louis was glad to conclude a peace; his sons returned to their obedience ; and William, king of Scotland, who had been imprisoned at Falaise, was compelled with all his barons and prelates to do homage in the cathedral of York, and to acknowledge Henry and his successors for their superior lord (1175). Berwick, Roxburgh, and other important places, were ceded to the English monarch, and the castle of Edinburgh was placed in his hands. § 12. Thus extricated with honour, contrary to expectation, from a situation in which his throne was exposed to great danger, Henry employed himself for several years in improving the internal ad- ministration of his kingdom. One of the most important of his enactments was the appointment of itinerant justices, of which institution an account is given at the close of this book. Another was the substitution in certain cases of a trial by sixteen sworn recognitors in place of the trial by battle. The success which had attended Henry in his wars prevented his neighbours from forming any fresh projects against him. In 1177 A.D. 1173-1189. HIS DEATH. 119 he sent over his fourth son, John, into Ireland with a view of making a more complete conquest of the island ; but the petulance and incapacity of this prince exasperated the Irish chieftains, and obliged the king soon after to recall him. The latter years of Henry's reign were embittered by the renewed rebellion of his sons, and their mutual quarrels. In 1183 his son Henry was seized with a fatal illness in the midst of his criminal designs, and died ex- pressing deep sorrow for his filial ingratitude. Richard and Geoffrey made war upon each other; and when this quarrel was accom- modated, Geoffrey, the most vicious perhaps of all Henry's unhappy family, levied war against his father. Henry was freed from this danger by his son's death, who was killed in a tournament at Paris (1186). § 13. In the year 1187 the city of Jerusalem fell into the hands of sultan Saladin, and a new Crusade was determined on. The French and English monarchs and the emperor Frederick Barbarossa assumed the cross. In the midst of these preparations Richard, supported by Philip Augustus of France (who had succeeded Louis VII. in 1180), again took up arms against his father for detaining certain lands belonging to Adelais, Philip's sister, who was betrothed to Richard (1189). After much fruitless negociation, Henry was obliged to defend his dominions by arms, and engage in a war with his son and with France, in which his reverses so subdued his spirit that he submitted to all the rigorous terms demanded of him. But this was the least of his mortifications. When he required a list of those barons to whom he was bound to grant a pardon for their connection with Richard, he was astonished to find at the head of them the name of his favourite son John. Overloaded with cares and sorrows, the unhappy father, in this last disappointment of his domestic tenderness, broke out into expressions of the utmost despair, cursed the day in which he was born, and bestowed on his ungrateful and undutiful children a 'malediction which he never could be prevailed on to retract. This final blow quite broke his spirit, and aggravated the fever from which he was suffering. He expired at the castle of Chinon, near Saumur (July 6, 1 189). His natural son, Geoffrey, who alone had behaved dutifully towards him, attended his corpse to Fontevraud, where it lay in state in the abbey church. As Richard met the sad procession, he was struck with horror and remorse, and expressed a deep sense of his own undutiful behaviour. Thus died, in the 58th year of his age, and 34th of his reign, the most remarkable prince of his time. Henry was of a middle stature, strong, and well proportioned ; his countenance was lively and engaging ; his conversation affable 120 RICHARD I. Chap. vn. and entertaining; his speech easy, persuasive, and ever at com- mand. He loved peace, but possessed both bravery and conduct in war ; was provident without timidity, severe in the execution of justice, and temperate without austerity. Cruel and false, his abilities were more conspicuous than his virtues. He preserved his health, and kept himself from corpulency, to which he was some- what inclined, by an abstemious diet, and by frequent exercise, particularly hunting. Kestless and energetic, he generally trans- acted business standing, and was careless how he ate or drank or dressed. In his person were united many of the characteristics of his race, both bad and good. He was a fair scholar, had a wonderful memory, and was more careful of the forms than of the spirit of religion. He had five sons by Eleanor, of whom only two, Eichard and John, survived him. Of his natural children the most distinguished were William, who received the surname of Long- sword, and married the daughter of the earl of Salisbury, and Geoffrey, already mentioned, who became bishop of Lincoln and archbishop of York. EICHARD I. §14. Eichakd I., I. U67; r. 1189-1199.— Eichard succeeded his father without opposition. He dismissed his father's minister, Eanulf de Glanville, the justiciary, and released his mother Eleanor from the confinement in which she had long been detained by the late king. The history of Eichard's reign consists of little more than his personal adventures. Impelled by the love of military glory, the sole purpose of his government seems to have been the relief of the Holy Land, and the recovery of Jerusalem from the Saracens. This zeal against the infidels was shared by his subjects, and broke out in London on the day of his coronation (September 3). The king had issued an edict prohibiting the Jews from appearing at the ceremony ; but some of them, presuming on the large presents made him by their nation, ventured to approach the hall where the king was dining. Exposed by their appearance to the insults of the populace, they took to flight. A rumour was spread that the king had issued orders for their massacre. This command, so agreeable to popular prejudices, was executed in an instant on such as fell into the hands of the multitude, who, moved alike by rapacity and zeal, broke into their houses, plundered, and murdered the owners. The inhabitants of the other cities of England imitated the example. In York 500 Jews, who had retired into the castle for safety, unable to defend the place, murdered their own wives and children, and then, setting fire to the castle, perished in the flames. a.d. 1189-1191. PREPARES FOR THE CRUSADE. 121 Regardless of every consideration except his expedition to the Holy Land, Richard endeavoured to raise money by all expedients, how pernicious soever they might be to the public, or dangerous to the royal authority. He set to sale the revenues and manors of the crown, and the offices of greatest trust and power ; sold, for so small a sum as 10,000 marks, the vassalage of Scotland, together with the fortresses of Roxburgh and Berwick, acquired by his father during the course of his victorious reign. Leaving the adminis- tration in the hands of the bishops of Durham and Ely, whom he appointed justiciaries and guardians of the realm, Richard proceeded to the plains of Vezelay, on the borders of Burgundy, the place of rendezvous agreed on with the French king. Philip and Richard, on their arrival there, found their combined army amount to 100,000 men (July 1, 1190). § 15. Here the French prince and the English reiterated their promises of cordial friendship, and pledged their faith not to invade each other's dominions during the Crusade. They then separated ; Philip took the road to Genoa, Richard the road to Marseilles, with a view of meeting their fleets, which were severally appointed to rendezvous in these harbours, and met again at Messina, where they were detained during the whole winter Here Richard was joined by Berengaria, daughter of the king of Navarre, with whom he had become enamoured in Guienne. In the spring of the following year (1191) the English fleet, on leaving the port of Messina, met with a furious tempest, and the squadron in which Berengaria and her suite were embarked was driven on the coast of Cyprus. In consequence of their inhospitable treatment by Isaac, the ruler of Cyprus, Richard landed there, dethroned Isaac, and established governors over the island. Richard then espoused Berengaria (May 12), and early in the next month sailed for Palestine. § 16. The arrival of Philip and Richard inspired new life into the Crusaders. The emulation between the rival kings and rival nations | >roduced extraordinary acts of valour : Richard in particular drew upon himself the general attention. Acre, which had been attacked for above two years by the united force of all the Christians in Palestine, now surrendered , but Philip, instead of pursuing the hopes of further conquest, disgusted with the ascendancy assumed and acquired by Richard, declared his resolution of return- ing to France. Richard, with those who still remained under his command, determined to lay siege to Ascalon, and thus open the way to Jerusalem. The march along the seacoast of 100 miles from Acre to Ascalon was a perpetual battle of 11 days. Ascalon fell into his hands, and Richard was even able to advance within sight of Jerusalem, the object of his enterprise, when he had the 122 RICHARD I. Chap. vii. mortification to find, from the irresistible desire of his allies to return home, that all hopes of further conquest must be abandoned for the present, and the acquisitions of the Crusaders be secured by an accommodation with Saladin. He concluded a truce for three years with that monarch (1192); stipulating that Acre, Joppa, and other seaport towns of Palestine, should remain in the hands of the Christians, and pilgrims to the Holy City be unmolested. § 17. No business of importance now remained to detain Eichard in Palestine ; and the intelligence which he had received, concern- ing the intrigues of his brother John, and those of the king of France, made him sensible that his presence was necessary in Europe. As he dared not pass through France, he sailed to the Adriatic; and being shipwrecked near Aquileia, he assumed the disguise of a merchant returning from pilgrimage, with the pur- pose of taking his journey secretly through Germany. At Vienna he was betrayed by his prodigality ; was arrested by orders of Leopold, duke of Austria, who had been offended by some insult whilst serving with Eichard in Palestine (December 20, 1192). By the duke he was delivered to Henry VI., the German emperor, in return for a large sum which he paid to Leopold, and was detained by him in a castle in the Tyrol. The English learnt the captivity of their king from a letter which the emperor sent to Philip, king of France.* The news excited the greatest indignation ; it seemed incredible that the champion of the Cross should be treated with such indignity. Philip hastened to profit by the circumstance ; he formed a treaty with John, the object of which was the perpetual ruin of Eichard. Philip, in consequence, invaded Normandy, but was driven back with loss ; and John was equally unsuccessful in his enterprises in England. The justiciaries, supported by the general affection of the people, provided so well for the defence of the kingdom, that John was obliged, after some fruitless efforts, to conclude a truce. § 18. Meanwhile the high spirit of Eichard suffered in Germany every kind of insult and indignity. He was brought before the diet of the empire at Hagenau, and accused by Henry of many crimes and misdemeanours (March 22, 1193) ; but Eichard de- fended himself with so much ability, that he produced a profound impression on the German princes, who exclaimed loudly against the conduct of the emperor. The pope threatened him with ex- - communication ; and Henry at last agreed, in a conference at Worms, to restore Eichard to his freedom for the sum of 100,000 * The well-known story of the discovery I page singing a song under his window of Richard's place of confinement by his i rests on no historical authority. a.d. 1192-1199. HIS DEATH. 123 marks paid down, and 50,000 more on security.* Half of the sum was to be paid before he received his liberty, and hostages delivered for the remainder (December, 1193). Making all imaginable haste to escape, Eichard embarked at the mouth of the Scheldt, and reached Sandwich, March 20, 1194. As soon as Philip heard of the king's deliverance, he wrote to his confederate John : Take heed of yourself, for the devil is broken loose. The joy of the English was extreme at the appearance of their monarch, who had suffered so many calamities, had acquired so much glory, and had spread the reputation of their name to the furthest East. The barons, in a great council, confiscated all John's possessions in England; and assisted the king in reducing the fortresses which still remained in the hands of his brother's adherents. § 19. Having settled everything in England, Richard passed over with. an army into Normandy, impatient to make war on Philip, and revenge himself for the many injuries received from that monarch. The incidents which -attended these hostilities were mean and frivolous. The war, frequently interrupted by truces, was continued till within a short period of Richard's death. The king w 7 as wounded in the shoulder with an arrow by Bertrand de Gourdon, whilst besieging the castle of Chaluz, belonging to his vassal Vidomar, viscount of Limoges, who had refused to surrender the whole of a treasure which he had discovered. The castle was taken, and all the garrison hanged, except the un- fortunate archer, whom the king had reserved for a more deliberate and cruel execution. The wound was not in itself dangerous, but the unskilfulness of the surgeon made it mortal. A gangrene engued, and Richard, now sensible that his life was drawing towards a close, sent for Gourdon, and asked him, "Wretch, what have I done to you to oblige you to seek my life ? " " What have you done to me?" replied the prisoner: "you killed with your own hands my father and my two brothers, and you intended to have hanged myself. I am now in your power, and you may take revenge by inflicting on me the most cruel torments ; but I shall endure them with pleasure, provided I can think that I have been so happy as to rid the world of such a plague." Richard, struck with the reply, and humbled by the near approach of death, ordered Gourdon to be set at liberty and a sum of money to be given him ; but, unknown to the monarch, the unhappy man was flayed alive, and then hanged.f- Richard died on the 6th of April, 1199, in the 10th year of his reign, and the 42nd of his age. He was buried at his father's feet at Fontevraud. * In all £100,000. | de Basile, and makes no mention of the f A contemporary French MS. says that archer Gourdon his spirited reply, and his Hichard was wounded by a knight, Peter cruol fate. 124 RICHARD I. Chap, vii. The most shining parts of this prince's character are his military- talents. No man, even in that romantic age, carried personal courage and intrepidity to a greater height ; and this quality gained him the appellation of the lion-hearted, Coeur de Lion. He loved military glory passionately ; and as his conduct in the field was not inferior to his valour, he seems to have possessed every talent necessary for acquiring it. Of an impetuous and vehement spirit, he was distinguished by the good as well as the bad qualities incident to such characters. Open, frank, generous, sincere, and brave, he was revengeful, ambitious, haughty, and cruel ; and was better calculated to dazzle men by the splendour of his enterprises, than to promote their happiness or his own grandeur by a sound and well-regulated policy. As Richard was a lover of poetry, and there even remain some poetical works of his composi- tion, he is ranked among the Proven cal poets, or Troubadours. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. A. THE ANGLO-NORMAN CONSTI- TUTION. 1. The Feudal system. — Among the bar- barian tribes which overran Europe after the fall of the Roman empire, every indi- vidual claimed an equal share of liberty : and thus, when Charles the Simple in- quired of the Northmen what title their leader bore, they replied, " None ; we are all equally free." But when they were settled in the possessions won with their swords, they found new cares devolve up- on them, and the necessity of a new system of polity. Having abandoned their life of wandering and rapine, it became necessary not only to cultivate the land for a sub- sistence, but to be prepared to defend it both against the attempts of the ancient possessors to regain, and of fresh swarms of wanderers to seize, it. Retaining their military character, and ignorant alike of all systems of finance and the expedient of a standing army, each man held himself in readiness to obey the call to service in the field. The superior officers, who held large territories directly from the prince, were bound to appear with a proportionate number of followers ; and their followers held their lands from their immediate lord on the same condition. Thus, as Dr. Robertson observes, "a feudal king- dom was properly the encampment of a great army ; military ideas predominated, military subordination was established, and the possession of land was the pay which the soldiers received for their personal service." The possessions held by these tenures were called fiefs, or beneficia. The vassal who held them was not only bound to mount his horse and follow his lord, or his suzerain, to the wars, but also to assist him with his counsel, and attend as an assessor in his courts of justice. More special and definite ser- vices were — to guard the castle of his lord a certain number of days in the year ; to pay a certain sum of money when his lord's eldest son was made a knight, and his eldest daughter was married ; and to contribute to his ransom in case he was taken prisoner in war. In return for these services the lord was bound to afford his vassal protection in the event of his fief being attacked ; whilst the defence of each other's person was reciprocal. The natural consequence of this was the system called " sub-infeudation," by which the imme- diate holder parcelled out portions of his fief to others on the same conditions of tenure by which he held it himself. These sub-tenants owed to him the same duties Chap. vn. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 125 as he owed to his lord ; and he held his own court of justice, in which he exercised jurisdietion over his vassals. The few lands that remained free, that is, which were not bound to render service to a superior lord, though liable to burthens for the public defence, were called allodial in contradistinction to feudal. The ceremony by which the vassal ac- knowledged his feudal dependence and obligations was called homage, from homo, a man, because the vassal became the man of his lord. Homage was accom- panied with an oath of fealty on the part of the vassal, and investiture on the part of the lord, which was the conveying of possession of the fief by means of some pledge or token. Homage was of two kinds, liege and simple. Liege homage Cfrom Lat. ligare, Fr. Iter, to bind) not only obliged the liege man to do personal service in the army, but also disabled him from renouncing his vassalage by surren- dering his fief. The liege man took the oath of fealty on his knees without sword and spurs, and with his hands placed between those of his lord. The vassal who rendered simple homage had the power of finding a substitute for military service, or could altogether liberate him- self by the surrender of his fief. ■ In simple homage the vassal took the oath standing, girt with his sword and with his hands at liberty. The aristocratic nature of feudalism will readily be inferred from the preceding description. The great chief, residing in his country-seat, which he was commonly allowed to fortify, lost in a great measure his connection or acquaintance with the sovereign, and added every day new force to his authority over the vassals of his barony. From him they received educa- tion in all military enterprises ; his hos- pitality invited them to live and enjoy society in his hall ; their leisure, which was great, made them perpetual re- tainers on his person, and partakers of his country sports and amusements ; they had no means of gratifying their ambi- tion but by making a figure in his train ; his favour and countenance was their greatest honour ; his displeasure exposed them to contempt and ignominy ; and they felt every moment the necessity of his protection, both in the controversies which occurred with other vassals, and, what was more material, in the daily inroads and injuries which were com- mitted by the neighbouring barons. From these causes not only was the royal au- thority extremely eclipsed in most of the European states, but even the military vassals, as well as the lower dependants and serfs, were held in a state of sub- jection, from which nothing could free them but the progress of commerce and the rise of cities, the true strongholds of freedom. 2. Feudalism in England. — Feudalism was one of the principal changes intro- duced into England by the Conquest. The king became the supreme lord of all the land; whence Coke says, "All the lands and tenements in England in the hands of subjects are holden medi- ately or immediately of the king, for in the law of England we have not pro- perly allodium " (Coke upon Littleton, i. 1). Even the native landholders who were not deprived of their lands were brought under the system of feudal tenure, and were subjected to new services and imposts. Most of the manors were bestowed upon the Normans, who thus held imme- diately of the king, and were hence called Tenants in Capite or Tenants in chief. But though the Anglo-Saxon thane was thus reduced to the condition of a simple freeholder, or franklin, and though the Norman lord perhaps retained a certain portion of his estate as demesne land, yet the latter had no possessory right in the whole, and the estate was not therefore so profitable to him as might at first sight appear. The tenant in chief was bound to knight service, or the obligation to maintain, 40 days in the field, a certain number of mounted men, from his under- tenants, completely equipped. Even re- ligious foundations and monasteries were liable to this service, the only exception being the tenure of frankalmoign, or free alms. Every estate of 20 pounds yearly value was considered as a knight's fee, and was bound to furnish a soldier. The tenants in chief appear from Domesday Book to have amounted in the reign of William the Conqueror to about 1400, including ecclesiastical corporations, amounting to one-half of the number. The mesne lords, or those holding fiefs not directly from the king, are estimated at about 8000. There were peculiarities in the feudal system of Normandy itself which were introduced by William into England 126 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Chap. vii. According to the generally received principle of feuds, the oath of the vassal was due only to the lord of whom he immediately held. But William, as already related, exacted the oath of fealty from all the landowners of England, whether tenants in capite or under- tenants. In doing this he seems to have been guided by the custom of Normandy, where the duke had imme- diate jurisdiction over all his subjects.* Hence William's power was much greater than that of the feudal sovereigns of the continent, and his rule approached more to an absolute despotism. The great fiefs of England did not, like those of France, date their origin from a period when the power of the vassal who received them was almost equal to that of the sovereign who bestowed them ; but being distributed on the same occasion; and almost at the same time, William took care not to make them so large as to be dangerous to himself; for which reason also the manors assigned to his followers were dispersed in different counties. Hence the nobles in England never attained that pitch of power which they possessed in Germany, France, and Spain ; nor do we find them defying the sove- reign's jurisdiction, as was very common in those countries, by exercising the right of carrying on private wars amonp them- selves. 3.' The Great Council or Parliament. — The supreme legislative power of Eng- land was confined to the king and the Great Council of the realm, called Com- mune Concilium Eegni, and also Curia Regis. It was attended by the arch- bishops, bishops, and principal abbots, and also by the Greater Barons. "The great tenants of the crown were of two descriptions— those who held by Knight Service in Capite, and those who held also in Capite by Grand Serjeantry, so called, says Littleton, from being a greater and more worthy service than Knight Service — attending the king not only in war but in his court. ... To both descriptions of tenants the word Baron, in its more extended sense of lord of a manor, was applicable ; but the latter only, or those who held of the king by Grand Serjeantry, held their lands per Baroniam, and were the King's Barons, and as such possessed both * See Houard, Anc. Lois des Francois, i. p. 196, ap. Thorpe, Lappenberg's Anglo- Norman Kings, p. 95. Comp. Halliim. Middle Ages, vol. i. p. 168. a civil and criminal jurisdiction, each in his Curia Baronis, or Court Baron, whilst the Lesser Barons had only a civil juris- diction over their vassals. To both ranks alike pertained the service of attending the sovereign in war with a certain number of knights according to the number of Knights, Fees holden of the crown, and to those who heldper Baroniam was annexed the duty also of attending him in his Great Councils, afterwards designated Parliaments; for it was the principle of the feudal system that every tenant should attend the court of his immediate superior, and hence it was that he who held per Baroniam, having no su- perior but the crown, was bound to attend his sovereign in his Great Council or Parliament, which was in fact the Great Court Baron of the Realm" (Nicolas, Historic Peerage of England, ea by Courthope, p. xviii.). It has been thought, but there is no distinct au- thority for the statement, that the lesser barons were sometimes summoned, par- ticularly when taxes were to be imposed ; for as the crown had only the right to exact from its immediate tenants the customary feudal aids, it became neces- sary, when the crown needed any ex- traordinary aid, to summon all the chief tenants in order to obtain their con- sent to the imposition. It was once dis- puted with great acrimony whether the Commons or representatives of counties and boroughs formed a part of the Great Council ; but it is now universally ac- knowledged that they were not admitted into it till the reign of Henry III., and that the tenants alone of the crown composed the supreme and legislative assembly under the Anglo-Norman kings. Mr. Hallam has summed up the con- stitution of this national assembly down to the reign of John as follows: — " 1. All tenants in chief had a constitutional right to attend, and ought to be summoned ; but whether they could attend without a sum- mons is not manifest. 2. The summons was usually directed to the higher barons, end to such of a second class as the king pleased, many being omitted for different reasons, though all had a right to it. 3. On occasions when money was not to be demanded, but alterations made in the law, some of these second barons, or tenants in chief, were at least occasionally summoned, but whether by strict right or usage does not fully appear. 4. The Chap. vii. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 127 irreguianty of passing over many of them when councils were held for the purpose of levying money, led te the provision in the Great Charter of John by which the king promises that they 6hall be sum- moned through the sheriff on such occa- sions ; but the promise does not extend to any other subject of parliamentary deliberation " (Middle Ages, iii. p. 213). Under the Conqueror and his sons it was customary to assemble such councils at the three great festivals of Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide, and on other occasions when needed. It does not, however, appear probable that such a council could have assembled so fre- quently in any large numbers. What limitation it imposed on the royal preroga- tive in the matter of legislation cannot be determined. Practically, the authority of the Norman kings was absolute. 4. Legislation. — There was indeed little or no legislation under the early Norman kings ; for the charters and other acts which they passed were rather confirma- tions of ancient privileges than new enactments. Even in Normandy itself there seems to be no trace of Norse juris- prudence, nor of e"tats nor courts, previous to the conquest of England ; the law seems to have lain in the breast of the sovereigns (Palgrave, Normandy and England, ii. 258). There is at all events no monument of jurisprudence previous to that epoch ; and, though a similarity may be subsequently traced between the English and Norman laws, yet England indisputably gave more than she borrowed. Learned men have even maintained that the famous Norman code called the Grand Coutumier, or Great Customary, was of Anglo-Saxon origin ; nay, the later Nor- mans claimed Magna Carta as the Foundation of their franchises.* In Eng- land the earliest legislation of the Norman sovereigns must be referred to the time of Henry II., and most of the changes usually ascribed to the Conqueror were really not effected before that reign.f 5. Courts of Justice. — Besides the Great Council of the realm, the king had an ordinary or select council, for admi- nistrative and judicial purposes, which was also called Curia or Aula Regis (toe • Palgrave, Normandy and England, i. pp. 107, seq. and notes, p.720. Couip. Hallam, Mddle Ages, ii. p 314. The Grand Customary Itself, however, ascribes the collection to Rolf : Lappenberg, Anglo- Norman Kings, by Thorpe, p. 92. t Palgrave, ibid. p. 113 ; Hallam, ibid. p. 413. King's Court). It attended the person of the sovereign, and was composed of the great officers of state ; as the chief jus- ticiary,* chancellor, constable, marshal, chamberlain, treasurer, steward, and others nominated by the king. These were his councillors in political matters, and also the supreme court of justice of the kingdom, in which the king some- times sat in person. A particular branch of it, afterwards known as the Court of Ex- chequer, was established in very early times for the administration of all matters con- nected with the revenue. Its existence can at all events be traced to the reign of Henry I. By degrees, when suits began to multiply in the king's court, and plead- ings became more technical and intricate, another branch was detached for the decision of private suits, which was called the Court of Common Pleas. It seems to have had its beginning in the reign of Richard I. ; but it was completely established by Magna Carta, of which the 14th clause enacted, " Common Pleas shall not follow our court, but be held in some certain place." The Court of King's Bench, primarily intended to decide suits between the king and his subjects, was formed out of the ancient Curia Regis. The rolls of the King's Bench begin in the sixth year of Richard I.f The County courts and Hundred-courts still continued as in Anglo-Saxon times. All the freeholders of the county, even the greatest barons, were obliged to attend the sheriffs in these courts, and assist in the administration of justice. Such courts, which were unknown upon the continent, served as a powerful check upon the courts of the barons. Appeals were allowed from the county and baronial courts to the court of the king ; and, lest the expense and trouble of a journey to court should discourage suitors, itinerant judges (in Eyre) were established in the reign of Henry II. (a.d. 1176). Theymade their circuits through the kingdom, and tried all causes that were brought before them ; for this purpose England was divided into six districts. In judicial proceedings the ancient prac- tice of compurgation by the oaths of * The chief justiciary presided in the king's court, and was, by virtue of his office, tlte regent of the kingdom during the absence of the sovereign. He was thus the greatest subject in the kingdom. t According to Professor Stubbs, it was not until the end of the reign of Henry III. that the ancient Curia was divided into these separate and indepen- dent bodies. 128 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Chap. vii. friends and of trial by ordeal (p. 11) still subsisted under the Norman kings ; but the trial by ordeal was to some extent superseded by that of combat, which, if not introduced by the Normans, was very seldom practised before the Conquest. Trial by ordeal was abolished by the fourth Lateran Council in 1215. The privilege of compurgation, an evident source of perjury, was abolished by Henry II., though by some exemption it continued to be preserved long afterwards in London and in boroughs. A regulation of Henry II. introduced an important change in suits for the recovery of land, by allowing a tenant who was unwilling to risk a judicial combat to put himself on the assize ; that is, to refer the case to four knights chosen by the sheriff, who in their turn selected twelve more. These twelve decided the case by their verdict ; but this proceeding was limited to the king's court and that of the itinerant jus- tices, and never took place in the county court or in that of the hundred. This practice will again claim our attention when we come to trace the history of trial by jury. 6. Revenue of the Crown. — The power of the Norman kings was supported by a great revenue that was fixed, perpetual, and independent of the subject. The first branch of the king's stated revenue was the royal demesnes or crown lands. When the king was not content with the stated rents, he levied, at his pleasure, heavy taxes, called tallages, on the inhabitants both of town and country who lived within his demesne. They were assessed by the itinerant justices on their circuits. The tenants in capite were bound, as we have already seen, to furnish in war a soldier for every knight's fee ; and if they neg- lected to do so, they were obliged to pay the king a composition in money called escuage or scutage. Another tax, levied upon all the lands at the king's discretion, was Danegeld, which was continued after all apprehension of the Danes had passed away. Before the Conquest it was a tax of two shillings on every hide of land, and was raised by William I. to six shillings. The name disappears after 1163, but the carucage levied by Richard I. was virtually the same. The king also derived a considerable revenue from cer- tain burthens to which his military tenants were liable. The most important of these feudal incidents, as they were called, were Reliefs, Fines upon Alienation. Escheats, Forfeitures, Aids, Wardship, and Marriage. 1. A Belief, which was the same as the Saxon heriot, was a fine paid by the heir to his lord on succeeding to a fief. The fine was at first arbitrary, but by Magna Carta it was fixed at about a fourth of the annual value of the fief. The king was entitled to a sort of extra relief, called Primer Seisin, on the death of any of his tenants in capite, provided the heir had attained his majority. The primer seisin consisted of one year's profits of the land. 2. A Fine upon Alienation was a sum paid to the lord when the tenant trans- ferred his fief to another. 3. An Escheat was when a fief reverted to the superior lord in consequence of the tenant having died without heirs. 4. A Forfeiture arose from the vassal failing to perform his duties towards either his lord or the state. " Under rapacious kings, such as the Norman line in England, a new doctrine was introduced, the corruption of blood, by which the heir was effectually excluded from deducing his title, at any distant time, through an attainted ancestor" (Hallam). 5. Aids were contributions which the lord was entitled to demand from his vassal under certain circum- stances. They were raised according to local customs, and were felt to be a great grievance. Three only were retained by Magna Carta— to make the lord's eldest son a knight, to marry his eldest daugh- ter, and to ransom his person from cap- tivity. 6. Wardship was the right of the lord to the care of his tenant's person during his minority, and to receive certain profits of his estate. 1. Marriage. The lord might tender a husband to his female ward in her minority, and if she rejected the proposal she forfeited the sum which the guardian could have obtained for such an alliance. This was afterwards ex- tended to male wards. In both cases it became the source of great abuse and extortion. 1. The Church. — The policy of William the Conqueror was favourable to the pope, who had supported his claims to the English throne. One of his most important innovations was the separation of the civil and ecclesiastical jurisdictions, which had been united in the Anglo-Saxon times. He prohibited the bishops from sitting in the county courts, and allowed ecclesiastical causes to be tried in spiritual courts only. Chap. vii. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 129 8. Tillenage. — A great part of the popu- lation under the Anglo-Norman kings was in a state of slavery, to which the name of Villenage was applied. In the Anglo-Saxon times a large part of the population consisted of ceorls, or free- men, forming a class between the thanes and the serfs. But under the Normans most of the ceorls were thrust down into slavery, and the Anglo-Saxon ceorls and serfs became the Norman villeins. It would seem, however, that the ceorls who had acquired land were allowed in many cases to retain their land and their free- dom. These are the Socmanni or Socmen of Domesday Book, the same as the small freeholders or yeomanry of later times. The condition of the villeins appears to have increased in rigour under the succes- sive Anglo-Norman kings down to the time of Henry II., at which period the villein was absolutely dependent upon the will of his lord, and was incapable of holding any property of his own. Yet he appears to have possessed some personal rights; for, though liable to be sold by his master, an action would lie against the latter for murder, rape, or mutilation. Villeins were divided into two classes, called villeins regardant and villeins in gross. The former were adscripts glebce, or attached to certain lands ; and when these lands changed owners the villeins regardant became the property of the new possessors. The villeins in gross, on the contrary, might be sold in open market, and transferred from hand to hand with- out regard to any land or settlement. They were called en gross because this term, in our legal phraseology, indicates property held absolutely, and without reference to any other. But there appears to have been no essential difference in the condition of these villeins. The way in which the villeins emerged from this degraded position into the peasantry of England will be narrated at the end of the next book. B. AUTHORITIES FOR NORMAN HISTORY The principal sources of Norman his- tory are : — Dudo of St. Quentin, whose work contains the lives of the first three dukes (in Duchesne) ; William of Ju- knieges (Gemeticensis), who epitomized the preceding work, and continued it down to the battle of Hastings [ibid.] ; William of Poitiers, Gesta Willelmi duels Norman- riorum et regis Anglorum [ibid.'} ; Or- dericus Vitalis, Historia Eccl. [ibid.] ; Wace, or Gasse, Roman de Rou ; the ffypodigma Neustrice [Parker, Camden]. The best modern works on the early history of Normandy are : — The Epitome prefixed to Lappenberg's Sist. of England under the Norman Kings, translated and supplemented by Benjamin Thorpe ; Pal- grave, Hist of Normandy and England, 8vo ; Thierry, Histoire de la Conquite de I' Angle ter re par les Normands, 4 vols. 8vo. C. AUTHORITIES FOR ANGLO- NORMAN HISTORY. Many of these authorities have been already enumerated in Note D, appended to Book i. Thus, of those mentioned there, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles con- tinue to the year 1154; Florence of Worcester to 1108 ; Simeon of Durham, with the continuation, to 1156; Eadmer to 1122 ; Henry of Huntingdon to 1154 ; Brompton to 1199 ; Hoveden to 1201 ; William of Malmesbury's Gesta Regum and Gesta Pontificum to 1142 ; Hugo Candidus to 1155 ; Matthew of West- minster (Flores IHstoriarum) to 1307 ; Roger of Wendover to 1235. Of the authorities for Norman history mentioned in the preceding note, the work of Ordericus Vitalis is also service- able for Anglo-Norman history. It comes down to the year 1141. Robert de Thorigny, a monk of the abbey of Bee, continued the history of William of Jumieges down to the year 1137 ; and it forms the 8th book of that work as published in Camden's Anglica, Normanica, &c. William of Newburgh treats of the period from 1066 to 1197. The Chronicle of Radulphus de Diceto, a dean of St. Paul's, with a continuation, comes down to the year 1199, and is published in Twysden's and the Rolls' Collection. The Chronicle of Gervase of Canterbury reaches to about the same period as the preceding (ibid.). Benedict of Peter- borough's Chronicle embraces the period from 1170 to 1192 (in Hearne and the Rolls' Series). Walter of Coventry con- tinued Hoveden, besides writing other chronicles ; but his works exist only in manuscript. Ralph of Coggeshall, who died about 1227, wrote a Chronicon Anglicanum from the Conquest to the year 1209. It will be found in Martene and Durand's Collection, and more com- plete in the Rolls' Series. The chronicles 130 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Chap. vii. of St. Alban's, formerly cited under the name of Matthew Paris, are in reality by three persons — Roger of Wendover, Matthew Paris, and William Rishanger. Roger of Wendover, who has been already mentioned, is a contemporary authority from 1201 to 1235. His work has been published by the English Historical Society. The principal work of Matthew Paris is the Historia Major (a.d. 1066 to 1259, with a continuation to 1273); but only the portion from 1235 to 1259 belongs to M- Paris, the remainder being adopted from Wendover with interpolations. William Rishanger is the continuator of Paris from 1259 to 1307, and his work therefore belongs to the period embraced in the next book — also in the Rolls' Series. Other works that may be mentioned relating to the present period are — a chronicle from 1066 to 1289, by Thomas Wikes (Gale and in the Rolls' Series). Many chronicles of this period bear no author's name, and are called after the abbey or monastery in which they were composed or preserved. Among the principal of them may be named— the Annates Burtonenses, a.d. 1114-1263 (in Fulman's Collection) ; Annates Waverteienses, 1066-1291 (Gale); Chro- nicon de Mailros (Melrose), 731-1270. (Fulman and the Bannatyne Club. Also in the Rolls' Series.) Among the works relating to par- ticular periods may be named the Lives of Thomas Becket by John of Salisbury, Benedict of Peterborough, Edward Grim, Herbert of Bosham, and others, pub- lished by Dr. Giles, in the Patres Ecclesice Anglicance. Richard of Devizes wrote a chronicle of the first three years of Richard I., which is published by the English His- torical Society. The Itinerarium Regis Ricardi (in Gale) contains an account of king Richard's Crusade. It was for- merly wrongly ascribed to Geoffrey Vinesauf, but was probably written by Richard, canon of the Holy Trinity, London. Among modern works relating to this period may be mentioned that of Thierry, alluded to in the preceding note ; Lappenberg's Hist, of England under the Norman Kings, translated by Thorpe (also mentioned in the pre- ceding note), which comes down to the end of Stephen's reign ; the continu- ation of this work by Pauli, Geschichte von England ; and Lord Lyttelton's Life of Henry II. (6 vols. 8vo). More important still are the works of Mr. Freeman and Professor Stubbs, and especially, for the reigns and characters of Henry II. and Richard I., Professor Stubbs's Introductions to the Rolls' Editions of Benedict of Peterborough and the Memorials of Richard I. Richard 1. From his monument at Fontevraud. John. From his tomb in Worcester Cathedral. Isabella. From her tomb at Fontevraud. BOOK III. DEVELOPMENT OF THE ENGLISH CONSTITUTION. from the accession of john to the death of richard iii. a.d. 1199-1485. CHAPTER VIII. HOUSE OF PLANT AG^^T— Continued. JOHN AND HENRY III. A.D. 1199-1272. § 1. Introduction. § 2. Accession and marriage of John. § 3. War with France. Murder of prince Arthur. John is expelled from Fiance. § 4. The king's quarrel with the court of Rome. Interdict of the kingdom. § 5. Excommunication and submission of the king. He does homage to the pope. § 6. War with France. § 7. Discontent and insurrection of the barons. § 8. Magna Carta. § 9. Civil wars. Prince Louis called over. Death and character of the king. § 10. Accession of Henry III. General pacification. § 11. Commotions. War with France. § 12. The king's administration. His partiality to foreigners. § 13. Usurpa- 132 JOHN. Chap. vm. tions and exactions of the court of Rome. § 14. Richard, earl of Corn- wall, king of the Romans. Simon de Montfort. § 15. Parliament of Oxford, or the Mad Parliament. § 16. Opposition to the barons. Treaty with France. § 17. Civil wars. Battle of Lewes. § 18. Leicester's parliament. House of Commons. § 19. Battle of Evesham and death of Leicester. § 20. Prince Edward's Crusade. Death and character of the king. § 1. The reign of John marks an important epoch in the history of the English nation. Under the early Norman kings there had been two different races dwelling upon the English soil, speaking different languages, and possessing no common interests ; but during the reigns of Henry II. and Richard I. the Anglo-Saxons and Nor- mans became fused into the English people.* Not only were the foundations laid, but much of the superstructure was reared, of those liberties which are still the glory and the safety of the English nation. §2. John, b. 1167; r. 1199-1216.— John was the fifth and youngest son of Henry II., and as he received from his father no great fiefs, like his brothers, he obtained the surname of Sans terre or Lackland, by which he was commonly known. Although Geoffrey, the fourth son of Henry II., had left two children, Arthur and Eleanor, and John had attempted to deprive Richard of his crown, yet Richard was induced, by the influence of their mother, to name John as his successor. He was acknowledged by the Nor- man barons ; but Arthur, who had become duke of Brittany in right of his mother, was not left without supporters. The nobles of Anjou, Maine, and Touraine immediately declared in his favour, and aj>plied for assistance to the French monarch as their superior lord. Philip, who desired only an occasion to embarrass John, and dis- member his dominions, embraced Arthur's cause, and sent him to Paris to be educated along with his own son Louis. John, after being crowned at Westminster on the 27th of May,f crossed over to France in order to conduct the war against Philip, and to recover the revolted provinces from his nephew, Arthur. Constance, the prince's mother, seized with a jealousy that Philip intended to usurp his dominions, found means to carry off her son secretly from Paris. She put him into the hands of his uncle, and restored the provinces which had adhered to her son. From this incident Philip saw that he could not hope to make any progress against John ; and the two monarchs entered into a treaty (1200) by which they adjusted the limits of tbeir several territories. John, now secure, * See Notes and Illustrations (A) on the amalgamation of the Saxon and Norman races. + This was Ascension Day, and John's regnal years were dated, not from May 27th of each year, but from that moveable feast, thus, they vary from May 2 to June 2. A.D. 1199-1203. DEATH OF ARTHUR. 133 as he imagined, on the side of France, indulged his passion for Isabella, the daughter and heir of Aymar Taillefer, count of Angouleme, a lady of whom he had become much enamoured, though his queen, the heiress of the family of Gloucester, was still living. Isabella had been affianced to the count de la Marche, and was already consigned to the care of that nobleman's brother, though, by reason of her tender years, the marriage had not yet been con- summated. The passion of John made him overlook all these obstacles : he persuaded the count of Angouleme to carry off his daughter from her guardian ; and having, on some pretence or other, procured a divorce from his own wife, he espoused Isabella regardless of the resentment of the injured count. § 3. But John's government, equally feeble and violent, gave great offence to his Poitevin barons, who appealed to the king of France, and demanded redress from him as their superior lord. Philip perceived his advantage, interposed in behalf of the barons, and began to talk in a high and menacing style to the king of England. The young dake .of Brittany, who was now rising to man's estate, sensible of the dangerous character of his uncle, determined to seek both his security and elevation by a union with Philip and the malcontent barons (1202). He joined the French army, which had begun hostilities against the king of England : he was received with great marks of distinction and knighted by Philip, espoused his daughter Mary, and was invested not only in the duchy of Brittany, but in the counties of Anjou and Maine, which he had formerly resigned to his uncle. Success attended the allies till an event happened which seemed to turn the scale in favour of John, and to give him a decided superiority over his enemies. He fell on Arthur's camp, who was besieging Mirabeau, before that prince was aware of the danger, dispersed his army, took him prisoner, together with the most considerable of his revolted barons, and returned in triumph to Normandy. The greater part of the prisoners were sent over to England, but Arthur was shut up in the castle of Falaise. His fate is in- volved in obscurity; but there is little reason to doubt that he was put to death by John's command, though probably not by the king's own hand. The states of Brittany now carried their complaints before Philip as tbeir liege lord, and demanded justice for the violence com- mitted by John on the person of Arthur (1203). Philip received their application with pleasure, summoned John to trial, and, on his non-appearance, with the concurrence of the peers, passed sen- tence upon him, declared him guilty of felony, and adjudged him to forfeit to his superior lord all his seignories and fiefs in France. 134 JOHN. Chap. vm. Philip now embraced the project of expelling the English, or rather the English king, from Prance, and of annexing to the crown the many considerable fiefs, which during several ages had been dismem- bered from it. Whilst he was making considerable progress in this design, John remained in total inactivity at Rouen, passing the time, with his young wife, in amusements, as if his state had been in the most profound tranquillity, and his affairs in the most pros- perous condition. Philip pursued his victorious career without opposition. Town after town fell into his hands. At length, by the surrender of Eouen, the whole of Normandy was reunited to the crown of France, about three centuries after the cession of it by Charles the Simple to Rollo, the first duke (1204). Philip carried his victorious army into the western provinces ; he soon reduced Anjou, Maine, and Touraine ; and thus the French crown, during the reign of one able and active prince, received such an accession of power and grandeur, as in the ordinary course of events it would have required ages to attain. § 4. The papal chair was filled at this time by Innocent III., who, being endowed with a lofty and enterprising genius, gave full scope to his ambition, and attempted, perhaps more openly than any of his predecessors, to convert that superiority which was yielded him by all the European princes into a real dominion over them. A favourable incident enabled him to extend his usurpa- tions over so contemptible a prince as John. Hubert Walter, the primate, died in 1205 ; and, as the chapter of Christchurch, Canter- bury, claimed the right of electing their prelate, some of the juniors of the order met clandestinely on the night of Hubert's death, and chose Reginald, their sub-prior, for his successor. Having enjoined him the strictest secrecy, they sent him immediately to Rome, in order to obtain confirmation of his election. The vanity of Reginald prevailed over his prudence. He had no sooner arrived in Flanders than he revealed the purpose of his journey, which was immediately made known in England. The king was enraged at the novelty and temerity of the attempt, in filling so important an office without his knowledge or consent. The suffra- gans of Canterbury, accustomed to concur in the choice of their primate, were no less displeased at their own exclusion; whilst the senior monks of Christchurch repudiated the irregular pro- ceedings of their juniors. The chapter, at the command of the king, now chose John de Grey, bishop of Norwich, for their primate, and the suffragans subsequently acquiesced in the choice. The king and the convent of Christchurch despatched twelve monks of that order to support, before the tribunal of Innocent, the election of the bishop. But Innocent, refusing to recognize their elec- A.D. 1204-1214. INTERDICT OF INNOCENT III. 135 tion, compelled the twelve monks, under the penalty of excom- munication, to choose for their primate Stephen Langton, an Englishman by birth, but educated in France, and connected by interest and attachments with the see of Rome (1207). § 5. Inflamed with rage when he heard of this attempt of the court of Rome, John immediately vented his passion on the monks of Christchurch for consenting to Langton's appointment, expelling them from the convent and taking possession of their revenues. Innocent, in return, placed the kingdom under an interdict (Marcb 23, 1208). By this terrible sentence public worship and the ad- ministration of the sacraments, except private baptism, were sus- pended. Marriages were only celebrated outside the churches, and the dead were buried in ditches and waste places without funeral rites. John retaliated by seizing the property of such of the clergy as obeyed the interdict. It was followed up the next year (L209) by a threat of excommunication ; and, as the king still refused to yield, the pope in 1212 carried out the threat, absolved the king's subjects from their oaths of allegiance, and called upon Philip to carry the sentence of deposition into effect. The French monarch collected a large force for the purpose of invading England ; and John, finding that he could not rely upon his own subjects, agreed to submit to the requirements of the pope. He not only acknow- ledged Langton as primate, but he issued a charter, by which he resigned England and Ireland to God, to St. Peter and St. Paul, and to pope Innocent and his successors in the apostolic chair, and agreed to hold these dominions as feudatory of the church of Rome, by the annual payment of 1000 marks. In token of this submission he did homage to Pandulf, the papal nuncio, with all the ceremonies required by the feudal law of vassals to their liege lord and superior (May 15, 1213). § 6. Returning to France, Pandulf congratulated Philip on the success of his pious enterprise; and informed him that, as John had now made his kingdom a part of St. Peter's patrimony, no Christian prince could attack him without manifest and flagrant impiety. Enraged at this intelligence, Philip resolved to continue his enterprise, although an English fleet assembled under William Longsword, earl of Salisbury, the king's natural brother, had attacked the French in their harbours, destroyed and captured a great number of their ships in the Flemish harbour of Damme, and Philip, to prevent the rest from falling into the hands of the enemy, set fire to them himself. § 7. When the interdict was removed, John went over to Poitou (1214), to fulfil his part in a great alliance which he had formed against France, and carried war into Philip's dominions. At 136 JOHN. Chap. viii. the same time his nephew, the emperor Otho IV., aided by English mercenaries, invaded France from the side of Flanders. The great and decisive victory gained by the king of France at Bouvines, in July, established for ever the glory of Philip, and gave full security to all his dominions. The earl of Salisbury was taken prisoner ; and John, baffled in his great scheme, and deserted by the nobles of Poitou, concluded a five years' truce at Chinon (September 18). Equally odious and contemptible in public and private life, he had affronted the barons by his insolence, dishonoured their families by his gallantries, enraged them by his tyranny, provoked the rising power of the towns, and given discontent to all ranks of men by his repeated exactions and impositions. This discontent was further aggravated by the king's demands of an unusual scutage from the disaffected barons ; and, after he had reconciled himself to the pope and betrayed the independence of the king- dom, all his subjects thought they might with safety and honour insist upon a redress of grievances. Nothing forwarded this confederacy so much as the concurrence of Langton, archbishop of Canterbury — a man whose memory, though he was obtruded on the nation by the encroachments of the see of Home, ought always to be respected by the English. The patriotic efforts of this prelate were warmly seconded by William Marshal, eldest son of the earl of Pembroke ; and to these two distinguished men the English nation are under the deepest obligations for the foun- dation of their liberties. In a meeting at St. Paul's, Langton showed to some of the principal barons a copy of Henry I.'s charter, which he said he had happily found in a monastery ; and he exhorted them to insist on its renewal and observance. Upon the defeat of John's continental alliance, the barons held a more solemn meeting at St. Edmundsbury, and swore before the high altar to obtain from the king a charter confirming the ancient liberties of England (November, 1214). Appearing in arms at his Christmas court in London, they presented their claims. He promised an answer at Easter, but in order to break up the con- federacy of the barons, and detach their clerical associates, he offered (January 15, 1215) to relinquish for ever that important prerogative for which his father and his ancestors had zealously contended, by yielding to the church freedom of election on all vacancies, reserving only to himself the conge d'elire and con- firmation of the election ; declaring, further, that, if either of these were withheld, the choice should nevertheless be deemed just and valid. Both parties had sent deputies to Eome, requesting the interference of Innocent. But the pope, preferring the cause of a.d. 1214, 1215. MAGNA CARTA. 137 John, condemned Langton and the barons for the course they had taken, and ordered them to reconcile themselves with the king. The barons, who had advanced too far to recede, assembled at Stamford (May 19) ; and, as John still continued to temporize, choosing Robert Fitz-Walter for their general, whom they called the Marshal of the army of God and of Holy Church, they marched to London (Sunday, May 24 th). They were received without oppo- sition ; and finding the great superiority of their force, they issued proclamations requiring other barons to join them. After wandering to and fro between Winchester and Windsor, the king was left with only a few adherents, and was at last obliged to submit at discretion. § 8. A conference between the king and the barons was appointed at Runnymede, near Staines, a place which has ever since been celebrated on account of this great event. The two parties encamped apart, like open enemies, the barons on the field of Runnymede, the king on the Buckinghamshire side of the river, and the conferences were held on a little island, still called " Magna Carta Island." After a debate, which lasted only a single day, the king, with a facility somewhat suspicious, granted the charter required of him (June 15, 1215). This famous deed, commonly called Magna Carta, or The Great Charter, either granted or secured very important liberties and privileges to every order of men in the kingdom — to the clergy, to the barons, and to the people. The privileges offered to the clergy in the preceding January are confirmed by the Great Charter, and have been already enumerated. The barons were relieved from the chief grievances to which they had been subjected by the crown. The " reliefs " of heirs of the tenants in chief, on succeeding to an inheritance, were limited to a certain sum, according to the rank of the tenant ; guardians were restrained from wasting the lands of their wards ; heirs were to be married without disparagement, and widows secured from wedding on compulsion. The next clause was still more important. It enacted that no " scutage " or " aid " should be im- posed without the consent of the Great Council of the kingdom, except in the three feudal cases of the king's ransom, the knighting of his eldest son, and the marriage of his eldest daughter; and. it provided that in all cases of aid the prelates, earls, and greater barons should be summoned to this great council, each by a par- ticular writ, and all other tenants in chief by a general summons of the sheriff. The privileges and immunities thus granted to the tenants in chief were extended to the inferior vassals. The fran- chises of the city of London, and of all other cities and boroughs, were declared inviolable; and no aids were to be required of London, except by the consent of the great council. One weight and one 138 JOHN. Chap. vm. measure were extended throughout the kingdom. The freedom of commerce was granted to alien merchants. The court of Common Pleas was to be stationary, instead of following the king's person. But " the essential clauses " of Magna Carta, as Mr. Hallam re- marks, are those " which protect the personal liberty and property of all freemen, by giving security from arbitrary imprisonment and arbitrary spoliation. No freeman shall be taken or IMPRISONED, OR BE DISPOSSESSED [OF HIS FREEHOLD, OR LIBERTIES, OR FREE CUSTOMS], OR BE OUTLAWED, OB EXILED, OR ANY OTHERWISE DESTROYED ; NOR WILL WE PASS UPON HIM, NOR LET PASS UPON HIM, BUT BY LAWFUL JUDGMENT OF HIS PEERS, OR BY THE LAW OF THE LAND. We WILL SELL TO NO MAN, WE WILL NOT DENY OR DELAY to any man justice or right." * " It is obvious," Mr. Hallam adds, " that these words, interpreted by any honest court of law, convey an ample security for the two main rights of civil society. From the era, therefore, of king John's charter, it must have been a clear principle of our constitution that no man can be detained in prison without trial. Whether courts of justice framed the writ of Habeas Corpus in conformity to the spirit of this clause, or found it already in their register, it became from that era the right of every subject to demand it." t Other clauses of the charter protected freemen and even villeins from excessive fines. The latter were not to be deprived of their carts, ploughs, and implements of industry.J The barons obliged the king to agree that London should remain in their hands, and the Tower be consigned to the custody of the primate, till the 15th of August ensuing, or till the execution of the several articles of the Great Charter. The better to insure the same end, John allowed them to choose five and twenty members from their own body, as conservators of the public liberties. The authority of these men was unbounded in extent and duration. Any four of them might claim redress for the infraction of the charter, and in event of refusal proceed to levy war on the king himself. All men throughout the kingdom were bound, under the penalty of confiscation, to swear obedience to them ; and the freeholders of each county were to choose twelve knights, who were to make report of such evil customs as required redress, con- formably to the tenor of the Great Charter. * These, however, are not the words of Magna Carta, but of the charter as re- issued with some alterations by Henry III., and called the Charter of Liberties. The words in brackets are not in the original. f Middle Ages, vol. ii. p. 324. J John's charter is in Rymer's Fcedera, in Stubbs's Select Charters, &c, and other places. Respecting the subsequent con- firmations of the charter, see Notes and Illustrations (B). The " Charter of the Forests," which was a supplement to the Great Charter, was not executed till the confirmation of the latter in 1217. a.d. 1215, 1216. CIVIL WAR. 139 To all these regulations, however injurious to majesty, John seemed to submit passively ; but he only dissembled till he should "find a favourable opportunity for annulling all his concessions, and he was determined to throw off, at all hazards, so ignominious a slavery. He secretly sent abroad emissaries to enlist foreign soldiers, and he despatched a messenger to Eome, in order to lay before the pope the Great Charter, which he had been compelled to grant, and to complain, before that tribunal, of the violence which had been imposed upon him. Innocent, considering himself as feudal lord of the kingdom, was incensed at the temerity of the barons, and issued a bull, in which he annulled the charter, as obtained illegally, as a violation of the privileges pertaining to a champion of the Cross — for John had assumed the Cross some weeks before — and as derogatory to those rights which the pope now claimed as John's feudal superior (August 25). § 9. As his foreign forces arrived along with this bull, the king now threw off the mask ; and, under sanction of the pope's sentence, he recalled all the liberties he had granted to his subjects, and had solemnly sworn to observe. The barons, after obtaining the Great Charter, seem to have been lulled into a fatal security. From the first, the king was master of the field, and immediately laid siege to the castle of Kochester, which was obstinately defended by William D'Aubigne, at the head of 140 knights with their re- tainers, but was at last reduced by famine. The capture of D'Aubigne, the best officer among the confederated barons, was an irreparable loss to their cause, and no regular opposition was thence- forth offered to the progress of the royal arms. The mercenaries, incited by a cruel and enraged prince, were let loose against the estates, tenants, manors, houses and parks of the barons, spreading devastation over the surface of the kingdom. Marching through the whole extent of England, from Dover to Berwick, John laid waste the provinces on each side of him, permitting his mercenary troops to carry fire and sword in all directions, sparing neither sex nor age, neither things sacred nor profane. Reduced to this desperate extremity, and menaced with the loss of their liberties, their properties, and their lives, the barons employed a remedy no less desperate ; and making application to the court of France, they offered to acknowledge Louis, the eldest son of Philip, for their sovereign, on condition that he would afford them protection from the violence of John. Philip was strongly tempted to lay hold on the rich prize thus offered him - v and, having exacted from the barons hostages of the most noble birth in the kingdom, he sent over an army with Louis himself at its head, who landed at Stonor (May 21, 1216). The king was assembling 140 HENRY III Chap. vra. a considerable army, with a view of striking one great blow for his crown ; but passing from Lynn to Lincolnshire his road lay along the sea- shore, which was overflowed at high water, and, not choosing the proper time for his journey, he lost in the inundation all his carriages, treasure, baggage, and regalia. The anguish occa- sioned by this disaster, and vexation from the distracted state of his affairs, increased the sickness under which he then laboured ; and, though he reached the castle of Newark, he was obliged to halt there, and his distemper soon after put an end to his life, October 19, 1216, in the 50th year of his age, and 18th of his reign. His tomb stands in the midst of the choir at Worcester. Though John was not without ability, his character is little else than a complication of vices, ruinous to himself and destructive to his people. Folly, levity, licentiousness, ingratitude, treachery, tyranny, and cruelty — all these qualities appear in the several inci- dents of his life. His continental dominions, when they devolved to him by the death of his brother, were more extensive than have ever, since his time, been ruled by an English monarch ; but he lost, by his misconduct, the flourishing provinces in Prance, the ancient patrimony of his family : he subjected his kingdom to a shameful vassalage under the see of Rome : he saw the prerogatives of his crown diminished by law, and still more reduced by faction : and he died at last when in danger of being totally expelled by a foreign power, and of either ending his life miserably in prison, or seeking shelter, as a fugitive, from the pursuit of his enemies. It was in this king's reign that a charter was granted to the city of London (1215), giving it the right of electing, annually, a mayor out of its own body, an office which was till now held for life.* The city also had power to elect and remove its sheriffs at pleasure, and its common councilmen annually. Old London Bridge was finished in this reign ; the former bridge was of wood. Queen Maud, it is said, was the first that built a stone bridge in England. HENRY III. § 10. Henry III., b. 1207, r. 1216-1272.— The earl of Pembroke, who, at the time of John's death, was marshal of England, was, by his office, at the head of the army, and consequently, during a state of civil war and convulsion, at the head of the govern- ment. It happened fortunately for the young monarch and for the nation that the power could not have been intrusted to more able or more faithful hands. The earl carried young Henry, now nine years of age, immediately to Gloucester, where the ceremony of his coronation was performed (October 28, 12 16), as Westminster was * Stiibbs's Select Charters, with nine other charters to cities and towns. A.D. 1216, 1217. GENERAL PACIFICATION. 141 at that time in the hands of the hostile harons. Papal support was important to Henry in the weakness of his condition ; and Gualo, the papal legate, was joined in the administration. Henry swore fealty to the pope, and renewed the homage of his father. To enlarge the authority of Pembroke, a general council of the barons was summoned at Bristol (November 12), where that noble- man was chosen protector of the realm, and the Grand Charter, with some alterations, and with the more popular clauses omitted, was renewed and confirmed. This act was received with satisfaction. Many of the malcontent barons, most of whom had begun secretly to negotiate with him already, now openly returned to their allegiance. Louis soon found that the death of John, contrary to his expectations, had given an incurable wound to his cause. A short truce followed, his English adherents fell away, and when the war was renewed the French army was totally defeated at Lincoln, and driven from that city (May 20, 1217). A French fleet bringing over reinforcements, was attacked by the English Henry III. From his tomb iu Westminster Abbey. at Sandwich, and routed with considerable loss (August 24). Un- able to make head against these reverses, abandoned by his English allies, and threatened with excommunication from the pope, Louis concluded a peace with Pembroke, and promised to evacuate the kingdom (September, 1217). Thus happily ended a civil war which had threatened the kingdom with the most fatal consequences. § 11. The earl of Pembroke did not long survive the pacification, R* 142 HENRY III. Chap. viii. which had been cxiiefly owing to his wisdom and valour, and he was succeeded in the government by Peter des Eoches, bishop of Winchester, and Hubert de Burgh, the justiciary (1219). The counsels of the latter were chiefly followed ; and had he possessed equal authority in the kingdom with Pembroke, he seemed to be every way worthy of filling the place of that nobleman. But the powerful barons, who had once broken the reins of subjection to their prince, and obtained an enlargement of their liberties and independence, could ill be restrained by laws under a minority. They detained by force the royal castles, which they had seized during the past convulsions, or which had been committed to their custody by the protector ; and they usurped the king's demesnes. But notwithstanding these intestine commotions, and the pre- carious authority of his crown, Henry was obliged to carry on war with France. Louis VIII., who had succeeded to his father Philip, instead of complying with Henry's claim for the restitution of Normandy and the other provinces wrested from England, made an irruption into Poitou (1224), took Rochelle after a long siege, and seemed determined to expel the English from the few provinces which still remained to them. Henry sent over his uncle, the earl of Salisbury, who stopped the progress of Louis's arms ; but no military action of any moment was performed on either side. § 12. As the king grew to man's estate, his character became every day better known; and he was found in every respect ill qualified for maintaining an efficient control over his turbulent barons. Gentle, humane, and merciful even to a fault, he seems to have been steady in no one circumstance of his character ; but to have received impressions from those who surrounded him, and whom he loved, for the time, with the most injudicious and unre- served affection. While Hubert de Burgh enjoyed his authority, he gained entire ascendancy over Henry, and was loaded with honours and favours beyond any other subject. Rewarded with many castles and manors, he married the eldest sister of the king of Scots, was created earl of Kent, and, by an unusual concession, was made chief justiciary of England for life; yet, in a sudden fit of caprice, Henry threw off this faithful minister (1232), and exposed him to the violence of his enemies.* He was succeeded in his post as justiciary by Stephen de Segrave ; but so much had he suffered in Henry's estimation, that, after many indignities, he was thrown into prison, and the king transferred his favour and affection to Peter des Roches, bishop of Winchester. Des Roches was a Poitevin by birth, who had been raised by the late king, * Archbishop Langton, who had opposed with unvarying firmness every attempt to neutralize the Great Charter, died in 122S. a.d. 1219-1253. HIS PARTIALITY TO FOREIGNERS. 143 and was no less distinguished by his arbitrary principles and violent conduct than by his courage and abilities. He had been left by John justiciary and regent of the kingdom during an expedition which that prince made into France ; and his illegal ad- ministration was one chief cause of that great combination among the barons, which finally extorted from the crown the Magna Carta. Though incapable from his character of pursuing the violent maxims which had governed his father, Henry had imbibed the same arbitrary principles ; and, in prosecution of Peter's advice, he invited over a great number of Poitevins and other foreigners in whom he placed greater confidence than in his English subjects, and expected to find them useful in counterbalancing the great and independent power of the nobles. Offices and commands were bestowed on these strangers; they exhausted the revenues of the crown, already too much impoverished ; they invaded the rights of the people; and their insolence, or, at least, what appeared so, drew on them general hatred and envy. As the king had married Eleanor, daughter of the count of Pro- vence (January 14, 1236), he was surrounded by a number of strangers from that country also, whom he caressed with the fondest affection, and enriched by his imprudent generosity. The resentment of the English barons rose high at the preference given to foreigners, but no remonstrance or complaint could ever prevail on the king to abandon them, or even to moderate his attachment towards them. The king's conduct would have appeared more tolerable to his English subjects had anything been done meanwhile for the honour of the nation, or had Henry's enterprises in foreign countries been attended with success or glory to himself or the public. But though he declared war against Louis IX. in 1242, and made an expedition into Guienne, upon the invitation of his stepfather, the count de la Marche, who promised to join him with all his forces, he was worsted at Taillebourg; was deserted by his allies; abandoned Poitou, and was obliged to return, with loss of honour, into England. The people of Guienne attempted to throw off his obedience, but failed (1253). These wars involved Henry and his nobility in an enor- mous debt, which both increased their discontents and exposed him to greater danger from their opposition. § 13. But the chief grievances of the reign were the usurpations and exactions of the court of Rome. The best benefices of the kingdom were conferred on Italians ; and non-residence and plurali- ties were carried to enormous lengths. It was estimated by Grostete that the benefices held by the Italian clergy in England amounted to 60,000 marks a year, a sum which equalled the annual revenues of the crown. Upon occasion of a Crusade for the Holy Lane} 144 HENRY III. Chap. vm. (1245), Innocent IV. demanded a moiety of all ecclesiastical profits for three years ; a moiety of all impropriations and of all benefices where the incumbent was non-resident ; a twentieth of all incomes amounting to 100 marks, and a third of all beyond that sum. He attempted to claim the goods of intestate clergymen ; annulled usurious bonds , and when, backed by the church, the king, con- trary to his usual practice, prohibited these exactions, Innocent threatened him with excommunication. A more mischievous influence was exerted by Alexander IV., who involved Henry in a project for the conquest of Naples, or Sicily on this side the Fare or Straits of Messina, then held by Manfred as the representative of the Hohenstaufen (1255). He claimed to dispose of the Sicilian crown, both as superior lord of that parti- cular kingdom, and as vicar of Christ, to whom all kingdoms of the earth were subjected ; and he made a tender of it to Henry for his second son Edmund. Henry accepted the insidious proposal, gave the pope unlimited credit to expend whatever sums he thought necessary for completing the conquest, and, when Alexander pressed for payment, Henry was surprised to find himself on a sudden entangled in an immense debt of 135,500 marks, beside interest. He applied to the parliament for supplies, but the barons and prelates refused, determined not to lavish their money on such chimerical projects. In this extremity the clergy were his only resource, and they offered Henry 52,000 marks, a sum wholly in- adequate to his necessities (1257). § 14. About the same time Eichard, earl of Cornwall, the brother of the king, was engaged in an enterprise no less ruinous. The immense opulence of Richard had made the German princes cast their eyes on him as a candidate for the empire, and he was tempted to expend vast sums of money on his election. He succeeded so far as to be chosen, by a double election, as king of the Romans, with Alfonso X. of Castile, and was crowned by his partisans (1257). But he never attained the imperial power, and found at last that he had lavished the frugality of a life on an empty title. The king was engaged in constant disputes with his barons, and was compelled to confirm the Great Charter ; on one occa- sion with extraordinary solemnity (1253). All the prelates and abbots were assembled ; they held burning tapers in their hands ; the Great Charter was read before them ; they denounced the sen- tence of excommunication against every one who should thenceforth violate that fundamental law ; then they threw their tapers on the ground, and exclaimed, May the soul of every one who incurs this sentence so stink and perish in hell! The king bore a part in a.d. 1255-1258. THE MAD PARLIAMENT. 145 this ceremony, saying, " So help me God, I will keep all these articles inviolate, as I am a man, as I am a Christian, as I am a knight, and as I am a king crowned and anointed." Yet no sooner was this tremendous ceremony finished, than his favourites, abusing his weakness, made him return to the same arbitrary and irregular courses, and the reasonable expectations of his people were thus perpetually eluded and disappointed. These imprudent and illegal measures provoked an avenger in Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester, a younger son of that Simon de Montfort who had conducted the crusade against the Albigenses. He had married the king's sister, Eleanor, widow of the earl of Pembroke; had governed Gascony for some years with vigour and success ; and he had now returned home dissatisfied with the little support he had received from the king, who wanted either the ability or inclination to aid him. To add to these causes of aggravation, he had been for some time engaged in a tedious litigation with the king touching his wife's jointure. De Montfort was supported by the clergy, and was the intimate friend of Adam de Marsh and Robert Grostete. He called a meeting of the most considerable barons, who embraced the resolution of redressing the public grievances by taking the administration into their own hands. Henry having summoned a parliament (April 9th — May 2, 1258) in expectation of receiving supplies for his Sicilian project, the barons appeared in the hall clad in complete armour, and with their swords by their sides. After a violent altercation, the king promised to summon another parliament at Oxford on June 11, in order to arrange a new plan of government. § 15. This parliament, which the royalists, and even the nation, afterwards denominated the Mad Parliament, met on the day appointed. As the barons brought with them their military retainers, and appeared with an armed force, the king, who had taken no similar precautions, was in reality a prisoner, and was obliged to submit to any terms they were pleased to dictate. A council of state, consisting of 24 barons, was selected to make the necessary reforms. The king himself took an oath that he would maintain whatever ordinances they should think proper to enact for that purpose. Simon de Montfort was at the head of this supreme council, to which the legislative power was thus in reality transferred ; and all their measures were taken by his influence and direction. By their chief enactments, called the Provisions of Oxford, four knights were to be chosen by each county, to point out such grievances of their neighbourhood as required redress ; three sessions of parliament were to be regularly held every year, in the months of February, June, and October, at which twelve per- 146 HENRY III. Chap. viii. sons chosen by the barons should act for the whole commonalty ; sheriffs were to hold office for one year only; the great officers of state were annually to give an account of their proceedings; no heirs were to be committed to the wardship of foreigners, and no castles intrusted to their custody. Soon after the king's eldest son, Edward, in his twentieth year, pledged his oath to observe these provisions, and the king publicly declared his assent to them. Opinions are divided as to the purity of De Montfort's intentions. It is certain that many among the barons had no other object than to secure the aggrandisement of their own order. At their head was Richard de Clare, earl of Gloucester. They formed an asso- ciation among themselves, and swore that they would stand by each other with their lives and fortunes ; they displaced all the chief minis- ters of the crown, the justiciary, the chancellor, the treasurer, and advanced either themselves or their creatures to the vacant offices. When they had thus transferred to themselves all powers of the state, they proceeded to impose an oath, by which all subjects were obliged to swear, under the penalty of being declared public enemies, that they would obey and execute all the regulations, both known and unknown, of the barons. Not content with this usurpation of the royal power, they introduced an innovation in the constitution of parliament, of the utmost importance. They ordained that this assembly should choose a committee of twelve persons, who should, in the intervals of the session, possess the authority of the whole parliament, and should, on a summons, attend the person of the king in all his movements. Thus the monarchy was totally subverted, without its being possible for the king to strike a single stroke in defence of the constitution against the newly elected oligarchy. § 16. But, in proportion to their continuance in power, the barons began gradually to lose that popularity which had assisted them in obtaining it. The fears of the nation were roused by certain new edicts, obviously calculated to procure immunity to the barons in all their violences. They appointed that the cir- cuits of the itinerant justices, the sole check on their arbitrary conduct, should be held only once in seven years ; and men easily saw that a remedy which returned after such long intervals against an oppressive power which was perpetual, would prove totally insignificant and useless.* The cry became loud in the nation that the barons should produce their intended regulations. The current of popularity now turned to the side of the crown, and the rivalship between the earls of Leicester and Gloucester, the chief leaders among the barons, began to disunite the whole confederacy. * This is doubtful. See Prof. Pearson's History, ii. 22?. a.d. 1258-1264. THE BARONS' WAR. 147 Louis IX., -who then governed France, used all his authority with the earl of Leicester, his native subject, to bend him to com- pliance with Henry. He made a treaty with England (20th May, L259) at a time when the distractions of that kingdom were at the greatest height, and when the king's authority was totally annihilated; and the terms which he granted might, in a more prosperous state of affairs, have been deemed reasonable and advantageous to the English. He invaded certain territories which had been conquered from Poitou and Guienne; he insured the peaceable possession of the latter province to Henry ; he agreed to pay him a large sum of money; and he only required that in return Henry should make a final cession of Normandy and the other provinces, which he could never entertain any hopes of recovering by force of arms. The cession thus made by the barons was ratified by Henry, his two sons and two daughters, and by the king of the Romans and his three sons. § 17. The situation of Henry soon after wore a more favourable aspect, and the desertion of the earl of Gloucester to the crown seemed to promise him certain success in any attempt to recover his authority. The pope absolved him from his oath ; but his son Edward refused to accept the like dispensation. The king soon afterwards seized the Tower of London, resumed the government, and levied mercenary troops. Thus began the civil contest which is called " the Barons' War." Leicester retired to France, but the death of the earl of Gloucester, and the accession of his son Gilbert de Clare to Leicester's side, soon changed the scene (1262). The war was carried on with various success, till at length the king and the barons agreed to submit their differences to the arbitration of the king of France. At a congress at Amiens (January, 1264) Louis annulled the Provisions of Oxford, left the king free to appoint his own ministers, employ allies, and enjoy his royal authority as unrestricted as before. But this decision, instead of quenching the flames, only caused them to break forth with redoubled vehe- mence. Leicester, having summoned his partisans from all quarters, gained next year a decisive victory over the royal forces at Lewes (May 14), taking Henry and his brother, the king of the Romans, prisoners. Prince Edward, who commanded the right wing of the royal army, was obliged to assent to a treaty with the conqueror, called from an old French term the Mise of Lewes. In order to obtain the liberation of the English monarch, prince Edward, and Henry, son of the king of the Romans, surrendered themselves as hostages. Peace was declared (May 25), and was finally settled by a parliament at London (June 11, 1264) § 18. Acting as sole regent, De Montfort now proceeded to sum- 148 HENRY III. Chap. vm. mon a parliament. Writs * were issued in the king's name from Worcester, summoning a new parliament in London (January 20, 1265), which forms a memorable epoch in constitutional history. Besides the barons of Leicester's party, and 117 ecclesiastics (for the clergy in general sided with De Montfort), he ordered returns to be made of two knights from each shire, and of two representatives from each borough. This is usually regarded as the first meeting of the House of Commons, but Leicester only anticipated Edward I. in an institution for which the general state of things was now pre- paring the nation f Thus supported by a parliament of his own model, and trusting to the attachment of the populace of London, De Montfort seized the opportunity of crushing his rivals among the powerful barons. § 19. But he soon found himself embarrassed by the opposition, as well as by the escape, of prince Edward. The royalists, secretly prepared for this latter event, immediately flew to arms ; and the joy of this gallant prince's deliverance, the expectation of a new scene of affairs, and the accession of the earl of Gloucester, procured Edward an army which Leicester was unable to withstand. He was defeated and killed at the battle of Evesham (August 4, 1265), with his eldest son Henry, and about 160 knights, and many other gentlemen of his party. The king, placed by the rebels in front, and disguised by his vizor, was wounded in the battle and in danger of his life ; but crying out, I am Henry of Winchester, your Icing, he was saved, and put in a place of safety by his son, who flew to his rescue. The lifeless body of Leicester was mangled by the victors, exasperated at this wanton exposure of the king's person, but he was long regarded as a martyr to the cause of liberty, and miracles were ascribed to his remains. The victory of Evesham proved decisive, and the king's authority was re-established in all parts of the kingdom. All further resistance was ended by the moderate terms granted by prince Edward in the " Dictum de Kenilworth " (October 15, 1266); and a parliament at Marlborough, a year after, confirmed the king's title, while binding him afresh to the observ- ance of the Great Charter. * Stubbs, Select Charters, p. 401. •f " Important as is this assembly in the history of the constitution, it was not primarily and essentially a constitutional assembly. It was not a general convoca- tion of tenants in capite, or of the three estates, but a parliamentary assembly of the supporters of the existing govern- ment." Only five earls were summoned and eighteen barons, ten of whom were friends of De Montfort. Stubbs, Const. Hist. ii. 92. If, in fact, this assembly be considered in its real character as a con- vention of De Montfort's supporters, the admission of representatives from the towns, who were not regularly summoned, affords less difficulty. In England, and still more in De Montfort's native land, the towns had now gained so much in wealth and political importance, that it was natural he should avail himself of their support. a.d. 1265-1272. HIS DEATH. 149 § 20. Finding the state of the kingdom thus composed, Edward was led (1270) by his avidity for glory, and in fulfilment of a vow made during his captivity, as well as by the earnest solicitations of the king of France, to undertake an expedition against the infidels in the Holy Land. He sailed from England with an army, accompanied by his wife, Eleanor of Castile, and arrived in the camp of Louis IX. before Tunis in Africa, where he found that monarch already dead, from the sickliness of the climate and the fatigues of his enterprise. Undeterred by this event, he continued his voyage to the Holy Land, where he signalized himself (1271) by acts of valour, revived the glory of the English name, and struck such terror into the Saracens, that they employed an assassin to murder him, who wounded him in the arm, but perished in the attempt. In her heroic affection Eleanor sucked the poison from her husband's wound. During his absence the old king expired at Bury St. Ed- munds (November 16, 1272), in the 66th year of his age, and 57th of his reign, and was buried in the new abbey church of West- minster, which he had rebuilt. His brother, the king of the Komans, had died nearly a year before him. The most obvious feature of Henry's character is an incapacity for government, which rendered him as much a prisoner in the hands of his ministers and favourites, and as little at his own dis- posal, as when detained a captive in the hands of his enemies. From this source, rather than from insincerity and treachery, arose his negligence in observing his promises; and he was too easily induced, for the sake of present convenience, to sacrifice the lasting advantages arising from the trust and confidence of his people. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. A. ON THE AMALGAMATION OF THE ANGLO-SAXON AND NOR- MAN RACES. The period at which this event took place has given rise to much discussion. It was the favourite theory of Thierry that the disti action between the two races continued till a very late time. Lord Macaiilay supposes the amalga- mation to have taken place between the accession of John and the death of Edward I. But even this is too long. The distinction was greatly obliterated in the reign of Henry II., and more com- pletely so after the separation of Nor- mandy from England in the reign of John. B. CONFIRMATIONS OF THE GREAT CHARTER. The Great Charter had no fewer than thirty-eight solemn ratifications recorded : six by Henry III., three by Edward I., fifteen by Edward III., six by Richard II.. six by Henry IV., one by Henry V., and one by Henry VI. The most important change in the charter, as confirmed by Henry III., was the omis- sion of the clause which prohibited the levying of aids or escuages save by the 150 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Chap. viii. common council of the realm. Though this clause was omitted, it was generally observed during the reign of Henry, the barons constantly refusing him the aids or subsidies which his prodigality demanded. But he still retained the right of levying money upon towns under the name of tallage, and he also claimed other imposts, as upon the ex- port of wool. On Magna Carta, see Black- Btone's Introduction to the Cliarter ; Thomson's Essay on Magna Carta; Creasy, On the English Constitution, pp. 128, seq. C. TRIAL BY JURY. We have already adverted (p. IS) to the mistaken and now obsolete opinion, that trial by jury existed in England in the Anglo-Saxon times. The twelve thanes who sat in the sheriffs court have no analogy to a modern jury except in their number. Their function of presenting offenders gave them more the resem- blance of the present grand jury ; and they seem, like the scabini or echevins of the continent, to have formed a perma- nent magistracy. So also the Anglo- Saxon compurgators resembled the witnesses in a modern trial rather than jurymen. The first approach to trial by jury is the Grand Assize introduced in the reign of Henry II. By this custom, in a suit for the recovery of land, a tenant who was unwilling to risk a judicial combat might put himself on the assize — that is, refer the case to four knights chosen by the sheriff, who in their turn selected twelve more. The six- teen knights thus impanelled were then sworn, and decided the case by their ver- dict. In the assize of Novel Disseisin the twelve knights were chosen directly by the sheriff. Whether the words in the charter of John, that " a man is to be tried by the lawful judgment of his peers," really mean trial by jury may admit of dis- pute ; but at any rate they clearly re- cognize the great principle upon which trial by jury rests. In criminal cases, at all events, we find an approach to a jury under Henry III. Trial by ordeal had now grown out of fashion; and though the trial by combat still remained, it could not of course be practised unless some prose- cutor appeared. But as a person vehe- mently suspected of a crime might be committed to safe custody on the pre- sentment of a jury, he had the option of appealing to a second jury which was sometimes composed of twelve persons. Such a jury, however, still differed from a modern one in the essential principle, that it did not come to a decision upon the evidence of others. The jurors in fact continued to be witnesses, and founded their verdict on their own know- ledge of the prisoner and of the facts of the case. Hence they are often called recognitors, because they decided from previous knowledge or recognition, in- cluding what they had heard and be- lieved to be true. They seem to have admitted documentary evidence, but parole evidence seldom or never. The great distinction between a mo- dern and an ancient jury lies in the circumstance, that the former are not witnesses themselves, but merely judges of the testimony of others. A previous knowledge of the facts of the case, which would now be an objection to a juryman, constituted in former days his merit and eligibility. At what precise period witnesses distinct from the jury them- selves, and who had no voice in the verdict, first began to be regularly sum- moned, cannot be ascertained. The first trace of such a practice occurs in the 23rd year of Edward III., and it had pro- bably been creeping in previously. That it was perfectly established by the middle of the 15th century, we have clear evi- dence from Fortescue's treatise Be Laudi- bus Legum Anglice (c. 26), written about that period. Personal knowledge of a case continued to be allowed in a juror, who was even required to act upon it ; and it was not till a comparatively re- cent period that the complete separation of the functions of juryman and witness was established. For further information on this sub- ject see Hallam's Middle Ages, vol. ii. ch. viii. pt. i. and note viii. ; Forsyth's History of Trial by Jury ; and Stubbs's Constitutional Hist, of England, i. 608. Edward I. From the Tower. CHAPTER IX. HOUSE OF PLANTAGENET— Continued. THE REIGNS OF EDWARD I. AND EDWARD II. A.D. 1272-1327. § 1. Accession of Edward I. Civil administration. § 2. Conquest of Wales. § 3. Persecution of the Jews. § 4. Disputed succession to the Scottish crown. Award of Edward. § 5. WW with France. § 6. Conquest of Scotland. § 7. War with France. Dissensions of the barons and confirmation of the charters. § 8. Peace with France. Revolt of Scotland. § 9. Battle of Falkirk. Death of Wallace. § 10. Insurrection of Robert Bruce. § 11. Edward's last expedition against Scotland. His death and character. § 12. Accession of Edward II. Weakness of the king and discontent of the barons. § 13. Banishment and murder of Gaveston. § 14. War with Scotland. § 15. Hugh le Despenser. Civil commotions. Lancaster executed. § 16. Truce with Scotland. Conspiracy against the king. He is dethroned and murdered. § 1. Edward L, b. 1239 ; r. 1272-1307 .—For the first time since the Conquest the sovereign authority of the king was fully recog- nized before his coronation. As soon as Henry was laid in the 152 EDWARD I. Chap. is. tomb, the assembled nobles, of their own free will, advanced to the great altar, took an oath of fealty to Edward, "though," says Matthew of Westminster,* "men were ignorant whether he was alive, for he had gone to distant countries beyond the sea, warring against the enemies of Christ " (November 20, 1272). They caused the " king's peace " to be proclaimed through England, and henceforth that proclamation marked the beginning of each new reign.f Edward had reached Sicily in his return from the Holy Land, when he received intelligence of his father's death ; but, as he soon learned the quiet settlement of the kingdom, under Walter Giffard, archbishop of York, keeper of the great seal, Eoger Mortimer, and Kobert Burnel, a clerk of great merit, as guardians of the realm, he was in no hurry to take possession of the throne, but spent more than a year in Italy and France before he made his appearance in England. After arranging the affairs of the province of Gtuienne, and settling a dispute between the countess of Flanders and his subjects, he landed at Dover (August 2, 1274), and was crowned at Westminster (August 19) by Eobert, archbishop of Canterbury. In a parliament which he summoned at Westminster, in the following April, he took care to enquire into the conduct of all his magistrates and judges, to provide them with sufficient force for the execution of justice, to displace such as were either negligent or corrupt, to extirpate all bands and confederacies of robbers, and to repress those more silent robberies which were committed either by the power of the nobles or under the countenance of public authority. Soon after, Edward issued commissions to enquire into all en- croachments on the royal demesne ; the value of escheats, forfeitures, and wardships ; and the means of improving every branch of the revenue. In the execution of their office (1278), the commissioners questioned titles to estates which had been transmitted from father to son for several generations. When earl Warrenne, who had done eminent service in the late reign, Avas required to show his titles, he produced a rusty sword. " See, my lords," he exclaimed, " here is my title deed. My ances- tors came over with William the Bastard, and conquered their lands with the sword, and with the sword will I defend them." Though the claim was unfounded— for the earl was descended only by the female line from an illegitimate half-brother of Henry L— it ex- pressed the feelings of the old feudatories. The king, sensible of the danger he was incurring, after a time desisted from making * Kishanger makes the New Temple j which was dated from the moment of his the scene of the oath. father's death, f Till the accession of Edward VI., [ A.D. 1272-1282. CONQUEST OF WALES. 153 further enquiries of this nature ; but he caused a strict in- vestigation to be instituted into his father's grants to the church, and in 1279 he passed the Statute Be Eeligiosis or of Mortmain (in mortud manu)* by which it was forbidden to bequeath lands and tenements to religious corporations without the king's licence. § 2. In the year 1283 was completed the conquest of Wales, one of the most important events of this reign. Llewelyn, prince of Wales, had been deeply engaged with the party of De Montfort, and had been included in the general accommodation made with the vanquished ; but, as he had reason to dread the future effects of re- sentment and jealousy in the English monarch, he maintained a secret correspondence with his former associates, and was betrothed to Eleanor, daughter of the earl of Leicester, who was sent to him from France, but, being intercepted in her passage near the isles of Scilly, was detained in the court of England. This incident increased the mutual jealousy between Edward and Llewelyn. Edward sent him repeated summons to perform the duty of a vassal, and in 1276 levied an army to reduce him to obedience. The same intestine dissensions which had formerly weakened England now prevailed in Wales, and divided the reigning family. David and Roderic, brothers of Llewelyn, on some cause of discontent had recourse to Edward, and seconded with all their interest, which was extensive, his attempts to subdue their native country. Equally vigorous and cautious, Edward, entering by the north with a formidable army, pierced into the heart of the country; and having carefully explored every road before him, and secured every pass behind him, approached the Welsh army in its last retreat among the hills of Snowdon. Destitute of resources, cooped up in a narrow corner, they, as well as their cattle, suffered all the rigours of famine ; and Llewelyn, without being able to strike a blow for his independence, was at last obliged to submit at discretion, and accept the terms imposed upon him by the victor (1277). He returned with Edward to England, and did homage to the king at Westminster ; after which he received his bride, and was allowed to return to Wales. But complaints soon arose on the side of the vanquished. Prince David made peace with his brother, and on Palm Sunday, 1282, stormed Hawarden castle in his efforts for * As the members of religious or monastic bodies were reckoned dead in law, land holden by them might with great propriety be said to be held in mortud manu (Kerr's Blackstone, i. 509). It must not be overlooked that the act was directed not so much against the clergy as against the religiosi (religati), " bound," that is, by monastic vows. The encroachments of the great religious houses were as unfavourable to the bishops and clergy as to the crown. The identifi- cation of these bodies with the church of England by modern historians is a perpetual source of confusion. 154 EDWARD I. Chap. ix. independence. The Welsh flew to arms ; and Edward, probably not displeased with the occasion of making his conquest final and absolute, assembled all his military tenants, and advanced into Wales with an army which the inhabitants could not reasonably hope to resist. The situation of the country gave the Welsh at first some advantage ; but Llewelyn was surprised and slain. His head was carried to London, and, in derision of a prophecy that he should wear a crown in Westcheap, it was borne on a pole, adorned with a diadem of silver ivy-leaves, and fixed upon the Tower (1282). David, who succeeded his brother, could never collect an army sufficient to face the English. Chased from hill to hill and hunted from one retreat to another, he was obliged to conceal himself under various disguises, and was at last betrayed to the enemy. Edward sent him in chains to Shrewsbury ; and brought him to a formal trial before the peers of England, who ordered him to be hanged, drawn, and quartered as a traitor (1283). The Welsh now laid down their arms ; the lords who had joined in the rebellion were deprived of their lands; Anglesey, Caernarvon, and Merionethshire, with Flint, Cardigan, and Caermarthenshire, were retained by the crown. Into these new districts the English laws, with English judges and sheriffs, were introduced by the Statute of Wales (1284) ; whilst in the rest of the country the marchers were permitted to retain their ancient privileges and customs. Many strong castles were built, and English people settled in several of the chief towns.* This important conquest, which it had required 800 years fully to effect, was at last, through the abilities of Edward, now com- pleted. It was long before national antipathies were extinguished. The principality was annexed to the crown of England; and Edward's second surviving son, who was born at Caernarvon (April 25, 1284), was, on the death of his elder brother Alfonso in August, invested with that dignity, which henceforth gave their title to the eldest sons of the kings of England. § 3. The settlement of Wales appeared so complete that in 1286 Edward visited Paris, to renew his homage (June 5) and make peace between Alfonso, king of Aragon, and Philip the Fair, who had lately succeeded his father, Philip the Hardy, on the throne of France. He had received powers from both princes to settle the terms, and he succeeded in his endeavours. He remained abroad above three years ; and on his return found many disorders arising from open violence and the corruption of justice. To remedy these abuses, he summoned a parliament (1290), and brought the judges to trial, when all of them, except two, who were ecclesiastics, were con- * Among these towns were Brecknock, Caermarthen, Montgomery, and Radnor, which the marchers were obliged to surrender to the crown. A.D. 1282-1290. PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS. 155 victed of this crime, fined, and deposed. The same year was marked by the banishment of the Jews from England. Throughout Edward's reign the Jews had experienced both his anxiety for their con- version and the judicial rigour with which he visited their real or imputed offences. For the former purpose he built and endowed a hospital, now the Rolls' house in Chancery lane, for the support of his expected converts and their instruction in Christianity. Of his rigour the following are some examples : — Clipping the coin was in the early part of Edward's reign a crime of frequent occurrence, and its perpetration was facilitated by the custom, sanctioned by the laws, of cutting the silver penny into halves and quarters. In 1278, no less than 280 Jews were hanged for this crime in London alone, the mere possession of clipped money being deemed sufficient evidence of guilt. Many Christians, guilty of the same offence, were only heavily fined. About eight years afterwards all the Jews in England, including women and children, were thrown into prison for some imputed offence, and detained till they had paid a fine of 12,000Z. At last in July, 1290, the whole race was banished the kingdom, to the number of 16,511. This severe step is attributed to the persuasion of Eleanor, the king's mother. Their lands and dwellings were forfeited, but Edward allowed them to carry abroad their money and movables, which proved a temptation to the sailors and others to murder many of them; for which, however, the king inflicted capital punishment. Jews were not permitted to live in England till the time of the Commonwealth. § 4. We turn to the affairs of Scotland, not the least important in this reign. Alexander III., who had espoused Margaret, the sister of Edward, died in 1286, without leaving any male issue, or any descendant, except a granddaughter, Margaret, born of Eric, king of Norway, and of Margaret, daughter of the Scottish monarch. This princess, commonly called The Maid of Norivay, had, through her grandfather's care, been recognized as his successor by the Scottish estates ; and on Alexander's death she was acknowledged queen of Scotland. , On this incident, Edward was led to build mighty projects ; and having lately, by force of arms, brought Wales into subjection, he proposed, by the marriage of Margaret with his eldest son, to unite the whole island under one monarchy. The estates of Scotland assented to the Eng- lish proposals ; but the project, so happily formed and so amicably conducted, failed of success by the sudden death of the Norwegian princess, who expired on her passage to Scotland (1290), and left a very dismal prospect to the kingdom. Numerous competitors sprung up ; but three only had any real claim to the crown. These 156 EDWARD I. Chap. ix. were the descendants of the three daughters of David, earl of Hunt- ingdon, and brother of William the Lion, king of Scotland, who was taken prisoner by Henry II. : John Balliol, lord of Galloway, grandson of Margaret, the eldest daughter; Eobert Bruce, lord of Annandale, son of Isabel, the second daughter ; and Hastings, lord of Abergavenny, grandson of Ada, the third daughter. Balliol and Bruce laid claim to the whole kingdom ; and Hastings main- tained that, in right of his mother, he was entitled to a third of it. The estates of Scotland, threatened with a civil war, agreed to refer the dispute to Edward ; and he used the present favourable opportunity for reviving the claim of the English kings to a feudal superiority over Scotland. He caused the records of the monasteries to be searched for precedents of homage rendered by Scottish kings to English sovereigns. Backed with a great army, he repaired to Norham, on the banks of the Tweed, and invited the Scottish estates, and all the competitors, to attend him "as sovereign lord of the land of Scotland," and have their claims determined (1291). Astonished at so new a pretension, the Scots preserved silence ; but were desired by Edward to return into their own country, deliberate upon his claim, and to inform him of their resolution. For this purpose he appointed a plain at Upsettleton, on the northern bank of the Tweed. When the Scots had assembled in the place appointed, though indignant at the claim thus preferred, and the situation into which they were betrayed, they found it impossible for them to make . any defence for their ancient liberty and independence. After some debate, Edward's claim was acknowledged by the nine com- petitors for the crown (June 5), and the next day the royal castles were put into his hands. Shortly after, a court, consisting of 80 Scots, and 24 Englishmen as their assessors, met at Berwick (August 2, 1292), and in the following November they reported in favour of Balliol. Edward gave sentence accordingly, and on the 26th December he received the homage of Balliol for the kingdom of Scotland. The conduct of Edward, however otherwise unexceptionable, was irksome to his royal vassal. Balliol was required to proceed to London, and obliged to appear at the bar of parliament.* Though a prince of a soft and gentle spirit, he returned into Scotland highly * Chiefly on complaints of a "denial of justice " in the Scottish courts. This was made particularly offensive to the vassal king in some cases, as in the suit of John Le Mason, a Gascon, who claimed a debt contracted by Alexander II., but which his executors satisfied the Scottish court had been paid. The English court over- ruled this decision, and, though Balliol was not pretended to have any personal interest in the matter, he was ordered to pay the money, under a threat of losing his English lands. A.D. 1290-1295. WAR WITH FRANCE. 157 provoked at this usage, and determined at all hazards to recover his liberty. The war which soon after broke out between France and England gave him a favourable opportunity for executing his purpose. § 5. In an accidental encounter between the crews of an English and a Norman vessel in a Norman port, one of the former was killed. A series of reprisals ensued on both sides, and the sea became a scene of piracy between both nations. At length a fleet of 200 Norman vessels set sail to the south for wine. In their passage they captured all the English ships which they met with, seized the goods, and hanged the seamen. The inhabitants of the English seaports, informed of this incident, fitted out a fleet of 60 sail, stronger and better manned than the others, and awaited the enemy on their return. After an obstinate battle, the English put them to the rout, and sunk, destroyed, or took the greater part of them ( 1 293). The affair was now become too important to be any longer neglected by either sovereign. Philip IV. cited the king, as duke of Guienne, to appear in his court at Paris, and answer for these offences ; and Edward, finding himself in immediate danger of war with the Scots, allowed himself to be deceived by an artifice of Philip, who proposed that, if Edward would consent to put Guienne into his hands, he should consider his honour was fully satisfied, would restore the province immediately, and be content, with a moderate reparation of all other injuries. But no sooner was Philip in possession of Guienne than the citation was renewed ; Edward was condemned for non-appearance, and Guienne, by a formal sentence, was declared to be forfeited and annexed to the crown (1294). Enraged at being thus overreached, Edward formed alliances with several princes on the continent, sent a powerful army into Guienne, met at first with some success, but was ulti- mately defeated in every quarter. To divide the English forces, and to engage Edward in dangerous wars, Philip now formed an alliance with Balliol, king of Scotland, who renounced his homage to Edward. This was the commencement of that strict union which during so many centuries was maintained by mutual interests and necessities between the French and Scottish nations. § 6. The expenses attending these frequent wars of Edward, and his preparations for war, joined to alterations which had insensibly taken place in the general state of affairs, obliged him to have constant recourse to parliament for supplies. He became sensible that the most expeditious way of obtaining them was to assemble deputies from the boroughs, and to lay his necessities before them. In 1295 writs were first issued to the bishops and clergy; on the 1st October to the barons ; on the 3rd to the sheriffs, stating that the 158 EDWAED I. Chap. ix. king intended to hold a conference or parliament, with his earls, barons, and nobles, to provide against the dangers of the realm. They were therefore commanded to see two knights elected from every shire, and two burgesses of the better sort from every borough and city, " to execute whatever should be ordained in the premises by common consent." * As a representation of the three estates, this parliament of Edward I. may be considered as the model of those that followed it, and the first step towards limiting the vaguer sense in which the word parliament had till then been employed. When Edward received intelligence of the treaty secretly con- cluded between John and Philip, he marched into Scotland with a numerous army, to chastise his rebellious vassal (1296). He gained a decisive victory over the Scots near Dunbar. All the southern parts of the country were instantly subdued by the English; and the feeble and timid Balliol hastened to make a solemn and irrevocable resignation of his crown to Edward (July 2). The English king marched to Aberdeen and Elgin, without meeting an enemy ; and having brought the whole kingdom to a seeming state of tranquillity, he returned to the south with his army, removing from Scone the stone on which the Scotch kings were inaugurated, and to which popular superstition paid the highest veneration.f Balliol was carried prisoner to London, and committed to the Tower. Three years after he was restored to liberty, and retired to France, where he died in voluntary exile (1314). John de Warrenne, earl of Surrey, was left governor of Scotland (September 29). § 7. An attempt which Edward made about the same time for the recovery of Guienne was not equally successful. In order to carry on the war, the king stood in need of large sums of money, which he raised by arbitrary exactions both on the clergy and laity. Pressed by his necessities, he had seized, four years before, the wool of the merchants, and only released it after payment of four or five marks the sack. He had appropriated the treasure found in monasteries and cathedrals. In 1297 he had put the clergy out of his protection for refusing a new demand. After a violent struggle, they were obliged to submit, and to pay a fifth part of * " Ad faciendum quod tunc de com- muni consilio ordinabitur in prfemissis." The words are ambiguous ; but can scarcely mean anything more than that these new representatives of the com- mons were to take measures for raising the aids required in their several counties and boroughs. The writs contemplated no more than this ; and no legislative privilege is implied in them. For whilst the writs to the clergy and baronage contain a preamble, ad tractandum nobiscum, etc., no such clause is found in the writs to the commons. f Now in the shrine of Edward the Confessor, Westminster Abbey. a.d. 1297-1305. CONFIRMATION OF THE CHARTERS. 159 all their movables. But the nobles and the commons were more successful in their resistance, and they found intrepid leaders in Humphrey Bohun, earl of Hereford, the constable, and Boger Bigod, earl of Norfolk, the marshal of England. Edward, intending to attack France on both sides, purposed to send over an army to Guienne, while he himself should in person make an impression on the side of Flanders. These forces he intended to place under the command of the earls of Hereford and of Norfolk. But they refused, affirming that they were only obliged by their office to attend his person in the wars. A violent altercation ensued. The king, in the height of his passion, addressing himself to the earl mar- shal, exclaimed, Sir Earl, by God, you shall either go or hang. By God, Sir King, replied Norfolk, I will neither go nor hang. And he immediately departed with the constable, and above thirty other considerable barons. In the face of such an opposition the king laid aside the project of an expedition against Guienne, and crossed over into Flanders ; but the constable and marshal, with the barons of their party, resolved to take advantage of his absence, and obtain an explicit assent to their demands. Summoned to attend the parliament at London, they came with a great body of troops, but refused to enter the city until the gates should be put into their custody (October 10). They required that the two charters (the Great Charter and that of the Forests) should receive a solemn confirmation ; that clauses should be added to secure the nation against certain impositions and taxes without consent of " the magnates " (parliament) ; and that they themselves and their adherents, who had refused to go to Guienne, should be pardoned for the offence, and be again received into favour. The prince of Wales and his council assented to these terms, and the charters were sent over to the king at Ghent in Flanders, to be confirmed by him (November 5, 1297). Edward was at last obliged, after many struggles, to affix his seal to the charters, as also to the clauses that bereft him of the power he had hitherto assumed of imposing arbitrary aids and tolls. This took place in the 25th year of his reign. He attempted subsequently to evade these engagements, and in 1305 secretly applied to Borne, and procured from that mercenary court absolution from all the oaths and engagements which he had taken to observe both the charters ; but he soon after granted a new confirmation. Thus, the Great Charter was finally established.* * As to what was meant by the king and his opponents, the nobles, by the con- firmation of the Charters {Magna Carta and De Foresta), there is no doubt and no difficulty. But it is by no means so clear, as is sometimes represented, that Edward absolutely renounced all right of impos- ing taxation without the consent of the 160 EDWARD I. Chap. ix. In March. 1298, peace was concluded between France and Eng- land by the mediation of Boniface VIII: Philip agreed to restore Guienne ; Edward agreed to abandon his ally, the earl of Flanders. The treaty was cemented by the double betrothal of king Edward with Margaret, Philip's sister, and of the young prince of Wales with Philip's infant daughter. Edward had lost his devoted wife, Eleanor, at Hareby, near Lincoln, in 1290, and had buried her at Westminster with extraordinary honours. His second marriage took place in 1299. § 8. But while Edward was still abroad, Scotland was the scene of a successful insurrection. William Wallace, of Ellerslie, near Paisley, descended from an ancient family in the west of Scotland, finding himself obnoxious to the government for murdering the sheriff of Lanark, had fled into the woods and collected a band of outlaws. Growing strong by the neglect of those in authority, he resolved to strike a decisive blow against the English government. With this view, he concerted a plan for attacking Ormesby, to whom as justiciary the government had been deputed by John de Warrenne. Ormesby, apprized of his intentions, fled hastily into England. De Warrenne, having collected an army of 40,000 men in the north of England, suddenly entered Scotland, but was defeated by Wallace with great slaughter at Cambuskenneth, near Stirling (September 11, 1297). Among the slain was Cressingham, the English treasurer, whose memory was so extremely odious to the Scots that they flayed his dead body, and made saddles and girths of his skin. Breaking into the northern frontiers during the winter season, Wallace exercised horrible atrocities. He laid every place waste with fire and sword ; and after extending the fury of his ravages as far as the bishopric of Durham, he returned, laden with spoils, into his own country. § 9. Edward hastened over to England, and, putting himself at the head of an army, marched to the Forth without experiencing any opposition. He gained a decisive victory over the Scots at Falkirk (July 22, 1298). Wallace fled ; the Scottish army was broken, and chased off the field with great slaughter. But Scot- land was not yet completely subdued. The English army, after reducing the southern provinces, was obliged to retire for want of nation, or that the barons ever aVmanded as much. What the king really did grant was, (1) that the aids levied by him for his wars should not be drawn into a pre- cedent; and (2) that he would take no such aids henceforth, except by consent of the nation, saving the ancient and customary aids. These reservations are far more consonant with the spirit of the times and the gradual development of the constitution than the Latin abstract of the chronicler, which is not found on the Roll, or in any authorized form. (See Statutes of the Realm, i. 124, reprinted by Stubbs, Sdect Charters, 484. a.d. 1298-1306. DEATH OF WALLACE. 161 provisions, and left the northern counties in the hands of the natives whose nobles formed a commission of regency under John Comyn, lord of Badenoch. In 1303 the French king abandoned the Scots, and Edward, again entering the frontiers of Scotland, appeared with a force which the enemy could not think of resisting in the open field. The English navy, which sailed along the coast, secured the army from danger of famine ; Edward's vigilance preserved it from surprises ; and by this prudent disposition he marched victorious from one extremity of the kingdom to the other, ravaging the open country, reducing the castles, and receiving the submissions of the nobles, and even that of the regent, Comyn (February, 1304). Wallace, now a fugitive, was captured by Sir John Monteith, governor of Dumbarton castle, and given up to the king.* Edward resolved to overawe the Scots by an example of severity. He ordered Wallace to be carried in chains to London, to be tried and executed as a rebel and traitor, and his head to be suspended on a pole over London Bridge (August 23, 1305). It was not long before a new and more fortunate leader presented himself. § 10. By his grandfather's death in 1295, and his father's in 1305, Eobert Bruce, grandson of that Robert who had been one of the competitors for the crown, had succeeded to all their rights. The retirement of John Balliol, and of Edward, his eldest son, seemed to open a full career to his genius and ambition. Of English lineage, and born at Westminster (1274), Bruce was brought up in England at the court of Edward I. Incurring the anger of the king for remonstrating against the execution of Wallace, Bruce suddenly left the court of Edward (1 305). Halting at Dumfries, where the Scottish nobles were assembled, he met Comyn, the son of Balliol's sister, and nearest successor to the Scottish throne, in the cloisters of the Grey Friars. Having vainly tried to win over Comyn to his cause, Bruce ran him through the body, leaving him for dead. Coming forth to his attendants, who observed his agita- tion, he was asked, "What tidings?" "Bad," he replied. "I think I have slain Comyn ! " " Think ! " cried James Lindesay, and returning with Kilpatrick into the vestry, where Comyn lay, Lindesay stabbed him to the heart (February, 1306). § 11. The murder of Comyn affixed the seal to the confederacy of the Scottish nobles: no resource was now left but to shake off the yoke of England, or perish in the attempt. Bruce was solemnly crowned and inaugurated, in the abbey of Scone, by the bishop of St. Andrews, whom Edward had made warden of Scotland, and who had zealously embraced the Scottish cause (March 27, 1306). Not discouraged with these unexpected difficulties, Edward * Fordun xii. 8. 1C2 EDWARD II. Chap. ix. sent Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke, with a considerable force into Scotland to check the progress of the malcontents ; and that nobleman, falling upon Bruce at Methven in Perthshire, threw his army into such disorder as ended in a total defeat (July 22). Obliged to yield to superior fortune, Bruce took shelter, with a few followers, in the Western Isles. Edward, though sick to death, assembled a great army against the Scots, and was preparing to enter the frontiers, when he died at Burgh-on-the-Sands, three miles from Carlisle (July 7, 1307), enjoining with his last breath his son and successor to prosecute the enterprise, and never to desist till he had finally subdued the kingdom of Scotland. He expired in the 69th year of his age, and 35th of his reign, feared and hated by his neighbours, but revered by his own subjects. The enterprises of this prince, and the projects which he formed, were more advantageous to the solid interests of his kingdom than those of either his ancestors or his successors. However arbitrary he may have shown himself on occasions, he was politic and warlike. He possessed industry, penetration, courage, vigilance, and enterprise; he was frugal in all expenses that were not necessary ; he knew how to open the public treasures on a proper occasion ; he punished criminals with severity ; he was gracious and affable to his servants and courtiers ; and being of a majestic figure, expert in all military exercises, and i-n the main well- proportioned in his limbs, notwithstanding the great length and the smallness of his legs, which earned him the byname of Longshanks, he was as well qualified to captivate the populace by his exterior appearance as to gain the approbation of men of sense by his more solid virtues. But the chief advantage which England reaped, and still continues to reap, from his reign, was the correction, extension, amendment, and establishment of the laws. For this he is justly styled the English Justinian. EDWARD II. § 12. Edward II., 6. 1284 ; r. 1307-1327.— This prince, called Edward of Caernarvon, from the place of his bir-th, was 23 years of ao-e when he was proclaimed at Carlisle on the day after his father's death (July 8, 1307). Bruce, though his army had been dispersed, remained no longer inactive. Before the death of the late king, he had sallied from his retreat, and, collecting his followers, had appeared in the field and obtained at Loudon Hill some ad- vantage over Aymer de Valence, who commanded the English forces. Edward, after receiving the homage of the Scots at Dumfries, returned and disbanded his army (1311). The nobles soon perceived that the authority of the crown had fallen into feebler hands ; and a.d. 1307-1312. CAKEER OF GAVESTON. 16H Edward's passion for favourites gave them a pretext for complaint. Piers Gaveston was the orphan son of Sir Arnold de Gaveston, a Gascon knight, who had been unjustly put to death in the English cause, and was by queen Eleanor placed in the household of the prince of Wales. He soon insinuated himself into the affections of his master by his agreeable behaviour. Banished by Edward I., he was now recalled by the young king, who, not content with conferring on him possessions which had sufficed as an appanage for a prince of the blood, daily loaded him with new honours and riches; married him to his own niece, sister of the earl of Gloucester ; granted him the earldom of Cornwall ; and seemed to enjoy no pleasure in his royal dignity but as it enabled him to exalt to the highest splendour this object of his affections. When he went to France, to do homage for the duchy of Guienne and espouse the princess Isabella, to whom he had long been affianced, Edward left Gaveston guardian of the realm (December 26, 1307). § 13. It would be useless to detail all the events which at last drew down his tragical fate upon the favourite. Thomas, earl of Lancaster, cousin-german to the king, and first prince of the blood, headed a confederacy of the nobles against Gaveston, and in a parliament held at Westminster, required the king to banish him (1308). Edward, however, converted even this circumstance into a mark of favour by making Gaveston lieutenant of Ireland, and shortly after contrived to procure his recall (1309). In 1311, the barons, besides extorting some measures of reform, obliged the king to assent to certain ordinances made in parliament for the removal of evil counsellors (October 10). Piers Gaveston him- self was for ever banished the king's dominions, under pain of ex- communication, if he ventured to return. These ordinances were drawn up by twenty-one bishops and barons, who were called " Lords Ordainers." But Edward, removing to York, freed himself from the immediate terror of the barons' power, invited back Gaveston, who had retired into Flanders, and declaring his banishment to be illegal, and, contrary to the laws and customs of the kingdom, openly reinstated him in his former credit and authority (January 18, 1312). Highly provoked at this conduct, the earl of Lancaster, Guy, earl of Warwick, Humphrey Bohun, earl of Hereford, Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke, and others, renewed with double zeal their former confederacies against the king. Lancaster suddenly raised an army and marched to York, but found the king already removed to Newcastle. He hastened thither in pursuit of him ; and Edward had just time to escape to Tynemoutb, where he embarked, and sailed with Gaveston to Scarborough. He left his 164 EDWARD II. Chap. ix. favourite in that fortress ; but Gaveston, sensible of the bad con- dition of his garrison, was obliged to capitulate, and surrendered himself a prisoner on condition that his life should be spared. The condition was violated, and Gaveston was executed on Blacklow Hill, near Warwick, in the presence of Lancaster and other nobles (June 19, 1312). § 14. When the terror of the English power was thus abated by the unpopularity of the king, even the least sanguine of the Scots joined in efforts for recovering their independence; and by 1313 the whole kingdom acknowledged the authority of Eobert Bruce, who invested the last English fortress at Stirling. Roused by the danger, Edward assembled a large army of men ; but some of the nobles refused to serve, and others treacherously fled from the field. The army collected by Bruce was posted at Bannockburn, about two miles from Stirling, and gained a great and decisive victory, thus securing the independence of Scotland, and fixing Bruce on the throne of that kingdom (June 24, 1314). Edward himself, betrayed by Aymer de Valence and others of the nobles, narrowly escaped by taking shelter in Dunbar, whose gates were opened to him by the earl of March, and thence he fled to Berwick. § 15. Thomas, earl of Lancaster, who was suspected of holding treasonable correspondence with the Scots, now took advantage of the king's humiliation ; and in a parliament held at York (September 9, 1314), Edward was compelled to dismiss his chancellor, treasurer, and other officers, whose places were immediately filled by the earl's nominees. Hugh le Despenser, the elder, and Walter Langton were removed from the council, and the king was reduced to an allowance of £10 a day. Lancaster did not fail to use these advantages to the prejudice of his unfortunate relative. In 1316 he entirely wrested the reins from Edward's hands, by procuring himself to be appointed president of the council, without whose consent nothing should be done. But the power thus gained he failed to exercise either with ability or with moderation. The son of Hugh le Despenser had succeeded Gaveston in the king's affections. The father was a nobleman venerable from his years, respected for his wisdom, valour, and integrity, and well fitted, by his talents and experience, to have supplied the defects both of the king and of his favourite. But no sooner was Edward's attachment declared for young Spenser than Lancaster and most of the great barons made him the object of their animosity, and formed plans for his ruin. They entered London with their troops (1321); and giving in to the parliament, which was then sitting, a charge against the Spensers, they procured a sentence of forfeiture and perpetual exile against these ministers. In the following year Edward hastened with his A.v. 1312-1325. TRUCE WITH SCOTLAND. 165 army to the marches of Wales, the chief seat of the power of his enemies, whom he found totally unprepared for resistance. Lan- caster, to prevent the total ruin of his party, summoned together his vassals and retainers ; declared his alliance with Scotland, which had long been suspected ; and, being joined by the earl of Hereford, advanced with all his fori es against the king. Dis- appointed in this design, he fled with his army to the north, in expectation of being joined by his Scottish allies ; was pursued by the king ; and, with a diminished army, marched to Borough- bridge, where he was defeated and captured. Lancaster, as guilty of open rebellion, was condemned by a military court, and led to execution. He was clothed in a mean attire, placed on a lean jade without a bridle, conducted to an eminence near Pontefract, one of his own castles, and there beheaded (1322). § 16. After one more fruitless attempt against Scotland, Edward retreated with dishonour — for he had traitors among his officers — and found it necessary to terminate hostilities with that kingdom by a truce of thirteen years (1323). This truce was the more seasonable for England, because the nation was at that juncture threatened with hostilities from France. Charles the Fair had some grounds of complaint against the king's ministers in Guienne : and queen Isabella, who had obtained permission to go over to Paris and endeavour to adjust the difference with her brother, pro- posed that Edward should resign the dominion of Guienne to his eldest son, now thirteen years of age; that the prince should come to Paris, and do the homage which every vassal owed to his superior lord. Spenser was charmed with the contrivance. Young Edward was sent to Paris : and the danger covered by this fatal snare was never perceived or suspected by any of the English council (September 12, 13-5). The queen, on her arrival in France, had found there a great number of English fugitives, the remains of the Lancastrian faction ; and their common hatred of Spenser soon begat a secret friendship and correspondence between them and Isabella. Among the rest was Roger Mortimer, lord of Wigmore, a potent baron in the Welsh marches, who was easily admitted to her court. Though he was married, the graces of his person and address advanced him quickly in Isabella's affections. He became' her confidant and counsellor, and engaged her to sacrifice at last to her passion all the sentiments of honour and of fidelity to her husband. Mortimer lived in the most declared intimacy with her ; a correspondence was secretly carried on with the malcontent party in England ; and when Edward, informed of those alarming circumstances, required her speedily to return with the prince, she publicly replied that she would never set 1G6 EDWARD II. Chap. ix. foot in the kingdom till the Sponsors were for ever removed from his presence and councils — a declaration which procured her great popu- larity in England, and threw a decent veil over all her treasonable designs. She affianced young Edward to Philippa, daughter of the count of Holland and Hainault ; and having, by the assistance of this prince, enlisted in her service nearly 3000 men, she set sail from the harbour of Dort, and landed safely and without opposition on the coast of Suffolk (September 24, 1326). She was joined by Edward's half-brothers, the earls of Kent and Norfolk, and many of the nobility. Edward, deserted by his subjects, repaired to the west; but being disappointed in his expectations of loyalty in those parts, he passed over to Wales, where, he nattered himself, his name was still popular, and the natives less infected with the general contagion. The elder Spenser, created earl of Winchester, was left governor of the castle of Bristol ; but the garrison mutinied against him, and he was delivered into the hands of his enemies and executed. The king took shipping for Ireland; but being driven back by contrary winds, he endeavoured to conceal himself in Wales. He was soon discovered, was put under the custody of the earl of Lancaster, and was confined in the castle of Kenihvorth. The younger Spenser also fell into the hands of his enemies, and was hanged after a hasty trial. The queen then summoned a parliament at Westminster in the king's name (January 7, 1327). A charge was drawn up against the king, for whom no voice was raised. His deposition was voted : the young Edward, already declared regent by his party, was placed on the throne : and a deputation was sent to his father at Kenilworth, to require his resignation, which menaces and terror soon extorted from him (January 20). The unfortunate monarch, hurried from place to place, was at length transferred to Berkeley castle, and the impatient Mortimer secretly sent orders to his keepers to despatch him. It was believed that these ruffians threw him on a bed, held him down violently with a table which they flung over him, thrust into his intestines a red-hot iron, which they inserted through a horn; and though all outward marks of violence upon his person were prevented by this expedient, the horrid deed was discovered to all the guards and attendants by the screams with which the agonizing king filled the castle while his bowels were consuming (September 21). Thus miserably perished, in the 14th year of his age, Edward II., than Avhom it is not easy to imagine a prince less fitted for governing the fierce and turbulent barons subjected to his authority. Noble of Edward III. Obv. : edward . dei . gra . kex . angi.' z franc' . d . hyb'g. The king standing in a ship (type supposed to relate to the naval victory gained by him over the French fleet off Sluys, a.d. 1340). Rev. : ihc : transiens : per : medivm : illorvm : ibat +. Cross fleury, with a fleur-de-lis at each point, and a lion passant under a crown in each quarter. CHAPTER X. HOUSE OF PLANTAGENET— Continued. EDWARD III. AND RICHARD II. A.D. 1327-1399. § 1. Accession of Edward III. War with Scotland. § 2. Fall of Mortimer. § 3. King's administration. War with Scotland. Battle of Halidon Hill. § 4. Edward's claim to the crown of France. § 5. War with France. § 6. Domestic disturbances, .riiiairs of Brittany. § 7. Re- newal of the French war. Battle of Crecy. § 8. Captivity of the king of Scots. Calais taken. § 9. Institution of the Garter. War in Guienne and battle of Poitiers. § 10. Captivity of king John. Invasion of France and peace of Bretigny. § 11. The Black Prince in Castile. Rupture with France. § 12. Death of the prince of Wales. Death and character of the king. § 13. Miscellaneous transactions of this reign. § 14. Accession of Richard II. Insurrection. § IS. Discontents of the nobility. Expulsion or execution of the king's ministers. § 16. Counter-revolution. Ascendency of the duke of Lancaster. Cabals and murder of the duke of Gloucester. § 17. Death of John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster. Revolt of his son Henry. Deposition, death, and character of the king. § 18. The Wickliffites. 1. Edward IK., b. 1312; r. 1327-1377.— After the late king's deposition a council of regency was appointed by parliament, and Henry, earl of Lancaster, became guardian and protector of the king's person, who, at the age of 14, ascended the throne with the title of Edward III.* The real power, however, was in the hands of Isabella and Mortimer. The Pcots seized the opportunity offered by the unsettled state of the English government to make incursions into the northern counties. The young king, who had put himself at the head of * His reign is dated from the 25th of January, 1327. He was crowned January 29. 168 EDWARD III. Chap. x. an army in order to repress them, narrowly escaped falling into the hands of the enemy. Douglas, having surveyed exactly the situation of the English camp, entered it secretly in the night- time, with a body of 200 determined soldiers, and advanced to the royal tent, with the view of killing or carrying off the king in the midst of his army. Bat some of Edward's attendants, awaking in that critical moment, resisted ; his chaplain and chamberlain sacri- ficed their lives to his safety ; and the king himself, after a valorous defence, escaped in the dark. Douglas, having lost the greater part of his followers, was glad to make a hasty retreat. Soon after, the Scottish army decamped in the dead of night; and having thus got the start of the English, returned without further loss into their own country. This inglorious campaign was followed by a disgraceful peace. As the claim of sovereignty by England, more than any other cause, had tended to inflame the animosities between the two nations, Mortimer, besides stipulating for a mar- riage between Joan, sister of Edward, and David, the son and heir of Kobert Bruce, consented to resign absolutely all claim of supremacy over Scotland, and to acknowledge Robert as an inde- pendent sovereign. The regalia were restored ; many Scottish prisoners were released, the Scots agreeing to pay the sum of 30,000 marks in three years. This treaty was ratified by parlia- ment (May 4, 1328). § 2. But the fall of Mortimer was now approaching. Having persuaded the earl of Kent that his brother, king Edward, was still alive and detained in some secret prison in England, he induced the unsuspicious earl to enter into a conspiracy for his restoration, and then caused him to be condemned on the charge by parliament, and executed (March 21, 1330). The earl of Lancaster was greatly alarmed, and feeling that he must himself be the next victim, he did his best to turn the young king against Mortimer. But Mortimer blindly persisted in his high-handed dealings; he was bent on sweeping from his path all who stood in the way of his ambition. He had, in 1328, been created earl of March, and he affected a state and dignity equal, if not superior, to the royal power. He became formidable to every one; and all parties, forgetting past animosities, agreed in detesting him. It was impossible that this could long escape the observation of a prince endowed with so much spirit and judgment as young Edward. He communi- cated to several nobles his intentions of humbling Mortimer ; and the castle of Nottingham was chosen for the scene of their enterprise. The queen-dowager and Mortimer lodged in that for- tress : the king also was admitted, though with a few only of his attendants ; and as the castle was strictly guarded, the gates locked a.d. 1327-1332. DEATH OF MORTIMER. 169 every evening, and the keys carried to the queen, it became neces- sary to communicate the design to Sir William Eland, the governor, who zealously took part in it. By his direction the king's associates were admitted through a subterranean passage, which had formerly been contrived for a secret outlet from the castle, but was now buried in rubbish. Mortimer, without having it in his power to make resistance, was suddenly seized in an apartment adjoining to the queen's (October 19). In a parliament summoned at West- minster, Mortimer was arraigned on certain charges, assumed to be notorious ; was condemned unheard, and hanged on a gibbet at Tyburn (November '29, 1330). The queen was confined to her own house at Castle Rising ; and though the king paid her a visit of ceremony once or twice a year, she was never reinstated in any credit or authority. She died in 1357. § 3. Edward, having now taken the reins of government into his own hands, applied himself with industry and judgment to redress all those grievances which had proceeded either from want of an authority in the crown, or from the late abuses of it. During the convulsions of the last reign, murder and theft had multiplied enormously, and malefactors were openly protected by the great barons, who made use of them against their enemies. Gangs of robbers had become so numerous as to require the king's own presence to disperse them ; and in executing this salutary office he exerted both courage and industry. For the next three or four years his attention was engaged with the affairs of Scotland. Robert Bruce, who had recovered the independence of his country, died (November 24, 1331) soon after the last treaty of peace with England, leaving David, his son, a young child, under the guardian- ship of Randolph, earl of Moray, the companion of all his victories. Great discontent had been excited among many of the English nobility by Brace's non-performance of that article of the treaty by which they were to be restored to their estates in Scotland. Under the influence of these feelings they resolved on setting up Edward, the son of John Balliol, then residing in Normandy, as a pretender to the Scottish crown. Edward secretly encouraged Balliol, and countenanced the nobles who were disposed to join in the attempt. The arms of Balliol were attended with sur- prising success; he was crowned at Scone (1332); and David, his competitor, was sent over to France with his betrothed wife, Joan, sister to Edward. But Balliol's imprudence, or his neces- sities, making him dismiss the greater part of his English followers, he was attacked on a sudden near Annan by the Scots, enraged at his ceding the town of Berwick to Edward (November 23, 1332), was put to the rout, and chased into England in a miserable condition. 170 EDWARD III. Chap, x. Thus lie lost his kingdom in a few months by a revolution as sudden as that by which he had acquired it (December 12, 13o2). While Balliol enjoyed his short-lived and precarious royalty, he had offered to acknowledge Edward's claim of sovereignty, and to espouse the princess Joan, if the pope's consent could be obtained for dissolving her former marriage, which was not yet consummated. Edward willingly accepted the offer, and prepared to reinstate him in possession of the crown, for which the inroads of the Scots into the northern counties after the battle of Annan seemed to offer a reasonable pretext. At the head of a powerful army he advanced to lay siege to Berwick. Douglas was defeated and slain at Halidon Hill, a little north of that city. Berwick was surrendered (1333). Balliol was acknowledged king by a parliament held at Edinburgh (1334). The superiority of England was again recognized, and many of the Scottish nobility swore fealty to Edward. To com- plete the misfortunes of that nation, Berwick, Dunbar, Roxburgh, Edinburgh, and all the south-east counties of Scotland were ceded by the new king and declared to be for ever annexed to the English monarchy. But the Scots were still far from being subdued. In 1335, and again in the following year, Edward was obliged to proceed thither with an army; and as a war was now likely to break out between France and England, the Scots had reason to expect a great diversion of that force which had so long oppressed and overwhelmed them. Edward Balliol fled to England, and spent most of his nominal eight years' reign at Edward's court. David II. was recalled from exile in 1341, though still to a pre- carious throne. § 4. Upon the death of Charles IV. in 1328 without male issue, Philip of Valois, the cousin of Charles, succeeded as Philip VI., for by the Salic law all females were excluded from the crown. Edward III. claimed it as next male heir to Charles ; for, though Isabella was, on account of her sex, incapable of reigning, he maintained that a right to the crown could be transmitted through her to her male offspring. This point had never yet been determined by the Salic law. He had acquiesced at first in the succession of Philip, and had twice done homage in general terms for the pro- vince of Guienne (1329, 1331). It was not until 1337 that he renewed his claim, irritated by the aid afforded by Philip to the Scots. § 5. Before preparing for invasion, Edward resolved to strengthen himself by various continental alliances. He assumed the title of king of France (October 7, 1337), and crossing over to Flanders, where he had obtained the adhesion of Jacob van Artevelde, the leader of the popular party among the Flemings (1338), he A.D 1332-1340. NAVAL VICTORY AT SLUYS. 171 invaded France in the following year, but was obliged to retreat without effecting anything, owing to the apathy of his allies. He was, however, a prince of too much spirit to be daunted by the first difficulties of an enterprise, and was anxious to retrieve his honour by more successful efforts. Philip, apprized by the preparations which were making both in England and the Low Countries that he must expect another invasion, fitted out a great fleet of 400 vessels, manned with 40,000 men, and stationed them off Sluys, with a view of intercepting the king in his passage to the continent. The English navy was much inferior in number, consisting only of 240 sail ; but, either by the superior abilities of Edward or the greater dexterity of his seamen, they gained the wind of the enemy, and had the sun on their backs, and with these advantages the action began. It lasted nine hours, and ended in favour of Edward. 230 French ships were taken ; 30,000 Frenchmen were killed, with two of their admirals. On the side of the English, two ships only were sunk and 4000 men slain (June 24, 1340). Elated with his success, Edward advanced to the frontiers of France at the head of 100,000 men, consisting chiefly of foreigners. He laid siege to Tournay, but after a few weeks agreed to a truce, as his money was exhausted, and he suddenly returned to England. § 6. It required all his genius and energy to extricate himself from his multiplied embarrassments. His claims on France and Scotland had engaged him in an implacable war with these two kingdoms : he had lost most of his foreign alliances by the irregu- larity of his payments : he was deeply involved in debts, and, except his naval victory, none of his military operations had been attended with glory. The animosity between him and the clergy, especially John Stratford, archbishop of Canterbury, to whom, as chancellor,* the charge of collecting the taxes had been chiefly in- trusted, was open and declared. The people were discontented; and, what was more dangerous, the nobles, taking advantage of the king's present necessities, were determined to retrench his power, and, by encroaching on the ancient prerogatives of the crown, to acquire a greater amount of independence and authority. In 1340 parliament framed an act to confirm the Great Charter anew, and oblige all the chief officers of the law and of the state to swear to the regular observance of it. They petitioned that no peer should be punished but by the award of his peers in parliament ; that the * He and his brother Robert, bishop of Chichester, held the office of chancellor, alternately, for more than ten years. Robert, failing to furnish such liberal supplies as Edward required in his wars, was suddenly displaced, December, 1340, and was succeeded by sir Robert Bourchier, the first layman who held that post. 172 EDWARD III. Chap. x. chief officers of state should be appointed by the king in parlia,- ment, and should answer before parliament to any accusation brought against them. In return for these important concessions, the commons offered the king a grant of 30,000 sacks of wool. His wants were so urgent, so clamorous the demands of his foreign allies, that Edward was obliged to accept the supply on these conditions, with one important modification — that the choice of his ministers should rest only with himself, " he taking therein the assent of his council." He ratified this statute in full parliament ; but he subsequently issued au edict to abrogate and annul it, and two years after it was formally repealed. A disputed claim to the succession of Brittany on the death of duke John III. opened the way to fresh attempts upon France. The dukedom was claimed by the count de Montfort, John's brother by a second marriage, and by Charles de Blois, nephew of the French king, who had married John's niece. Montfort offered to do homage to Edwaid as king of France for the duchy of Brittany, and proposed a strict alliance in support of their mutual pretensions. Edward saw immediately the advantages attending this treaty: Montfort, an active and valiant prince, closely united to him by interest, seemed likely to be far more serviceable than his allies on the side of Germany and the Low Countries. Montfort, however, fell into the hands of his enemies ; was conducted as a prisoner to Paris ; but Joan of Flanders, his countess, after she had put Brittany in a good posture of defence, shut herself up in Hennebon till she was relieved by the succours which Edward sent her under the command of sir Walter Manny, one of his ablest and bravest captains (1342). § 7. In the autumn of the same year Edward undertook her defence in person ; and as the last truce with France had expired, the war, in which the English and French had hitherto embarked as allies to the competitors for Brittany, was now conducted in the name and under the standard of the two monarchs. This war, like the preceding, was carried on without any important advantages on either side till 1346, when the English gained the first of the two great victories which have shed such a lustre upon Edward's reign. The king had intended to sail to Guienne, which was threatened by a formidable French army, and embarked at Southampton, on board a fleet of nearly 1000 sail of all dimen- sions, carrying with him, besides all the chief nobility of England, his eldest son, Edward, prince of Wales, now 16 years of age. The winds long proved contrary ; and the king, in despair of arriv- ing in time in Guienne, at last ordered his fleet to sail to Normandy, and safely disembarked his army at La Hogue (July, 1346). a.d. 1340-1346. BATTLE OF CllECY. 173 This army, which, during the course of the ensuing campaign, was crowned with the most splendid success, consisted of 4000 men-at-arms, 10,000 archers, 12,000 Welsh infantry, and 6000 Irish. After laying waste Normandy and advancing almost to the gates of Paris, Edward retreated towards Flanders, pursued by the French king. He had crossed the river Somme below Abbeville, when he was overtaken by the French army, consisting of 100,000 men. He took up his position near the village of Cbecy, about 15 miles east of Abbeville, and determined there to await the enemy. On the morning of August 26th, he drew up his army in three lines on a gentle ascent ; the first was commanded by the prince of Wales, with whom were the earls of Warwick and Oxford; the earls of Arundel and Northampton commanded the second ; and the king himself took his station on a hill with the third. In the front of each division stood the archers, arranged in the form of a portcullis. Having gained a day's respite, Edward had taken the precaution to throw up trenches on his flanks, in order to secure himself from the numerous bodies of the French, who might assail him from that quarter; and he placed all his baggage behind him in a wood, which was also secured by an intrenchment. Besides the resources which he found in his own genius and presence of mind, he is said to have employed a new invention against the enemy. He placed in the front some pieces of artillery. Artillery was at this time known in France as well as in England ; but Philip, in his hurry to overtake the enemy, had probably left his cannon behind him, which be regarded as a useless encumbrance. After a long day's march from Abbeville, the French army, imperfectly formed into three lines, arrived, already fatigued and disordered, in presence of the enemy. The first line, consisting of 15,000 Genoese crossbow men, was commanded by Anthony Doria and Charles Grimaldi ; the second was led by the count of Alencon, brother to the king ; Philip himself was at the head of the third. John of Luxembourg, king of Bohemia, and his son, the king of the Komans, were also present, with all the nobility and great vassals of the crown of France. Numerous as was the army, the prudence of one man counterbalanced all this force and splendour. A heavy storm, accompanied with incessant thunder and lightning, had further discomforted the French and wetted the strings of the Genoese bowmen. At five the weather cleared and the Genoese commenced the attack. Steady and immovable, the English received their fire ; then, after a brief interval, they drew their bows from their cases, and poured in such a shower of arrows that the Genoese fell back in disorder. The second line, under 174 EDWARD III. Chap. x. the count of Alenqon, now advanced to the attack, supported by numerous cavalry ; but as they approached through the narrow- lanes flanked by the English archers, many fell and the rest were thrown into confusion. As the prince of Wales was now hard pressed by superior numbers, the second division advanced to his support. When the king was entreated by those about him to bring up his reserves to his son's assistance, " No," said he ; " let the boy win his spurs, and gain the glory of the day ! " Inspired with this proof of the king's confidence, the English fought with renewed courage. After a stout resistance the French cavalry gave way : the count of Alencon was slain : the Welsh and Irish infantry rushed into the throng, and with their long knives cut the throats of all who had fallen. No quarter was given that day by the victors. The king of France advanced in vain with the rear to sustain the line commanded by his brother. His horse was killed under him, and he was obliged to quit the field of battle. The whole French army took to flight, was followed and put to the sword, without mercy, till darkness put an end to the pursuit. On his return to the camp, Edward, embracing the prince of Wales, exclaimed, " Sweet son ! God give you good perseverance : you are my son; for most loyally have you acquitted yourself this day, and you are worthy of a crown." From this time the young prince became the terror of the French, by whom he was called the Black Prince, from the colour of the armour which he wore on that day (August 26, 1346). The dead found on the field included, on the French side, 11 princes, 80 bannerets, 1200 knights, 1400 gentlemen, 4000 men-at- arms, besides about 30,000 of inferior rank. Among the slain was the old and blind king of Bohemia. Besolved to hazard his person and set an example to others, he ordered the reins of his bridle to be tied on each side to two gentlemen of his train ; and his dead body, and those of his attendants, were afterwards found among the slain, with their horses standing by them in that situation. It is said that the crest of the king of Bohemia was three ostrich feathers, and his motto Ich (lien, " I serve," which the prince of Wales and his successors adopted in memorial of this great victory.* The loss sustained by the English was very slight. But, notwithstanding his success, the king was compelled by his necessities to limit his ambition for the present to the con- quest of Calais ; to which, after an interval of a few days employed in interring the slain, he now turned his attention. § 8. While Edward was engaged in this siege, which employed * There is, however, great doubt re- I the essay by sir H. Nicolas in the specting the truth of this tradition. See | Archaologia, vol. xxxii. ad. 1346-1347. SIEGE OF CALAIS. 175 him exactly eleven months, other events occurred to the honour of the English arms. The earl of Lancaster, who commanded the English forces in Guienne, carried his incursions to the banks of the Vienne, and devastated all the southern provinces of France. The Scots, under the command of their king, David Bruce, entered Northumberland, but were completely defeated by Henry Percy, at Neville's Cross, near Durham (October 17, 1346) : the king him- self was taken prisoner, with many of the nobility. David Bruce was detained in captivity till 1357, when he was liberated for a ransom of 100,000 marks. The town of Calais was defended with remarkable vigilance, constancy, and bravery by the townsmen, during a siege of unusual length ; and Philip had in vain attempted to relieve it. At length, after enduring all the extremities of famine, John de Vienne, the governor, surrendered unconditionally (August 3, 1347). The .story runs that Edward had at first resolved to put all the garrison to death ; but that at last he only insisted that six of the most considerable citizens should be sent to him, to be disposed of as he thought proper ; that they should come to his camp, carrying the keys of the city in their hands, bareheaded and barefooted, with ropes about their necks ; and on these conditions he promised to spare the lives of the remainder. When this intelligence was conveyed to Calais, the inhabitants were struck with consternation. Whilst they found themselves incapable of coming to any resolution in so cruel and distressful a situation, at last one of the principal citizens, called Eustace de St. Pierre, stepped forth and declared himself willing to suffer death for the safety of his friends and companions ; another, animated by his example, made a like generous offer ; a third and a fourth presented themselves to the same fate ; and the whole number was soon completed. These six heroic burgesses appeared before Edward in the guise of malefactors, laid at his feet the keys of their city, and were ordered to be led out to execution. But the entreaties of his queen saved Edward's memory from this infamy : she threw herself on her knees before him, and, with tears in her eyes, begged the lives of these citizens. Having obtained her request, she carried them into her tent, ordered a repast to be set before them, and, after making them a present of money and clothes, dismissed them in safety. The king, after taking possession of Calais, removed the inhabitants to make way for English settlers ; a policy which probably preserved so long to his successors the possession of that important fortress. He made it the staple of wool, leather, tin, and lead; the four chief, if not the sole, commodities of the kingdom for which there was at that time any considerable demand in foreign markets. 176 EDWARD III. Chap. x. Through the mediation of the pope's legates Edward concluded a truce with France ; but, even during this cessation of arms, an attempt was made to deprive him of Calais (1349). Being in- formed of the plot, he proceeded to Calais with 1000 men; and, when the French presented themselves to take possession of the town at the time appointed, Edward sallied forth to oppose them. On this occasion he fought hand to hand with a French knight, named Ribaumont. Twice he was struck to the ground, but con- trived at last to make his assailant prisoner. The French officers who had fallen into the hands of the English were admitted to sup with the prince of Wales and the English nobility. After supper the king entered the apartment, and conversed familiarly with his prisoners. On Ribaumont he openly bestowed the highest encomiums, admitting that he himseif had never been in greater danger. In token of his valour he presented Ribaumont with a chaplet of pearls which he wore about his own head (January, 1349). § 9. About the same time the king is said to have instituted the order of the Garter (1349). Its true origin is lost in obscurity. According to the popular account, the countess of Salisbury dropped her garter at a court-ball, when the king picked it up ; and ob- serving^some of the courtiers to smile, he exclaimed, Honi soit qui mul y pense, " Evil be to him that evil thinks ;" and gave these words as the motto of the order. A grievous calamity, called . the Black Death, more than the pacific disposition of the two princes, served to maintain and pro- long the truce between France and England. It invaded England as well as the rest of Europe; and is computed to have swept away nearly a third of the inhabitants in every country attacked by it (1349). Above 50,000 souls are said to have perished by it in London alone. Public business was interrupted; war was dis- continued until 1355 ; the legal and judicial work ceased for two years, and the population, especially among the lower orders, was greatly diminished. To augment the evils of the time, cattle and sheep were attacked by it, and the resources of the country were severely impaired. This malady first appeared in the north of Asia, spread over all that country, and made its progress from one end of Europe to the other, depopulating every state through which it passed. As labourers decreased in England, the survivors endeavoured by combination to obtain higher wages. The attempt was resented by parliament, and an act was passed, called the Statute of Labourers (23 Edw. III. c. 1), which ordered them to work at their accustomed wages. As they were little inclined to do this, another statute was passed a few years after, ad. 1349-1356. BATTLE OF POITIERS. 177 making them liable to severe punishments if any wilfully remained idle, or quitted their usual place of abode. The truce between the two kingdoms expired in 1355. John the Good had succeeded to the French throne on the death of his father, Philip of Valois, in 1350 ; and France was distracted by the factions excited by Charles the Bad, king of Navarre. John had succeeded in seizing and imprisoning that prince ; but the cause of Charles was maintained by his brother Philip, and Geoffrey d'Harcourt, who had recourse to the protection of England. Well pleased that the factions in France had at length gained him partisans in that kingdom, which his pretensions to the crown had never been able to secure, Edward purposed to attack his enemy both on the side of Guienne, under the command of the prince of Wales, and on that of Calais, in his own person. Young Edward arrived in the Garonne with his army, overran Languedoc, advanced even as far as Narbonne, laying every place waste around him. After an incursion of six weeks, he returned with a vast booty and many prisoners to Guienne, where he took up his winter quarters. His father's incursion from Calais was of the same nature, and attended with the same results. After plundering and ravaging the open country, he retired to Calais, and, thence to England, in order to defend his kingdom against a threatened invasion of the Scots, who, taking advantage of the king's absence, had surprised Berwick. But on the approach of Edward they abandoned that place, which was not tenable while the castle was in the hands of the English ; and, retiring northwards, gave the enemy full liberty of burning and destroying the whole country from Berwick to Edinburgh. In the following year (1356) the prince of Wales, encouraged by the success of the preceding campaign, took the field from Bordeaux with an army of 12,000 men, of which not a third were English ; and with this small body he ventured to penetrate into the heart of France. His intentions were to march into Normandy, and to join his forces with those of the duke of Lancaster and the partisans of the king of Navarre ; but, finding all the bridges on the Loire broken _ down, and every pass carefully guarded, he was obliged to think of making his retreat into Guienne. The king of France, provoked at this insult, and entertaining hopes of punishing the young prince for his temerity, collected an army of 60,000 men, and advanced by hasty marches to intercept his enemy. They came within sight at Maupertuis, near Poitiers ; and Edward, sensible that his retreat had now become impracticable, prepared for battle with all the courage of a young hero, and with all the prudence of the oldest and most experienced commander. His 178 EDWARD III. Chap. x. army was now reduced to 8000 men. At the instance of the cardinal of Perigord, John lost a day in negociation ; and thus the prince of Wales had leisure during the night to strengthen, by new intrenchments, the post he had before so judiciously chosen. He contrived an ambush of 300 men-at-arms and as many archers, wborn he ordered to make a circuit, that they might fall on the flank or rear of the French army during the engagement. The van of his army was commanded by the earl of Warwick, the rear by the earls of Salisbury and Suffolk, the main body by the prince himself. The king of France also arranged his forces in three divisions. The English position was surrounded by hedges, and was only accessible by a single road, flanked on each side by English archers. As the enemy advanced they were shot down with impunity, and the passage was choked by their dead. Dis- couraged by the unequal combat, and diminished in number, they arrived at the end of the lane, and were met on the open ground by the prince of Wales himself, at the head of a chosen body, ready for their reception. Discomfited and overthrown, and re- coiling upon their own men, the whole army was thrown into disorder. In that critical moment the men placed in ambush appeared and attacked the dauphin's line in flank. The duke of Orleans and several other French commanders fled with their divisions. King John made the utmost efforts to retrieve by his valour what his imprudence had betrayed, till, spent with fatigue and overwhelmed by numbers, he and his son yielded themselves prisoners. Young Edward received the captive king with every mark of regard and sympathy; administered comfort to him amidst his misfortunes ; paid him the tribute of praise due to his valour ; and ascribed his own victory merely to the blind chance of war, or to a superior Providence which controls all the efforts of human force and prudence. The behaviour of John showed him not unworthy of this courteous treatment; his present abject fortune never made him forget for a moment that he was a king. More touched by Edward's generosity than by his own calamities, he confessed that, notwithstanding his defeat and captivity, his honour was still unimpaired ; and that, if he yielded the victory, it was at least gained by a prince of consummate valour and humanity. Edward ordered a repast to be prepared in his tent for the prisoner, and he himself served at the royal captive's table, as if he had been one of his retinue. He stood at the king's back during the meal ; constantly refused to take a place at table ; and declared that, being a subject, he was too well acquainted with the distance between his own rank and that of royalty to assume such freedom. The battle of Poitiers was fought September 19, 1356. A.D. 1356-1360. TREATY OF BRETIGNY. 179 The prince of Wales conducted his prisoner to Bordeaux ; and, not being provided with forces numerous enough to enable him to push his present advantages further, he concluded a truce for two years with France, and returned with his royal prisoner to England. On entering London (May 24, 1357), he was met by a great con- course of people of all ranks and stations. The prisoner was clad in royal apparel, and mounted on a white steed, distinguished by its size and beauty and by the richness of its furniture. The conqueror, in meaner attire, rode by his side on a black palfrey. In this situation, more glorious than all the insolent parade of a Eoman triumph, he passed through the streets of London, and presented the king of France to his father, who advanced to meet him, and received him with as much courtesy as if he had been a neighbouring potentate that had voluntarily come to pay him a friendly visit. § 10. During the captivity of John, France was thrown into the greatest confusion by domestic factions and disorders. Edward employed himself during a conjuncture so inviting chiefly in nego- ciations with his prisoner ; and John had the weakness to sign terms of peace, by which he agreed to restore all the provinces formerly possessed by Henry II. and his two sons, and to annex them for ever to England, without any obligation of homage or fealty on the part of the English monarch. But the dauphin and the states of France rejected a treaty so dishonourable and pernicious to the kingdom ; and Edward, on the expiration of the truce, having now, by subsidies and frugality, collected sufficient treasure, prepared for a new invasion of France (1359). It is unnecessary to follow the ravages of the English during this invasion, in which many of the French provinces were laid waste with fire and sword, and the people suffered incredible miseries. At length Charles, the dauphin, agreed to the terms of a peace, which was concluded at Bretigny near Chartres, on the following conditions : — It was stipulated that John should be restored to his liberty, and should pay for his ransom three millions of crowns of gold (about 1,500,000 pounds of our present money) in successive instalments; that Edward should for ever renounce all claim to the crown of France, and to the provinces of Normandy, Maine, Touraine, and Anjou, possessed by his ancestors ; and should receive in exchange the full sovereignty of the duchy of Aquitaine, including, besides Guienne and Gascony, the provinces of Poitou, Saintonge, l'Agenois, Perigord, the Limousin, Quercy, Eouergue, l'Angoumois, and other districts in that quarter, and also Calais, Guisnes, Montreiiil, and the county of Ponthieu, on the other side of France ; that France should renounce all title to feudal jurisdiction, homage, or appeal 180 EDWARD III. Chap. x. on their behalf; that the king of Navarre should be restored to all his honours and possessions ; that Edward should renounce his confederacy with the Flemings, and John his connections with the Scots ; that the disputes concerning the succession of Brittany between the family of Blois and Montfort should be decided by arbiters appointed by the two kings ; and that forty hostages, to be agreed on, should be sent to England as security for the execution of allsthese conditions (May 8, 1360). In consequence of this arrangement the king of France was brought over to Calais, whither Edward also soon after repaired ; and there both princes solemnly ratified the treaty. John was sent to Boulogne; the king accom- panied him a mile on his journey, and the two monarchs parted with many professions of mutual amity. As he was unable to fulfil the terms of his release, John returned to England (January 4, 1364). He soon after sickened and died in the palace of the Savoy, where he had resided during his captivity. He was suc- ceeded on the throne by his son Charles V., a prince educated in the school of adversity, and well qualified, by his consummate prudence and experience, to repair the losses which France had sustained from the errors of his two predecessors. § 11. In 1367 the Black Prince marched into Castile, in order to restore Peter, surnamed the Cruel, who had been driven from the throne of that country by his natural brother, Henry, count of Transtamare, with the assistance of the French. Henry was defeated by the English prince at Navarrete, and was chased off the field, with the loss of above 20,000 men. Peter, who well merited the infamous epithet which he bore, proposed to murder all his prisoners in cold blood, but was restrained from this barbarity by the remon- strances of the prince of Wales. All Castile now submitted to the victor ; Peter was restored to the throne ; and Edward finished this perilous enterprise with his usual glory. But the barbarities exer- cised by Peter over his helpless subjects, whom he now regarded as vanquished rebels, revived all the animosity of the Castilians against him. On the return of Henry of Transtamare, with rein- forcements levied in France, the tyrant was again dethroned and was taken prisoner. His brother, in resentment of his cruelties, slew him with his own hand; and was placed on the throne of Castile, which he transmitted to his posterity. The duke of Lan- caster, John of Gaunt, who espoused in second marriage the eldest daughter of Peter, inherited only the empty title of sovereignty, and, by claiming the succession, increased the animosity of the new king of Castile against England. But the prejudice which the affairs of prince Edward received from this splendid though imprudent expedition ended not with it. A.D. 1360-1376. DEATH OF THE BLACK PRINCE. 181 He had involved himself so much in debt by his preparations and the pay of his troops, that he found it necessary, on his return, to impose a new tax on his French subjects. This incident revived the animosity of the Gascons, who were encouraged to carry their complaints to Charles, as to their lord paramount, against these oppressions of the English government. Charles, in open breach of the treaty of Bretigny, sent to the prince of Wales a summons to appear in his court at Paris, and there to justify his conduct towards his vassals. The prince replied that he would come to Paris, but it should be at the head of 00,000 men. War between the French and English broke out afresh ; and Edward, by advice of parlia- ment, resumed the title of king of France (1369). The French invaded the southern provinces ; and by means of their good con- duct, the favourable disposition of the people, and the ardour of the French nobility, made every day considerable progress. The state of the prince of Wales's health did not permit him to mount on horseback, or exert his usual activity ; and when he was obliged by his increasing infirmities to throw up the command and return to his native country, the affairs of the English in the south of France seemed to be menaced with total ruin. Shortly before his departure the prince perpetrated an act of cruelty which is a foul blot upon his fair name. Having retaken the town of Limoges, which had revolted from him, he oidered the inhabitants to be butchered in cold blood (1370). This was Irs last conquest; for sickness forced him to return home. After his departure the kinc endeavoured to send succours into Gascony ; but all his attempts, both by sea and land, proved unsuccessful. He was at last obliged, from the necessity of his affairs, to conclude a truce with the enemy (1374), after most of his ancient possessions in France had been ravished from him, except Bordeaux and Bayonne, and all his conquests except Calais. § 12. The decline of the king's life was thus exposed to many mortifications, and corrresponded not to the splendid scenes which had filled the beginning and the middle of it. This prince, who during the vigour of his age had been chiefly occupied in the pursuits of war and ambition, being now a widower, attached him- self to one Alice Perrers, who acquired a great ascendancy over him. Her influence caused such general disgust, that, in order to satisfy the parliament, he was obliged to remove her from court. In its measures for redress, this parliament, called The Good, was supported by the Black Prince, in opposition to his brother, John of Gaunt, whose influence was distasteful to the commons. The prince of Wales died soon after of a lingering illness, in the 46th year of his age (June 8, 1376). His valour 10 182 EDWARD III. Chap. x. and military talents formed the smallest part of his merit. His generosity, affability, and moderation gained him the affections of all men ; and he was qualified to throw a lustre, not only on the rude age in which he lived, but on the most shining period of ancient or modern history. He was buried in the cathedral of Canterbury, where his tomb is still shown. The king survived him about a year, and expired in the 65th year of his age and the 51st of his reign (June 21, 1377), and was buried at Westminster. The ascendancy which the English then began to acquire over France, their rival and supposed national enemy, made them cast their eyes on this period with great complacency. But the domestic government of this prince is really more admirable than his foreign victories ; and England enjoyed, by the prudence and vigour of his administration, a longer interval of domestic peace and tranquillity than she had been blest with in any former period, or than she experienced for many ages after. Edward gained the affections of the great, yet curbed their licentiousness : he made them feel his power without their daring or even being inclined to murmur at it. His affable and obliging behaviour, his munificence and generosity, made them submit with pleasure to his dominion. His valour and conduct made them successful in most of their enterprises ; and their unquiet spirits, directed against a public enemy, had no leisure to breed domestic disturbances. This was the chief benefit which resulted from Edward's victories and conquests. § 13. Conquerors, though often the bane of human kind, proved in those times the most indulgent of sovereigns. They stood most in need of supplies from their people ; and, not being able to compel them by force to submit to the exactions required, they were obliged to make compensation by equitable laws and popular concessions. So was it with Edward III. He took no steps of any moment without consulting his parliament and obtaining their approbation, which he afterwards pleaded as a reason for their supporting his measures. Parliament, therefore, rose into greater consideration during his reign, and acquired more regular authority, than in any former time.* One of the most popular laws enacted by any prince was the Statute of Treasons, which limited the cases of high treason, before vague and uncertain, to three principal heads, namely, conspiring the death of the king, levying war against him, and adhering to his enemies (25 Edward III. st. 5, c. 2, 1351). The magnificent castle of Windsor was rebuilt by Edward III., and his method of conducting the work may serve as a specimen of the condition of the people in that age. Instead of engaging work- * See Notes and Illustrations to chap. xii. : On the Parliament. a.d. 1377. STATUTE OF PROVISOES. 183 men by contracts and wages, he assessed every county in England to send him a certain number of masons, tilers, and carpenters, as if he had been. raising an army. It is easy to imagine that a prince of so much sense and spirit as Edward would be no slave to the court of Eome. Though the tribute granted by John was paid during some years of Edward's minority, it was afterwards withheld ; and when the pope, in 1366, threatened to cite him to the court of Rome for default of payment, he laid the matter before his parliament. That assembly unani- mously declared that king John could not, without consent of the nation, subject his kingdom to a foreign power ; and that they were therefore determined to support their sovereign against this unjust pretension.* During this reign the Statute of Provisors was enacted,f rendering it penal to procure any presentations to benefices from the court of Rome, and securing the rights of the patrons, which had been extremely encroached on by the pope. By a sub- sequent statute, every person was outlawed who carried any cause by appeal to the court of Rome.J Edward III. may be called the father of English commerce. He encouraged Flemish weavers to settle in his kingdom, and protected them against the violence of the English weavers. Wool was the chief article of export and source of revenue. The merchants carried on an extensive trade with the Baltic. The use of the French language in pleadings was abolished in this reign. The first docu- ment in English dates as far back as 1258. Edward had seven sons and five daughters by his queen Philippa of Hainault. His sons were : 1. Edward, the Black Prince, who married Joan, daughter of his great-uncle the earl of Kent, who was beheaded in the beginning of this reign. She was first married to Sir Thomas Holland, by whom she had children. By the prince of Wales she had a son Richard, who survived his father. 2. William of Hatfield, who died young. 3. Lionel, duke of Clarence, who left one daughter, Philippa, married to Edmund Mortimer, earl of March. 4. John of Gaunt, so called from being born at Ghent, duke of Lancaster, and father of Henry IV. 5. Edmund, duke of York. 6. William of Windsor, who died young. 7. Thomas, duke of Gloucester. RICHARD II. § 14. Richard ll., b. 1366 ; r. 1377-1399.— As Richard II., son of the Black Prince, upon whom the crown devolved by the death * This was not the real reason. The tribute had been paid by Henry III. and Edward I ; but when the papacy was transferred to Avignon in 1309, the tribute was withheld, as the pope had now become a mere instrument in the hands of France. f 25 Edward III., St. 6, 1351. J 27 Edward III., c. 1, 1353. 184 KICHARD II. . Chap. x. of his grandfather, was horn at Bordeaux in 1366, and was now only 11 years of age, the House of Commons, who were now begin- ning to take a greater share in public affairs, petitioned the king and lords, to elect a council of eight to assist "the king's other state officers" in the affairs of the realm (October 13). Richard was crowned at Westminster July 16. The first three or four years of Richard's reign passed without anything memorable, except some fruitless expeditions against France, which increased the unpopularity of John of Gaunt. The expenses of these armaments, and the usual want of economy attend- ing a minority, exhausted the English treasury, and obliged the par- liament, besides making some alterations in the councils, to impose a new tax of three groats, or twelve pence, on every person, male and female, above fifteen years of age ; and though they ordained that, in levying the tax, " the richer should aid the poorer sort," the injustice of taxing all alike provoked resistance (1380). The first disorder commenced among the bondmen of Essex, and Kent soon followed the example. The tax-gatherers came to the house of a tiler in Dartford, and demanded payment for his daughter, whom her mother asserted to be below the age assigned by the statute. When one of these fellows laid hold of the maid in a scandalous manner, her father, hearing her cries, rushed in from his work, and knocked out the ruffian's brains with his hammer. The bystanders applauded the action, and exclaimed that it was full time for the people to take vengance on their tyrants, and to vindicate their native liberty. They immediately flew to arms : the whole neighbourhood joined them : the flame spread in an instant over the surrounding district ; and, faster than the news could fly, the people rose in Kent, Hertford, Surrey, Sussex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridge and Somersetshires. The disorder soon grew beyond control. Under leaders who assumed such names as Wat Tyler, Jack Straw, Jack Carter, and Jack Miller, they committed every- where the most outrageous violence on such of the gentry or nobility as had the misfortune to fall into their hands. The insurgents, amounting to 100,000 men, assembled on Black- heath (June 12, 1381), under their leaders Tyler and Straw, and were addressed by an itinerant priest, John Ball, whom they had released from Maidstone gaol. Ball took for his text a rude couplet — " Whanne Adam dalfe and Eve span, ' Who was thanne a gentil man ? " The rioters broke into the city, and burned the Savoy, the palace of the duke of Lancaster, who was then in Scotland ; cut off the heads of the gentlemen who fell into their hands, and pillaged the A.D. 1377-1381. REBELLION OP WAT TYLER. 185 merchants' warehouses. Another body quartered themselves at Mile End ; and, as they insisted on laying their grievances before the king, Richard, who was then in the Tower, consented to hear their demands. They required a general pardon, the abolition of bondage, freedom of commerce in market towns without toll or impost, and a fixed rent on lands, instead of the services due by villeinage. These requests were complied with; charters to that purpose were granted them, and they immediately dispersed and returned to their several homes. During the king's absence another body of the rebels, breaking into the Tower, had murdered Simon Sudbury, the archbishop of Canterbury and chancellor, Sir Robert Hales, the treasurer, and other persons of distinction, and continued their ravages in the city. The next morning, as the king was passing along Smith- field, very slenderly guarded, he was met by Wat Tyler, at the head of his followers, and entered into a conference with him. Tyler, having ordered his companions to retire until he gave the signal for an attack, drew near the royal retinue. He behaved himself with so much insolence that Sir William Walworth, then mayor of London, thinking the king was in danger, drew his sword and struck the rebel a violent blow, which brought him to the ground, where he was instantly despatched by the king's atten- dants. Seeing their leader fall, the mutineers prepared themselves for revenge ; and the whole company, with the king himself, would undoubtedly have perished on the spot, had it not been for an extraordinary presence of mind which Richard discovered on the occasion. Putting spurs to his horse, he rode into the very midst of the enraged multitude ; and accosting them with an affable and intrepid countenance, as they bent their bows, " What, my friends," he exclaimed, " would you shoot your king ? Are ye angry that ye have lost your leader? Follow me; I am your king: I will be your leader." Overawed by his presence, the populace implicitly obeyed, and were led by him into the fields, to prevent any disorder which might have arisen by their continuing in the city. Being joined there by Sir Robert Knollys, and a body of veteran soldiers, who had been secretly drawn together, Richard strictly prohibited that officer from falling on the rioters and com- mitting an indiscriminate slaughter, and then peaceably dismissed them with the same charters which had been granted to their fellows. Soon after the nobility and gentry, in obedience to the royal summons, flocked to London with their adherents and re- tainers, and Richard took the field at the head of an army 40,000 strong. The rebels had no alternative but to submit. Many were executed by the judges on circuit, and among them John Ball. 186 RICHARD II. Chap. x. The charters of enfranchisement and pardon were revoked by- parliament. But it afterwards passed an act of general pardon, refusing, however, the king's proposal to enfranchise the serfs.* § 15. A youth of sixteen (for that was the king's age), who had discovered so much courage and address, raised great expecta- tions. But with advancing years these hopes vanished, and his want of judgment appeared in all his enterprises. In 1385 he undertook a fruitless expedition against the Scots ; advanced as far as the Forth and burned Edinburgh, ravaging all the towns and villages in his way. But provisions failing him, or suspicious of the designs of his uncle, the duke of Lancaster, he returned to England. The subjection in which Bichard was held by his uncles, and more particularly by Thomas of Woodstock, duke of Gloucester, was extremely disagreeable to the king, and he attempted to shake off the yoke. Bobert de Vere, earl of Oxford, a young man of noble family, of an agreeable figure, but of dissolute manners, had acquired great influence over him. This partiality on the king's part excited the jealousy of the princes of the blood and of the chief nobility ; and the usual complaints against the insolence of favourites were loudly echoed and greedily received in every part of the kingdom. Their first attempts were directed against the king's ministers ; and Michael de la Bole, the chancellor, a man of low descent, lately created earl of Suffolk, was, at the instigation of the duke of Gloucester, impeached and condemned by the parliament on questionable charges of corruption (1386). Gloucester and his associates next attacked the king himself, and framed a commission, ratified by parliament, by which a council of regency was formed with Gloucester at the head, thus virtually depriving the king of all authority. In the following year, Bichard, having obtained from five of the judges, whom he met at Nottingham, a declaration that the commission was derogatory to the royal prerogative, attempted to recover his power ; but Gloucester and his adherents took up arms, defeated the forces of the king, and executed or banished his adherents. Bobert de Vere, whom the king had created duke of Ireland, fled into the Low Countries, where he died in exile a few years after (1387). § 16. In little more than a twelvemonth, however, Bichard, now in his twenty-third year, declared in council that, as he had now at- * The causes and motives of this in- surrection, which spread dismay through all ranks of society, have never been precisely ascertained. It is probable that they varied according to place and circumstances. Originating, perhaps, in a desire for emancipation an4 social equality, as the passions of the insurgents rose •with success, nothing less than the sub- version of the laws and of the whole fabric of society would have contented them. It is the only instance in our history of a war of class against class. a.d. 1385-1397. ARREST OF GLOUCESTER. 187 tained the full age which entitled him to govern by his own authority, he was resolved to exercise his right of sovereignty (1389). Gloucester and some others were removed from the council ; and no oppo- sition was made to these changes. Soon after the duke of Lancaster, who had returned from Spain, having resigned his pretensions to the crown of Castile for a large sum of money, effected a recon- ciliation between Gloucester and the king. The wars, meanwhile, which Eichard had inherited with his crown, were conducted with little vigour, by reason of the weak- ness of all parties. The French war was scarcely heard of; the tranquillity of the northern borders was only interrupted by one inroad of the Scots, which proceeded more from a rivalry between the two martial families of Percy and Douglas than from any national quarrel. A fierce battle or skirmish, celebrated in the ballad of " Chevy Chase," was fought at Otterbourne (August 19, 1388), in which young Percy, surnamed Hotspur, from his im- petuous valour, was taken prisoner, and Douglas was slain. Insur- rections among the Irish obliged the king to make an expedition into that country, which he reduced to obedience (1394) ; and he re- covered, in some degree, by this enterprise, his character for courage. At last the English and French courts began to think in earnest of a lasting peace, but found it so difficult to adjust their opposite pretensions, that they were content to establish a truce of twenty- five years. To render the amity between the two crowns more durable, Eichard, who had lost his first consort, Anne of Bohemia, was married to Isabella, the daughter of Charles VI., a child of eight years old (1396). Meanwhile the duke of Gloucester, taking advantage of this incident, and appealing to the national antipathy against France, resumed his plots and cabals. The king, seeing that either his own or his uncle's ruin was inevitable, caused Gloucester, then living at Pleshy, to be suddenly arrested. He was hurried on board a ship lying in the river, and conveyed to Calais. The earls of Arundel and Warwick were seized at the same time. Thus suddenly deprived of their leaders, the malcontents were overawed ; and the concurrence of the dukes of Lancaster and York in those measures deprived them of all possibility of resistance. A parlia- ment was summoned; charges were preferred against Gloucester and his associates ; the commission which usurped the royal au- thority was annulled, and it was declared treasonable to attempt, in any future period, the revival of any similar body (1397). The commons then preferred an impeachment against Thomas, arch- bishop of Canterbury, brother to the earl of Arundel, and accused him for his concurrence in procuring the illegal commission, and in attainting the king's ministers. The primate pleaded guilty, 188 RICHARD II. Chap. x. was banished the kingdom, and his temporalities were sequestered. His brother was condemned and executed (September 21). The life of the earl of Warwick was spared for his submissive behaviour, but he was doomed to perpetual banishment in the Isle of Man. A warrant was next issued to bring over the duke of Gloucester from Calais, to take his trial; but the earl marshal returned for answer that the duke had died. In the subsequent reign attesta- tions were produced in parliament that he had been suffocated by his keepers. But these proceedings in Henry's reign may have been nothing more than an unworthy attempt to blacken the memory of Richard. Gloucester left a written acknowledgment of his guilt ; and his acts when in power give him little claim to compassion. § 17. In 1398 Henry, duke of Hereford, son and heir of the duke of Lancaster, had accused Thomas Mowbray, duke of Norfolk, of slandering the king. On Norfolk's denial, it was agreed that the dispute should be settled by wager of battle. The parties met at Coventry, but the combat was suspended by Richard. To preserve the peace of the realm, he banished Hereford for ten years and Norfolk for life. Next year Lancaster died, and Richard seized his estates. Hereford had acquired, by his conduct and abilities, the esteem of the people; he was connected with the principal nobility by blood, alliance, or friendship; and as the injury done him by the king might in its consequences affect them all, he easily brought them, by a sense of common interest, to take part in his resentment. Embarking from Brittany with a retinue of sixty persons, among whom were the archbishop of Canterbury and the young earl of Arundel, nephew to that prelate, he landed at Raven spur in Yorkshire (July 4, 1399). He was im- mediately joined by the earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland, two of the most potent nobles in England. The malcontents in all quarters flew to arms : London discovered the strongest symptoms of its disposition to mutiny: and Henry's army, increasing on every day's march, soon amounted to the number of 60,000 com- batants. Richard was at this time absent in Ireland, to avenge the death of the lord lieutenant, Roger Mortimer, earl of March, his cousin. His uncle, the duke of York, whom he had left guardian of the realm, assembled an army of 40,000 men, but found them entirely destitute of zeal and attachment to the royal cause, and soon after openly joined the duke of Lancaster, who was now entirely master of the kingdom. Receiving intelligence of this in- vasion and insurrection, Richard hastened from Ireland and landed at Milford Haven; but being deserted by his troops, was taken prisoner and carried first to Flint castle and afterwards to London (September 1). The duke of Lancaster now extended his designs A.D. 1397-1399. HIS DEPOSITION. 189 to the crown itself. He first extorted a resignation from Kichard (September 29); but as he knew that this deed would plainly appear the result of force and fear, he resolved, notwithstanding the danger of the precedent, to have him solemnly deposed in parliament for tyranny and misconduct. A charge, consisting of 33 articles, was accordingly drawn up against Richard and presented to parliament. He was accused of infringing the constitution, alienating the crown estates, levying excessive purveyance, extort- ing loans, granting protections from lawsuits, &c. The charge was not canvassed, nor examined, nor disputed in either house, and appears to have been received at once with almost universal appro- bation. Richard was deposed by the suffrages of both houses (Sep- tember 30) ; and, the throne being now vacant, the duke of Lancaster stepped forth, and having crossed himself on the forehead and on the breast, and called upon the name of Christ, he pronounced these words : — " In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, I, Henry of Lancaster, challenge this realm of England, and the crown, with all the members and appurtenances ; als (as) I that am descended by right line of the blood, coming fro the good lord king Henry III.; and through that right that God of His grace hath sent me, with help of kin and of my friends, to recover it ; the which realm was in point to be undone by default of governance and undoing of the good laws." In order to understand this speech, it must be observed that a story was circulated among the Lancastrians, that Edmund Crouch- back, earl of Lancaster, son of Henry III., was really the elder brother of Edward I. ; but that, by reason of the deformity of his person, he had been postponed in the succession, and his younger brother imposed on the nation in his stead. As the present duke of Lancaster inherited from Edmund by his mother, this genealogy made him the true heir of the monarchy.* It is therefore in- sinuated in Henry's speech, but was too gross an absurdity to be * He was descended from Henry III. both by father and mother. Henry III. Edward I. king. Edmund, earl of Lancaster. Edward II. king. Henry, earl of Lancaster. Edward III. king. Henry, duke of Lancaster. John of Gaunt. = Blanche, duchess of Lancaster. I Henry TV. The rightful heir to the crown, on the deposition of Richard, was Edmund Mortimer, earl of March, then a child of seven years old, son of Roger Mortimer, who had lately been killed in Ireland, and great-grandson of Lionel, duke of Clarence. See Genea- logical Table H. 10* 190 RICHARD II. Chap. x. openly avowed either by him or by the parliament. The case is the same with regard to his right of conquest : he was a subject who rebelled against his sovereign ; he entered the kingdom with a retinue of no more than sixty persons ; he could not therefore be the conqueror of England ; and this right is accordingly insinuated, not avowed. But no objection was taken to his claims, and by the voice of lords and commons he was placed on the throne (Sep- tember 30).* Six days after, Henry called together, without any new election, the same members ; and this assembly he denominated a new parliament. They were employed in the usual task of reversing every deed of the opposite party. On the motion of the earl of Northumberland, the House of Peers resolved unanimously that Richard should be imprisoned under a secure guard in some secret place, and should be deprived of all commerce with his friends or partisans. It was easy to foresee that he would not long remain alive in the hands of his enemies. The manner of his death is unknown, for the common account that he was murdered at Ponte- fract by sir Piers Exton rests on no sufficient evidence. A corpse said to be his, but so muffled as not to be recognized, was exhibited at St. Paul's in March, 1400, and buried at King's Langley, but removed by Henry V. to Westminster. Richard left no posterity. His government was arbitrary, especially during the latter years of his reign. He had, however, succeeded to a kingdom greatly disorganized by the wars of his grandfather. As a child he had to rule over nobles demoralized by long periods of military licence, and he lost the support of the clergy from his indifference to L^llardy. The charges against him must be received with caution, for a parliament surrounded by a victorious army can never be regarded as a just or independent tribunal, or its judgments of any value in determining the verdict of history. § 18. In this and the previous reign John Wickliffe, a secular priest educated at Oxford, began his attack on the papal claims and the friars who supported them. He made many disciples among men of all ranks and stations. Denying the supremacy of the popes, he held that kings were their superiors, and that it was lawful to appeal from a spiritual to a secular tribunal. His cardinal principle, that dominion is founded in grace, was taken up by his followers, the Lollards, and carried by them to practical conclusions which Wickliffe himself perhaps never anticipated. His greatest service to the Reformation was his translation of the Bible. He was patronized by John of Gaunt, who made no scruple, as well as lord Percy, the marshal, to appear openly in court with him, when * This scene was acted in the new hall of the palace of Westminster, the present " Westminster Hall," which Richard had just rebuilt. Chap. x. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 191 he was cited before the tribunal of the bishop of London (1377). Wickliffe died of a palsy, December 31, 1384, at his rectory at Lutterworth, in the county of Leicester. Geoffrey Chaucer, who flourished at this period, may be regarded as the father of English poetry. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. A. DEATH OF RICHARD II. Many contemporary English authori- ties agree that Richard died of starvation, after a few months' imprisonment. The French chroniclers assert that he was violently murdered. On the other hand, three or four Scotch writers, of whom the principal are Winton and Bower, assert that he escaped from Pontefract to the Western Isles of Scotland ; that he was there recognized and carried to the court of Robert III. ; and that he lived under that monarch and the regent Albany till 1419, when he died at Stirling. The truth of the Scotch account has been maintained at great length by Mr. Tytler (fltst. of Scotland, vol. iii. A pp.), who has been followed by Mr. Williams (Preface to the Chronique de la Traison et Mort de Richart II., published by the English Historical Society, 1846) and a few others. That a person pretending to be Richard was maintained in Scotland is sufficiently clear ; but an examination of the evidence has failed to convince us that he was the deposed English monarch. B. STATUTE OF PRAEMUNIRE. This statute, passed 16 Ric. II. c. 5 (a.d. 1393), was enacted to check the exorbitant power claimed and exercised by the pope in England. It was so called from the words of the writ used for the citation of a party who had broken the statute : Praemunire facias A.B., "Cause A. B. to be forewarned" that he appear before us to answer the con- tempt with which he stands charged. Hence the word praemunire denominated, in common speech, not only the writ, but also the offence of maintaining the papal power. "The original meaning," says Blackstone, " of the offence which we call praemunire, is introducing a foreign power into this land, and creating an imperium in imperio, by paying that obedience to papal process which constitutionally be- longed to the king alone, long before the Reformation in the reign of Henry VIII." Though the statute of 16 Ric. II. c. 5, is usually called the Statute of Praemunire, several others of a similar kind had been enacted in preceding reigns. The 25 Edw. III. was the first statute made against papal provisions, the name ap- plied to a previous nomination to certain benefices, of which the pope claimed the patronage, by a kind of anticipation, before they became actually void, though afterwards indiscriminately applied to any kind of patronage exerted or usurped by the pope. In the reign of Edward III. more stringent laws were enacted against papal provisions. By 16 Ric. II., c. 5, " whoever procures at Rome, or elsewhere, any translations, processes, excommunica- tions, bulls, instruments, or other things, which touch the king, against him, his crown, and realm, and all persons aiding and assisting therein, shall be put out of the king's protection, their lands and goods forfeited to the king's use, and they shall be attached by their bodies to answer to the king and his council : or process of praemunire facias shall be made out against them, as in any other cases of provisors." In the reign of Henry VIII. the penalties of praemunire were extended still further against the authority of the pope. Henry IV. und his queen, Joan of Navarre. From their monument at Canterbury. CHAPTER XL THE HOUSE OF LANCASTEE. HENRY IV., HENRY V., HENRY VI. A.D. 1399-1461. § 1. Accession of Henry IV. Insurrections. Persecution of the Lollards. § 2. Rebellions of the earl of Northumberland. Battle of Shrewsbury. § 3. Foreign transactions. Captivity of prince James of Scotland. Death and character of the king. § 4. Accession of Henry V. His reformation. § 5. Proceedings against the Lollards. Sir John Old- eastle. § 6. Invasion of France. Battle of Agincourt. § 7. New- invasion of France. Conquest of Normandy. Treaty of Troyes and marriage of Henry with Katharine of France. § 8. Further conquests of Henry V. His death and character. § 9. Henry VI. Settlement of the government. Fi-ench affairs. § 10. Siege of Orleans. Joan of Arc. § 11. Charles VII. crowned at Rheims. Henry VI. crowned at Paris. § 12. Capture, trial, and execution of the Maid of Orleans. § 13. Treaty of Arras. Death of Bedford. § 14. Marriage of Henry VI. Death of the duke of Gloucester. The English expelled from France. § 15. Claim of the duke of York to the crown. His powerful connec- tions. § 16. Unpopularity of the government. Suffolk accused and executed. § 17. Insurrection of Jack Cade. Disaffection of the com- mons. Rising of the duke of York. §18 The duke of York protector. First battle of St. Albans. § 19. Civil war. Decision of the House of Peers. Battle of Wakefield and death of the duke of York. § 20. Second battle of St. Albans. Edward IV. saluted king by the citizens of London. § 1. Henry IV., 6. 1366 ; r. 1399-1413.— This monarch was born at Bolingbroke in Lincolnshire, in 1366, and was of the same age a.d. 1399-1402. INSURRECTION IN WALES. 193 as his deposed cousin. He was declared king, as we have already seen, September 30, 1399. The rightful heir to the crown, Edmund Mortimer, earl of March, was a child of only seven years old, and was detained by Henry in honourable custody at Windsor castle. Henry was hardly seated upon the throne before several nobles favourable to Richard's cause formed a conspiracy for seizing the king's person. The plot was betrayed to the king by the earl of Rutland, the elder son of the duke of York (January 4, 1400), and the conspirators perished either in the field or on the scaffold. This unsuccessful attempt hastened the death of Richard, who was shortly afterwards murdered, as narrated in the preceding chapter. Henry, finding himself possessed of the throne by so precarious a title, resolved, by every expedient, to pay court to the clergy. Till now there were no penal laws against heresy ; but he engaged the parliament to pass a law that, when any heretic who relapsed, or refused to abjure his opinions, was delivered over to the secular arm by the bishop or his commissaries, he should be committed to the flames by the civil magistrates. This weapon did not long remain unemployed; and William Sautre, a secular priest in London, was burned for his erroneous opinions (1401). The revolution in England proved likewise the occasion of an insurrection in Wales. Owen Glendower (properly Olyndwr), who was descended from the ancient princes of that country,* and part of whose estates had been seized by lord Grey of Ruthyn, recovered possession by ^he sword. He ravaged the English marches, captured Radnor, and beheaded the garrison. In an engagement with the English forces he took prisoner sir Edmund Mortimer, uncle of the earl of March, the true heir to the crown. The English were defeated with great loss, and their bodies brutally mutilated by the Welsh women. As Henry dreaded and hated all the family of March, he allowed Mortimer to remain in captivity ; and though that nobleman was nearly allied to the Percys, to whose assistance he himself had owed his crown, he refused per- mission to the earl of Northumberland to treat with Glendower for his ransom. To this disgust another was soon added. The Percys, in repulsing an inroad of the Scots, in 1402, at Homildon Hill, captured earl Douglas and several others of the Scotch nobility. Henry sent Northumberland orders not to ransom his prisoners, * He was on his father's side descended from Griffith ap Madoc, the last Welsh owner of the castle of Dinas Bran, and by his mother was the sixth in descent from Llewelyn. He had a large estate in Merionethshire, and married Margaret the daughter of sir David Hanmer, a judge of the King's Bench in the time of Richard II. He was in attendance on Richard when captured at Flint, and being thus compromised, the neighbouring marchers attempted to seize his lands. 194 HENRY IV. Chap. xi. which that nobleman regarded as his right by the laws of war. The king intended to detain them, that he might be able, by their means, to make an advantageous peace with Scotland. The Percys were farther discontented by the withholding from them of large sums due to them as warders of the marches. § 2. The factious disposition of the earl of Worcester, younger brother of Northumberland, and the impatient spirit of his son Harry Percy, surnamed Hotspur, inflamed the discontents of that nobleman. Tempted by revenge, and the precarious title of Henry, to overturn that throne he had so gr eatly contributed to establish, he entered into a correspondence with Glendower. He gave Douglas his liberty, and made an alliance with him; roused up all his partisans to arms ; and such was the authority at that time of the feudal lords, that the same men, whom a few years before he had conducted against Kichard, now followed his standard in opposition to Henry. When war was ready to break out, Northumberland was seized with a sudden illness at Berwick; and young Percy, taking the command of the troops, about 12,000 in number, marched towards Shrewsbury, in order to join his forces with those of Glendower. The king, however, who had aja army of about the same force on foot, attacked him before the junction could be effected (July 23, 1403). No battle was ever more hotly contested. Henry exposed his person in the thickest of the fight ; his gallant son, afterwards so renowned for his military achievements, here performed his noviciate in arms, and even when he had received a wound in the face, he could not be induced to quit the field. Percy fell by an unknown hand, and the royalists prevailed. The loss was great on both sides. The earls of Worcester and Douglas wefe taken prisoners. The former was- beheaded at Shrewsbury (July 25) ; the latter was treated with the courtesy due to his rank and merit. The earl of Northumberland was condemned to imprisonment, but a few months after obtained a full pardon, and his attainder was reversed. Two years afterwards Northumberland again rose in rebellion, was joined by Thomas Mowbray, earl of Nottingham, tmd Eichard Scrope, archbishop of York. The archbishop and Nottingham were entrapped into a conference by Ealph Neville, earl of West- moreland, were seized, condemned, and executed. This was the first instance in English history in which an archbishop perished by the hands of the executioner (1405). Northumberland escaped into Scotland ; but in 1408, having entered the northern counties in hopes of raising the people, he was defeated and slain at Bramham Moor by sir Thomas Eokeby, sheriff of Yorkshire. The only domestic enemy now remaining was Glendower, over whom A.D. 1403-1413. HIS DEATH. 195 the prince of Wales obtained some advantages; but the Welsh leader continued the struggle for some years after Henry's death. § 3. The remaining transactions of this reign are not of much interest. In 1405 fortune gave Henry an advantage over that neighbour who, by his situation, was most able to disturb his government. Kobert III., king of Scots, was a prince of slender capacity ; and Scotland, at that time, was little fitted for enduring sovereigns of that character. The duke of Albany, his brother, governor of Scotland, on whom Robert relied with unsuspecting confidence, secretly aspired to the throne. As David, duke ol Rothsay, was a dissolute prince, Albany had him thrown into prison at Falkland, in Fife, where he perished by hunger. James alone, the younger brother of David, now stood between the duke's ambition and the throne ; and Robert, sensible of his son's danger, embarked him on board ship, with a view of sending him to France, and intrusting him to the protection of that friendly power. Un- fortunately, the vessel was taken by the English; James, a boy about nine years of age, was carried to London ; and though there was at that time a truce between the two kingdoms, Henry refused to restore the young prince to his liberty. Worn out by this last misfortune, Robert soon after died, leaving the government in the hands of Albany (1406). But though Henry, by detaining James in the English court, had shown himself deficient in generosity, he made amends by giving that prince an excellent education, which afterwards qualified him, when he mounted the throne, to reform, in some measure, the barbarous manners of his native country. Throughout this reign an unfriendly feeling prevailed between England and France; but the civil disturbances in both nations prevented it from breaking out into serious hostilities. The cause of the murdered Richard was warmly espoused by the French court, but their zeal evaporated in menaces. Soon after his accession, Henry, at the demand of Charles, had restored Isabella, the widow of the late king, but had retained her dowry on the pretence of setting it off against the unpaid ransom of the French king John. The king's health declined some months before his death. He was subject to fits, which bereaved him, for the time, of his senses ; and, though he was yet in the flower of his age, his end was visibly approaching. He expired at Westminster (March 20, 1413), in the 46th year of his age, and the 13th of his reign. The great popularity which Henry enjoyed before he attained the crown, and by which he had been so much aided in the acquisition of it, was entirely lost before the end of his reign ; and he governed his people more by terror than by affection, more by his own policy than by their sense of duty or allegiance. His prudence and vigilance 196 HENRY V. Chap. xi. in maintaining his power were admirable; his courage, both military and political, without blemish ; and he possessed many qualities which fitted him for his high station, and rendered his usurpation rather salutary than otherwise to his people. The augmentation of the power of the commons during this reign was chiefly shown by the punishment which they awarded to sheriffs for making false returns, by the increased freedom of debate, and by the control which they exercised over the supplies. Henry was twice married: by his first wife, Mary de Bohun, daughter and co-heir of the earl of Hereford, he had four sons, Henry, his successor in the throne, Thomas duke of Clarence, John duke of Bedford, and Humphrey duke of Gloucester; two daughters, Blanche and Philippa, the former married to the duke of Bavaria, the latter to the king of Denmark. His second wife, Joan, whom he married after he was king, and who was daughter of the king of Navarre, and widow of the duke of Brittany, brought him no issue. HENRY V. § 4. Henry V., b. 1388 ; r. 1413-1422, was born at Monmouth, August 9. His father, naturally exposed to many jealousies, had entertained suspicions with regard to the fidelity of his eldest son ; and, during the latter years of his life, he had excluded the prince from all share of public business. He was even displeased to see him at the head of armies, where his martial talents, though useful to the support of government, acquired him a renown which his father thought might prove dangerous to his own authority. Shut out from more serious occupations, the active spirit of young Henry found employment, during his father's life, in pleasure and amuse- ment away from the court. Though the stories told of his riots and excesses are doubtless exaggerated, he inherited his father's love of popularity and courted the good opinions of those beneath him. On one occasion it is said that a riotous companion of the prince's had been indicted before Gascoigne, the chief justice, for felony, and Henry was not ashamed to appear at the bar with the criminal, and afford him countenance and protection. He demanded the liberation of the prisoner, and would have proceeded to violence. But Gascoigne, mindful of the character which he then bore, and the nlajesty of the laws which he sustained, ordered the prince to be carried to prison. The spectators were agreeably disappointed when they saw the heir of the crown submit peaceably to the sentence, make reparation for his error, and check his impetuous nature in the midst of its extravagant career. The memory of this incident, and of others of a like nature, rendered the prospect of a.d 1413-1418. THE LOLLARDS. 197 the future reign nowise disagreeable to the nation, and increased the joy which the death of so unpopular a prince as the late king naturally occasioned. At his accession he dismissed his former companions, and retained in office the wise ministers of his father, with the exception of the archbishop, Thomas Arundel, and the chief justice.* § 5. One party only in the nation seemed likely to trouble him. The Lollards were every day increasing, and the attitude now assumed by them appeared dangerous to the church, and formidable to the civil authority. The head of this sect was sir John Oldcastle (lord Cobham by marriage), a nobleman who had distinguished himself on many occasions, and acquired the esteem both of the late and of the present king. Presuming on his supposed influence with the king, the Lollards fixed seditious papers on the doors of the London churches, intimating that 100,000 men were ready to rise and espouse their principles. Roused by the danger, the clergy assembled in convocation, and called upon the archbishop to take proceedings against Oldcastle for heresy. After Henry had vainly endeavoured to induce Oldcastle to submit, he was brought before the primate, was condemned for heresy, and delivered to the secular arm (1413). Before the day appointed for his execution, he con- trived to escape from the Tower, and assembled his followers in St. Giles's Fields, with the design of seizing the king. They were defeated by Henry's vigilance ; many of the Lollards were seized, and some executed (1414). Cobham, who saved himself by flight, was not brought to justice till four years after, when, in execution of the double sentence pronounced against him, he was hanged in chains as a traitor and burnt as a heretic (1418). § 6. The disorders into which France was plunged through the lunacy of its monarch, Charles VI., and the consequent struggle for the regency between his brother the duke of Orleans, and his cousin the duke of Burgundy,f had resulted in open warfare. Impelled by the vigour of youth and the ardour of ambition, Henry * Sir William Hankford was appointed in his place on March 29, 1413, only nine days after Henry's accession. -j- The following genealogical table shows the relationship of these princes : — JOHN II. king of France. (Taken prisoner by Edward III.) CHARLES V. Philip, duke of Burgundy, I d. 1404. CHARLES VI. Louis, duke of Orleans, John, duke of Burgundy, killed 1407. killed 1419. CHARLES VII. Charles, duke of Orleans, Philip the Good, taken at Agincourt. duke of Burgundy. 198 HENRY V. Chap. xi. determined to carry war into that distracted kingdom (April, 1415), but was detained for a while by a conspiracy to place the earl of March upon the throne. The chief conspirators, Richard earl of Cambridge, younger son of the late duke of York,* Henry lord Scrope, and sir Thomas Grey, were arrested, summarily condemned, and executed in August. The earl of March, who had revealed the plot, was taken into favour. Trusting to the assistance of the duke of Burgundy, who had been secretly soliciting the alliance of England, Henry put to sea, and landed near Harfleur, at the head of an army of 6000 men at arms and 24,000 foot, mostly archers. Harfleur was obliged to capitulate after a siege of five weeks (September 22) ; but his troops were so wasted by fatigue and dysentery that Henry was advised to return to England. He dismissed his trans- ports, and determined on marching by land to Calais, although a French army of 14,000 men at arms and 40,000 foot was by this time assembled in Normandy. Not to discourage his troops, now reduced to 6000, by the appearance of flight, or expose them to the hazards which naturally attend precipitate marches, he made slow and deliberate journeys till he reached the Somme, and, after encountering many difficulties and hardships, was dexterous or fortunate enough to surprise a passage near St. Quentin, which had not been sufficiently guarded, and thus transport his army in safety. He then bent his march northwards to Calais, exposed to great and imminent danger from the enemy, who had also passed the Somme, and threw themselves in his way, intending to inter- cept his retreat. Passing the small river of Ternois, at Blangi, he was surprised to observe from the heights the whole French army drawn up in the plains of Agincourt, and so posted that it was impossible for him to decline an engagement. The enemy was four times more numerous than the English ; was headed by the dauphin and all the princes of the blood ; and was plentifully supplied with provisions. Henry's situation was exactly similar to that of Edward at Crecy, and that of the Black Prince at Poitiers, and he observed the same manoeuvres. Seeing the French army cooped up between two woods, where their narrow front and crowded masses neutralized the advantage of numbers, Henry patiently expected the attack of the enemy (October 25, 1415). The French archers on horseback and their men at arms, crowded in their ranks, advanced upon the English archers, who had fixed palisadoes in their front to break the charge of the enemy, and safely plied them from behind that defence with a shower of arrows which nothing could resist. The clay soil, moistened by rain which had lately fallen, proved * Edmund Langley, son of Edward III., died in 1402. a.d. 1415-1419. CONQUEST OF NORMANDY. 199 another obstacle to the force of the French cavalry: the wounded men and horses discomposed their ranks: the narrow compass in which they were pent up hindered them from recovering any order : the whole army was a scene of confusion, terror, and dismay. Perceiving his advantage, Henry led an impetuous charge of his men at arms, and ordered the archers to advance and gall the enemy's flanks. These falling on the foe, who, in their present posture, were incapable either of flight or of defence, hewed them in pieces without resistance, and covered the field with the killed, wounded, dismounted, and overthrown. No battle was ever more fatal to Prance for the number of princes and nobility slain or taken prisoners. Among the latter were the dukes of Orleans and Bourbon. The killed are computed, on the whole, to have amounted to 10,000 men; and Henry was master of 14,000 prisoners. The loss of the English was very small, being only about 1600, including, however, the dake of York and the earl of Suffolk. Henry, not being in a condition to pursue his victory, carried his prisoners to Calais, and thence to England, and con- cluded a truce with the enemy. § 7. During this brief interruption of hostilities, France was ex- posed to all the furies of civil war ; and the several parties became every day more exasperated against each other. In consequence of the capture of the duke of Orleans at Agincourt, the count of Armagnac, his father-in-law, became the head of his party (hence called the Armagnacs), and was created constable of France. The duke of Burgundy, who had aspired to this dignity, formed an alliance with the English, promising to do homage to Henry. His power was strengthened by the accession of Isabella, the queen, who had formerly been his enemy, but had now quarrelled with the Armagnacs. The dauphin sided with the latter; and open war broke out between the two factions. Whilst the country was ill prepared to resist a foreign enemy, Henry landed again at Toucques on the Seine, with 25,000 men (August 1, 1417), and met with no considerable opposition from any quarter. He made himself master of Caen; Bayeux and Falaise submitted to him; and having subdued all lower Normandy, and received a reinforcement of 15,000 men from England, he formed the siege of Rouen, which he took after an obstinate defence (January 19, 1419). Henry still continued to negociate, and had almost arranged advantageous terms, when John, duke of Burgundy, secretly made a treaty with the dauphin. The two princes agreed to share the royal authority during king Charles's lifetime, and to unite their arms in order to expel foreign enemies. This alliance seemed at first to cut off from Henry all hopes of further success, but 200 HENRY V. Chap. xi. the treacherous assassination of the duke of Burgundy soon after- wards (1419) by the partisans of the dauphin opened the way to a new and favourable arrangement. Philip, count of Charolois, now duke of Burgundy, thought himself bound by every tie of honour and of duty to revenge the murder of his father, and to prosecute the assassins to the utmost extremity. In December a league was concluded at Arras between him and Henry, by which the duke of Burgundy, without stipulating anything for himself except the prosecution of his father's murderers and the marriage of Henry's brother, the duke of Bedford, with his sister, was willing to sacrifice the kingdom to Henry's ambition. He agreed to every demand made by that monarch. To finish this astonishing treaty, which was to transfer the crown of France to a stranger, Henry went to Troyes, accompanied by his brothers, the dukes of Clarence and Gloucester ; and was there met by the duke of Burgundy (14^0). The imbecility into which Charles had fallen made him incapable of seeing anything but through the eyes of those who attended him ; as they on their part saw every- thing through the medium of their passions. A treaty, already concerted among the parties, was immediately drawn, signed, and ratified (May 21). .By the principal articles Henry was to espouse the princess Katharine, daughter of the king; Charles, during his lifetime, was to enjoy the title and dignity of king of Prance ; and Henry was to be regent, and to succeed to the throne on the death of Charles, to the exclusion of the dauphin. In a few days after, Henry espoused the princess Katharine, but next day led his army again into the field. Sens, Montereau, and Melun yielded to his arms. In December he made his triumphal entry into Paris. He there assembled the estates of France, and procured from them a ratification of the treaty of Troyes. But soon after, the necessity of providing supplies, both of men and money, obliged him to return to England (1421). He appointed his uncle, Thomas Beaufort, duke of Exeter,* as regent during his absence (June 10). § 8. After the coronation of Katharine, Henry, raising fresh forces, returned to Paris in May, with 24,000 archers and 4000 horsemen, and was received with great joy. During his absence a body of 7000 Scots, fearing to see France fall into the power of their ancient enemy, had proceeded to the assistance of the dauphin, and had defeated and killed the duke of Clarence at Beauge. But the presence of Henry soon restored all. The dauphin was chased beyond the Loire, and almost totally abandoned the northern provinces ; he was even pursued into the south by the united arms of the English and Burgundians, and threatened with total destruc- * For the Beaufort family, see the Genealogical Tables. a.d. 1419-1422. HIS DEATH. 201 tion. To crown Henry's good fortune, his queen was delivered of a son, who was called by his father's name, and whose birth was celebrated by rejoicings no less pompous at Paris than at London. But his glory was suddenly extinguished with his life. He was attacked by pleurisy, and, finding himself unable to rejoin his army, was carried to Vincennes, near Paris, where he expired, exclaiming in the midst of his suffering, "My portion is with the Lord Jesus." He died August 31, 1422, in the 35th year of his age and the 10th of his reign. He left the regency of France to his next surviving brother, John, duke of Bedford ; that of England to Humphrey, duke of Gloucester ; and the care of his son's person to the earl of Warwick. He was buried in the Confessor's chapel, at Westminster. This prince possessed many eminent virtues; and if we give indulgence to ambition in a monarch, or rank it, as the vulgar are inclined to do, among his virtues, they were unstained by any considerable blemish. His abilities appeared equally in the cabinet and in the field. The boldness of his enterprises was no less remarkable than his personal valour in conducting them. He had the talent of attaching his friends by affability, and of gaining his enemies by address and clemency. He was an accomplished musician, and fond of the learning in which he had been trained at Queen's College, Oxford, under his uncle, bishop Beaufort. His stature was somewhat above the middle size, his countenance beautiful, his limbs slender, but full of vigour. Katharine of France, Henry's widow, married soon after his death a Welsh gentleman, Owen Tudor, said to be descended from the ancient princes of that country. She bore him two sons, Edmund and Jasper, of whom the eldest was created earl of Eichmond, and was father of Henry VII. ; and the second was earl of Pembroke. HENEY VI. § 9. Henry VI., I. 1421 ; r. 1422-1461, was bom at Windsor, December 6, and was scarcely nine months old when he succeeded his father. The duke of Gloucester claimed the regency under the will of the late king, but his claim was resisted by the Great Council ; and when parliament assembled, the lords, setting aside the late king's will, appointed Gloucester protector, with limited authority, and entrusted the substantial powers of government to a committee of lords and commons. The regency of France fell to the duke of Bedford, with the consent of the duke of Burgundy The person and education of the infant prince was committed to Henry Beaufort, bishop of Winchester, his great-uncle, the legiti- mated son of John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster. 202 HENRY VI> Chap. xi. The interest of the early part of this reign centres in the affairs of France. Charles VI. expired about two months after the death of his son-in-law Henry. His son, Charles VII., a young prince of a popular character, and rightful heir to the throne, asserted his claim against his infant competitor, but, in the face of such over- whelming power as the English then possessed, such pretensions appeared ridiculous. Bedford, a skilful politician, as well as a good general, strengthened himself by forming an alliance with the duke of Brittany, who had received some disgusts from the French court. To avert the hostility of the Scots, many of whom were serving under Charles VII., Bedford persuaded the English council to form an alliance with James, their prisoner, to release him from his long captivity, and connect him with England by marrying him to a daughter of John Beaufort, earl of Somerset, cousin of the young king. The treaty was concluded ; a ransom of 40,000?. was stipulated ; and the king of Scots was restored to the throne of his ancestors (1424). § 10. The great victory gained by the duke of Bedford over the French and Scots at Verneuil opened Maine to the English (August 16, 1427). The affairs of Charles grew more desperate than ever ; and in 1428 Bedford determined to penetrate into the south of France, which remained in obedience to Charles VII. With this view he invested Orleans, which commanded the passage of the Loire, the key of the southern provinces. The command of the besieging forces was intrusted to the earl of Salisbury, one of the most distinguished generals of the age. Upon his death by a cannon-ball, the siege was continued by William de la Pole, earl of Suffolk, and had lasted several months, when relief appeared from an unexpected quarter. In the village of Domremi, near Vaucouleurs, on the borders of Lorraine, there lived a peasant girl, seventeen years of age, called Jeanne or Jeannette d'Arc (in English, Joan of Arc), the daughter of a poor cottager. Unable to read or write, she had seen visions in her youth, and heard angelic voices. Persuaded that she had a mission from Heaven to expel the invaders of her country, she went to Vaucouleurs, procured admission to Baudricourt, the governor, and informed him that she had an order from her Lord to deliver Orleans. Baudricourt paid little regard to her entreaties; but on her frequent returns and repeated importunities, he consented to send her to the French court, which at that time resided at Chinon. Dressed as a soldier, she started on her journey of 250 miles through a country infested by the English. Admitted into the king's presence, it is pretended that she distinguished him at once from all his courtiers, though they were dressed more magnificently than him- a.d. 1424-1429. THE MAID OF ORLEANS. 203 self. She told him she had been sent by God to assist him, and conduct him to Rheims, to be there crowned and anointed. On his expressing doubts of her mission, she revealed to him a secret known only to himself ; and she demanded, as the instrument of her future victories, a particular sword, which was kept in the church of St. Katharine of Fierbois, which she minutely described, though she had never seen it. Her requests were at last complied with ; she was armed cap-a-pie, mounted on horseback, and shown in martial habiliments to the people. Her dexterity in managing her steed was regarded as a fresh proof of her mission; and she was received with the loudest acclamations by the spectators. Her first exploit was to conduct a convoy of provisions into Orleans ; and the English, daunted by a kind of supernatural terror, did not venture to resist (April 29, 1429). The maid entered Orleans mounted on a white charger, arrayed in her military garb, and, displaying her consecrated banner, was received as a deliverer from Heaven. She now called upon the garrison to remain no longer on the defensive, but attack the redoubts of the enemy surrounding the city. These enterprises succeeded. In one attack Joan was wounded in the neck with an arrow ; she retreated a moment behind the assailants, pulled out the arrow with her own hands, had the wound quickly dressed, and hastened back to head the troops, and to plant her victorious banner on the ramparts of the enemy. By these successes the English were discouraged, and evacuated the forts on the north. As it seemed dangerous to Suffolk, with such intimidated troops, to remain any longer in the presence of so courageous and victorious an enemy, he raised the siege, and retreated with all the precaution imaginable (May 8). § 11. The raising of the siege of Orleans was one part of the maid's promise to Charles ; the crowning of him at Rheims was the other; and she now vehemently insisted that he should forthwith set out on that enterprise. A few weeks before, such a proposal would have appeared the most extravagant in the world. But Charles, at the head of only 12,000 men, marched to that town without opposition. The ceremony of his coronation was per- formed with the holy oil, which all France believed a dove had brought to king Clovis from heaven on the first establishment of the French monarchy (July 17). The Maid of Orleans, as she was now called, stood by his side in complete armour, and displayed her sacred banner, which had so often confounded his fiercest enemies. The people shouted with unfeigned joy at viewing such a com- plication of wonders. Charles, thus crowned and anointed, be- came more formidable in the eyes of all his subjects. Many 204 HENRY VI. Chap. xi. towns and fortresses in that neighbourhood, immediately after the ceremony, submitted to him on the first summons ; and the whole nation was disposed to yield him the most zealous proofs of their duty and affection. Nothing can impress us with a higher idea of the wisdom, address, and resolution of the duke of Bedford, than his ability to maintain himself in so perilous a situation, and to preserve some footing in France, after the defection of so many places, and amidst the universal inclination of the rest to imitate so contagious an example. The small supplies, both of men and money, which he received from England, set the talents of this great man in a still stronger light. It happened fortunately, in this emergency, that the bishop of Winchester, now created a cardinal, landed at Calais with a body of 5000 men, which he was conducting into Bohemia on a crusade against the Hussites. He was persuaded to lend these troops to his nephew during the present difficulties ; and the regent was thereby enabled to take the field, and oppose the French king, who was advancing with his army to the gates of Paris, when an accident put into the duke's hands the person that had been the author of all his calamities. § 12. In making a sally from Compiegne, the Maid of Orleans was taken prisoner by the Burgundians (May 26, 1430). A com- plete victory could not have given more joy to the English and their partisans. Te Deum was publicly celebrated at Paris on this auspicious event. The duke of Bedford fancied that he should again recover his former ascendancy in France, and pur- chased the captive from John of Luxemburg. She was tried and condemned by an ecclesiastical court for sorcery and magic ; her revelations were declared to be inventions of the devil; and she was sentenced to be delivered over to the secular arm. Joan, who had borne her trial with amazing firmness, was at last subdued. She declared herself willing to recant ; she acknowledged that her pretensions to a divine influence were illusive, and promised never to assert them more. Her sentence was then mitigated: she was condemned to perpetual imprisonment, and to be fed on bread and water. But the barbarous vengeance of Joan's enemies was not satisfied with this victory. They purposely placed in her apart- ment a suit of her own armour. On the sight of a dress in which she had acquired so much renown, and which, she once believed, she wore by the particular appointment of Heaven, her former enthusiasm revived. She ventured in her solitude to clothe herself again in the forbidden garments. Her insidious enemies caught her in that situation : her fault was interpreted to be no less than a relapse into heresy: no recantation would now suffice, and no a.ix 1430-1450. TREATY OF ARRAS. 205 pardon could be granted her.* She was condemned to be burned in the market-place of Eouen ; and the infamous sentence was accordingly executed (May 30, 1431). § 13. From this period the authority of the English in France, the result of which we shall here anticipate, fell insensibly to decay. The regent endeavoured to revive the declining state of his affairs by bringing over the young king of England and having him crowned and anointed at Paris (December 17, 1431). In 1432 the duchess of Bedford, who was sister to the duke of Burgundy, died ; and by the regent's subsequent hasty marriage with Jaqueline of Luxemburg, the last link was severed which had hitherto pre- served some appearance of friendship between these princes ; an open breach took place, and the duke of Burgundy determined to reconcile himself with the court of France. In 1435 a treaty was concluded at Arras between the duke of Burgundy and Charles "VII., and whilst it was in progress the duke of Bedford died at Rouen (September 14th, 1435). The English continued to hold a gradually declining footing in France for some years after that event ; but the period offers few interesting or memorable occur- rences. Shortly -after the regent's death, and before his successor, 1 the duke of York, could arrive, the forces of the French king were admitted into Paris by the citizens. Lord Willoughby, who had retired with the small English garrison into the Bastile, was forced to capitulate on the condition of an honourable retreat (April, 1436). Yet the struggle was still feebly protracted on both sides. In 1444 a truce of twenty- two months was concluded, chiefly through the influence of the bishop of Winchester, now cardinal Beaufort; for the duke of Gloucester still retained the idea of subduing France. It was afterwards prolonged to April, 1450. § 14. We now turn to the affairs of England. The death of Bedford was an irreparable loss to the Erjglish nation. During his ascendency some show of agreement had been preserved between the duke of Gloucester and cardinal Beaufort, but after his death they became open enemies. The truce with France had been concluded through the influence of cardinal Beaufort, in opposition to the duke of Gloucester; and each party was now ambitious of choosing a queen for Henry, as it was probable that this circumstance would decide the victory between them. Henry was now in the twenty- third year of his age. Of harmless, inoffensive, simple manners, but of slender capacity, he was fitted, both by the softness of his temper and the weakness of his understanding, to be perpetually governed by those who surrounded him ; and it was easy to foresee * According to other authorities, her I and replaced by male attire, leaving her dress was taken from her as she slept, i no alternative in the matter. 11 206 HENRY VI. Chap. xi. that his reign would prove a perpetual minority. The duke of Gloucester proposed to marry Henry to a daughter of the count of Armagnac, but had not credit enough to effect his purpose. The cardinal and his friends preferred Margaret of Anjou, daughter of Rene, count of Provence, and nominally duke of Maine and Anjou, as well as titular king of Sicily, Naples, and Jerusalem. The princess herself was the most accomplished of her age, both in body and mind. She seemed to possess those qualities which would equally enable her to acquire ascendency over Henry, and supply all his defects and weaknesses. William de la Pole, earl of Suffolk, who had previously negociated the treaty with France, now made proposals of marriage to Margaret, which were accepted (1444) ; and in order to ingratiate himself with her and her family, he engaged, by a secret article, that the province of Maine, which was at that time in the hands of the English, should be ceded to Charles of Anjou, her uncle. The marriage took place in April, 1445 ; Suffolk obtained first the title of marquis, then that of duke, and received the thanks of parliament for his services. The princess fell immediately into close connections with the dukes of Somerset, Suffolk, and Buckingham,* who, fortified by her powerful patronage, resolved on the final ruin of the duke of Gloucester. The king's aversion for his uncle favoured their design, in addition to an intractable temper which alienated Gloucester's friends. In 1423 he had married the heiress of the count of Hainault, whose husband was still alive ; grew tired of her, and then took up with a mistress, Eleanor Cobham, whom he afterwards married. She was accused of witchcraft ; and it was alleged that there was found in her pos- session a waxen figure of the king, which she and her associates, Roger Bolingbroke, a priest, and one Margery Jourdemain of Eye, melted with unhallowed ceremonies before a slow fire, with an intention of making Henry's force and vigour waste away by like insensible degrees. The charge led to further investigations of her past life. She was charged with using philters to secure the affec- tions of the duke and draw him into a discreditable marriage with herself. She was condemned to walk through the streets of London, on three different days, with a taper in her hand, and was then consigned to perpetual imprisonment (1441). To effect their purpose against the duke, Suffolk and his party caused a parliament to be summoned at Bury St. Edmund's, where they expected that he would lie entirely at their mercy (1447). As soon as Gloucester appeared he was arrested, and a few days after he was found dead in his lodgings ; and though his body, which was exposed to public view, bore no marks of outward violence, many believed that he had fallen a victim to- the vengeance of * See the Genealogical Tables. A D. 1144-1453. ENGLISH EXPELLED FROM FRANCE. 207 his enemies. The cardinal himself survived his nephew only a few weeks.* Suffolk, raised to a dukedom, had hecome prime minister, and the affairs of the nation were directed by him and Margaret. While the court was divided into parties, French affairs were neglected. The province of Maine was ceded to Charles of Anjou, according to the marriage treaty. After the conclusion of the truce, Charles VII. had employed himself with great judgment in repairing the numberless ills of France ; and in 1449 he availed himself of a favourable opportunity to break the truce. He overran Normandy and Guienne without resistance ; and by the summer of 1451 the English were completely dispossessed of all they had once held in France, with the exception of Calais. Though no peace or truce was concluded, the war was at an end, and the civil dissensions which ensued in England permitted but one feeble effort more, in 1453, for the recovery of Guienne, in which the veteran Talbot lost his life. § 15. Meanwhile the incapacity of Henry, which appeared every day in a fuller light, had encouraged the appearance of a claimant of the crown. All the male line of the house of Mortimer was extinct ; but Anne, the sister of the last earl of March, having espoused the earl of Cambridge, who was beheaded in the reign of Henry V., had transmitted her latent but not forgotten claim to her son, Richard, duke of York. This prince, thus descended, by his mother, from Philippa, only daughter of the duke of Clarence, third son of Edward III., stood plainly in the order of succession before the king, who derived his descent from the duke of Lancaster, fourth son of that monarch ; f and that claim could not, in many respects, have fallen into more dangerous hands than those of the duke of York. To valour and abilities, Eichard added a prudent conduct and mild disposition. He possessed an immense fortune from the union of so many successions, those of York on the one hand with those of Mortimer on the other ; and his marriage with the daughter of Ralph Nevil, earl of Westmoreland, had widely extended his interest among the nobility. He was closely allied to the earls of Salisbury and Warwick, the son and grandson of Westmoreland, the greatest noblemen in the kingdom. The personal qualities of these two earls, especially of Warwick, enhanced the splendour of their nobility, and increased their influence. Warwick, com- monly known afterwards as the King-maker, was distinguished * The popular belief, adopted by Shakespeare, of the cardinal's remorse for his share in Gloucester's death, is now con- sidered to be unfounded. After Henry's marriage and Suffolk's rise, the cardinal took no part in state affairs. The duke by no means deserved the praises too commonly bestowed upon him. f See the Genealogical Tables. 208 HENftY VI. • Chap. xi. for his gallantry in the field, the hospitality of his table, the magnificence and the generosity of his expense, and for the spirit and audacity of his actions. No less than 30,000 persons are said to have daily fed at his board in the different manors and castles which he possessed in England. Soldiers were allured by his m unificence, as well as by his bravery, and the people in general bore him a warm affection. § 16. Though the English were never willing to grant the sup- plies necessary for keeping possession of the conquered provinces in France, they repined extremely at the loss of these boasted acqui- sitions. The voluntary cession of Maine to the queen's uncle made them suspect treachery in the loss of Normandy and Gluienne. They considered Margaret as a Frenchwoman and a latent enemy of the kingdom. To augment the unpopularity of the government, the revenues of the crown, which had long been disproportioned to its power and dignity, had been extremely impaired during the minority of Henry. The royal demesnes were dissipated ; and at the same time the king was loaded with a debt of 372,000 pounds, a sum so great that parliament could never think of dis- charging it. This unhappy situation forced the ministers upon many arbitrary measures. The household itself could not be supported without stretching to the utmost the right of purvey- ance, and rendering it a kind of universal robbery upon the people. Suffilk, once become odious, bore the blame of the whole; and every grievance, in every part of the administration, was universally imputed to his tyranny and injustice. The commons sent up to the peers an accusation of high treason against him (1450). The charge was incredible and preposterous. But Henry, seeing no means of saving him from present ruin, banished him the kingdom for five years. On his passage to Flanders, a captain of a vessel was employed by his enemies to intercept him; he was seized near Dover, his head was struck off on the side of a long-boat, and his body thrown into the sea (May 2nd). No inquiry was made after the actors and accomplices of this atrocious deed. § 17. The humours of the people, set afloat by the parliamentary impeachment and by the fall of so great a favourite as Suffolk, broke out into various commotions. The most dangerous was that excited by one John Cade, a native of Ireland, who had served in the wars with France, and took the name of John Mortimer. On the first mention of that popular name, the people of Kent, to the number of 20,000, flocked to Cade's standard. Sir Humphrey Stafford, who had opposed him with a small force, was defeated and slain in an action near Sevenoaks ; and Cade, advancing with his followers towards London, encamped on Blackheath. Though INew York; Harper & Urofhers' a.d, 1450-1455. WARS OF THE ROSES. 209 elated by his victory, he still maintained the appearance of modera- tion, and sent to the court a long list of grievances. When the city opened its gates to Cade, he put to death Lord Say and his son-in-law, William Crowmer, sheriff of Kent. He maintained, for some time, order and discipline among his followers. But as they commenced to pillage the houses of unpopular citizens, the authori- ties, assisted by lord Scales, governor of the Tower, drove them out with great slaughter. Upon receiving offers of a general pardon, many dispersed. On Cade's attempting fresh disturbances, he was pursued out of Kent into Sussex, where he was taken by Alex- ander Iden. Dying shortly after of his wounds, his head was fixed on London Bridge (1450). Suffolk was succeeded as minister by Edmund Beaufort, duke of Somerset, who had been governor of Normandy, but his loss of that province made him unpopular. The duke of York, who had re- cently returned from the government of Ireland, where his popularity long influenced the fortunes of his house, raised an army of 10,000 men, and marched towards London (1452), demanding a refor- mation of the government, and the removal of Somerset. Having suffered himself, however, to be entrapped into a conference, he was seized, but dismissed ; and he retired to his seat of Wigmore, on the borders of Wales. § 18. The queen's delivery of a son (October 13, 1453), who received the name of Edward, removed all hopes of the peaceable succession of the duke of York. Henry, always unfit to exercise the government, fell at this time into a distemper which rendered him incapable of maintaining even the appearance of royalty. The queen and the council, destitute of this support, found themselves unable to resist the Yorkists, and were obliged to yield to the torrent. They sent Somerset to the Tower, and appointed the duke of York lieutenant of the kingdom, with powers to open and hold a session of parliament. That assembly, taking into con- sideration the state of the kingdom, created him protector during the king's pleasure (1454). As the king recovered his health in the following year, the protectorship of the duke was annulled ; Somer- set was released from the Tower, and the administration was committed to his hands. The duke of York levied an army, but still without advancing any pretensions to the crown. He complained only of the king's ministers, and demanded a reformation of the government. A battle was fought at St. Albans (May 23, 1455), in which the Yorkists were victorious ; among the slain were the duke of Somerset and many other persons of distinction. The king himself fell into the hands of the duke of York, who treated him with great respect and tenderness: he was only obliged 210 HENRY VI. Chap. xi. (which he regarded as no hardship) to commit the whole authority of the crown into the hands of his rival. This was the first blood spilt in that fatal quarrel, which was not finished in less than a course of 30 years, and was signalized by 12 pitched battles.* It opened a scene of extraordinary fierceness and cruelty, cost the lives of many princes of the blood, and almost entirely annihilated the ancient nobility of England. The supporters of the house of Lancaster chose a red rose as a party distinction ; the Yorkists a white one ; and the civil wars were thus known as the Wars of the Hoses. In 1456 the king was restored to the sovereign authority ; and for two or three years both parties seemed reconciled in outward appearance. But when one of the king's retinue insulted 'one of the earl of Warwick's, the most important partisan of the duke of York, their companions on both sides took part in the quarrel, and a fierce combat ensued. The earl, thinking his life was in danger, fled to his government of Calais ; and both parties, in every county of England, openly made preparations for deciding the contest by arms (1459). § 19. A civil war was now fairly kindled. The duke of York assembled his forces at Ludlow, and the earl of Salisbury, marching to join him, defeated the Lancastrians at Bloreheath (September 23). A few days after (October 13), Sir Andrew Trollope went over to the Lancastrians, and the duke's army dispersed. The duke, who had sought refuge in Ireland, was attainted in a parliament at Coventry. In 1460 the Yorkists landed in England, and, march- ing to Northampton, defeated and captured the king (July 10). Though the duke of York displayed great moderation after this success, he publicly intimated his expectation that he should be raised to the throne. The rival claims were submitted to the decision of the House of Peers, whose sentence was cal- culated, as far as possible, to please both parties. They declared the title of the duke of York to be certain and indefeasible; but in consideration that Henry had enjoyed the crown, with- out dispute or controversy, during the course of 38 years, they determined that he should continue to possess the title and dignity during the remainder of his life; that the adminis- tration of the government, meanwhile, should remain with the duke of York; and that he should be acknowledged the true and lawful heir of the monarchy. The duke acquiesced in this decision, and Henry himself, being a prisoner, could not oppose it. But queen Margaret, who, after the defeat at Northampton, had fled to Durham and thence to Scotland, had, with the assistance of the northern barons, collected an army 20,000 strong. The duke * See the list, p. 212, at end of this chapter. a.d. 1456-1461. EDWARD PROCLAIMED KING. 211 of York, informed of her appearance in the north, hastened thither with a body of 5000 men, to suppress, as he imagined, the begin- nings of an insurrection; but, on his arrival at Wakefield, he found himself greatly outnumbered by the enemy. He neverthe- less hazarded a battle, in which the queen gained a complete victory (December 30). The duke was killed in the action ; and when his body was found among the slain, the head was cut off by Margaret's orders, and fixed on one of the gates of York, with a paper crown upon it in derision of his title. His second son, the earl of Rutland, a youth of 17, was brought to lord Clifford ; and in revenge for his father's death, who had perished in the battle of St. Albans, Clifford is said to have stabbed him in cool blood. The earl of Salisbury was wounded, taken prisoner, and beheaded the next day at Pontefract. The duke of York perished in the 50th year of his age, and left three sons, Edward (afterwards Edward IV.), George (afterwards duke of Clarence), Richard (afterwards duke of Gloucester and king Richard III.), and three daughters, Anne, Elizabeth, and Margaret. § 20. The queen, after this important victory, divided her army. She sent the smaller division to the aid of Jasper Tudor, earl of Pembroke, half-brother to the king, who was raising forces in Wales against Edward, the new duke of York. She herself marched with the larger division towards London, where the earl of Warwick had been left with the command of the Yorkists. Edward met them at Mortimer's Cross, in Herefordshire, when Pembroke was defeated, with the loss of nearly 4000 men (February 2, 1461) : his army was dispersed ; he himself escaped by flight ; but his father, sir Owen Tudor, was taken prisoner and immediately beheaded. Margaret compensated this defeat by a victory which she obtained over the earl of Warwick at St. Albans (February 17), when the person of the king fell again into the hands of his own party ; but she gained little advantage from this victory. Edward advanced upon her from the other side, and, collecting the remains of Warwick's army, was soon in a condition to give her battle with superior forces. Sensible of her danger while she lay between the enemy and the city of London, which favoured the Yorkists, she found it necessary to retreat with her army to the north. Edward entered the capital amidst the acclamations of the citizens (February 28), and was proclaimed king by the title of Edward IV. (March 3, 1461). 212 HENRY IV. Chap. xi. List of the Battles in the Wars of the Roses. The more decisive battles are distinguished by small capitals. Date. Victors. Commander. 1455. May 23 1459 Sept. 23 Oct. 13 1460. July 10 Dec. 30 1461. Feb. 2 St. Albans (first) . . York . . Richard, duke of York. Henry VI taken prisoner. Bloreheath, in Staffordshire | York . | Earl of Salisbury. (Fought to join the duke of York at Ludlow.) Ludlow . | Lancaster . | Henry VI. No real battle ; York, deserted, disbands his army. Northampton J York . . . | Warwick and Edward. Henry VI. again taken prisoner. Wakefield | Lancaster . | Queen Margaret. Death of Richard, duke of York, and his son, the earl of Rutland. York Edward, duke of York. Feb. 28 Mar. 29 1464. Apr. 25 May 15 1466. July 1470. Oct. 3, 9 1471. Apr. 14 May 4 1485. Aug. 22 Mortimer's Cross, in Here- fordshire. ! | Sir Owen Tudor taken and beheaded, St. Albans (second), or Bar- I Lancaster . I Queen Margaret. nard's Heath. \ Total but temporary defeat of Warwick. Edward enters London, and becomes king as Edward IV. (March 3.) Towton (near York) . . | York . . , | Edward IV. Somerset and Margaret (with Henry VI.) defeated. Hedgeley Moor, in North- I York ... I Lord Montacute, brother of umberland. | \ Warwick. Queen Margaret defeated. Hexham | York . . . | Lord Montacute. Henry VI. and Margaret defeated, and become fugitives. Henry VI. taken prisoner in Lancashire, brought to London, and impri- soned in the tower. Rebellion of Warwick and Clarence. Flight of Edward IV., and restoration of Henry VI. Return of Edward IV., who lands at Ravenspur, March 14. Barnet . | York . . | Edward IV. Warwick defeated. Death of Warwick. Tewkesbury . . . . | York . . | Edward IV. Queen Margaret taken prisoner, and her son, Edward, prince of Wales, murdered. Bosworth Field, in Leices- tershire. Lancaster . Henry, earl of Rlcnmond, crowned on the field as Henry VJI. Death of Richard III., and final defeat of the White Rose. Reverse of Great Seal of Edward IV. Edwardus : Dei Gratia. Rex : anglie et : Francie : et : Dominus : Hibernie. Reverse of Great Seal of Richard III. Ricardus . dei . gratia . Rex . anglie et . francie . et . Dominus . Hibernie. CHAPTER XII. THE HOUSE OF YOKE. EDWARD IV., EDWARD V., RICHARD III. A.D. 1461-1485. § 1. Edward IV. assumes the crown. Wars of the Roses. Battle of Towton. § 2. Battle of Hexham. Flight of Margaret and capture of Henry VI. § 3. Edward's marriage. Discontent of Warwick. § 4. Warwick flies to Franco and leagues himself with Margaret. § 5. Warwick invades England, expels Edward, and restores Henry. § 6. Return of Edward. Battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury. Death of Henry VI. § 7. Peace of Pecquigny- Execution of Clarence. Death and chai-acter of the king. § 8. Accession of Edward V. Violent proceedings of Richard, duke of Gloucester. § 9. Execution of Rivers, Hastings, and others. § 10. Richard III. Murder of Edward V. and the duke of York. § 11. Conspiracy in favour of the earl of Richmond. His invasion, and death of Buckingham. § 12. Rich- mond's second invasion. Battle of Bosworth and death of Richard. § 13. State of the nation under the Plantagenets. Progress of the constitution. § 14. Civil rights of individuals. Villenage. § 15. General progress of the nation. § 1. Edward IV., b. 1442 ; r. 1461-1483.— Supported by the citizens of London, Edward summoned a council of the lords and protested his right to the crown. Henry was formally deposed for breach of the late contract between himself and the duke of York, and Edward's claim was at once admitted. The next day he made a solemn progress through the city, and was crowned at Westminster. He had no time for repose. Queen Margaret had collected a force of 60,000 men in Yorkshire, whilst the earl of 11* 214 EDWARD IV. Chap. xii. Warwick, at the head of 49,000, hastened to check her advance, and Edward speedily followed. The hostile armies met at Towton, near Tadcaster (March 29, 1461), when a fierce and bloody battle ensued, which ended in a complete victory on the side of the Yorkists. Edward issued orders to give no quarter; and above 36,000 men are computed to have fallen in the battle and pur- suit, of whom 28,000 were Lancastrians. For ten miles, to the very gates of York, the ground was strewed with the slain. The snow, dyed with their blood, ran down, as it melted, in crimson streams. Henry and Margaret had remained at York during the action ; but, learning the defeat of their army, and sensible that no place in England could now afford them shelter, they fled with great precipitation into Scotland. Edward returned to London, where a parliament was summoned to settle the govern- ment. It recognized the title of Edward, by hereditary descent through the family of Mortimer; and declared that he was king- by right, from the death of his father, who also was " in his life very king in right." Henry VI., queen Margaret, and their infant son, prince Edward, besides many other persons of distinction, were attainted and their possessions forfeited. The royal family were reduced to great distress. On one occasion it is said tbat Margaret, flying with her son into a forest, where she endeavoured to conceal herself, was beset during the night by robbers, who, either ignorant or regardless of her quality, despoiled her of her rings and jewels, and treated her with the utmost indignity. The par- tition of so rich a booty raised a quarrel among them ; and while their attention was thus engaged, she took the opportunity of making her escape with her son into the thickest of the forest, where she wandered for some time, overspent with hunger and fatigue. In this wretched condition, she saw a robber approach ; and finding she had no means of escape, she suddenly embraced the resolution of trusting herself to his faith and generosity. She advanced towards him, and presenting to him the young prince, "Here, my friend," said she, "save the son of your king." The brigand took the child " with very good will ; " and conducted the queen in safety to Sluys and thence to Bruges, where she and her son were received with honour. § 2. Twice did Margaret sail to France to solicit assistance. Louis XL, who had succeeded his father, Charles VlL, was pre- vailed upon to grant her a small body of troops, on promise of the surrender of Calais if her family should by his means recover the throne of England. She invaded England in 1464; but was de- feated in two battles by Lord Montacute, brother of the earl of Warwick, first at Hedgley Moor (April 25), and afterwards at a.d. 1461-1470. HIS MARRIAGE. 215 Hexham (May 15). The duke of Somerset and the lords Eoos and Huugerford were taken in the pursuit, and immediately beheaded. Conveyed into Lancashire, Henry remained concealed more than a twelvemonth ; but he was at last delivered up to Edward and thrown into the Tower (1466). § 3. Though inured to the ferocity of civil wars, Edward was, at the same time, extremely devoted to the softer passions. Jaqueline of Luxemburg, duchess of Bedford, had, after her husband's death, married sir Eichard Woodville, a private gentleman, to whom she bore several children ; and among the rest Elizabeth, who was remarkable for the grace and beauty of her person, as well as for her accomplishments. This lady had married Sir John Grey, by whom she had children ; and her husband being slain in the second battle of St. Albans, fighting on the side of Lancaster, and his estate confiscated, his widow retired to live with her father at his seat of Grafton, in Northamptonshire. The king, then two and twenty, who had hitherto lived the life of a libertine, came accidentally to the house after a hunting party, and was so charmed with the beauty of the young widow that he offered to share his throne with her. The marriage was privately celebrated at Grafton, but was not avowed by Edward till the autumn of 1464. It gave great offence to the earl of Warwick, who had intended to strengthen the throne of Edward by a more splendid connection with France. The influence of the queen soon became apparent, as she sought to draw every grace and favour to her own friends and kindred, and to exclude those of Warwick, whom she regarded with dislike. The earl perceived with disgust that his credit was lost ; and the nobility of England, envying the sudden growth of the Woodvilles, were inclined to take part with Warwick, to whose grandeur they were already accustomed. But the most considerable associate that Warwick acquired was George, duke of Clarence, the king's second brother, by offering him in marriage Isabel, his eldest daughter, co-heir of his immense fortunes (1469). Thus an ex- tensive and dangerous combination was insensibly formed against Edward and his ministry. § 4. There is no part of English history since the Conquest so obscure or disconnected, as that of the wars between the two Boses : and as they exhibit a mere struggle for power, we narrate them as briefly as possible. In 1470 Warwick and Clarence, being denounced as traitors, took refuge in France, and were well received by Louis XL Margaret was sent for from Anjou ; and in spite of the injuries which Warwick had experienced at her hands, and the inveterate hatred which he bore to the house of Lancaster, an agreement was, from common interest, soon concluded between 216 EDWARD IV. Chap. xii. them. It was stipulated that Warwick should espouse the cause of Henry, and endeavour to re-establish him on the throne ; that the administration of the government during the minority of young Edward, Henry's son, should be intrusted conjointly to the earl of Warwick and the duke of Clarence; that prince Edward should marry the lady Anne, second daughter of Warwick ; and that the crown, in case of the failure of male issue of that prince, should descend to the duke of Clarence, to the entire exclusion of king Edward and his posterity. § 5. Louis now prepared a fleet to escort the earl of Warwick, and granted him a supply of men and money. That nobleman landed at Dartmouth (September 13, 1470), with the duke of Clarence, the earls of Oxford and Pembroke, and a small body of troops, while the king was in the north, engaged in suppressing an insurrection which had been raised by lord Fitz-Hugh, brother-in- law to Warwick. The scene which ensued resembles more a page of fiction than an event in history. The popularity of Warwick drew such multitudes to his standard, that in a very few days his army amounted to 60,000 men, and was continually increasing. Edward hastened southwards to encounter him ; but being deserted by the marquis of Montacute, Warwick's brother, he hurried with a small retinue to Lynn, in Norfolk, where he luckily found some ships ready, on board of which he instantly embarked (October 3). Thus the earl of Warwick, in no longer space than twenty days after his first landing, was left entire master of the kingdom. He hastened to London, and, taking Henry from the Tower, proclaimed him king with great solemnity. A parliament was summoned, in the name of that prince, to meet at Westminster; and the treaty with Margaret was fully ratified (1471). Henry was recog- nized as lawful king ; but his incapacity for government being avowed, the regency was intrusted to Warwick and Clarence till the majority of prince Edward ; and in default of that prince's issue, Clarence was declared successor to the crown. § 6. The duke of Burgundy had treated Edward with great cold- ness on his first landing in Holland, but subsequently hired for him a small squadron of ships and about 2000 men. With these the king landed at Eavenspur, in Yorkshire (March 14, 1471). Partisans every moment flocked to his standard : he was admitted into the city of York, and was soon in such a situation as gave him hopes of succeeding in all his claims and pretensions. War- wick assembled an army at Leicester, with the intention of meet- ing and giving him battle ; but Edward, by taking another road, passed him unmolested, and presented himself before the gates of London, where his admittance by the citizens made him master a.d. 1470-1471. DEATH OF HENRY VI. 217 not only of that rich and powerful city, but also of the person of Henry, who, destined to be the perpetual sport of fortune, thus fell again into the hands of his enemies. Edward soon found himself in a condition to face the earl of Warwick, who had taken post at Barnet, near London (April 14). Meanwhile his son- in-law, the duke of Clarence, in fulfilment of some secret engage- ments which he had formerly taken with his brother, to support the interests of his own family, deserted to the king in the night- time, and carried over a body of 12,000 men along with him. Warwick, however, was too far advanced to retreat ; and as he rejected with disdain all terms of peace offered by Edward and Clauence, he was obliged to hazard a general engagement, in which his army was completely routed. Contrary to his more usual practice, Warwick engaged that day on foot, resolving to show his army that he meant to share the same fortune with them. He was slain in the thickest of the engagement : his brother experienced the same fate : and, as Edward had issued orders not to give quarter, a great and undistinguished slaughter was made in the pursuit. The same day on which this decisive battle was fought, queen Margaret and her son, now about 18 years of age, and a young prince of great hopes, landed at Weymouth, supported by a small body of French forces. She advanced through the counties of Dorset, Somerset, and Gloucester, increasing her army on each day's march; but was at last overtaken by the rapid and expe- ditious Edward at Tewkesbury, on the banks of the Severn. The Lancastrians were totally defeated (May 4). Margaret and he/ son were taken prisoners and brought to the king, who asked the prince, after an insulting manner, how he dared to invade his dominions ? The young prince, more mindful of his high birth than of his present fortune, replied that he came thither to claim his just inheritance. Edward, insensible to pity, struck him on the face with his gauntlet ; and the dukes of Clarence and Gloucester, lord Hastings, and sir Thomas Grey, taking the blow as a signal for further violence, hurried the prince into the next apartment, and despatched him with their daggers. Margaret was thrown into the Tower: Henry expired there soon after the battle of Tewkesbury ; but whether he died a natural or violent death is uncertain.* It is pretended, and was generally believed, that the duke of Gloucester killed the king with his own hands ; but the universal odium which that prince has incurred inclined the nation to aggravate his crimes without any sufficient authority. Henry was buried at Chertsey Abbey; but his body was removed by * Tbe date also is doubtful, but it was probably May 21st or 22nd. 218 EDWARD IV. Chap. xti. Bichard III., and laid beside his rival, Edward IV., in the new royal vault of St. George's chapel, Windsor. § 7. The Lancastrians were reduced to the most abject poverty. One of them, Hugh Holland, duke of Exeter, though he had married a sister of Edward IV., was seen in the Low Countries, bare-legged and bare-footed, begging from door to door. Every legitimate prince of the line was dead: and peace being restored to the nation, a parliament was stimmoned, which ratified, as usual, all the acts of the victor, and recognized his legal authority. Eelying on the assistance of the duke of Burgundy, Edward now invaded France in 1475 with a considerable army. The expedition was popular. The supplies voted by Farliament were supplemented by loans upon the wealthy, known then and afterwards by the name of Benevolences. Disappointed in his expectations from Burgundy, Edward readily listened to the advances of Louis, who was willing to conclude a truce on terms more advantageous than honourable. He agreed to pay Edward immediately 75,000 crowns, on condition that he should withdraw his army from France, and promised to pay a sum of 50,000 crowns a year: it was added that the dauphin, when of age, should marry Edward's eldest daughter. The two monarchs ratified tbis treaty, by which Louis saved the integrity of France, in a personal interview at Fecquigny, near Amiens.* The most honourable part of it was the stipulation for the liberty of queen Margaret. Louis paid 50,000 crowns for her ransom ; and that princess, who had been so active on the stage of the world, passed the remainder of her days in privacy, till the year 1482, when she died. Notwithstanding the services of the duke of Clarence in deserting Warwick, he had never been able to regain the king's friendship, which he had forfeited by his former confederacy with that noble- man. He had also the misfortune to displease the queen herself, as well as his brother Bichard, duke of Gloucester, a prince of consummate astuteness and policy. He had refused to divide with Gloucester, who had married Anne, widow of Edward, prince of Wales, stabbed at Tewkesbury, the inheritance of their father-in- law, the late earl of Warwick. The variance was increased when Clarence, now a widower, was desirous of marrying Mary, the heiress of Charles, duke of Burgundy. Some gentlemen of his household had been tried and executed for sorcery, and the duke loudly protested against the sentence. Highly offended with his freedom, the king committed the duke to the Tower, and summoned a parliament, by whom he was pronounced guilty (February 7» * To avoid the possibility of treachery, I with a wooden grating, through which a bridge was thrown across the river, j the two kings shook hands. a.d. 1475-1483. HIS DEATH. 219 1478). The manner of his death is unknown ; hut, according to rumour, he was drowned in a butt of Malmsey (February 18). Instead of carrying out the treaty of Pecquigny, Louis found his advantage in contracting the dauphin to the princess Margaret, daughter of the emperor Maximilian. Edward, cruelly disap- pointed, prepared for revenge. But in the midst of his preparations he was seized with a distemper, and expired in the forty-first year of his age, and twenty-second of his reign (April 9, 1483). Hand- some in person and affable in manners, his qualities were more showy than solid. Brave, but cruel ; addicted to pleasure, though capable of activity in great emergencies; he was less fitted to prevent ills by wise precautions, than to remedy them after they had taken place by his vigour and enterprise. Besides five daughters, this king left two sons : Edward, prince of Wales, his successor, then in his thirteenth year, and Bichard, duke of York, in his eleventh. EDWAED V. § 8. Edward V., b. 1470 ; r. 1483.— The young king, at the time of his father's death, resided in the castle of Ludlow, on the borders of Wales, under the care of his uncle, Anthony, earl of Bivers, the most accomplished nobleman in England.* The queen, anxious to preserve that ascendency over her son which she had long maintained over her husband, wrote to the earl that he should levy a body of forces, in order to escort the king to London, to protect him during his coronation, and to keep him from falling into the hands of his enemies. The duke of Gloucester, meanwhile, whom the late king, on his death-bed, had nominated as regent, set out from York, attended by a numerous train of the northern gentry. Falling in with the king's escort at Stony Stratford, he caused lord Bivers and sir Richard Grey, one of the queen's sons, together with sir Thomas Vaughan, to be arrested (April 30); and the prisoners were conducted to Pontefract. Gloucester approached the young prince with the greatest demonstrations of respect, and endeavoured to satisfy him for the violence committed on his uncle and brother ; but Edward, much attached to these near relations, by whom he had been tenderly educated, was not such a master of dissimulation as to conceal his displeasure. As the young king and his uncle approached London ; they were met by the corporation at Hornsey. Edward's coronation was post- poned till June 22, and by act of the Great Council Richard was declared protector. Apprehensive of the consequences, Elizabeth fled * This nobleman first introduced the I was recommended by him to the patronage art of printing into England. Caxton | of Edward IV. 220 EDWARD V. Chap. xii. into sanctuary at Westminster, attended by the marquis of Dorset ; and she carried thither the five princesses, together with the duke of York. But being at length persuaded by the archbishops of Canterbury and York to surrender her son into their hands, that he might join his brother, struck with a kind of presage of his future fate, she bedewed him with tears, and bade him an eternal adieu. §•9. Gloucester, who had hitherto concealed his designs with the most profound dissimulation, no longer hesitated at removing the obstructions which lay between him and the throne. The death of earl Rivers, and of the other prisoners detained in Ponte- fract, was first determined ; and he easily obtained the consent of the duke of Buckingham, as well as of lord Hastings, the two chief leaders of the party opposed to the queen, to this sanguinary measure. Orders were accordingly issued to sir Richard Rate! iff e to cut off the heads of the prisoners. The protector then assailed the fidelity of Buckingham by all the arguments capable of sway- ing a vicious mind, which knew no motive of action but interest and ambition, and easily obtained from him a promise of support- ing him in all his enterprises. He then sounded the sentiments of Hastings by means of Catesby, a lawyer, who lived in great intimacy with him; but found him firm in his allegiance to the children of Edward. He saw, therefore, that there were no longer any measures to be kept with him; and he determined to ruin the man whom he despaired of engaging to concur in his usur- pation. Accordingly he summoned a council in the Tower ; whither Hastings, suspecting no design against him, repaired without hesitation. The duke of Gloucester appeared in the easiest and most gracious humour imaginable. After some familiar conversation he left the council, as if called away by other business ; but soon after returning with an angry and inflamed countenance, he de- manded what punishment they deserved that had plotted against the life of one who was so nearly related to the king, and was intrusted with the administration of government ? Hastings replied that they merited the punishment of traitors. " These traitors," cried the protector, " are the sorceress, my brother's wife, and Jane Shore, his mistress, with others, their associates. See to what a condition they have reduced me by their incantations and witchcraft ; " upon which he laid bare his arm, all shrivelled and decayed. The coun- sellors, who knew that this infirmity had attended him from his birth, looked on each other with amazement. Lord Hastings,' who, since Edward's death, had been engaged in an intrigue with Jane Shore, ventured to reply, " Certainly, my lord, if they have done so heinously, they deserve the most heinous punishment." " What ! " exclaimed Richard, "dost thou bandy me with ifs and ans? I a.d. 1483. MURDER OF THE PRINCES. 221 aver they have done it ; and I will make it good on thy body, thou traitor! " So saying, he struck the table with his fist. Armed men rushed in at the signal. Hastings was seized, hurried away, and instantly beheaded on a timber log intended for repairs in the Tower. Lord Stanley, the archbishop of York, the bishop of Ely, and other counsellors, were committed to different chambers. To carry on the farce of his accusations, Eichard ordered the goods of Jane Shore to be seized : and he summoned her to answer before the council for sorcery and witchcraft. Eventually he directed her to be tried in the spiritual court, for incontinence ; and she did penance in a white sheet in St. Paul's, before the people. § 10. These acts of violence, exercised against the nearest con- nections of the late king, prognosticated the fate of his defenceless children ; and, after the murder of Hastings, the protector no longer made a secret of his intentions to usurp the crown. Dr. Shaw, in a sermon at St. Paul's cross, attempted to persuade the people that Edward IV. had been previously married to Lady Butler, and that therefore Edward V. and his other children by Elizabeth Woodville were illegitimate. Various other artifices were employed to induce the people to salute Richard as king. At length Buckingham and the lord mayor proceeded with a body of prelates, nobles, and com- mons to his residence at Baynard's castle. He was assured that the nation was resolved to have him for their sovereign; and, after some well-acted hesitation, he accepted the crown (June 26). The farce was soon after followed by tbe murder of the two young princes. Eichard gave orders to sir Robert Brakenbury, constable of the Tower, to put his nephews to death; but this gentleman, to his honour, refused such an infamous office. The tyrant then sent for sir James Tyrrel, who promised obedience ; and he ordered Brakenbury to resign to Tyrrel the keys and government of the Tower for one night. Choosing associates, Dighton and Forest, Tyrrel came in the night-time to the door of the chamber where the princes were lodged; and sending in the assassins, he bade them execute their commission, while he himself stayed without. They found the young princes in bed, and fallen into a profound sleep. After suffocating them with the bolster and pillows, they showed their naked bodies to Tyrrel, who ordered them to be buried at the foot of the stairs, deep in the ground, under a heap of stones.* * This story has heen questioned hy two youths were discovered under a stair- Walpole in his Historic Doubts, and case in the White Tower, and were in- suhsequenlly by other writers ; but, on ! terred in Westminster Abbey by order the whole, the balance of probability ' of Charles II. as those of Edward V. and greatly preponderates in its favour. In j his brother. 1674, during some repairs, the bones of ' 222 RICHARD III. Chap. xii. §11. Richard III., h. 1450; r. 1483-1485.— The first acts of Richard's administration were to bestow rewards on those who had assisted him in gaining the crown, and to conciliate by favours those who were best able to support his government. He loaded the duke of Buckingham especially, who was allied to the royal family, with grants and honours. But it was impossible that friendship could long remain inviolate between the two. Soon after Richard's accession, the duke, disappointed, or delayed, in some requests he had made, began to form a conspiracy against the government, and attempted to overthrow that usurpation which he himself had so zealously contributed to establish. Morton, bishop of Ely, a zealous Lancastrian, whom the king had committed to the duke's custody, encouraged these sentiments. By his exhortations the duke turned his thoughts towards the young earl of Richmond, as the only person who could free the nation from the present usurper. On his mother's side he was descended from John of Gaunt by Katharine Swynford, a branch legitimated by parliament (1397), but excluded from the succession by Henry IV. (1407). On his father's side he was grandson of Owen Tudor and Katharine of France, relict of Henry V.* The universal detestation of Richard's conduct after the death of the two young princes turned the attention of the nation towards Henry, from whom only it could expect deliverance. It was there- fore suggested by Morton, and readily assented to by the duke, that, to overturn the present usurpation, the opposite factions should be united by contracting a marriage between the earl of Richmond and the princess Elizabeth, eldest daughter of king Edward. Margaret, Richmond's mother, assented to the plan without hesi- tation ; whilst on the part of the queen dowager, the desire of revenge for the murder of her brother and of her three sons, apprehensions for her surviving family, and indignation against her confinement, easily overcame all her prejudices against the house of Lancaster, and procured her approbation of a marriage to which the age and birth, as well as the present situation, of the parties seemed so naturally to invite them. She secretly borrowed a sum of money in the city, sent it over to the earl of Richmond, who was at present detained in Brittany in a kind of honourable custody, required his oath to celebrate the marriage as soon as he should arrive in England, advised him to levy as many foreign forces as possible, and promised to join him on his first appearance, with all the friends and partisans of her family. The plan was secretly communicated to the principal persons of * For the genealogy of Henry of Richmond and the duke of Buckingham, see the Genealogical Tables. a.d. 1483. DEATH OF BUCKINGHAM. 223 both parties in all the counties of England ; and a wonderful alacrity appeared in every order of men to forward its success and completion. The duke of Buckingham took up arms in Wales, and gave the signal to his accomplices for a general insurrection in all parts of England. But heavy rains having rendered the Severn, with the other rivers in that neighbourhood, impassable, the Welshmen, partly moved by superstition at this extraordinary event, partly distressed by famine in their camp, fell off from him ; and Buckingham, finding himself deserted by his followers, put on a disguise, and took shelter in the house of Banaster, an old servant of his family. Tempted by the reward, Banaster betrayed his retreat. He was brought to the king at Salisbury, and was instantly executed, according to the summary method practised in that age (November 2, 1483). The other con- spirators immediately dispersed. The earl of Bichmond, in concert with his friends, had set sail from St. Malo, with a body of 5000 men levied in foreign parts ; but, as his fleet was at first driven back by a storm, he did not appear in England till after the dispersion of his friends, and he found himself obliged to return to Brittany. The king, everywhere triumphant, ventured at last to summon a parliament, which had no choice left but to recognize his au- thority, and acknowledge his right to the crown. To reconcile the nation to his government, Richard passed some popular laws, par- ticularly against Benevolences ; but he soon after resorted to the same practice. His consort Anne, the second daughter of the earl of Warwick, and widow of Edward, prince of Wales, having borne him but one son, who died about this time, he considered her as an invincible obstacle to the settlement of his fortune. It is said that, in anticipation of her death, he proposed, by means of a papal Genealogy of Henry of Richmond and of the duke of Buckingham : — EDWARD III. John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, Thomas, duke of m. Catherine Swynford. Gloucester. John Beaufort, earl of Somerset, Anne, d. 1410. m. Edmund, earl | of Stafford. Catherine of France, John Beaufort, duke of widow of Henry V., Somerset, Humphrey Stafford, duke m. Owen Tudor. d. 1444. of Buckingham, | | d. 1459. Edmund Tudor, earl of Richmond, m. Margaret. Humphrey Stafford, HENRY VII. d. in lifetime of his father. I Henry Stafford, duke of Buckingham, beheaded 1483. See the Genealogical Table of the House of Lancaster. 224 EICHAED III. Chap, xn, dispensation, to espouse the princess Elizabeth, ana thus to unite in his own family their contending titles. § 12. Exhorted by his partisans to prevent this marriage by a new invasion, and having received assistance from the court of France, Eichmond set sail from Harfleur in Normandy, with a small army of about 2000 men. After a voyage of six days he arrived at Milford Haven, in "Wales, where he landed without opposition (August 7, 1485). The earl, advancing towards Shrewsbury, received every day fresh reinforcements from his partisans. The two rivals at last approached each other at Bosworth, near Leicester ; Henry at the head of 6000 men, Richard with an army nearly double the number. Before the battle began, lord Stanley, who, without declaring himself, had raised an army of 7000 men and had so posted himself as to be able to join either party, appeared in the field, and declared for the earl of Richmond. The intrepid tyrant, sensible of his desperate situation, cast his eyes around the field, and, descrying his rival at no great distance, he drove against him with fury, in hopes that either Henry's death, or his own, would decide the victory between them. He killed with his own hands sir William Brandon, standard-bearer to the earl : he dis- mounted sir John Cheyney : he was now within reach of Richmond himself, who declined not the combat ; when sir William Stanley, breaking in with his troops, surrounded Richard, who, fighting bravely to the last moment, was overwhelmed by numbers, and perished by a fate too mild and honourable for his multiplied enormities (August 22, 1485). The naked body of Richard was thrown carelessly across a horse, carried to Leicester amidst the shouts of the insulting spectators, and interred in the Grey Friars' church of that place. The historians who lived in the subsequent reign have probably exaggerated the vices of the monarch whom their master overthrew ; and some modern writers have attempted to palliate the crimes by which he procured possession of the crown. It is certain that he possessed energy, courage, and capacity ; but these qualities would never have compensated his subjects for the usurpation and the vices of which he was guilty. Inured to scenes of bloodshed from his childhood, and all the horrors of a civil war, it was in- evitable that his courage should be stained with cruelty, and that danger should have taught him dissimulation. His personal appearance has even been a subject of warm controversy : while some represent him as small of stature and humpbacked, others maintain that his only defect was in having one shoulder a little higher than the other. AD. 1485. CIVIL EIGHTS— VILLENAGE. 225 § 13. The reign of the house of Flantagenet expired with Eichard III. on Bosworth field. In a limited monarchy, change of a dynasty is generally accompanied by some revolution in the state. The reigns of Henry VII., and of his successors of the house of Tudor, hear a character distinct from those of the Plantagenet princes. The exhaustion of the kingdom through the protracted Wars of the Eoses, and the almost entire annihilation of the greater English nobility, enabled the Tudors to rule with a despotic power unknown to their predecessors. The period of the Plantagenets forms an important and in- teresting epoch in English history. Its leading feature is the gradual development of the English constitution. The first osten- sible act in the process is the Great Charter wrung from John. In the subsequent reigns Magna Carta was repeatedly confirmed. The weak and long reign of Henry III., and the necessities of Edward I., served to foster the infancy of English freedom, whilst the establishment of the commons, as a permanent estate of the great council of the nation forms, in a constitutional point of view, the chief glory of this era of history. § ±4. From the constitution we naturally turn our view to those who were its subjects. As early at least as the reign of Henry III., the legal equality of all freemen below the rank of the peerage appears to have been completely established. The civil rights of in- dividuals were protected by that venerable body of ancient customs, which, under the name of the common law, still obtains in our courts of justice. Its origin is lost in the obscurity of remote anti- quity, A very small portion of it may be traced to the Anglo-Saxon times ; but the greater part must have sprung up after the Conquest, since we find the pecuniary penalties which marked the Anglo-Saxon legislation exchanged in criminal cases for capital punishment. It is difficult to trace the steps by which villenage was gradually mitigated under the Plantagenets ; but on the whole it is certain that at the termination of their dynasty it was rapidly falling into disuse. Tenants in villenage were gradually transformed into copyholders. Villeins bound to personal service escaped to distant parts of the country, where they could not easily be traced and reclaimed, and entered into free and voluntary service under a new master. Others hid themselves in towns, where a residence of a twelvemonth made them free by law, though they were not ad- mitted to municipal privileges. Something must also be attributed to manumission. The influence of the church was exerted on behalf of this degraded class ; and the repentant lord was exhorted by his spiritual adviser to give freedom to his fellow Christians. As public opinion became more enlightened and humane, the courts 226 RICHARD III. Chap. xii. of law leaned to the side of the oppressed peasantry in all suits in which their rights were concerned. The statutes framed for the regulation of wages, and the popular insurrection in the time of Richard II., betray an advance in the condition of the lower classes ; and, though they attest a large amount of villenage, they discover at the same time a greater extension of freedom. § 15. With regard to the general progress of the nation, we per- ceive under the sway of the Plantagenets a notable increase in its wealth and intelligence, as well as in its freedom. The woollen manufactures were established in various parts of England, and began to supply foreign nations. In the reign of Edward III. the English were remarkable for their excellence in the arts of peace as well as of war. A rich literature, adorned with the names of Chaucer and Gower, of Wickliffe and Mandeville, was now destined .to exercise a better influence, by the invention of printing, intror duced into England in the reign of Edward IV. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. A. ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF PARLIAMENT. The -word Parliament (parlement or colloquium as some of our historians translate it) is derived from the French, and signifies any assembly that meets and confers together. It appears on the Close Rolls of 1244, as applied to the meeting of king John and the barons at Runnymede. The constituent parts of parliament in its more restricted sense are now, and were under the later Plantagenet kings, the sovereign and the three estates of the realm, the lords spiritual, the lords temporal (who sit, to- gether with their sovereign, in one house), and the commons, who sit by them- selves in another. The parliament, as so constituted, is an outgrowth of the Great Council of the realm, held under the Anglo-Norman kings, the constitu- tion of which has been already explained Cp. 129). It will be convenient to trace separately the history of each house. I. The House of Lords.— The spiri- tual peerage consisted originally of archbishops, bishops, and abbots ; and the lay peerage only of barons and earls, but every earl was also a baron. For more than two centuries after the Norman conquest the only baronies known were baronies by tenure, being incident to the tenure of land held immediately under the crown. Hence the right of peerage was originally territorial, being annexed to certain lands, and, when they were alienated, passing with them as an appendant. Thus in 1433 the possession of the castle of Arundel was adjudged to confer an earldom " by tenure " on its possessor. Afterwards, when the alienations of land became frequent, and the number of those who held of the king in capite increased, it became the practice, either in the reign of John or Henry III., for the king to summon to the Great Council, by Writ, all such persons as he thought fit so to summon. In this way the dignity of the peerage became personal instead of territorial. Proof of a tenure by barony became no longer necessary, and the re- cord of the writ of summons came to be sufficient evidence to constitute a peer. The third mode of creating peers is by Letters Patent from the crown, in which the descent of the dignity is regulated, being usually confined to heirs male. The first peer created by patent was lord Beauchamp of Kidder- minster, in the reign of Richard II. (1387). It is still occasionally the practice to call up the eldest son of a peer to the House of Lords by writ of summons in the name of his father's barony ; but, with this Chap, xii. NOTES AND ILLUSTEATIONS. 227 exception, peers are now always created by letters patent. The first instance in which earls and barons are called peers is in 14 Edw. II. (1321), in the award of exile against the Despensers. The degrees of nobility are dukes, marquesses, earls, viscounts, and barons. 1. The title of Duke or dux was used among the Anglo-Saxons as a title of dignity ; but as William the Conqueror and his successors were dukes of Nor- mandy, they would not honour any subject with the title till the reign of Edward III., who, claiming to be king of France, created his eldest son Edward, the Black Prince, duke of Cornwall (1337). Several of the royal family subsequently received the title of duke. 2. The title of Marquess or marchio was originally applied to a Lord Marcher, or lord of the frontier districts, called the marches, from the Teutonic word marka, a limit ; but it was first created a parliamentary dignity by Richard II., who made Robert de Vere marquess of Dublin (1386). 3. An Earl corresponded to the Saxon ealdor- man or alderman, who originally had the administration of a shire. Under the Norman kings the title became merely personal, though the earl con- tinued to receive a third penny of the emoluments arising from the pleas in the county courts. In Latin the earl was called Comes, and after the Norman conquest Count, whence the name county is still applied to the shires ; but the title of count never superseded the more an- cient designation of earl, and soon fell into disuse. The title of earl continued to be the highest hereditary dignity till the reign of Edward III. 4. The dignity of Viscount or Vice-Comes was borrowed from France, and was first conferred in 1440 by Henry VI., who had been crowned king of France. 5. The title of Baron has been already explained. (See p. 126.) II. The House of Commons. — The members of the House of Commons con- sist of the knights of the shires, and the burgesses, or representatives of the cities, universities, and boroughs. The origin of the knights of the shires is traced to the fourteenth clause in the charter of John, by which the sheriff was bound to summon to the Great Council all the (in- ferior) tenants in chief. The principle of representation introduced by Simon de Montfort in the 49th of Henry III. (1265) has been already explained (p. 148). From this time till the 23rd of Edward I. (1295) the representatives of the cities and boroughs were occasionally summoned ; but they were not permanently engrafted upon parliament till the latter date, when the expenses of Edward, arising from his foreign wars, led him to have recourse to this means for obtaining supplies of money. This is the true date of the Mouse of Commons (Stubbs, p. 402). The success of the experiment insured its repetition ; and the king found that he could more readily obtain larger sums of money by the subsidies of the citizens and burgesses than he had previously obtained by tallages upon their towns. It must be recollected that the only object of summoning the citizens and burgesses was to obtain money, and that it was not originally intended to give them the power of consenting to the laws. And often after this period the upper house continued to sit and pass laws, when the commons had retired. But gradually the power of the purse procured them a share in legislation. At first both houses sat in the same chamber ; but from the earliest times they voted separately, and imposed separate taxes, each upon its own order. The knights of the shires voted at first with the earls and barons; but in the latter years of Edward III. the houses delibeiated apart, and were divided as we now find them. In the feeble reign of Edward II. the commons were not slow in advancing their rights ; and the rolls of parlia- ment show that on one occasion, at least, they granted supplies on con- dition that the king should redress the grievances of which they complained. Gradually the assent of the commons came to be considered necessary for the enactment of laws ; and in the long and prosperous reign of Edward III. the three essential principles of our govern- ment were generally established: (1) The consent of parliament to all extraordinary aids and taxes ; (2) the concurrence of the two houses in all matters affecting the realm ; (3) the right of the commons to inquire into public abuses, and to impeach public counsellors. With regard to the second constitutional principle mentioned above, we find in 15 Edward II. that " matters to be established for the estate of the king and his heirs, and for the 228 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Chap. xii. estate of the realm and of the people, shall be treated, accorded, and established, in parliament by the king, and by the assent of the prelates, earls, and barons, and the commonalty of the realm, according as has been beiors accustomed." It was the practice that the petitions of the commons, with the respective answers made to them in the king's name, should be drawn up after the end of the session in the form of laws, and entered upon the statute-roll. Still it must be observed that the statutes do not always express the true sense of the commons, as their petitions were fre- quently modified and otherwise altered by the king's answers. The first instance in which the commons exercised the third constitutional principle alluded to was in 50 Edward III., when, instigated by the Black Prince, they impeached lord Latimer and other ministers of the king. Under the reign of Richard II. the power of the House of Commons made still further progress, which was con- tinued under the three kings of the house of Lancaster, who owed their throne to a parliamentary title. Among . the rights established under these kings the two following were the most im- portant : 1. The introduction, in the reign of Henry VI., of complete statutes under the name of bills, instead of the old petitions, to which the king gave his consent, and which he was not at liberty to alter, as he had done in the case of petitions. It now became the practice for either house to originate a bill, except in the case of money bills, which con- tinued to be originated exclusively by the commons. 2. That the king ought not to take notice of matters pending in parliament, and that the commons should enjoy liberty of speech. The persons who had the right of voting for knights of the shire were declared by 8 Hen. VI. c. 7, to be all freeholders of lands and tenements of the annual value of 40s., equivalent at least to 301. of our value ; which was a limitation of the number of voters, since it would appear from 7 Hen.. IV. c. 15, that all persons whatever, present at the county court, had previously the right of voting for the knights of their shires. For further par- ticulars as to the House of Lords, see sir Harris Nicolas, The Historic Peerage of England, Introduction, in the edit, of 1857 ; and as to the House of Commons, Hallam's Middle Ages, vol. iii. c. 8. B. AUTHORITIES FOR THE PERIOD OF THE PLANTAGENETS FROM JOHN TO RICHARD III. A reference to Note C, appended to chapter vii. (pp. 129, 130;, will show what histories already mentioned extend into this period In addition may be named the Annals of Dunstable to 1297 (Rolls) ; Walter of Hemingford, Lives of Edward I., II., III. ; John Trokelowe, Annales Edvjardi II., with a continuation by Henry Blaneford (Rolls) ; Robert of Avesbury, Historia de Mirabilibus Gestis Edwardi III. ; the Monk of Evesham, Hist. Vitm et Regni Jiicardi II. ; Otterbourne's Chroni- cle, from Brute to 1420 ; Whethamstede's Chronicle, 1441 to 1460 (Rolls) ; Elmham, Vita et Gesta Henrici V. (Rolls) ; Titus Livius, idem. ; William of Worcester, Annales Rerum Anglicarum, 1324 to 1491 ; Rous, Historia Regum Anglim (to 1485). The preceding works are published in Hearne's collection. The following are in the collection of Hall : Nicholas Trivet, Annales sex regum Anglian, 1135 to 1318 ; Adam Murimuth, Chronicle (with con- tinuation), 1303 to 1380. The Chronicle of Lanercost, published by the Bannatyne Club, extends from 1201 to 1346. Joan. Amundesham, 1422-1440 (Rolls). The following are in Camden's Anglica, &c. : Thos. de la More, De Vita et Morte Edwardi II. ; Walsingham, Historia brevis Anglim, 1272 to 1422: the same author's Hypodigma Neustrix, containing an account of the affairs of Normandy to Henry V. (Rolls), is also in Camden. Froissart's Clironiques (translated by Lord Berners) is an interesting but not very trustworthy work for the times of Edward III. and Richard II. Chron. Anglix, 1328-1388 (Rolls). The Chro- niques of Monstrelet (1400 to 1467) and the Memoires of Philip de Comines (1461 to 1498) may also be consulted for foreign affairs during the later Plantagenets. The early printed chronicles which treat of this period, with the exception of Fabyan's (to 1509) and Hardyng's (to 1538), are not contemporary. The principal are those of Hall, Grafton, Holinshed, and Stowe. Sir Thos. More's History of Richard III. is the best authority for that period : he was old enough to have heard the facts from contemporaries, and especially from bishop Morton, in whose service he had lived. Henry VII. and Elizabeth of York. From their monument in Westminster Abl ey. BOOK IV. THE HOUSE OF TUDOR. a.d. 1485-1603. CHAPTEE XIII. HENRY VII. A.D. 1485-1509. § 1. Introduction. §2. Accession of Henry VII. His coronation, marriage, and settlement of the government. § 3. Discontents. Invasion of Lambert Simnel, and battle of Stoke. Coronation of the queen. § 4. Foreign affairs. Peace of Estaples. § 5. Perkin Warbeck. Execu- tion of lord Stanley. § 6. Further attempts of Perkin. Cornish in- surrection, and battle of Blackheath. § 7. Perkin again invades England, is captured, and executed. Execution of Warwick. § 8. Mar- riage aud death of prince Arthur. Marriage of the princess Margaret. Oppression of Empson and Dudley § 9. Matrimonial negociations of Henry. Death and character of the king. § 10. Miscellaneous occurrences. § 1, The accession of the Tudors to the English throne is nearly coincident with the proper epoch of modern history. The final im- portant change in the European populations had been effected by 12 230 HENRY VII. Chap. xiii. the settlement of the Turks at Constantinople in 1453. The im- provement in navigation was soon to lay open a new world, as well as a new route to that ancient continent of Asia, whose almost fabulous riches had attracted the wonder and cupidity of Europeans since the days of Alexander the Great. Hence was to arise a new system of relations among the states of Europe. The commerce of the East, previously monopolized by the Venetians and Genoese, began to be diverted to the Western nations ; its richest products to be rivalled by those of another hemisphere. The various Euro- pean states, having consolidated their domestic institutions, were beginning to direct their attention to the affairs of their neighbours. The invasion of Italy by Charles VIII. of France, in the reign of Henry VII., is justly regarded as the commencement of the political system of Europe, or of that series of wars and negociations among its different kingdoms which has continued to the present day, The house of Tudor, lifted to the throne by the civil wars, and strengthened by the very desolation which they had occasioned, was enabled to play an effective part upon the continent, and to lay the foundation of that European influence which England still commands. Besides the advantages derived from commerce, the intercourse of nations is beneficially felt in their mutual influence upon opinion and the progress of society. Europe, first cemented into a whole by the conquests of the Komans, derived a still firmer bond of union from its common Christianity. The distinguishing historical feature of the reign of the Tudors is the progress and final establishment of the Eeformation. That great revolution was accompanied by an astonishing progress in manners, literature, and the arts ; but, above all, it encouraged that spirit of civil freedom, by which, under the house of Stuart, the last seal was affixed to our constitutional liberties. § 2. The victory which the earl of Richmond gained at Bosworth was entirely decisive. Sir William Stanley placed upon his head the crown which Richard had worn in the battle ; and the acclama- tions of " Long live Henry the Seventh ! " by a natural and unpremeditated movement, resounded from all quarters of the field (August 22, 1485). Henry was now in his 30th year. He had no real title to the crown ; but he determined to put himself in im- mediate possession of regal authority, and to show all opponents that nothing but force of arms should be able to expel him. He brought to the throne all the bitter feelings of the Lancastrians. To exalt that party, and depress the adherents of the house of York, were his favourite objects, and through the earlier part of his reign were never forgotten. His first command after the battle a.d. 1485-1486. HIS CORONATION AND MARRIAGE. 231 of Bosworth was to secure the person of Edward Plantagenet, earl of Warwick, son of the duke of Clarence, who had heen put to death by his brother, Edward IV. Henry immediately afterwards set out for the capital. His journey bore the appearance of an established monarch making a peaceable progress through his dominions, rather than that of a prince who had opened his way to the throne by force of arms. The promise he had made of marrying Elizabeth, the daughter of Edward IV., seemed to insure a union of the contending titles of the two families ; but, though bound by honour as well as by interest to complete this alliance, he was resolved to postpone it till the ceremony of his own corona- tion should be finished, and his title recognized by parliament. Anxious to support his personal and hereditary right to the throne, he dreaded lest an earlier marriage with the princess should imply a right in her to participate in the sovereignty, and raise doubts of his own title through the house of Lancaster. On the 30th of October Henry was crowned at Westminster by cardinal Bourchier, arch- bishop of Canterbury. The parliament, which assembled soon after, seemed entirely devoted to him. It was enacted " That the inherit- ance of the crown should rest, remain, and abide in the king, and none other ; " but whether as rightful heir, or only as present pos- sessor, was not determined. In the following year Henry applied to the papal authority for a confirmation of his title. The parliament, at his instigation, passed an act of attainder against the late king and the richest of his adherents ; they also reversed the attainders of Henry VI. and 107 Lancastrians. Henry bestowed favours and honours on some particular persons who were attached to him ; but the ministers whom he most trusted and favoured were not chosen from among the nobility, or even from among the laity. John Morton and Richard Fox, two clergymen of singular industry and capacity, who had shared in his dangers and distresses, were called to the privy council ; Morton was restored to the bishopric of Ely, and Fox was created bishop of Exeter (1487). The former, soon after, upon the death of Bourchier, was raised to the see of Canterbury. The king's marriage was celebrated at London, January 18, 1486, with greater demonstrations of joy than ap- peared either at his first entry or his coronation. But, though married, the queen was not crowned until the end of the next year. § 3. In the course of this year an abortive attempt at insurrection was made by lord Lovel ; but though Henry had been able to de- feat this hasty rebellion, raised by the relics of Richard's partisans, his government was disturbed by a more formal attempt. There lived in Oxford one Richard Simon, a priest, who entertained the design of disturbing Henry's government by raising up a pretender 232 HENRY VII. Chap xiii. to the crown. For that purpose he cast his eyes on Lambert Simnel, a youth of fifteen years of age, who was son of a joiner, or, as some say, of a baker. Being endowed with understanding above his years, and address above his condition, Simnel seemed well fitted to personate a prince. A report had been spread among the people and received with great avidity, that Eichard, duke of York, second son of Edward IV., had escaped from the cruelty of his uncle, and lay somewhere concealed in England. Taking advantage of this rumour, Simon instructed his pupil to assume that name, which he found to be so fondly cherished by the public ; but hearing after- wards a new report, that the earl of Warwick had made his escape from the Tower, and observing that this news was attended with no less general satisfaction, he changed his plans, and made Simnel personate that unfortunate prince. As the Irish were zealously attached to the house of York, and bore an affectionate regard to the memory of Eichard, duke of York, Warwick's grandfather, who had been their lieutenant, Ireland was selected for the first scene of the plot. Gerald Fitzgerald, earl of Kildare, the deputy, and other persons of distinction, gave countenance to Simnel ; and he was crowned at Dublin, under the appellation of Edward VI. (May, 1487). The whole island followed the example of the capital, and not a sword was drawn in Henry's quarrel. The king's first act on this intelligence was to order the queen-dowager and her son, the marquis of Dorset, into close confinement, the former in the nunnery of Bermondsey, the latter to the Tower. He next ordered Warwick to be taken from the Tower, be led in procession through the streets of London, be conducted to St. Paul's, and there exposed lo the view of the whole people. The expedient had its effect in England ; but in Ireland the people still persisted in their revolt, and Henry had soon reason to apprehend that the design against him was not laid on such slight foundations as the absurdity of the contrivance seemed to imply. John, earl of Lincoln, son of John de la Pole, duke of Suffolk, and of Elizabeth, eldest sister of Edward IV., whom Eichard III. had declared heir to the throne, was engaged in the conspiracy ; and he induced Margaret, the dowager duchess of Burgundy, another sister of Edward IV., to join it. After con- sulting with Lincoln and lord Lovel, she hired a body of 2000 veteran Germans, under the command of Martin Schwartz, a brave and experienced officer, and sent them over, together with these two noblemen, to join Simnel in Ireland. An invasion of England was resolved on. Simnel landed in Lancashire, and advanced as far as Stoke, near Newark. He was defeated by Henry in a decisive battle (June 16, 1487). Lincoln and Schwartz perished on the field, with 4000 of their followers. Lovel escaped, but was a.d. 1487-1491. FOREIGN AFFAIRS. 233 never more seen or heard of.* Simnel, with his tutor Simon, was taken prisoner. Simon, being a priest, was not tried at law, and was only committed to close custody. Simnel was too con- temptible to be an object either of apprehension or resentment. He was pardoned, and made a scullion in the king's kitchen, from which post he was afterwards advanced to the rank of falconer. § 4. The foreign transactions of this reign present little of interest or importance. The cautious and parsimonious temper of the king rendered him averse to war, and he could never be induced to take up arms when he saw the least prospect of attaining his ends by negociation. About this time events in France compelled his in- terference ; but it was exercised too late, and without vigour enough to be effective. Charles VIIL, who had succeeded to the throne of France in 1483, was extremely desirous of annexing Brittany to his dominions ; and, at the invitation of some discontented Breton barons, the French invaded that province with a large army (1488). Henry entered into a league with Maximilian of Germany and Ferdinand of Arragon for the defence of Brittany; but the resources of these princes were distant, and Henry himself only despatched an army of 6000 men, which, in virtue of a secret agreement with Charles, never took the field (1489). An unfore- seen event disconcerted the policy of the allies. Anne, who had succeeded to the duchy of Brittany on the death of her father in 1488, had made a contract with Maximilian, but Charles invested Rennes, where the duchess resided, with a large army, and extorted a promise of marriage as the condition of her release. The nuptials were accordingly celebrated, and Anne was conducted to Paris, which she entered amidst the joyful acclamations of the people. Thus Brittany was finally annexed to the French crown (1491). On pretence of a French war, Henry now levied a benevolence,^ and the parliament, which met soon after, inflamed with the idea of a war with France, voted him a supply. He crossed over to Calais with a large army, and proceeded to invest Boulogne ; but notwithstanding these professions of hostility, secret advances * " Towards the close of the lTth century, at his seat at Minster Lovel, in Oxfordshire, was accidentally discovered a chamber under the ground, in which was the skele- ton of a man seated in a chair, with his head reclining on a table. Hence it is supposed that the fugitive had found an asylum in this subterraneous chamber, where he was perhaps starved to death through neglect."— Lingard. f Parliament consented that a bene- volence, or contribution, should be levied " from the abler sort." This mode of raising money, devised by Edward IV., was abolished by Richard III., but after- wards revived by him, under another name, and now by Henry VII., with the consent of parliament. In 1505 Henry raised another benevolence, without con- sent of parliament. " So forcible," says Coke, "is once a precedent fixed in the crown, add what proviso you will." 2 Ins, p. 61, 4 Ins. p. 32. 234 HENRY VII. Chap. xiii. had been made towards peace above three months before, and com- missioners had been appointed to treat of the terms. They met at Estaples. The king of France consented to pay £149,000 in half-yearly instalments for the peaceable possession of Brittany (1492). Thus the king, as remarked by his historian, Lord Bacon, made profit upon his subjects for the war, and upon his enemies for the peace. (Supplement, Note I.) § 5. Henry had now reason to flatter himself with the prospect of durable peace and tranquillity; but his inveterate and indefati- gable enemies raised up an adversary who long kept him in alarm, and sometimes even brought him into danger. The report was revived that Bichard, duke of York, had escaped from the Tower when his elder brother was murdered ; and, finding this rumour greedily received, the enemies of Henry looked out for some young- man to personate that unfortunate prince. There was one Pierce Osbeck, or Perkin Warbeck, born at Tournay of respectable parents, who by the natural versatility and sagacity of his genius seemed to be perfectly fitted to act any part, or assume any character. He was comely in his person, graceful in his air, courtly in his address, full of docility and good sense in his behaviour and con- versation. The war which was then ready to break out between France and England seemed to afford a proper opportunity for the discovery of this new phenomenon ; and Ireland, which still retained its attachment to the house of York, was chosen as the proper place for his first appearance. He landed at Cork ; and immediately assuming the name of Bichard Plantagenet, drew to him partisans among that credulous people (1492). The news soon reached France, and Charles sent Perkin an invitation to repair to him at Paris. He received him with all the marks of regard due to the duke of York ; settled on him a handsome pension ; assigned him magni- ficent lodgings ; and, in order to provide at once for his dignity and security, gave him a guard for his person. When peace was con- cluded between France and England at Estaples, Henry applied to have Perkin put into his hands ; but Charles, resolute not to betray a young man, of whatever birth, whom he had invited into his kingdom, would only agree to dismiss him. The pretended Bichard retired to the duchess of Burgundy, who is thought by many to have been the original instigator of the plot. This princess, after feigning a long and severe scrutiny, burst out into joy and admiration at his wonderful deliverance, embraced him as her nephew, the true image of Edward, the sole heir of the Plantagenets, and the legitimate successor to the English throne. She imme- diately assigned him an equipage suited to his pretended birth, and on all occasions honoured him with the appellation of the White a.d. 1492-1495. PERKIN WAEBECK. 235 Bose of England (1493). The English, from their great commu- nication with the Low Countries, were every day more and more prepossessed in favour of the impostor. The whole nation was held in suspense, a regular conspiracy was formed against the king's authority, and a correspondence settled between the malcontents in Flanders and those in England. The king was informed of all these particulars ; but agreeably to his character, which was both cautious and resolute, he proceeded deliberately, though steadily, in counter- working the projects of his enemies. His first object was to ascertain the death of the real duke of York, and to confirm the opinion that had always prevailed with regard to that event. Two of the persons employed in the murder of Richard's nephews, Forrest and Dighton, were alive, and they agreed in the same story ; but, as the bodies were supposed to have been removed by Eichard's orders from the place where they were first interred, and could not now be found, it was not in Henry's power to put the fact, so much as he wished, beyond all doubt and controversy.* He dispersed his spies all over Flanders and England ; and he induced sir Eobert Clifford, one of the partisans of the impostor, to betray the secrets intrusted to him. Several of Warbeck's partisans in England were arraigned, convicted, and executed for high treason. Among the victims was sir William Stanley, the lord chamberlain, who had saved Henry's life at Bosworth. He had told Clifford in confidence, that, if he were sure the young man who appeared in Flanders was really son to king Edward, he never would bear arms against him. § 6. The fate of Stanley made a great impression on the kingdom, and struck all the partisans of Perkin with the deepest dismay. When Perkin found that the king's authority daily gained ground among the people, and that his own pretensions were becoming obsolete, he resolved to attempt something which might revive the hopes and expectations of his partisans. After a vain attempt upon the coast of Kent he crossed over into Ireland (1495). But sir Edward Poynings, who had been appointed deputy of Ireland in 1494,f had put the affairs of that island into so good a posture that Perkin met with little success. He therefore bent his course towards Scotland, and presented himself to James IV., who then * See note, p. 221. The objection raised from their impunity (which would naturally be a condition of their con- fession) is far more than outweighed by the rewards they had received from Richard. The fact that the pretended duke of York never attempted to explain what had become of Edward V. is con- clusive against his own claims. Mackin- tosh, History of England, vol. ii. pp. 58-60. f The statute of Drogheda, enacted in 1495, and known by the name of Poynings' law, formed the basis for the government of Ireland till the time of the Union. Its most important provision was that no bill could be introduced into the Irish parlia- ment unless it had previously received the approval of the English council. 236 HENRY VII. Chap. xiii. governed that kingdom. James gave him in marriage the lady Katharine Gordon, daughter of the earl of Huntley, and made an inroad into England (1496), carrying Perkin along with him, in hopes that Ihe appearance of the pretended prince, who issued a proclamation, styling himself Eichard IV., might raise an insur- rection in the northern counties. Instead of joining the invaders, the English prepared to repel them ; and James retreated into his own country. Henry discovered little anxiety to procure either reparation or vengeance for this insult committed on him hy the Scots : his chief concern was to draw advantage from it, hy the pretence which it afforded him to levy impositions on. his own subjects. But the people, who were acquainted with the immense treasures which he had amassed, could ill brook these new ex- actions. When the attempt was made to levy the subsidy in Cornwall, the inhabitants, numerous and poor, robust and courage- ous, murmured against a tax occasioned by a sudden inroad of the Scots, from which they esteemed themselves entirely secure, and which had usually been repelled by the northern counties. They took up arms, and about 16,000, instigated by Flammark, an attorney, determined to march to London. They were defeated at Blackheath (June 17, 1497). Their leaders, with lord Audley, were taken and executed; 2000 were slain; the rest were made prisoners, but were dismissed without further punishment. § 7. Henry now attempted by negociations to obtain possession of Warbeck's person. But James refused his advances ^ and, as he could no longer afford the pretender protection, he fitted out a small flotilla, with which Warbeck and his wife escaped to Ireland (July 30, 1497). He was invited to land in Cornwall (September 7). No sooner did he make his appearance at Bodmin, than the popu- lace flocked to his standard ; and Perkin, elated with his success, attempted to get possession of Exeter. On learning the approach of the king's forces, he abandoned the siege and advanced to Taunton. Though his followers now amounted to the number of nearly 7000, and seemed still resolute to maintain his cause, he him- self despaired of success, and secretly withdrew to the sanctuary of Beaulieu, in the New Forest (September 21). The rebels submitted to the king's mercy ; a few persons of desperate fortunes were executed, many were severely fined, the rest were dismissed with impunity. Perkin himself was persuaded, under promise of life, to deliver himself into the hands of Henry, who conducted him, in a species of mock triumph, to London. Having attempted to escape, he was confined to the Tower, where his habits of restless intrigue and enterprise followed him. In 1498 he insinuated him- self into the intimacy of four servants of Sir John Digby, lieutenant a.d. 1496-1503. EXECUTION OF WARWICK. 237 of the Tower ; and by their means opened a correspondence with the earl of Warwick, who was confined in the same prison. Perkin engaged him to embrace a project for his escape, and offered to conduct the whole enterprise. The design, whether feigned or not, was employed as a charge against him, and Perkin was arraigned, condemned, and soon after hanged at Tyburn, with two of his former adherents. The earl of Warwick was beheaded on Tower Hill a few days afterwards (November, 1499). This act of tyranny begat great discontent among the people, which Henry vainly endeavoured to alleviate by alleging that his ally, Ferdinand of Arragon, scrupled to give his daughter Katharine in marriage to his son, prince Arthur, while any male descendant of the house of York remained. On the contrary, greater indignation was felt at seeing a young prince sacrificed, not to law and justice, but to the jealous policy of two subtle and crafty tyrants. § 8. Two years later (November 14, 1501) the king had the satisfaction of completing a marriage which had been projected and negociated during the course of seven years ; Arthur being now near 16 years of age, Katharine 18. But this marriage proved unprosperous. The young prince a few months after sickened and died (April 2, 1502). Desirous to continue his alliance with Spain, and unwilling to restore Katharine's dowry of 200,000 ducats, Henry contracted the Infanta to his second son Henry, a boy of 11 years of age, whom he created prince of Wales : an event which was afterwards attended with the most important consequences.* The same year another marriage was celebrated, which was also, in the next age, productive of great events — the marriage of Margaret, the king's eldest daughter, with James, king of Scotland. But amidst these prosperous incidents the king met with a domestic calamity. His queen died in childbed (February 11, 1503), and the infant did not long survive her. The situation of the king's affairs, both at home and abroad, being now in every respect very fortunate, he gave full scope to his natural propensity ; and avarice, which had ever been his ruling passion, increasing with age and encouraged by absolute authority, broke through all restraints of shame or justice. He had found two ministers, Empson and Dudley, perfectly qualified to second his rapacious inclinations. These instruments of oppression were both lawyers : the first of mean birth, of brutal manners, of an unre- lenting temper ; the second better born, better educated, and better bred, but equally unjust, severe, and inflexible. By their knowledge of the law these men, whom the king made officers of the Exchequer, were qualified to pervert the forms of justice ; and * They were not married until 1509. 12* 238 HENRY VII. Chap. xiii. the most iniquitous extortions were practised under legal pre- tences. The chief means of oppression were the penal statutes, which, without consideration of rank, quality, or services, were rigidly put in force against all men : spies and informers were rewarded and encouraged ; no difference was made whether the statute were "beneficial or hurtful, recent or obsolete. The sole end of the king and his ministers was to amass money, and bring every one under the lash of their authority. So overawed was the parliament, that at this very time the commons chose Dudley for their speaker (1504). By these arts, joined to a rigid frugality, the king so filled his coffers, that he is said to have possessed in ready money the sum of 1,800,000 pounds: a treasure almost incredible, if we consider the scarcity of money in those times. § 9. The remaining years of Henry's reign present little that is memorable. The archduke Philip, on the death of his mother- in-law, Isabella, proceeded by sea, with his wife Joanna, to take possession of Castile, but was driven by a violent tempest into Weymouth (1506). The king availed himself of this event to detain Philip in a species of captivity, and to extort from him a promise of the hand of his sister Margaret, with a large dowry. Nor was this the only concession. He made Philip promise that his son Charles should espouse Henry's daughter Mary, though that prince was already affianced to a daughter of the king of France. He also negociated a new treaty of commerce with the Flemings, much to the advantage of the English. But perhaps his most un- generous act on this occasion was his obliging Philip to surrender Edmund de la Pole, earl of Suffolk, nephew of Edward IV., and younger brother of the earl of Lincoln, who had perished at the battle of Stoke. The earl of Suffolk, having incurred the king's resentment, had taken refuge in the Low Countries, and had in- trigued to gain possession of Calais. Philip stipulated indeed that Suffolk's life should be spared ; but Henry committed him to the Tower, and, regarding his promise as only personal, recommended his successor to put him to death.* Shortly afterwards Henry's health declined, and he died of a consumption, at his favourite palace of Kichmond (April 21, 1509), after a reign of 23 years and eight months, and in the 52nd year of his age. He was buried in the chapel he had built for himself at Westminster. § 10. The reign of Henry VII. was, in the main, fortunate for his people at home, and honourable abroad. He put an end to the civil wars with which the nation had long been harassed, he maintained peace and order in the state, he repressed the exorbitant power of the nobility, and, together with the friendship of some * Henry VIII. put him to death in 1513, without alleging any new offence against him. a.d. 1509. DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 239 foreign princes, he acquired the consideration and regard of all. A new stimulus was given to English commerce by the treaty with Burgundy, called The Great Intercourse, and stability to trade by a strict regulation of weights and measures.* Bacon compares him with Louis XI. of France and Ferdinand of Spain, and de- scribes the three as " the tres magi of kings of those ages," — the great masters of kingcraft. § 10. The Star-chamber, so called from the room in which it met, is usually said to have been founded in the reign of Henry VII. ; but this is not strictly correct.f In 1495 the parliament enacted that no person who should by arms or otherwise assist the king for the time being should be liable to attainder for such obedience. Such a statute could not of course bind future parliaments ; but, as Mr. Hallam observes,^ it remains an unquestionable authority for the constitutional maxim, " that possession of the throne gives a sufficient title to the subject's allegiance, and justifies his resist- ance of those who may pretend to a better right." It was by accident only that the king had not a considerable share in those great naval discoveries by which his age was so much dis- tinguished. Columbus, after meeting with many repulses from the courts of Portugal and Spain, sent his brother Bartholomew to London, in order to explain his projects to Henry, and crave his aid for the execution of them. The king invited him over to England ; but his brother, being taken by pirates, was detained in his voyage ; and Columbus, meanwhile, having obtained the countenance of Isabella, was supplied with a small fleet, and happily executed his enterprise (1492). Not discouraged by this disappointment, Henry fitted out Sebastian Cabot, a Venetian settled in Bristol, and sent him westwards in search of new countries (1498). Cabot discovered the mainland of America, Newfoundland, and other countries, but ;-eturned to England without making any conquest or settlement. * Some towns still possess the standards issued in his reign, f See Notes and Illustrations at the end of this hook. % Const. Hist., ch. i. Silver medal of Henry VIII. HENRICVS .Vm . DEI . GBA EEX AKGL . FKANC c DOM - HTB +■ CHAPTER XIV, HENRY VIII. FROM HIS ACCESSION TO THE DEATH OF WOLSEY. b. 1491 ; r. 1509-1547. § 1. Accession of Henry VIII. Empson and Dudley punished. § 2. The king's marriage. War with France. Wolsey minister. § 3. Battle of Guinegate. Battle of Flodden. § 4. Peace with France- Louis XII. marries the princess Mary. § 5. Greatness of Wolsey. He induces Henry to cede Tournay to France. Wolsey legate. § 6. Election of the emperor Charles V. Interview between Henry and Francis. Charles visits England. Henry visits France. Field of the Cloth of Gold.. § 7. Henry mediates between Charles and Francis. Execution of Buckingham. § 8. Henry styled " Defender of the Faith." Charles again in England. War with France. Scotch affairs. Defeat of Albany. § 9. Supplies illegally levied. League of Henry, the emperor, and the duke of Bourbon. § 10. Battle of Pavia. Treaty between England and France. § 11. Dis- content of the English. Francis recovers his freedom. Sack of Rome. League with France. § 12. Henry's scruples about his marriage with Katharine. Anne Boleyn. Proceedings for a divorce. § 13. Wolsey's fall. § 14. Rise of Cranmer. Death of Wolsey. § 1. The death of Henry VII. had been attended with as open and visible a joy among the people as decency would permit , and the accession of his son, Henry VIII., spread universally a declared and unfeigned satisfaction. Henry was now in his 19th year. Born in 1491, he had received a liberal education, and after the death of his brother Arthur, in 1502, was created prince of Wales. The beauty and vigour of his person, accompanied with great dexterity in all manly exercises, were further adorned with a blooming and ruddy countenance, a lively air, and no little vivacity. The vehemence, ardour, and impatience of his disposition, which degene- rated into tyranny in after years, were considered only as faults incident to unguarded youth ; and, as the contending titles of York a.d. 1509-1511. HIS MARRIAGE. 241 and Lancaster were now at last fully united in his person, his sub- jects justly expected from a prince obnoxious to no party that im- partiality of administration which had long been unknown in Eng- land. The chief competitors for favour and authority under the new king were the earl of Surrey,* treasurer, and Fox, bishop of Winchester, secretary and privy seal. Surrey knew how to conform himself to the humour of his new master ; and no one was so forward in promoting that liberality, pleasure, and magnificence which began to prevail under the young monarch. One party of pleasure suc- ceeded to another ; tilts, tournaments, and carousals were exhibited with all the magnificence of the age ; and, as the present tranquillity of the public permitted the court to indulge itself in every amuse- ment, serious business Avas but little attended to. As the frank and careless humour of the king led him to dissipate the treasures amassed by his father, so it rendered him negligent in protecting the instruments whom that prince had employed in his extortions. The informers were thrown into prison. Empson and Dudley were committed to the Tower ; and in order to gratify the people with the punishment of these obnoxious ministers, crimes very improbable, or indeed absolutely impossible, were charged upon them. They were accused of having entered into a conspiracy against the sove- reign, and intending, on the death of the late king, to seize the government. Their conviction by a jury was confirmed by a bill of attainder, but they were not executed until next year, on Tower Hill. § 2. Soon after his accession, Henry, by the advice of his council, celebrated his marriage with the infanta Katharine (June 7) ; and the king and queen were crowned at Westminster on the 24th. The first two or three years of Henry's reign were spent in pro- found peace ; but impatient of acquiring that distinction in Europe, to which his power and opulence entitled him, he could not long remain neutral amidst the noise of arms. The natural enmity of the English against France, as well as their ancient claims upon that kingdom, led Henry to join the alliance, or Holy League, which, after the league of Cambray (1509), the pope, Spain, and Venice had formed against Louis XII. War was declared against France (1511) ; and a parliament being summoned, readily granted supplies for a purpose so much favoured by the English nation. But Henry suffered himself to be deceived by the artifices of his father-in-law, Ferdinand. That selfish and treacherous prince advised him not to invade France by the way of Calais, where he himself would not have it in his power to assist him ; but rather to send forces to Fontarabia, whence he could easily make a con- * The earl of Surrey had heen attainted on the accession of Henry VII. (1485), but was restored to the earldom in 1489. 242 HENRY VIII. Chap. xiv. quest of G-uienne, a province in which, it was imagined, the English had still some adherents. He promised to assist in this conquest by the junction of a Spanish army ; and so forward did he seem to promote the interests of his son-in-law, that he even sent vessels to England in order to transport over the forces which Henry had levied for that purpose. But, false to his promises, Ferdinand employed himself solely in the conquest of Navarre. Failing of the promised support, the marquis of Dorset, the English commander, finding that his further stay served not to promote the main under- taking, and that his men were daily perishing by want and sick- ness, returned to England (1512). Notwithstanding his disappoint- ments in this campaign, Henry was still encouraged to prosecute his warlike measures against Louis, especially as Leo X., who had suc- ceeded Julius II. on the papal throne, had detached the emperor Maximilian from the French interests (1513). Determined to in- vade France, Henry was little discouraged by the prospect of a war with the Scots, who had formed an alliance with France. His schemes were promptly seconded by Wolsey. Thomas Wolsey, dean of Lincoln and almoner to the king, was now fast advancing towards that unrivalled grandeur which he afterwards attained. Eeputed to be the son of a butcher at Ipswich, he was educated at Oxford, became a fellow of Magdalen College, and was appointed for his learning master of the college school. Three sons of the marquis of Dorset were placed under his charge, and he soon gained the friendship and countenance of that nobleman, who offered him the living of Lymington, which Wolsey accepted, and left Oxford (1500). Appointed chaplain to Henry VII., he was employed in a secret negociation which regarded Henry's intended marriage with Margaret of Savoy, Maximilian's daughter, and acquitted himself to the king's satisfaction. Introduced to Henry VIII. by Fox, bishop of Winchester, he promoted all those amusements which he found suitable to the age and inclination of the young monarch. He was advanced to be a member of his council, and became his chief minister. By this rapid advance- ment the character and genius of Wolsey had full opportunity to display themselves. Insatiable in his acquisitions, but still more magnificent in his expense ; of extensive capacity, but unbounded enterprise ; ambitious of power, but still more desirous of glory ; insinuating, engaging, persuasive, and, by turns, lofty, elevated, commanding ; haughty to his equals, but affable to his dependants ; he was framed to take the ascendant in his intercourse with others. But this superiority of nature was often exerted in such a way as exposed him to envy, and made every one willing to recal the original inferiority of his fortune. a.d. 1512-1514. BATTLES OF GUINEGATE AND FLODDEN. 243 § 3. The war commenced in 1513 with a desperate naval action, in which Sir Edward Howard, the English admiral, was slain, whilst attempting to cut six French galleys out of the port of Conquet with only two vessels. On the 30th of June the king landed at Calais with a considerable army. Marching from Calais on the 21st of July, he appeared before Terouenne, and was joined by the emperor Maximilian (August 12), who had enlisted himself in Henry's service, wore the cross of St. George, and received 100 gold crowns a day as one of his captains. But while he exhibited this extraordinary spectacle, of an emperor serving under a king of England, he was treated with the highest respect by Henry. Keceiving intelligence of the approach of the French along the Lis to relieve the town, Henry met and overthrew them with so much precipitation that they immediately took to flight and were pursued by the English, and many officers of distinction were made prisoners. The action is sometimes called the Battle of Guinegate, from the place where it was fought ; but more commonly the Battle of Spurs, because the French that day made more use of their spurs than their swords (August 16). Terouenne was taken (August 22). The king then laid siege to Tournay, which surrendered (September 21). As the bishop of Tournay was lately dead, the administration of the see was bestowed on Wolsey. Seeing that the season was far advanced, Henry returned to England with the greater part of his army. The success which during the summer had attended Henry's arms in the north under Surrey was much more decisive. James IV., king of Scotland, had assembled the whole force of his kingdom ; and having passed the Tweed, with a brave though a tumultuary army of above 50,000 men, he ravaged those parts of Northumberland which lay nearest that river. Meanwhile the earl of Surrey, having collected a force of 26,000 men, marched to the defence of the country. The two armies met at Flodden, near the Cheviot Hills (September 9). The action was desperate ; the defeat of the Scotch complete. The English lost no person of note ; but the flower of the Scottish no- bility had fallen, and their king himself, after the most diligent inquiry, could nowhere be found. The fond conceit was long enter- tained among the Scots that he was still alive, and, having secretly gone on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, would soon return and take possession of the throne. When the queen of Scotland, Margaret, who was created regent during the infancy of her son James V., applied for peace, Henry readily granted it, and took compassion upon the helpless condition of his sister and nephew. For this victory Surrey was created duke of Norfolk, and his son succeeded to his father's title. § 4. In the following year (1514) Henry discovered that both the 244 HENRY VIII. Chap. xiv. emperor and the king of Spain had deserted his alliance for that of Louis ; and that they had listened to a proposition for the marriage of their common grandson, the archduke Charles, to a daughter of the French king, although that young prince was already affianced to Henry's sister Mary. Under these circumstances, Henry readily listened to the suggestion of his prisoner, the duke of Longueville, for a peace with France, to be confirmed by Mary's marriage with Louis, who was now a widower. The articles were easily adjusted between the two monarch s; but Louis died in less than three months after the marriage (January 1, 1515). He was succeeded by Fran- cis, count of Angouleme, a youth of 21, who had married Louis's eldest daughter. At that time Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk, was ambassador at the court of France. He was the most comely personage of his time, and the most accomplished in all the exer- cises which were then thought to befit a courtier and a soldier. He was Henry's chief favourite and companion. Taking advantage of the opportunity thus offered him, he contracted a secret marriage with Mary, not without the connivance of the French king. The act, which incurred Henry's indignation was soon forgiven, through the good offices of Wolsey and the French monarch, and the pair were permitted to return to England. § 5. The numerous enemies whom Wolsey's elevation had raised against him, served only to rivet him faster in Henry's confidence. Well acquainted with the king's imperious temper, he concealed from him the ascendency he had acquired ; and while he secretly directed all public councils, he ever pretended profound submission to the will and authority of his master. He had now been pro- moted to the see of York (1514), with which he was allowed to unite Durham in 1523, and the abbey of St. Alban's in 1521. In 1515 the pope created him a cardinal. No churchman ever carried to a greater height the state and dignity of that character. His household consisted of 500 servants, many of whom were knights and gentlemen ; some even of the nobility put their children into his family as a place of education. Whoever was distinguished by any art or science paid court to the cardinal, and none paid court in vain. Literature, which was then in its infancy, found in him a generous patron ; and both by his public institutions and private bounty he gave encouragement to every branch of learning. Not content with this munificence, which gained him the approbation of the wise, he strove to dazzle the eyes of the populace by the splendour of his equipage and furniture, the costly embroidery of his liveries, and the lustre of his apparel. On the resignation of the great seal by Warham, archbishop of Canterbury, it was immediately delivered to Wolsey (December 22, 1515). a.d. 1515-1519. ELECTION OF EMPEROR CHARLES V. 245 If this new accumulation of dignity increased his enemies, it also served to exalt his personal character, and to prove the extent of his capacity. A strict administration of justice took place during his enjoyment of this high office ; and no chancellor ever showed greater care or impartiality in his decisions. In 1518, Francis being desirous of recovering Tournay, a treaty was entered into for the ceding of that town by the cardinal's advice. To give the measure a more graceful appearance, it was agreed that the dauphin and the princess Mary, the king's daughter, both of them infants, should be betrothed, and that Tournay should be considered as the dowry of the princess. Francis also agreed to pay 600,000 gold crowns in twelve annual payments; and lest the cardinal should think himself neglected in these stipulations, he was promised a yearly pension of 12,000 livres, as an equivalent for the loss of the bishopric of Tournay. The authority of Wolsey was about this time further increased by his being invested with the legatine power, by virtue of which he had the right of visiting the clergy and the monasteries in Eng- land, and holding a legatine court. He claimed also jurisdiction over the bishops' courts, especially in the matter of wills and testaments. § 6. While Henry, indulging himself in pleasure and amusement, intrusted the government of his kingdom to his minister, the death of the emperor Maximilian left the highest dignity in Christendom open to competition for Christian princes, and proved a kind of era in the political system of Europe (1519). Francis I. and Charles I., king of Spain, immediately declared themselves candidates for the imperial crown, and employed every expedient of money or intrigue which promised them success. Henry also was encouraged to advance his pretensions ; but his minister, Pace, who was despatched to the electors, found that he had begun his solicitations too late, and that the votes of all these princes were already pre-engaged either on one side or the other. Charles ultimately prevailed; and was thus raised to the highest pinnacle of fortune as the Emperor Charles V. He enjoyed the succession of Castile, of Arragon, of Austria, and of the Netherlands ; he inherited the conquests of Naples and Grenada; election raised him to the empire ; even the bounds of the globe seemed to be enlarged a little before his time, that he might possess the whole treasure, as yet entire and unrifled, of the new world. Francis, disgusted with his ill success, now applied himself, by way of counterjaoise to the power of Charles, to cultivate the friendship of Henry, who possessed the felicity of being able, both by the native force of his kingdom and its situation, to hold the balance between these two powers. He solicited an interview near Calais, in expectation of 246 HENRY VIII. Chap. xiv. being able, by familiar conversation, to gain upon his friendship and confidence; and as Henry himself loved show and magnificence, and had entertained a curiosity of being personally acquainted with the French king, he cheerfully adjusted all the preliminaries. Meanwhile the emperor, politic though young, being informed of the intended interview between Francis and Henry, was appre- hensive of the consequences, and took the opportunity, in his pas- sage from Spain to the Low Countries, to make the English king a still higher compliment by paying him a visit in his own dominions. Hearing of his nephew's arrival, Henry hastened to meet him at Dover. Besides the marks of regard and attachment which Charles gave to Henry, he gained the cardinal to his interests by holding out to him the hope of attaining the papacy. The views of Henry himself, indeed, were directed towards France as his ancient inheritance ; and no power was more fitted than the emperor to assist him in such a design. The day of Charles's departure (May 31, 1520), Henry went over to Calais with the queen and his whole court ; and thence proceeded to Guisnes, a small town near the frontiers. Francis, attended in like manner, came to Ardres, a few miles distant ; and the two monarchs met for the first time in the fields at a place situated between these two towns, but still within the English pale; for Francis agreed to pay this compliment to Henry in consideration of that prince's passing the sea that he might be present at the interview. Wolsey, to whom both kings had intrusted the regula- tion of the ceremonial, contrived this circumstance in order to do honour to his master. The nobility both of France and England here displayed their magnificence with such emulation and pro- fuse expense as procured for the place of interview the name of The Field of the Cloth of Gold. The two monarchs, who were the most comely personages of the age, as well as the most expert in every military exercise, passed the time till their departure in tournaments and other entertainments, more than in any serious business. Henry then paid a visit to the emperor and Margaret of Savoy, at Grave- lines, and engaged them to go along with him to Calais. Charles here completed the impression which he had begun to make on Henry and his favourite ; and, to secure the cardinal still further in his interests, promised him a pension from the ecclesiastical revenues of Toledo and Palencia in Castile ; but never paid it. § 7. The violent personal emulation and political jealousy which had taken place between the emperor and the French king soon broke out in hostilities (1521) ; but while these ambitious and warlike princes were acting against each other in various parts of Europe, they still made professions of peace, and carried their com- A.D. 1519-1522. EXECUTION OF BUCKINGHAM. 247 plaints to Henry, as to the umpire between them. The king, who pretended to be neutral, engaged them to send their ambassadors to Calais, there to negociate a peace, under the mediation of Wolsey and the pope's nuncio. The emperor was well apprised of the partiality of these mediators, and his demands in the conference were so unreasonable as plainly proved him conscious of the advan- tage. Francis rejected the terms ; the congress of Calais broke up ; and Wolsey soon after took a journey to Bruges, where he met the emperor, and arranged the terms, in his master's name, for an offensive alliance with Charles and the pope against France. It was stipulated that England should next summer invade that kingdom with 40,000 men ; and that Charles should marry the princess Mary, the king's only child, who had now some prospect of inheriting the crown. The death of the duke of Buckingham, tried and executed for high treason in May 17, 1521, for letting fall some unguarded expressions, as if he thought himself entitled to succeed, in case the king should die without issue, was popularly attributed to Wolsey, and provoked more than ever the resentment of the nobility.* § 8. Europe was at this time in a ferment with the progress of Luther and the Keformation. Henry, who had been educated in a strict attachment to the church of Borne, wrote a book in Latin in defence of the Seven Sacraments against Luther, and sent a copy of it to pope Leo, who received so magnificent a present with great professions of regard, and conferred on the king the title of Defender of the Faith (October 11, 1521). This was one of the last acts of Leo X., who died before the close of the year, in the flower of his age. He was succeeded in the papal chair by Adrian VI., a Fleming, who had been tutor to the emperor Charles. The emperor, who had taken no pains to make good his promises to Wolsey, paid a second visit to England in 1522. Flattering the vanity of the king and the cardinal, he renewed to Wolsey all the promises, which he had made him, of seconding his pretensions to the papal throne. War was now declared against France. The English army, which landed at Calais under the command of Surrey, did not accomplish anything of importance; but in Scotland the regent Albany, though at the head of a numerous army, was frightened into a disgraceful truce with lord Dacre; and in the following year he retreated still more disgracefully. Soon after he * Henry Stafford, duke of Buckingham, was the son of the duke of Buckingham executed by Kichard III., and was de- scended by the female line from the duke of Gloucester, youngest son of Edward III. (See Genealogical Table, p. 223.) The office of constable, which this nobleman inherited from the Bohuns, earls of Here- ford, was forfeited, and was never after- wards revived in England. 248 HENRY VIII. Chap. xiv. went over to France, and never again returned to Scotland. The Scottish nation, agitated hy domestic factions, was not during several years in a condition to give any more disturbance to Eng- land ; and Henry had full leisure to prosecute his designs on the continent. § 9. To carry on the war against France, Henry in 1523 sum- moned parliament, and demanded a subsidy of 800,000Z. To hasten it, Wolsey went in state to the lower house, to discuss the matter, but was informed that this practice was neither expedient nor agree- able to their ancient liberties. He desired a property tax of twenty per cent, to be raised at once ; but the house demurred. After a long debate, it was concluded that five per cent, should be paid on all property below 201., and ten per cent, on all property above that value, for the first and second year ; and the same rates for the third and fourth year. The sum granted by the commons, besides being distributed over so long a period, was wholly inadequate to the expenses of the war, which required to be pushed with the greatest vigour and alacrity. France was threatened by a formidable confederacy (1523). It was exposed to still greater peril by a domestic con- spiracy which had been formed by Charles, duke of Bourbon, con- stable of France, who, entering into the emperor's service, employed all the force of his enterprising spirit, and his great talents for war, to the prejudice of his native country. A league was formed by Henry, Charles, and Bourbon, for the conquest and partition of France. Provence, Dauphine, Auvergne, and the Bourbonnais, were to be erected into a kingdom for Bourbon ; Burgundy, Lan- guedoc, Champagne, and Picardy, were to be given to the emperor ; and the king of England was to have the rest of France (1523). The duke of Suffolk led an army into France; but, though he advanced within sight of Paris, he returned to Calais without effecting anything of importance. Meanwhile, pope Adrian VI. died (September 24, 1523), and was succeeded by Clement VI., of the family of the Medici, supported by the imperial faction. Wolsey was now fully convinced — if he was not convinced before — of the emperor's insincerity ; but the interests of England were superior to all other considerations, and, if he nourished resentment at the treatment he had received, he did not suffer his passions to inter- fere with his policy. § 10. The year 1525 was marked by a memorable event. Francis had been expelled from Italy in the preceding year ; and the imperialists had invaded the south of France and laid siege to Marseilles. But upon the approach of the French king with a numerous army, they found themselves under a necessity of raising A.D. 1523-1525. BATTLE OF PAVIA — TREATY. 249 the siege ; and they led their forces, weakened, haffled, and dis- heartened, into Italy. Notwithstanding the advanced season, Francis pursued them into that country, and sat down before Pavia ; but, after he had invested it several months, the imperial generals came to its relief. The French were put to the rout, and Francis, surrounded by his enemies, was compelled to surrender himself prisoner (February 24, 1525). Almost the whole army, full of nobility and brave officers, either perished by the sword, or were made prisoners. Henry was at first ostensibly inclined to take advantage of the French monarch's misfortune. He pressed the emperor to invade France next summer from the south, whilst he himself entered it on the north : he anticipated that they might meet at Paris, when, after being crowned king of France, he would assist Charles to recover Burgundy, and accompany him to Pome for his coronation. If the emperor fulfilled his contract in marrying the princess Mary, he held out the prospect that he or his posterity might eventually succeed to the crown of France, and even of England itself. But Charles was in no humour to let Henry reap the chief benefit from his success, or to seek, by an invasion of France, advantages which the captivity of Francis afforded an opportunity to extort. Under one pretence or another, he declined to invade France, intending to secure his own interests alone from the necessities of his royal prisoner. Henry resolved to anticipate him. He entered secretly into negociations with Louise, the queen-mother and regent, for which Wolsey had already paved the way some months before, engaging to procure her son his liberty on reasonable conditions. A treaty was concluded ; the regent acknowledged the kingdom Henry's debtor for 2,000,000 crowns, to be discharged in half- yearly payments of 50,000 crowns : after which Henry was to receive, during life, a yearly pension of 100,000 crowns. The interests of Wolsey were secured by a pension of 100,000 crowns, as a compensation for the loss of his Spanish pension, and the arrears due to him for relinquishing the administration of Tournay. § 11. To meet the expenses incurred by these various negocia- tions, Henry had recourse to an Amicable Loan, as it was called. As the subsidy levied by parliament had not yet been fully paid, this attempt met with considerable opposition. It was urged that the labouring population, especially those who were engaged in the woollen trades, could be no longer set to work whilst the country was thus drained of its capital. The people broke out into murmurs and complaints ; their refractory disposition threatened a general insurrection. But, as they were not headed by any considerable person, it was easy for the duke of Suffolk and the earl of Surrey, 250 HENRY VIII. Chai\ xiv. now duke of Norfolk, by employing persuasion and authority, to induce the ringleaders to lay down their arms and surrender them- selves prisoners. The king, finding it dangerous to punish criminals engaged in so popular a cause, was determined, notwithstanding his imperious temper, to grant them a general pardon; and he pru- dently overlooked their guilt. Early in 1526 the French king recovered his liberty in accord- ance with a treaty concluded at Madrid ; the principal condition of which was the restoring of Francis to liberty, and the delivery of his two eldest sons as hostages to the emperor for the cession of Burgundy. If any difficulty should afterwards occur in the execution of this last article, from the opposition of the States, either of France or the province, Francis stipulated that in six weeks' time he should return to prison, and remain there till the full performance of the treaty. But at the very moment of signing it he entered a secret protest against it, and declared that he would never observe it ; and when he returned to France, he openly showed his resolution to evade its performance, in which he was encouraged by the English court. War was therefore renewed between Francis and Charles. In the following year (1527), Bourbon, who com- manded the imperialists in Italy, finding it difficult to support his army, determined to lead it to Borne, which was taken by storm : but the duke himself was slain in the assault. Pope Clement was taken captive, and the city was exposed to all the violence and brutality of a licentious soldiery. The sack of Rome and the captivity of the pope caused general indignation among all the catholics of Europe. A new treaty was concluded between Henry and Francis, with a view of expelling the imperialists from Italy, and restoring the pope to liberty. Henry agreed finally to renounce all claims to the crown of France ; claims which might now indeed be deemed chimerical, but which had often served as a pretence for exciting the unwary English to wage war upon the French nation. As a return for this concession, Francis bound himself and his successors to pay 50,000 crowns a year to Henry and his successors ; and, that greater solemnity might be given to this treaty, it was agreed that the parliaments and great nobility of both kingdoms should give their assent to it. § 12. About this time Henry began to express those doubts he had already entertained respecting the lawfulness of his marriage with Katharine of Arragon, his brother's widow, though he had been united to her 18 years. Several causes tended to render his conscience more scrupulous. The queen was older than the king by no less than six years ; and the decay of her beauty contributed, a.d. 152B-1529 REPUDIATES KATHARINE. 251 notwithstanding her blameless character and deportment, to render her person unacceptable. Though she had borne him several children, they had all died in early infancy, except one daughter. The king professed to be the more struck with this misfortune, because the curse of being childless is the threat contained in the Mosaical law against those who espouse their brother's widow. He urged that the succession of the crown was in danger ; and that doubts of Mary's legitimacy might hereafter throw the kingdom into confusion. But Henry had already fixed his affections on Anne Boleyn. This young lady was daughter of sir Thomas Boleyn, and, through her mother, grand-daughter of the late and niece of the present duke of Norfolk. Anne herself, in early youth, had been carried over to Paris, and returned to England in 1522. As inclination and policy seemed thus to concur in making the king desirous of a divorce, he resolved to apply to Clement VI., and he sent Knight, his secretary, to Borne for that purpose. The pope, who was then a prisoner in the hands of the emperor, and had no hopes of securing his liberty except by the efforts of the league which Henry had formed with Francis and the Italian powers in order to oppose the ambition of Charles, soon after escaped in disguise to Orvieto; but as he still remained in dread of the imperialists, he had the strongest motives to embrace every opportunity of gratifying the English monarch. When the English secretary, therefore, solicited him in private, he received a very favourable answer. After many negociations and some delay, he granted a commission in 1528 to cardinals Wolsey and Campeggio, to try the validity of the marriage. Charles had, meanwhile, promised Katharine, his aunt, his utmost protection; and in all his negociations with the pope he pressed urgently for the recal of the commission issued to the two cardinals. Campeggio arrived in England, October 7, and the two legates opened their court at London, May 31, 1529, and, after certain pre- liminaries, cited the king and queen to appear before them. They both presented themselves, and the king answered to his name when called ; but the queen, instead of answering to hers, rose from her seat, and, throwing herself at the king's feet, made a very pathetic harangue, which her virtue, her dignity, and her misfor- tunes rendered the more affecting. She concluded by declaring that she would not submit her cause to be tried by a court whose de- pendence on her enemies was too visible ever to allow her any hopes of obtaining from them an equitable or impartial decision. With these words, she rose, and making the king a low rever- ence she departed from the court, and never would again appear in it. The trial was spun out till the 23rd of July, the 'two 252 HENRY VIII. Chap. xiv. legates using all their persuasions, but in vain, to induce Katharine to consent to a separation and dissolution of the marriage. The king was anxiously expecting a sentence in his favour, when, to his great surprise, Campeggio prorogued the court till the 1st of October. A few days afterwards the king and queen received a citation from the pope to appear either in person or by proxy at Rome. This measure, which the emperor had extorted from the timidity of Clement, put an end to all the hopes of success which the king had so long and so anxiously cherished. § 13. Wolsey had long foreseen this measure as the sure fore- runner of his ruin. He had employed himself with the utmost assiduity and earnestness to bring the affair to a happy issue : he was not, therefore, to be blamed for the unprosperous event which Clement's partiality had produced. Anne Boleyn also, who was prepossessed against him, imputed to him the failure of her hopes. Even the high opinion which Henry entertained of the cardinal's capacity tended to hasten his downfall ; while, encouraged in his animosity against the unfortunate cardinal by Anne Boleyn and her friends, he imputed the bad success of that minister's un- dertakings, not to ill fortune, or to mistake, but to the malignity or infidelity of his intentions. Wolsey appeared for the last time in the court of Chancery, October 9. The same day an indictment was preferred against him in the King's Bench for breach of prae- munire, in procuring bulls from Rome and exercising the legatine authority. The great seal was taken from him a few days after, and delivered by the king to sir Thomas More, a man who, besides the ornaments of an elegant literature, possessed the highest virtue, integrity, and capacity. Wolsey was ordered to depart from York-place, a palace which he had built in London, and which, though it really belonged to the see of York, was seized by Henry, and became afterwards the residence of the kings of Eng- land, by the title of Whitehall. All his furniture and plate were seized; and he was ordered to retire to Esher, a country seat he possessed near Hampton Court. The world, that had paid him such abject court during his prosperity, now entirely deserted him on this fatal reverse of all his fortunes. Upon the meeting of parliament (November 3), which had not been summoned for seven years, the House of Lords voted a long charge against Wolsey, consisting of 44 articles, and acccompanied it with an application for his punishment and his removal from all authority. The articles were sent down to the House of Com- mons, where Thomas Cromwell, his servant, and who had been raised by him from a very low station, defended his unfortunate patron with much spirit and generosity. After some months Wolsey A.D. 1529. RISE OF CRANMEK. 253 obtained his rardon. He was allowed to retain the see of York, and a small portion of his plate and furniture was restored. § 14. The general peace established this summer in Europe by the treaty of Cambray (August 5, 1529) left Henry full leisure to prosecute his divorce. Amidst the anxieties with which he was agitated, he was often tempted to break off all connections with the court of Rome. He found his prerogative firmly established at home ; and he observed that his people were in general much dis- gusted with clerical usurpations, and disposed to reduce the powers and privileges of the ecclesiastical order. But notwithstanding these inducements, Henry had strong motives still to desire a good agree- ment with the sovereign pontiff. He apprehended the danger of such great innovations : he dreaded the reproach of heresy : he abhorred all connections with the Lutherans, the chief opponents of the papal power: and having once exerted himself with much applause, as he imagined, in defence of the papal authority, he was ashamed to retract his former opinions, and betray from passion such a palpable inconsistency. While he was agitated by these contrary motives, an expedient was proposed, which, as it promised a solution of all difficulties, was embraced by him with the greatest joy and satisfaction. The story goes, though many of its details are certainly apocryphal, that Dr. Thomas Cranmer, fellow of Jesus College in Cambridge, fell one evening by accident into company with Gardiner, now the king's secretary, and Fox, the king's almoner ; and, as the business of the divorce became the subject of conversation, he observed that the readiest way, either to quiet Henry's conscience or extort the pope's consent, would be to consult the universities with regard to this controverted point : if they agreed to approve of the king's marriage with Katharine, his remorse would naturally cease ; if they condemned it, the pope would find it difficult to resist the solicitations of so great a monarch, seconded by the opinion of the learned men in Christendom. When the king was informed of the proposal, he was delighted with it, and swore, with more alacrity than delicacy, that Cranmer had got the right sow by the ear. He sent for that divine, engaged him to write in defence of the divorce, and, in prosecution of the scheme proposed, employed his agents to collect the judgments of all the universities in Europe. The king's money was freely employed. Several gave sentence in the king's favour; not only those of Prance, Paris, Orleans, Bourges, Toulouse, Angers, which might be supposed to lie under the influence of their prince, Henry's ally; but also those of Venice, Ferrara, Padua, and even Bologna. Oxford alone, and Cambridge, alarmed at the progress of Lutheranism, made some 13 254 HENRY VIII. Chap, xiv difficulty. Their opinion, however, conformable to that of the other universities of Europe, was at last obtained, though not without the use of threats. Meanwhile the enemies of Wolsey, and Anne Boleyn in par- ticular, had persuaded Henry to renew the prosecution against his ancient favourite. The cardinal had, by the king's command, removed to his see of York, and had taken up his residence at Cawood, in Yorkshire, where he rendered himself extremely popular in the neighbourhood by his affability and hospitality. Here he was arrested on a charge of high treason by the earl of Northumber- land, who had received orders to conduct him to London in order to his trial. The cardinal, partly from the fatigues of his journey, partly from agitation of mind, was seized with a disorder which turned into a dysentery ; and he was able with some difficulty to reach Leicester Abbey. When the abbot and the monks advanced to receive him with much respect and reverence, he told them that he was come to lay his bones amongst them ; and he immediately took to his bed, whence he never rose more. A little before he expired he said, among other things, to sir William Kingston, constable of the Tower, who had him in custody, — " Had I but served God as diligently as I have served the king, he would not have given me over in my grey hairs. Let me advise you," he added, " if you be hereafter one of the privy council, as by your wisdom you are meet, take care what matter you put into the king's head : for you shall never put it out again." Thus died this famous cardinal (November 29, 1530), whose character seems to have con- tained as singular a variety as the fortune to which he was exposed. Whatever were his faults, he was undoubtedly a minister of great capacity, " enlightened beyond the age in which he lived, diligent in business, a good servant to the king," whose cruelty was re- strained and whose passions and caprices were kept within bounds by Wolsey's influence. But the best proof of the excellence of his administration is to be found in the comparison of the king's conduct when the cardinal directed his council and after his fall. Gold medal of Henry VIII. Obverse : henricvs . octa . angli^e . fkanci . et . hib . rex . fidei . defensob . et. IK . TERB . ECCLE . ANGLI . ET . HIBE . SVB . CHKIST . CAPVT . SVPEEjrVM. CHAPTEE XV. HENRY VIII. — CONTINUED. FROM THE DEATH OF WOLSEY TO THE DEATH OF THE KING. A.D. 1530-1547. § 1. Proceedings against the clergy and the court of Eome. Henry's mar- riage with Anne Boleyn. Katharine divorced. § 2. The Reformation. Establishment of the succession and committal of Fisher and More. The king declared supreme head of the church. § 3. State of parties. Tyndale's Bible. Persecutions. The Holy Maid of Kent. § 4. Exe- cution of Fisher and More. Henry excommunicated. Death of queen Katharine. § 5: Suppression of the lesser monasteries. Trial and execution of queen Anne. Henry marries Jane Seymour. Settlement of the succession. § 6. Discontents and insurrections. Pilgrimage of Grace. Birth of prince Edward and death of queen Jane. Sup- pression of the greater monasteries. § 7. The pope publishes his bull of excommunication. Cardinal Pole. § 8. Law of the Six Articles. Servility of the parliament and tyranny of the king. § 9. Henry marries Anne of Cleves. § 10. Fall and execution of Cromwell. Henry's divorce from Anne of Cleves. § 11. Religious persecutions. Execution of the countess of Salisbury. Marriage, trial, and execution of queen Katharine Howard. ■§ 12. War with Scotland and death of James V. Henry's marriage with Katharine Parr. War with France. Peace concluded. § 13. Scotch affairs. Theological dogmatism of Henry. His queen in danger. § 14. Attainder of the duke of Norfolk and execution of the earl of Surrey. Death and character of the king.j § 1. In 1531 a new session of parliament was held, together with a convocation; and the king here gave strong proofs of his ex- 256 HENRY VIII. Chap. xv. tensive authority, as well as of his intention to turn it to the depression of the church. The law under which Wolsey had been prosecuted was now turned against the clergy. It was pretended that every one who had submitted to the legatine court, that is, the whole church, had violated the Statute of Provisors, and been guilty of the offence of praemunire, and the attorney-general accordingly brought an indictment against them. The convocation knew that it would be in vain to oppose the king's arbitrary will. They therefore threw themselves on his mercy, and agreed to pay 118,840?. for a pardon. A confession was likewise extorted from them, that the king was the protector and the supreme head of the church and clergy of England; though some of them had the dexterity to get a clause inserted which invalidated the whole submission, and which ran in these terms : in so far as is permitted by the law of Christ. By this strict execution of the Statute of Provisors, a great part of the profit, and still more of the power, of the court of Rome was cut off ; and the connections between the pope and the English clergy were, in some measure, dissolved. The next session found both king and parliament in the same dispositions. An act was passed against levying annates or first-fruits (1532).* The better to keep the pope in awe, the king was intrusted with a power of regulating these payments, and of enforcing or relaxing this act at his pleasure : and it was voted that any censures which should be passed by the court of Eome, on account of that law, should be entirely disre- garded ; and that the mass should be said, and the sacraments administered, as if no such censures had been issued. After the prorogation, sir Thomas More, the chancellor, foreseeing that all the measures of the king and parliament led to a breach with the church of Eome, and to an alteration of religion, with which his principles would not admit him to concur, desired leave to resign the great seal ; and he descended from his high station with more joy and alacrity than he had mounted up to it. The king, who entertained a high opinion of his virtue, received his resignation with some difficulty ; and he delivered the great seal soon after to sir Thomas Audley (1532). During these transactions in England the court of Rome was not without solicitude. It entertained just apprehensions of losing entirely its authority in England. Yet the queen's appeal was received at Rome ; the king was cited to appear ; and several con- sistories were held to examine the validity of their marriage. Henry declined to plead his cause before this court ; and, in order * These were a year's income of their 1 preferments. They were one of the main sees, given by all bishops and archbishops sources of the papal revenue, to the pope, upon presentation to their ' a.d. 1531-1534. MARRIES ANNE BOLEYN. 257 to add greater security to his intended defection from Rome, he procured an interview with Francis at Boulogne and Calais, where he renewed his personal friendship as well as public alliance with that monarch, and concerted measures for their mutual defence. And now, fully determined in his own mind, as well as resolute to abide all consequences, he privately celebrated his marriage with Anne Boleyn (January 25, 1533), whom he had previously created marchioness of Pembroke. In the next parliament an act was made against all appeals to Rome in cases of matrimony, divorces, wills, and other suits cognizable in ecclesiastical courts. Cranmer, who had been created archbishop of Canterbury on the death of Warham, opened his court at Dunstable for examining the validity of Katharine's marriage. Katharine, who resided at Ampt- hill, six miles distant, refused to appear either in person or by proxy. Cranmer pronounced sentence, and annulled the king's marriage with Katharine as unlawful and invalid from the beginning (May 28). By a subsequent sentence he ratified the marriage with Anne Boleyn, who soon afterwards was publicly crowned, with all the pomp and dignity suited to that ceremony. To complete the king's satisfaction on the conclusion of this intricate and vexatious affair, she was safely delivered of a daughter (September 7, 1533), who received the name of Elizabeth, and afterwards swayed the sceptre with such renown and felicity. The pope, on the other hand, formally pronounced the judgment of Cranmer to be illegal, and declared Henry to be excommunicated if he adhered to it. § 2. The quarrel between Henry and the pope was now irrecon- cilable, and the year 1534 may be considered as the era of the separation of the English church from Rome. By several acts of parliament passed in this year the papal authority in England was annulled; and persons paying any regard to it incurred the penalties of praemunire. Monasteries were subjected to the visitation and government of the king alone ; bishops were to be appointed by a conge oVelire from the crown, and, in the event of the dean and chapter refusing to elect, they were subject to a praemunire. No recourse was to be had to Rome for palls, bulls, or provisions. The law which had been formerly made against paying annates or first-fruits, but which had been left in the king's power to suspend or enforce, was finally established: and a submission was exacted from the clergy, by which they acknowledged that convocations ought to be assembled by the king's authority only. The ecclesias- tical courts, however, were allowed to subsist. Another act regu- lated the succession to the crown : the marriage of the king with Katharine was declared invalid : the primate's sentence annulling it was ratified : the marriage with queen Anne was established and 258 HENRY VIII. Chap. xv. confirmed : and the crown was appointed to descend to the issue of this marriage. All persons were liable, at the king's pleasure, to be called upon to swear to this act ; and whoever refused to do so was held to be guilty of misprision of treason* (1534). The oath regarding the succession was generally taken throughout the kingdom. Fisher, bishop of Eochester, and sir Thomas More were the only persons of note that entertained scruples with regard to its legality ; and both were committed prisoners to the Tower. At the close of the year the parliament passed the Act oi Supre- macy, declaring the king " the only supreme head in earth of the church of England ; " a title already conferred on him by convoca- tion three years previously. In this act the parliament acknow T ledged his inherent power " to visit, repress, redress, reform, order, correct, restrain, and amend all errors, heresies, abuses, contempts, and enormities, which fell under any spiritual authority or juris- diction," stating at the same time that they did not intend to depart from the Catholic faith. This act was followed by another declaring all persons to be guilty of treason who denied the king's supremacy. § 3. Though Henry had disowned the authority of the pope, he still valued himself on maintaining the catholic doctrine, and on guarding, by fire and sword, the imagined purity of its tenets. His ministers and courtiers were of as motley a character as his conduct , and seemed to waver, during his whole reign, between the ancient and the new religion. The queen, engaged by interest as well as inclination, favoured the cause of the reformers ' Cromwell, who was created secretary, embraced the same views ; and Cranmer, arch- bishop of Canterbury, had secretly adopted some ot the protestant tenets. On the other hand, the duke of Norfolk adhered to the ancient faith ; and by his high rank, as well as by his talents, both for peace and war, he had great authority in the king's council. Gardiner, created bishop of Winchester (1531), had enlisted himself in the same party. All these ministers, while they stood in the most irreconcilable opposition of principles to one another, pretended to an entire agreement with the sentiments of their master. Cromwell and Cranmer still carried the appearance of conformity tc the ancient speculative tenets ; but they artfully made use of Henry's resent- ment to widen the breach with the see of Eome. The duke of Nor- folk, and Gardiner, feigned assent to the king's supremacy, and to * "Misprision (a term derived from the old French mespris, a neglect or con- tempt) is, in the acceptation of our law, generally understood to he all such high offences as are under the degree of capital, but nearly bordering thereon. . . . The punishment of misprision of treason is loss of the profits of land during life, for- feiture of goods, and imprisonment during life."— Kerr's Blackstone, iv. 121, 122. a.d. 1534. THE HOLY MAID OF KENT. 259 his renunciation of the sovereign pontiff; but they encouraged his passion for the catholic faith, and instigated him to punish those daring heretics who had presumed to reject his theological principles. The ambiguity of the king's conduct, though it kept the courtiers in awe, served in the main to encourage the protestant doctrine among his subjects. The books composed by Tyndale and other reformers, who had fled to Antwerp, having been secretly brought over to England, began to make converts everywhere ; but it was a translation of the New Testament, published by Tyndale at Cologne in 1526, that was esteemed the most dangerous to the established faith. Its importation into England was forbidden, and orders were given for destroying all the copies that could be found. Such precautions, it is needless to state, were wholly ineffectual. Though Henry neglected not to punish the protestant doctrine, which he deemed heresy, his most formidable enemies, he knew, were the zealous adherents to the ancient religion, chiefly the monks and friars, who, having their immediate dependence on the Eoman pontiff, apprehended their own ruin to be the certain conse- quence of abolishing his authority in England. In 1533 a dangerous conspiracy was detected. Elizabeth Barton, of Aldington, in Kent, commonly called the Holy Maid of Kent, had been long subject to hysterical fits, which threw her body into unusual convulsions, and, having produced an equal disorder in her mind, made her utter strange sayings, which silly people in the neighbourhood imagined to be supernatural. Richard Masters, rector of the parish, having associated with him Dr. Booking, a canon of Canterbury, resolved to take advantage of this delusion. They were accused of teaching their penitent to declaim against the new doctrines, which she de- nominated heresy; against innovations in ecclesiastical government ; and especially against the king's divorce from Katharine. »A few monks and ecclesiastics -entered into the scheme ; and even Fisher, bishop of Rochester, though a man of sense and learning, was carried away by the delusion. The Maid of Kent had continued her course for some years ; but after the king's marriage with Anne Boleyn she predicted his death, and pronounced him to be in the condition of Saul after his rejection. Henry at last began to think the matter worthy of his attention ; and Elizabeth herself, Masters, Booking, and some others, were executed at Tyburn (1534). § 4. Fisher had lain in prison above a twelvemonth, when Paul III., who had now succeeded to the papal throne, willing to recompense the sufferings of so faithful an adherent, created him a cardinal. This promotion roused the indignation of the king. Fisher was indicted for high treason, because he refused to acknow- 260 HENRY VIII. Chap. xv. ledge the king's supremacy, was tried, condemned, and beheaded (June 22, 1535). More was condemned for the same offence, and was executed on July 6. He had long expected this fate, and needed no preparation to fortify him against the terrors of death. Not only his constancy, but even his cheerfulness, nay, his usual facetiousness, never forsook him ; and he made a sacrifice of his life to his integrity, with the same indifference that he maintained in any ordinary occurrence. When he was mounting the scaffold, he said to one, " Friend, help me up : when I come down again, I can shift for myself." The executioner asked him forgiveness : he granted the request, but told him, " You will never get credit by beheading me, my neck is so short." Then, laying his head on the block, he bade the executioner stay till he put aside his beard : "For," said he, "it never committed treason." Nothing was wanting to the glory of his end, except a better cause. The execution of Fisher, a cardinal, was regarded by the pope as so capital an injury, that he immediately drew up his celebrated bull of interdict and deposition. The bull was suspended for a time through the interference of the French king, and was not issued till three years afterwards. Meantime an incident happened in England which promised a more amicable conclusion of these disputes, and seemed even to open the way for a reconciliation between Henry and Charles. Queen Katharine was seized with a lingering illness, which at last brought her to her grave ; she died at Kimbolton, in the county of Huntingdon, in the 50th year of her age (January 7, 1536). A little before she expired she wrote a very tender letter to the king : " The hour of my death now approaching, I cannot choose but, out of the love I bear you, to advise you of your soul's health, which you ought to prefer before all considerations of the world or flesh whatsoever ; for which you have cast me into many calamities, and yourself into many troubles. But I forgive you all, and pray God to do so likewise." She recommended to him his daughter, the sole pledge of their loves, and craved his protection for her maids and servants. She concluded with these words: "I make this vow, that mine eyes desire you above all things." The king, it is said, was touched by this last tender proof of Katharine's affection. After this event the emperor sent proposals to Henry for a return to their ancient amity. Charles was now engaged in a desperate war with France ; but an invasion which he made in person into Provence, and another on the side of the Netherlands, were repulsed : and Henry, finding that his own tranquillity was fully insured by these violent wars and animosities on the continent, was the more indifferent to the advances of the emperor. a.d 1535-1536. LESSER MONASTERIES SUPPRESSED. 261 § 5. Immediately after the execution of More, the king proceeded to execute a design he had formed to suppress the monasteries, and to put himself in possession of their ample revenues, a practice of which Wolsey had first set the example by suppressing some of the smaller religious houses, in order to found his colleges at Oxford and Ipswich. Cromwell, secretary of state, had been appointed vicar-general, or vicegerent (1535); a new office, by which the king's supremacy was delegated to his minister. Cromwell employed com- missioners, who carried on, everywhere, a rigorous inquiry with regard to the conduct and deportment of the friars and nuns in the smaller religious houses. A report, charging them with all kinds of immorality, 'was laid before the House of Commons in 1536. The larger monasteries, which had not been guilty of such gross offences, were allowed to remain ; but the parliament passed an act suppressing all the lesser monasteries, which possessed a revenue below 2001. a year. By this act 376 monasteries were suppressed, and their revenues, amounting to 32,000/. a year, were granted to the king ; besides their goods, chattels, and plate, computed at 100,000/. more. To manage the property thus acquired, the court of Aug- mentation was established. In this year also Wales was incorporated with England : the separate jurisdiction of the several great lords, or marchers, as they were called, which obstructed the course of justice, and encouraged robbery and pillaging, was abolished ; and the authority of the king's court was extended everywhere. This parliament, which had sat from 1529 — the first parliament of the Reformation — was now dissolved (April 4, 1536). The same year was marked by the tragic fate of the new queen. She had been delivered of a dead son, to Henry's disappointment. It is supposed that his anger was further inflamed against her by the insinuations of the viscountess of Rochfort, who was married to the queen's brother, but who lived on bad terms with her sister-in-law. Henry had already transferred his affections to another object. Jane, daughter of sir John Seymour, and maid of honour to the queen, a young lady of singular beauty and merit, had obtained an entire ascendency over him ; and he was determined to sacrifice everything to the gratification of this new appetite. The queen was sent to the Tower (May 2) ; four of her alleged paramours, Norris, Brereton, Weston, and Smeton, gentlemen about the court, were tried and executed. Smeton was prevailed on, by the vain hopes of life, to confess a criminal correspondence with the queen. Her own brother, the viscount Rochfort, was accused of a guilty connection with her. The queen and her brother were tried by a jury of peers, over *vhich their uncle, the duke of Norfolk, presided as high 13* 262 HENRY VIII. Chap, xv, steward. Both, were condemned. Not satisfied with this cruel vengeance, Henry was. resolved to annul his marriage with Anne Boleyn, and declare her issue illegitimate. On the ground that before her marriage with the king she had been contracted to lord Percy, then earl of Northumberland, Cranmer pronounced the •marriage null and invalid, although Percy solemnly denied that such a contract had ever existed. The queen now prepared for death, having spent the interval in alternate moods of light-hearted- ness and profound depression. To the lieutenant of the Tower, and all who approached her, she professed L.r innocence, and even her readiness to die. "The executioner," she said, "is, I hear, very expert ; and my neck is but a small one." She was executed May 19. Her innocence has been called in question. Certain it is that her fate excited little commiseration at the time ; nor did it impair the king's popularity, or give birth to any of those un- ceremonious expressions so frequently uttered against his divorce. But her most effectual apology is the marriage of Henry with Jane Seymour on the day after Anne's execution.* These events ren- dered it necessary for the king to summon a parliament, by which his divorce from Anne Boleyn was ratified. The children of both his former marriages were declared illegitimate ; the crown was settled on the king's issue by Jane Seymour, or any subsequent wife ; and, in case he should die without children, he was empowered, by his will, or letters patent, to dispose of the crown — an enormous autho- rity, especially when intrusted to a prince so violent and capricious. § 6. The late innovations, particularly the dissolution of the smaller monasteries, and the imminent danger to which the rest were exposed, had bred discontent among the people, and disposed them to revolt. The first rising was in Lincolnshire, and was put down without much difficulty (1536). A subsequent insurrection in the northern counties was more formidable, and was joined by 30,000 men. One Aske, a gentleman of Doncaster, had taken the command of them, and he possessed the art of governing the populace. They called their enterprise the Pilgrimage of Grace. Some priests marched before in the habits of their order, carrying crosses in their hands; in their banners was woven a crucifix, with the representation of a chalice, and of the five wounds of Christ. All took an oath that they entered into the Pilgrimage of Grace from no other motive than their love to God, their desire of driving "base-born councillors" from about the king, of restoring the church, and suppressing heresy. They seized Hull and York, as well as Pomfret castle, into which the archbishop of York and * Jane had retired to Wiltshire ; and I of the Tower gun announcing the exeeu- the king, it is said, only waited the signal | tion of Anne to join his intended bride. a.d. 1536-1537. DEATH OF JANE SEYMOUR. 263 lord Darcy had thrown themselves ; and the prelate and noble- man, who secretly wished suceess to the insurrection, .seemed to yield to the force imposed on them, and joined the rebels. The duke of Norfolk was despatched against them ; but, finding them too strong in the open field, he entered into negociations, and at length induced them to disperse, on promise of a general pardon. Early in the next year the rebellion broke out afresh, but was promptly suppressed. Norfolk, by command from his master, sjjread the royal banner, and, wherever he thought proper, executed martial law in the punishment of offenders. He was ordered to show little mercy. "You shall in any wise," writes the king, " cause such dreadful execution to be done upon a good number of the inhabitants of every town, village, and hamlet that have offended in this rebellion, as well by hanging of them up in trees, as by the quartering of them and the setting of their heads and quarters in every town, as they may be a fearful spectacle to all hereafter that would practise any like matter." Many abbots and canons were " tied up." Aske and his associates were condemned and executed. Lord Darcy, though he pleaded compulsion, and appealed for his justification to a long life spent in the service of the crown, was beheaded on Tower Hill (1537). Soon after this prosperous success an event happened which crowned Henry's joy — the birth of a son, who was baptised by the name of Edward (October 12). Yet his happiness was not without alloy ; for Jane Seymour died a few days after (October 24). Henry's success, in putting down the great rebellion in the north strengthened him in his determination of suppressing the larger monasteries. The abbots and monks knew the danger to which they were exposed, and having learned, by the example of the lesser monasteries, that nothing could withstand the king's will, were most of them induced, in expectation of better treatment, to make a voluntary resignation of their houses. Where promises failed of effect, menaces, and even extreme violence, were employed ; and on the whole the design was conducted with such success that in less than two years the king had got possession of all the monastic revenues. The better to reconcile the people to this great innova- tion, stories were propagated of the detestable lives of the inmates of many convents. The relics also, and other superstitions, which had so long been the object of the people's veneration, were exposed to ridicule; and the religious spirit, now less bent on exterior observances and sensible objects, was encouraged in this new direction. Of all the instruments of ancient superstition, none were more zealously destroyed than the shrine of Thomas a Becket, commonly called St. Thomas of Canterbury. Henry not only 264 HENRY VIII. Chap. xv. pillaged his rich shrine, but ordered his name to be struck out of the calendar. The office for his festival was expunged from all breviaries : his bones were burned, and the ashes dispersed to the wind. On the whole, the king suppressed, at different times, 645 monasteries, of which 29 had abbots that enjoyed a seat in parliament ; 90 colleges were demolished in several counties, 2374 chantries and free chapels, 110 hospitals. The whole revenue of these establish- ments amounted to 161,100?. Henry settled small pensions on the abbots and priors; he erected six new bishoprics — Westminster, Oxford, Peterborough, Bristol, Chester, and Gloucester — of which five subsist at this day ; and he made a gift of the revenues and lands of some of the convents to his courtiers and favourites, or sold them at inadequate prices. Beside the lands possessed by the monasteries, the regular clergy enjoyed a considerable part of the best benefices in England and of the tithes annexed to them ; and these were also at this time transferred to the crown, and by that means passed into the hands of laymen. § 7. It is easy to imagine the indignation with which the intelli- gence of all these acts of violence was received at Kome. The pope was at last incited to pubAsh the bull which had been passed against the king ; and publicly delivered over his soul to the devil, and his dominions to the first invader (December 17, 1538). Henry's kins- man, cardinal Reginald Pole,* published a treatise of the Unity of the Church, which he had sent privately to Henry two years before. In it he denounced the king's supremacy, his divorce, and his second marriage. In 1537 he headed a catholic crusade, and even exhorted the emperor to revenge on Henry the injury done to the imperial family and to the catholic cause. Henry seized all the members of Pole's family in England, together with other persons of high rank. They were accused of treason; and several were executed, among whom was lord Montacute, the cardinal's brother and the marquis of Exeter, the grandson of Edward IV.f (1538). Others were attainted without trial, which was the fate of the countess of Salisbury, the aged mother of the cardinal. § 8. Although Henry had gradually changed some of the tenets of that theological system in which he had been educated, he was no less positive and dogmatical in those which he retained. He attached particular ir-iortance to the doctrine of the real pre- * Reginald Pole was the fourth son of the countess of Salisbury, daughter of the duke of Clarence executed by Edward IV. Her only brother, the earl of Warwick, wis put to death by Henry VII. (See P- !37.) She was restored in 1513, and became countess of Salisbury in her own right, a title which descended to her from her grandfather, the earl of Warwick and Salisbury, the celebrated king-maker. After her brother's death she married sir Richard Pole, a relation of Henry VII. f He was the son of the earl of Devon, and of Katharine, a daughter of Edward IV. a.d. 1538-1539. STATUTE OF THE SIX ARTICLES. 265 sence; and he informed the parliament, summoned in 1539, that he was anxious to extirpate from his kingdom all diversity of opinion on matters of religion, Subservient as usual to the wishes of the king, the parliament passed an act for this purpose, usually called The Statute of the Six Articles, or the Bloody Bill, as the protestants justly termed it. In this law the doctrine of transubstantiation was insisted on, communion in one kind, the perpetual obligation of vows of chastity, the utility of private masses, the celibacy of the clergy, and the necessity of auricular confession. Whoever denied these articles of faith was liable to be burned. Having thus resigned their religious liberties, parliament proceeded to surrender the most important of their civil. They gave to the king's proclamation the force of a statute, provided it did not touch the lives, liberties, goods, and offices of the subject, or infringe the established laws. As soon as the act of the Six Articles had passed, many persons were thrown into prison. Latimer and Shaxton, the protestant bishops, resigned their bishoprics, and were committed as " sacra- mentarian heretics." The uncertainty of the king's humour gave each party an opportunity of triumphing in its turn. Within two years after Henry had passed this law, which seemed to inflict so deep a wound on the reformers, the king ordered a copy of the Great Bible, commonly called Cranmer's Bible, to be set up in all parish churches, under a penalty of forty shillings — a concession regarded by that party as an important victory. It is from this version that the Psalms in the Common Prayer-book of the church of England have been taken. § 9. Immediately after the death of Jane Seymour, the most be- loved of all his wives, Henry began to think of a new marriage. Cromwell, who was anxious to connect Henry 'with the protestant princes on the continent, proposed to him Anne of Cleves, whose father, the duke of that name, had great interest among the Lu- therans, and whose sister Sibylla was married to the elector of Saxony, the head of the protestant league. A flattering picture of •the princess by Hans Holbein determined Henry to apply to her father ; and after some negociation the marriage was concluded, and Anne was sent over to England. The king, impatient to be satisfied with regard to the person of his bride, came privately to Rochester and obtained a sight of her. He found her utterly destitute both of beauty and grace, very unlike the pictures and representations which he had received, and he swore he never could possibly bear her any affection. The matter was worse when' he found that she could speak no language but German, of which he was entirely ignorant ; and that the charms of her conversation were not likely to com- 266 HENRY VIII. Chap. xv. pensate for the homeliness of her person. It was the subject of da- bate among the king's counsellors whether the marriage could not yet be dissolved, and the princess be sent back to her own country ; but as a cordial union had taken place between the emperor and the king of France, and as their religious zeal might prompt them to fall with combined arms upon England, an alliance with the German princes seemed now more than ever requisite for Henry's interest and safety. He knew that, if he sent back the princess of Cleves, such an affront would be highly resented by her friends and family. He was therefore resolved, notwithstanding his aversion, to complete the marriage ; and he told Cromwell that, since matters had gone so far, he must put his neck into the yoke (January 6, 1540). He continued, however, to be civil to Anne ; he even seemed to repose his tisual confidence in Cromwell, who received soon after the title of earl of Essex, and was installed knight of the garter ; but, though he exerted this command over himself, discontent lay lurking in his breast, and was ready to burst out on the first opportunity. § 10. The fall of Cromwell was hastened by other causes. The nobility detested a man who, being of such low extraction, had not only mounted above them by his station of vicar-general, but had engrossed many considerable offices of the crown. He had enriched himself by a long career of venality and corruption. No minister ever set his favours to sale with less regard to decency. As he entirely monopolized the king's countenance, and as vicar-general had the distribution of spiritual promotions, especially of the religious houses, he had amassed enormous riches. In 1539 he had contrived to secure for himself some thirty monastic manors and many other considerable estates. The people regarded him with dislike as the supposed author of the violence done to the monasteries, establish- ments which were still revered and beloved by the commonalty. The catholic party hated him as the concealed enemy of their religion ; the protestants, observing his external concurrence in the persecutions exercised against them, were inclined to bear him as little favour, and reproached him with the timidity, if not treachery, of his conduct. He was accused of treason at the council-board by the duke of Norfolk, and was instantly committed to the Tower. He endeavoured to soften the king by the most humble supplica- tions, but all to no purpose. He was executed on a bill of attainder charging him with heresy, oppression, and extortion, July 28, 1540. The measures for divorcing Henry from Anne of Cleves were car- ried on at the same time with the bill of attainder against Cromwell. The convocation soon afterwards solemnly annulled the marriage between the king and queen, chiefly on the futile ground of a pre- contract between Anne and the marquis of Lorraine, when both were a.d. 1540-1542. EXECUTION OF KATHARINE HOWARD. 267 children ; the parliament ratified the decision of the clergy ; and the sentence was soon after notified to the princess. Anne was blessed with a happy insensibility of temper, and willingly hearkened to terms of accommodation. When the king offered to adopt her as his sister, to give her place next the queen and his own daughter, and to make a settlement of 3000?. a year upon her, she accepted the conditions, and gave her consent to the divorce (July 11).* § 11. Henry's marriage with Katharine Howard, the niece of the duke of Norfolk, followed soon after (July 28, 1540), and was regarded by the catholics as a favourable incident to their party. The king's councils were now directed by Norfolk and Gardiner ; and the law of the Six Articles was executed with rigour. But while Henry exerted his violence against the protestants, he spared not the catholics who denied his supremacy; and a foreigner at that time in England had reason to say that those who were against the pope were burned, and those who were for him were hanged. The king even displayed in an ostentatious manner this tyrannical impartiality, which reduced both parties to subjection. Catholics and protestants were carried two and two on the same hurdles to execution — Abel, Featherstone, and Powell for denying the supre- macy ; Barnes, Gerard, and Jerome for denying the Six Articles. In the following year an inconsiderable rebellion broke out in York- shire, but was soon suppressed. The rebels were supposed to have been instigated by the intrigues of cardinal Pole ; and the king instantly determined to make the countess of Salisbury, who had been attainted two years previously, suffer for her sen's offences. This venerable matron, the descendant of a long race of monarchs, was executed on the green within the Tower (May 27, 1541) . The king thought himself happy in his new marriage: the agreeable person and disposition of Katharine had entirely capti- vated his affections, and he made no secret of his devoted attach- ment to her ; but he discovered shortly afterwards that she had led a dissolute life before her marriage, and he strongly suspected that she had since been guilty of incontinence. Two of her paramours, Culpej.er and Dirham, were tried and executed (December 10, 1541) ; and a bill of attainder for treason was forthwith passed against the queen and the viscountess of Eochfort, who had been privy to her misconduct. They were both beheaded in the Tower (February 13, 1542). As lady Eochfort was known to be the chief instrument in bringing Anne Boleyn to her end, she died unpitied. Little doubt can exist of Katharine's guilt. § 12. Towards the close of 1542 a war broke out between Eng- land and Scotland. James V., king of Scots, was under the influence * Anne of Cleves continued to live in England, and died at Chelsea in 1557. 268 HENRY VIII. Chap. xv. of the catholic party, especially of cardinal Beaton, the sworn enemy of the English monarch. As he had encouraged his subjects to make depredations upon the English border, Henry proclaimed war against his nephew, and appointed to the command the duke of Norfolk, whom he called the scourge of the Scots. It was too late in the season to make more than a foray ; and the duke of Norfolk, after laying waste the Scottish border, returned to Berwick. James sent an army of 10,000 men into Cumberland to revenge this insult; but on a sudden attack by a small body of English, not exceeding 500 men, near the Solway (November 25, 1542), a panic seized the Scots, and they immediate ". iook to flight. Few were killed in this rout, but many were taken prisoners, and some of the principal nobility. The king of Scots, hearing of this disaster, was astonished ; and, being naturally of a melancholy disposition, he abandoned himself to despair. His body was wasted by sympathy with his anxious mind : he had no issue living ; and hearing that his queen was safely delivered, he asked whether she had brought him a male or a female child. Being told the latter, he turned himself in his bed : " The crown came with a lass," said he, " and it will go with a lass." A few days after he expired (December 14, 1542) in the flower of his age. No sooner was Henry informed of his death, than he projected the scheme of uniting Scotland to his own dominions by marrying his son Edward to James's infant daughter, the heiress of that kingdom, afterwards celebrated as Mary queen of Scots. A treaty to this effect was nearly concluded with the regent, the earl of Arran, but was shortly afterwards rejected, through the influence of cardinal Beaton, the head of the catholic party, and Scotland entered into a close alliance with France. This confirmed Henry in the resolu- tion he had already taken of breaking with France, and of uniting his arms with those of the emperor. A league was formed by which the two monarchs agreed to enter France with an army, each of 25,000 meu (February 11, 1543). This league seemed favour- able to the Roman catholic party ; but, on the other hand, Henry soon afterwards married his sixth wife, Katharine Parr, widow of lord Latimer, a woman of virtue, and somewhat inclined to the new doctrine (July 12). The confederacy between Henry and Charles led to no important results. The share taken by the English in the campaign of 1543 was quite inconsiderable. In the following year the two princes agreed to invade France with large armaments, and to join their forces at Paris. Accordingly Henry landed at Calais with 30,000 men, who were joined by 14,000 Flemings, whilst the emperor invaded the north-eastern frontiers of France with an army of 60,000 men ; but nothing of importance was effected. Henry, a.d. 1542-1545. WAR WITH FRANCE. 269 instead of marching to Paris, wasted his time in besieging Boulogne and Montreuil ; whilst Charles, who had employed himself in cap- turing some towns on the Meuse and the Marne, subsequently ad- vanced towards Paris. The season was thus wasted ; both princes reproached each other with a breach of engagement. The emperor concluded a separate peace with Francis at Crepy (September 19, 1544), in which the name of his ally was not even mentioned ; and Henry was obliged to retire into England, with the small success of haviDg captured Boulogne (September 14). The war was pro- longed two years between England and France. In 1545 the French made great preparations for tbe invasion of England. A French fleet appeared off St. Helen's, in the Isle of Wight, but returned to their own coasts without effecting anything of importance. In 1546 Henry sent over a body of troops to Calais, and some skirmishes of small moment ensued. But both parties were now weary of a war from which neither could entertain much hope of advantage ; and on the 7th of June a peace was concluded. The chief condition was that Heory should retain Boulogne during eight years, or till the debt due by Francis should be paid ; tbus all that he obtained was a bad and chargeable security for a debt tbat did not amount to a third part of the expenses of the war. § 13. Francis took care to comprehend Scotland in the treaty. In that country the indolent and incapable Arran had gone over to Beaton's party, and had even reconciled himself to the Eomish com- munion. The cardinal had thus acquired a complete ascendency. The opposition was now led by the earl of Lenox, who was regarded by the protestants as the head of their party, and who, after an ineffectual attempt to employ force, was obliged to lay down his arms and await the arrival of English succours. In 1544 Henry de T spatched a fleet and army to Scotland. Edinburgh was taken and burned, and the south-eastern parts of the country devastated. The earl of Arran collected some forces, but found that the English had departed. In February, 1545, he caught sir Ealph Evers returning from a raid on Melrose, and defeated him at Ancrum Muir. The war was conducted feebly, and with various success, and Henry was by no means indisposed to conclude a peace. The king, now freed from all foreign wars, had leisure to give his attention to domestic affairs, particularly to the establishment of uniformity of opinion in religion. Though he allowed an English translation of the Bible, he had hitherto been very careful to retain the service in Latin ; but in 1545 he set forth a Primer and a Litany in the vulgar tongue, with a collection of English prayers for morning and evening use. By these innovations he excited anew the hopes of the reformers; but the pride and peevishness of the king, irritated 270 HENRY VIII. Chap. xv. by his decliniug state of health, impelled him to punish with fresh severity all who presumed to entertain a different opinion from him- self, particularly in the capital point of the real presence. Anne Askew, for denying it, was condemned to he burned alive ; and others, for the same crime, were sentenced to the same punishment (July 16, 1546). The queen herself, being secretly inclined to the prin- ciples of the reformers, and having unwarily betrayed too much of her mind in her conversations with Henry, fell into great danger. At the instigation of bishop Gardiner, seconded by the chancellor Wriothesley, articles of impeachment were actually drawn up against her : but Katharine, having by some means learned this proceeding, averted the peril by her address. Henry having renewed his theo- logical arguments, the queen gently declined the conversation, and remarked that such profound speculations were ill suited to the im- becility of her sex ; that the wife's duty was in all cases to adopt implicitly the sentiments of her husband ; and as to herself, it was doubly her duty, being blessed with a husband who was qualified, by his judgment and learning, not only to choose principles for his own family, but for the most wise and knowing of every nation. 1 Not so ! by St. Mary," replied the king ; " you are now become a doctor, Kate ; and better fitted to give than receive instruction." She meekly replied that she was sensible how little she was entitled to these praises ; and declared that she had ventured sometimes to feign a contrariety of sentiments merely in order to give him the pleasure of refuting her. " And is it so, sweetheart ? " replied the king ; '•* then are we perfect friends again." He embraced her with great affection, and sent her away with assurances of his protection and kindness. When the chancellor came the next day to convey her to the Tower, the king dismissed him with the appellations of knave, fool, and beast* § 14. Henry's tyrannical disposition, soured by ill health, vented itself soon afterwards on the duke of Norfolk and his son, the earl of Surrey, chiefly through the prejudices which he entertained against the latter, on the pretext that they were meditating to seize the crown (1546). Surrey was a young man of the most promising hopes, and had distinguished himself by every accomplishment which became a scholar, a courtier, and a soldier. His spirit and ambition were equal to his talents and his quality ; but he did not always regulate his conduct by the caution and reserve which his situation required. The king, displeased with his conduct as governor of Boulogne, had sent over the earl of Hertford f to command in his * It should be observed, however, that this tale rests on no better authority than Foxe. ■f- Edward Seymour, earl of Hertford, was the brother of Jane Seymour, Henry's third wife, better known afterwards as the protector Somerset. a.d. 1546-1547. HIS DEATH. 271 place ; and Surrey was so imprudent as to drop some menacing ex- pressions against the ministers on account of the affront thus put upon him. He and his father, the duke of Norfolk, were accused of designs upon the crown, mainly on t x ne ground that they had illegally assumed the arm3 of Edward tne Confessor. Orders were given to arrest them, and they were on the same day confined to the Tower (December 7, 1546). Surrey being a commoner, his trial was the more expeditious ; he was condemned for high treason, and the sentence was soon after executed (January 19, 1547). The innocence of the duke of Norfolk was still, if possible, more apparent than that of his son, and his services to the crown had been greater ; yet the house of peers, without examining the prisoner, passed a bill of attainder against him, without trial or evidence, and sent it down to the commons. The king was now fast approaching towards his end ; and fearing lest Norfolk should escape him, he sent a message to the commons, by which he desired them to hasten the bill ; and, having affixed the royal assent by commission (January 27), issued orders for the execution of Norfolk on the morning of January 28, 1547. But news being carried to the Tower that the king himself had expired that morning, the lieutenant deferred obeying the warrant ; and it was not thought advisable by the council to begin a new reign by the death of the greatest nobleman in the kingdom, who had been condemned by a sentence so unjust and tyrannical. Shortly before his death the king desired that Cranmer might be sent for ; but before the prelate arrived he was speechless, though he still seemed to retain his senses. Cranmer desired him to give some sign of his dying in the faith of Christ : he squeezed the prelate's hand, and immediately expired, after a reign of 37 years and 9 months, and in the 56th year of his age (January 28, 1547). In 1544 the king had caused the parliament to pass a law declaring the prince of Wales, or any of his male issue, first and immediate heirs of the crown, and restoring the two princesses, Mary and Elizabeth, to their right of succession. As the act made no arrangement in case of the failure of issue by Henry's children, the king, by his will, provided that the next heirs to the crown should be the descendants of his sister Mary, the late duchess of Suffolk, omitting entirely the Scottish lime. It is difficult to give a just summary of this prince's qualities : he was so different from himself in different parts of his reign, that, as is well remarked by lord Herbert, his history is his best character and description. He possessed great vigour of mind, which qualified him for exercising dominion over men ; courage, intrepidity, vigilance, inflexibility; and though these qualities were not always under the 272 HENRY VIII. Chap. xv. guidance of a regular and solid judgment, they were accompanied with good parts and an excellent capacity. Every one dreaded a contest with a man who was known never to yield or to forgive, and who, in every controversy, was determined either to ruin himself or his antagonist. A catalogue of his vices would comprehend many of the worst qualities incident to human nature : violence, cruelty, profusion, rapacity, injustice, obstinacy, arrogance, bigotry, presump- tion, caprice ; but neither was he subject to all these vices in the most extreme degree, nor was he at intervals altogether destitute of virtue : he was sincere, open, gallant, liberal, and capable at least of temporary friendship and attachment. It may seem a little extraordinary that, notwithstanding his cruelty, his extortion, his violence, his arbitrary administration, Henry not only acquired the regard of his subjects, but never was the object of their hatred : and seems even, in some degree, to have possessed to the last their love and affection. His exterior qualities were advantageous, and fit to captivate the multitude, while his magnificence and personal bravery rendered him illustrious in vulgar eyes. As Henry possessed some talent for letters, he was an encourager of them in others. He founded Trinity College in Cambridge, and gave it ample endowments. Wolsey founded Christ Church in Oxford, and intended to call it Cardinal's College; but upon his fall, which happened before he had entirely finished his scheme, the king seized all the revenues, part of which he afterwards restored, and only changed the name of the college. The cardinal founded in Oxford the first chair for teaching Greek. The countenance given to letters by this king and his ministers contributed to render them fashionable in England. Erasmus speaks with great satis- faction of the general regard paid by the nobility and gentry to men of learning. Shilling of Edward VI. ObV. : EDWARD . VI. D . G . AGL . FRA . Z . HIB . REX. Bust to right. Rev. : timor : Domini : fons : vite [sic] m : d . xlix. Arms of England. In field e. r. CHAPTER XVI. edward vi., b. 1537 ; r. a.d. 1547-1553. § 1. State of the regency. Hertford protector. § 2. Reformation estab- lished. Gardiner's opposition. § 3. War with Scotland. Battle of Pinkie. § 4. Proceedings in parliament. Progress of the Reforma- tion. Affairs of Scotland. § 5. Cabals of lord Seymour. His exe- cution. § 6. Ecclesiastical affairs. Protestant persecutions. Joan Bocher. § 7. Discontents of the people. Insurrections in Devonshire and Norfolk. War with Scotland and France. § 8. Factions in the council. Somerset deprived of the protectorship. § 9. Peace with France and Scotland. Ecclesiastical affairs. § 10. Ambition of Northumberland. Trial and execution of Somerset. §11. Northum- berland changes the succession. Death of the king. § 1. The late king had fixed the majority of the prince at the completion of his 18th year ; and, as Edward was then only in his 10th year, his father appointed 16 executors, to whom, during the minority, the government of the king and kingdom was in- trusted. Among them were Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, Wriothesley, lord chancellor, and the earl of Hertford, chamber- lain. With these executors, to whom was intrusted the whole regal authority, were appointed 12 counsellors, who possessed no im- mediate power, and could only assist with their advice when any affair was laid before them. But the first act of the executors and counsellors was to depart from the destination of the late king, by appointing a protector. The choice fell of course on the earl of Hertford, who, as he was the king's maternal uncle, was strongly interested in his safety ; and, possessing no claims to inherit the crown, he could never have any separate interest which might lead him to endanger Edward's person or his authority. All those who were possessed of any office resigned their former commissions, and accepted new ones in the name of the young 274 EDWARD VI. Chap. xvi. king. The bishops themselves were constrained to make a like submission. Care was taken to insert in their new commissions that they held their offices during pleasure ; and it is there ex- pressly affirmed that all manner of authority and jurisdiction, as well ecclesiastical as civil, is originally derived from the crown. The late king had intended, before his death, to make a new creation of nobility, in order to supply the place of those peerages which had fallen by former attainders, or the failure of issue ; and accordingly, among other promotions, Hertford was now created duke of Somerset, marshal, and lord treasurer; Wriothesley earl of Southampton, Lisle earl of Warwick, and sir Thomas Seymour, the protector's brother, lord Seymour (March 6, 1547). As Wriothesley was the head of the catholic party, and had always been opposed to Somerset, one of the first acts of the protector was to procure the removal of Southampton, on the ground that he had, on his own private authority, put the great seal in com- mission a fine was also imposed upon him, and he was confined to his own house during pleasure. Not content with this advan- tage, on pretence that the vote of the executors, choosing him protector, was not a sufficient foundation for his authority, Somerset procured a patent from the young king, by which he entirely overturned the will of Henry VIII., named himself pro- tector with full regal power, and appointed a council consisting of all the former councillors, and all the executors, except Southamp- ton. He reserved a power of naming any other councillors at pleasure, and he was bound to consult with such only as he thought proper. This was a plain usurpation, which it was im- possible by any arguments to justify. § 2. The protector had long been regarded as a secret partisan of the reformers ; and, being now freed from restraint, he scrupled not to discover his intention of correcting all abuses in the ancient religion, and of adopting still more of the protestant innovations. He took care that all persons intrusted with the king's education should be attached to the same principles. After Southampton's fall few members of the council seemed to retain any attachment to the Romish communion; and most of them appeared even sanguine in forwarding the progress of the Reformation. . The riches they had acquired from the spoils of the clergy induced them to widen the breach between England and Rome ; and, by establishing a different discipline and worship, to render any return to the ancient faith and practice impossible. In these measures Somerset found a zealous supporter in archbishop Cranmer. The protector, having suspended, during the interval, the jurisdic- tion of the bishops, appointed a general visitation of all the dioceses a.d. 1547-1548. WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 275 of England (1547). The visitors consisted of clergy and laity, and had sis circuits assigned them. The chief purport of their in- structions was — to correct immoralities and irregularities in the clergy, remove images and pictures from the churches, compel the use of the English tongue in certain parts of the service, and enforce the teaching of the royal supremacy. To check ahuses, sermons were regulated or restrained : twelve homilies were published, which the clergy were enjoined to read to the people ; and all of them were prohibited, without express permission, from preaching any- where but in their parish churches. These measures were opposed by Gardiner, bishop of "Winchester, Bonner, bishop of London, and the princess Mary, who maintained that the council had no authority to change the laws they had sworn to observe during the king's minority. This opposition drew on the two bishops the indignation of the council, and they were sent to the Fleet, and used with some severity. § 3. As soon as the state was brought to some composure, the protector prepared for war with Scotland ; and he was determined to execute, if possible, that project, of uniting the two kingdoms by marriage, on which the late king had been so intent, and had recom- mended with his dying breath to his executors. The Reformation had now made considerable progress in Scotland. Cardinal Beaton had been assassinated (May 29, 1546) in revenge for the burning of Wishart, a zealous protestant preacher ; and Henry had promised to take the murderers under his protection. Somerset levied an army of 18,000 men, and equipped a fleet of 60 sail, with which he invaded Scotland. A well-contested battle was fought at Pinkie, near Musselburgh (September 10, 1547), in which the Scots were defeated with immense slaughter. Had Somerset prosecuted his advantages, he might have imposed his own terms on the Scottish nation ; but he was impatient to return to England, where he heard that some of the councillors, and even his own brother, lord Seymour, the admiral, were caballing against him. Shortly after his return, the infant queen of Scotland was sent to France, and betrothed to the dauphin (August, 1548). § 4. Parliament met after Somerset's return (November 4). It repealed the law of the late reign by which the king's proclamation was made equivalent to a statute ; all laws extending the crime of felony ; all which extended the crime of treason beyond the statute of the 25th of Edward III. ; all laws against Lollardy or heresy, together with the statute of the Six Articles. It secured the king's supremacy ; directed the sacrament of the altar to be administered in both kinds. To repress the wandering of monks, whose homes had been destroyed in the late reign, it ordered all 276 EDWARD VI. Chap. xvi. vagabonds to be branded, and on repetition of the offence to be adjudged to slavery. In the following year (1548) further reforma- tions were effected. Orders were issued by the council that candles should no longer be carried on Candlemas Day, ashes on Ash "Wednesday, palms on Palm Sunday ; and that all images should be removed from the churches. As private masses were abolished by law, a new communion service was set forth in English. § 5. The protector's attention was now wholly engrossed by the cabals of his brother, lord Seymour, the admiral of England. Seymour had so insinuated himself into the good graces of Katharine, the queen-dowager, that, forgetting her usual prudence, she married him three months after the demise of the late king. At her death in childbirth he made his addresses to the princess Elizabeth, then in the 16th year of her age (1548). He openly decried his brother's administration, and by promises and persuasion brought over to his party many of the principal nobility. Somerset, finding his own power in serious peril, committed his brother to the Tower; the parliament passed a bill of attainder against him, and he was executed on Tower Hill (March 20, 1549). § 6. All the considerable business transacted this session, besides the attainder of lord Seymour, regarded ecclesiastical affairs. The Act for Uniformity of Public Worship was promulgated, and the first Book of Common Prayer set forth in English. A law was also enacted permitting priests to marry. Thus, the principal tenets and practices of the old religion were abolished, and the Reforma- tion was almost entirely completed in England. But the doctrine of toleration was no better understood on one side than the other. A commission, by act of council, was granted to the primate, and some others, to examine and search after all anabaptists, heretics, or contemners of the Book of Common Prayer. Some tradesmen in London, brought before the commis- sioners, were prevailed on to abjure their opinions, and were dis- missed. But there was a woman accused of heretical pravity, called Joan Bocher, or Joan of Kent, who was so pertinacious, that the commissioners could make no impression upon her, and it was resolved to commit her to the flames * (May 2, 1550). Some time after, a Dutchman, called Van Paris, accused of Arianism, was condemned to the same punishment (April 24, 1551). § 7. These reforms excited considerable discontent, which was aggravated by other causes. The new proprietors of the confiscated * The common story, that the young king long refused to sign the warrant for the execution of Joan Bocher, and was only prevailed upon to do so by Cranmer's importunity, is shown by Mr. Bruce, in the Preface to Roger Hutchinson's Works (Parker Society, 1842), to be apocryphal. A.D. 1548-1551. INSURRECTIONS. 277 abbey lands demanded exorbit mt rents, and often spent the money in London. The cottagers were reduced to misery by the en- closure of the commons on which they formerly fed their cattle. The general increase of gold and silver in Europe after the discovery of the West Indies had raised the price of commodities ; and the debasement of the coin by Henry VIII., and afterwards by the protector, had occasioned a universal distrust and stagnation of commerce. A rising began at once in several parts of England, as if a universal conspiracy had been formed by the commonalty. In most parts the rioters were put down, but the disorders in Devon- shire and Norfolk threatened more dangerous consequences (1549). In Devonshire the rioters were brought into the form of a regular army, which amounted to the number of 10,000. Their demands were, that the mass should be restored, half of the abbey lands resumed, the law of the Six Articles executed, holy water and holy bread respected, and all other particular grievances redressed. Lord Eussell,* who had been despatched against them, drove them from all their posts, and took many prisoners. The leaders were sent to London, tried, and executed ; and many of the inferior sort were put to death by martial law. The insurrection in Norfolk rose to a still greater height, and was attended with greater acts of violence. One Ket, a tanner, had assumed the government of the insurgents, and exercised his authority with the utmost arrogance. The earl of Warwick, at the head of 6000 men, levied for the wars against Scotland, at last made a general attack upon the rebels, and put them to flight. Two thousand fell in the action and pursuit : Ket was hanged at Norwich castle, and the insurrection was entirely suppressed. To guard against such disturbances in future, lords lieutenant were appointed in all the counties. These insurrections were attended with bad consequences to the foreign interests of the nation. The forces of the earl of Warwick, which might have made a great impression on Scotland, were diverted from that enterprise; and the French general had leisure to reduce that country to some settlement and composure. The king of France also made an attempt to recover Boulogne, but without success. As soon as the French war broke out, the protector endeavoured to fortify himself with the alliance of the emperor, who, however, eluded the applications of the English ambassadors. Despairing of his assistance, Somerset was inclined to conclude a peace with France * Lord Russell had been created a peer in 1533, and received large grants of church lands. He was made earl of Bed- ford in 1550, and was the ancestor of the 14 present duke of Bedford. The descendant of the earl of Bedford was first created duke in 1694, in the reign of William III. 278 EDWARD VI. Chap. xvi. and Scotland ; but he met with strong opposition from his enemies in the council, who, seeing him unable to support the war, were determined, for that very reason, to oppose all proposals for a pacification. § 8. The factions ran high in the court of England, and matters were drawing to an issue fatal to the authority of the protector. After obtaining the patent investing him with regal authority, he no longer paid any attention to the opinion of the other executors and councillors; and, while he showed a resolution to govern everything, his capacity appeared not in any respect proportioned to his ambition. He had disgusted the nobility by courting the people ; yet the interest which he had formed with the latter was in no degree answerable to his expectations. The catholic party, who retained influence with the lower ranks, were his declared enemies : the attainder and execution of his brother bore an odious aspect: and the palace which he was building in the Strand served, by its magnificence, to expose him to the censure of the public, especially as he had pulled down several churches for materials to complete it. All these acts of imprudence were remarked by Somerset's enemies, who resolved to take advantage of them. Lord St. John, president of the council, the earls of Warwick, Southampton, and Arundel, with five members more, assuming to themselves the whole power of the council, began to act indepen- dently of the protector, whom they represented as the author of every public grievance and misfortune. Somerset, finding that no man of rank, except Cranmer and Paget, adhered to him, that the people did not rise at his summons, that the city and Tower had declared against him, that even his best friends had deserted him, lost all hopes of success, and began to apply to his enemies • for pardon and forgiveness. He was, however, sent to the Tower, with some of his friends and partisans, among whom was Cecil, after- wards so much distinguished (October 11, 1549). Somerset was prevailed on to confess, on his knees before the council, all the articles charged against him ; and the parliament passed a vote by which they deprived him of all his offices, and.fined him 2000Z. a year in land (December 23). St. John was created treasurer in his place, and Warwick earl marshal. The prosecution against him was carried no further. His fine was remitted by the king ; he recovered his liberty ; and Warwick, thinking that he was now sufficiently humbled, re-admitted him into the council, and even agreed to an alliance between their families, by the marriage of his own son, lord Lisle, with the lady Jane Seymour, daughter ctt Somerset (1550). The catholics were extremely elated with this revolution ; and, as they had ascribed all the late innovations to A.D. 1549-1551. REVISION OF THE PRAYER-BOOK. 279 Somerset's authority, they hoped that his fall would prepare the way for the return of the ancient religion. But Warwick, who now bore chief sway in the council, took care very early to express his intentions of supporting the Eeformation. Gardiner, bishop of Winchester, who had been again sent to prison in 1548, was deprived (1550). The sees of London and Westminster were given to Nicholas Eidley, a determined protestant. Poynet, formerly chaplain to Cranmer, succeeded to Winchester (March 23, 1551), and Hooper to Gloucester. § 9. When Warwick and the council of regency began to exercise their power, they found themselves involved in the same difficulties that had embarrassed the protector. The wars with France and Scotland could not be supported by an exhausted exchequer ; seemed dangerous to a divided nation ; and were now acknowledged not to have any object which even the greatest and most uninter- rupted success could attain. Although the project of peace enter- tained by Somerset had served them as a pretence for clamour against his administration, they found themselves obliged to negociate a treaty with the king of France. Henry II. offered a sum for the immediate restitution of Boulogne, and 400,000 crowns were at last agreed on, one-half to be paid immediately, the other in August following. Six hostages were given for the performance of this article, and Scotland was comprehended in the treaty. The theological zeal of the council, though seemingly fervent, went not so far as to make them neglect their own temporal con- cerns, which seem to have ever been uppermost in their thoughts. Several catholic bishops were deprived, and some were obliged to seek protection by sacrificing the most considerable revenues of their see to rapacious courtiers. Durham was entirely suppressed. Though every one besides yielded to the authority of the council, the lady Mary could never be brought to compliance ; and she still continued to adhere to the mass, and to reject the new liturgy. It was with difficulty that the young king, who had deeply imbibed the principles of the Eeformation, could be prevailed upon to connive at his sister's obstinacy ; but her relationship to the emperor proved her best protection. In 1551 the Book of Common Prayer suffered in England a new revisal, and some rites and ceremonies, which had given offence, were omitted. The doctrines of religion were also reduced to 42 articles. These were intended to obviate further divisions and variations. § 10. Not contented with the eminence he had attained, Warwick carried further his pretensions, and gained partisans who were disposed to second him in every enterprise. The last earl of Northumberland died without issue ; and as sir Thomas Percy, his 280 EDWARD VI. Chap xvi. brother, had been attainted, the title was at present extinct, and the estate was vested in the crown. Warwick now procured to himself a grant of the honours and offices of that house, and was dignified with the title of duke of Northumberland (1551). But these new possessions and titles he regarded as steps only to further acquisi- tions. Finding that Somerset still enjoyed a considerable share of popularity, he determined to ruiu the man whom he regarded as the chief obstacle to his ambition. Somerset was therefore accused of high treason and felony, in plotting against the lives of certain lords of the council: he was acquitted on the former charge, but con- demned on the latter. He was brought to the scaffold on Tower Hill (January 22, 1552), amidst great crowds of spectators, who bore him such sincere kindness that they entertained, to the last moment, the fond hopes of his pardon. His virtues were better calculated for private than for public life; and by his want of penetration and firmness he was ill fitted to extricate himself from those cabals and violences to which that age was so much addicted.* Several of Somerset's friends were also brought to trial, condemned, and executed ; great injustice seems to have been used in their prosecution. § 11. The declining state of the young king's health opened out to Northumberland a vaster prospect of ambition. He endeavoured to persuade Edward to deprive his two sisters of the succession, on the ground of illegitimacy. He represented that the certain con- sequence of his sister Mary's succession, or that of the queen of Scots, was the re-establishment of the usurpation and idolatry of the church of Rome ; that, though the lady Elizabeth was liable to no such objection, her exclusion must follow that of her elder sister ; that, when these princesses were set aside by such solid reasons, the succession devolved on the marchioness of Dorset, elder daughter of Mary, the French queen, and the duke of Suffolk; that the next heir of the marchioness was the lady Jane Grey, a lady every way worthy of a crown ; and that, even if her title by blood were doubtful, which there was no just reason to pretend, ■ the king was possessed of the same power that his father enjoyed, and might leave her the crown by letters patent. Northumberland, finding that his arguments w L .e likely to operate on the king, began to prepare the other parts of his scheme. On the extinction of the dukedom of Suffolk, the marquis of Dorset had been raised to this title ; and the new duke of Suffolk and the duchess were now persuaded by Northumberland to give their daughter, the lady Jane, in marriage to his fourth son, the lord Guilford Dudley. * He was the ancestor of the present i tainder, was restored to his great-grandson duke. The title, forfeited by his at- | on the accession of Charles II. (1660). a.d. 1551-1553. HIS DEATH. 281 The languishing state of Edward's health, who was now in a con- firmed consumption, made Northumberland the more intent on the execution of his project. He removed all except his own emissaries from about the king ; and prevailed on the young prince to give his consent to the settlement projected. The judges hesitated to draw up the necessary deed ; but were at length brought to do so by Edward himself, and the menaces of Northumberland, and the promise that a pardon should immediately after be granted them for any offence which they might have incurred by their compliance. After this settlement Edward declined visibly every day. To make matters worse, his physicians were dismissed by Northum- berland's advice and by an order of council ; and he was put into the hands of an ignorant woman, who undertook in a little time to restore him to his former state of health. After the use of her medicines the bad symptoms increased ; and he expired at Green- wich (July 6, 1553), in the 16th year of his age, and the 7th of his reign. Historians dwell with pleasure on the qualities of this young prince, whom the flattering promises of hope had made an object of tender affection to the public. Medal of Philip and Mary. Obv. : fhilip . d . g . hisp . rex . z. Bust of Philip to right. Rev. : makia i beg , angl . franc , et . hib . z. Bust of Mary to left. CHAPTER XVII. mart, 6. 1516 ; r. a.d. 1553-1558. § 1. Lady Jane Grey proclaimed. Mary acknowledged queem § 2. Northumberland executed. Roman catholic religion restored. § 3. The Spanish match. Wyatt's insurrection. § 4. Imprisonment of the princess Elizabeth. Execution of Lady Jane Grey. § 5. Mary's marriage with Philip of Spain. England reconciled with the see of Rome. § 6. Persecutions. Execution of Cranmer. 7. War with France. Loss of Calais. § 8. Death and character of the queen. § 1. Northumberland, sensible of the opposition which he must expect, had carefully concealed the destination of the succession made by the king ; and, in order to bring the princess Mary into his power, had desired her to attend on her dying brother. Mary was at Hoddesdon, within half a day's journey of the court, when she received private intelligence, probably from the earl of Arundel, both of her brother's death and of the conspiracy formed against her. She immediately retired intq Norfolk, and despatched a message to the council, requiring them immediately to give orders for proclaiming her in London. Northumberland found that further dissimulation was fruitless. He went to Sion house, accom- panied by the duke of Suffolk, the earl of Pembroke, and others of the nobility ; and he approached the lady Jane, who resided there, with all the respect usually paid to the sovereign. Jane was, in a great measure, ignorant of these transactions; and it was with equal grief and surprise that she received intelligence of them. She was a lady of an amiable person, an engaging disposition, and accomplished parts. She had attained a familiar knowledge of the Latin and Greek languages, besides modern tongues ; had passed a.d. 1553 MARY ACKNOWLEDGED QUEEN. 283 most of her time in an application to learning; and expressed a great indifference for other occupations and amusements usual with her sex and station. Eoger Ascham, tutor to the lady Elizabeth, having one day paid her a visit, found her employed in reading Plato, while the rest of the family were hunting in the park. The intelligence of her elevation to the throne was nowise agreeable to her. She was greatly overcome, but at last submitted to their will, and even accepted the crown with alacrity. Orders were given to proclaim Jane throughout the kingdom ; but these orders were exe- cuted only in London and the neighbourhood. No applause ensued : the people heard the proclamation with silence and concern, and some even expressed their scorn and contempt. The people of Norfolk, meanwhile, paid their court to Mary, and the nobility and gentry daily flocked to her with reinforcements. Northumberland, hitherto blinded by ambition, saw at last the danger gather round him, and knew not which way to turn. At length he determined to march against her ; but he found his army too weak to encounter the queen's. He wrote to the council, desiring them to send him reinforcements ; but the councillors agreed upon a speedy return to the duty which they owed to their lawful sovereign. The mayor and aldermen of London were immediately sent for, who discovered great alacrity in obeying the orders they received to proclaim Mary. The people expressed their approbation by shouts of applause. Suffolk, who commanded in the Tower, finding resistance fruitless, opened the gates, and declared for Mary; and even Northum- berland, being deserted by all his followers, was obliged to do the same. The people everywhere, on the queen's approach to London, gave sensible expressions of their loyalty and attachment. And the lady Elizabeth met her at the head of a thousand horse, which that princess had levied in order to support their joint title against the usurper. § 2. The duke of Northumberland was seized and taken to the Tower : at the same time were committed the duke of Suffolk, lady Jane Grey, lord Guilford Dudley, and several of the nobility. As the councillors pleaded constraint as an excuse for their treason, Mary extended her pardon to most of them. But the guilt of North- umberland was too great, as well as his ambition and courage too dangerous, to permit him to entertain any reasonable hopes of life- When brought to his trial he attempted no defence, but pleaded guilty (August 18). At his execution he made a profession of the catholic religion, and told the people that they never would enjoy tranquillity till they returned to the faith of their ancestors ; either because these were his real sentiments, which he had formerly disguised from interest and ambition, or that he hoped by 284 MARY. Chap. xvn. this declaration to render the queen more favourable to his family. Sir Thomas Palmer and sir John Grates suffered with him (August 22, 1553) ; and this was all the blood spilled on account of so dangerous and criminal an enterprise against the rights of the sovereign. Mary soon showed that she was determined to restore the Eoman catholic religion. Gardiner, Bonner, Tunstal, and others, who had been deprived in the preceding reign, were reinstated in their sees. On pretence of discouraging controversy, she silenced, by an act of prerogative, all the preachers throughout England, except such as should obtain a particular licence. Holgate, archbishop of York, Coverdale, bishop of Exeter, Ridley of London, and Hooper of Gloucester, were thrown into prison; whither Latimer also was sent soon after. The zealous bishops and priests were encouraged in their forwardness to revive the mass, though contrary to the present laws. Cranmer, the primate, had reason to expect little favour during the present reign ; but it was by his own indiscreet zeal that he brought on himself the first violence and persecution, A report being spread that in order to pay court to the queen he liad promised to officiate in the Latin service, to wipe off this asper- sion, he published a manifesto in his own defence, in which he attributed the mass to the invention of the devil, and branded its abuses as blasphemies. On the publication of this inflammatory paper, Cranmer was thrown into prison, and was tried for the part which he had acted in concurring with the lady Jane, and opposing the queen's accession (November 13). Sentence of high treason was pronounced against him, and by the same court against Jane and her husband, but the execution of it did not follow ; and the primate was reserved for a more cruel punishment. In opening parliament (October 5), the court showed its contempt of the laws by celebrating, before the two houses, a mass of the Holy Ghost, in the Latin tongue, with all the ancient ceremonies. The first bill passed by the parliament was of a popular nature, and abolished every species of treason not contained in the statute of Edward III., and every species of felony that did not subsist before the first year of Henry VIIl. ; for many of the cruel laws of that monarch had been re-enacted by the last parliament of Edward VI. It next declared the queen to be legitimate, ratified the marriage of Henry with Katharine of Arragon, and annulled the divorce pronounced by Cranmer. The statutes of king Edward regarding religion were repealed by one act, and the old form of service restored. The attainder of the duke of Norfolk, who had been previously liberated from the Tower, and admitted to Mary's confidence and favour, was reversed. The queen also sent assurances to the pope, then Julius A.D. 1553-1554. WYATT'S INSURRECTION. 285 III., of her earnest desire to reconcile herself and her kingdoms to the holy see. § 3. No sooner did the emperor Charles V. hear of the death of Edward, and the accession of his kinswoman Mary to the crown of England, than he sent over an agent to propose his son Philip as her husband. Philip was a widower, and, though he was only 27 years of age, 12 years younger than the queen ; this objection, it was thought, would be overlooked, and there was no reason to despair of her still having issue. Norfolk, Arundel, and Paget gave their advice for the match; but Gardiner, wbo had now become chancellor, opposed it. The Commons, alarmed to hear that Mary was resolved to contract a foreign alliance, sent their speaker to re- monstrate in strong terms against so dangerous a measure ; and, to prevent further applications of the same kind, the queen thought proper to dissolve the parliament. A convocation had been sum- moned at the same time with the parliament; and the majority • here also appeared to be of the court religion. After the parliament and convocation were dismissed, the new laws with regard to religion were still more openly put in execution : the mass was everywhere re-established ; marriage was declared to be incompatible with any spiritual office ; and a large proportion of the clergy were deprived of their livings. This violent and sudden change of religion inspired the protestants with great discontent ; whilst the Spanish match diffused universal apprehensions for the liberty and independence of the nation. To obviate all clamour, the articles of marriage were drawn as favour- ably as possible for the interest and security and even grandeur of England : and, in particular, it was agreed that, though Philip should have the title of king, the administration should be entirely in the queen ; and that no foreigner should be capable of enjoying any office in the kingdom. But these articles gave little satisfaction to the nation, and some were determined to resist the marriage by arms. Sir Thomas Wyatt purposed to raise Kent ; sir Peter Carew, Devonshire ; and they engaged the duke of Suffolk, by the hopes of recovering the crown for the lady Jane, to attempt raising the midland counties (1554). The attempts of the last two were speedily disconcerted, but Wyatt was at first more successful. Having dispersed a declaration throughout Kent, against the queen's evil counsellors, and against the Spanish match, without any mention of religion, he raised his standard at Eochester. He then forced his way into London ; but his followers, finding that no person of note joined him, insensibly fell off, and he was at last seized near Temple Bar by sir Maurice Berkeley (February 7, 1554). About 30 persons suffered for this rebellion : 400 more were con- ducted before the queen with ropes about their necks, and, falling 14* 286 MAEY. Chap, xvii on their knees, received a pardon and were dismissed. Wyatt was condemned and executed. § 4. This rebellion proved fatal to the lady Jane Grey, as well as to her husband ; the duke of Suffolk's guilt was imputed to her, and both she and her husband were beheaded (February 12, 1554). On the scaffold she made a speech to the bystanders, in which the mildness of her disposition led her to take the blame wholly on herself, without uttering a single complaint against the severity with which she had been treated. She then caused herself to be disrobed by her women, and with a serene countenance submitted herself to the executioner. The duke of Suffolk was tried, con- demned, and executed soon after. The princess Elizabeth, suspected for a time of being implicated in the late plot, was sent to the Tower ; but in the following May was released and placed under the care and surveillance of sir Henry Bedingfield, at Woodstock. It is even said that the more violent party of the council proposed capital punishment, but were opposed by Gardiner, who interceded ' in her favour. The story, however, requires confirmation. § 5. Philip of Spain arrived at Southampton on July 20, 1554, and a few days after he was married to Mary at Winchester (July 25). Having made a pompous entry into London, where Philip displayed his wealth with great ostentation, they proceeded to their residence at Windsor. The prince's behaviour was ill calcu- lated to remove the prejudices which the English nation had enter- tained against him. He was distant and reserved in his address ; took no notice of the salutes even of the most considerable noble- men; and so intrenched himself in form and ceremony, that he was in a manner inaccessible. The zeal of the catholics, the in- fluence of Spanish gold, the powers of prerogative, the discourage- ment of the gentry, particularly of the protestants, procured a House of Commons which was in a great measure to the queen's satisfaction. Cardinal Pole, whose attainder had been reversed, came over to England as legate (November 20) ; and, after being introduced to the king and queen, he invited the parliament to reconcile themselves and the kingdom to the apostolic see, from which they had been so long and so unhappily divided. This message was taken in good part: both houses voted an address declaring their sorrow for their past proceedings against the pope, and professing their willingness to repeal them, provided that their purchases of abbey and chantry lands were confirmed. In this stipulation they were supported by the clergy. Thirty-three members, however, of the Commons seceded rather than be impli- cated in these proceedings. The legate, in the name of his holi- ness, then gave the parliament and kingdom absolution, freed them A.D. 1554-1555. THE PEOTESTANT MARTYRS. 287 from all censures, and received thern again into the bosom of the church. The parliament revived the old sanguinary laws against heretics : they also enacted several statutes against seditious words and, rumours ; and they made it treason to imagine or attempt the death of Philip during his marriage with the queen. But their hatred against the Spaniards, as well as their suspicion of Philip's preten% sions, still prevailed; and though the queen wished to have her husband declared presumptive heir to the crown, and the adminis- tration to be put into his hands, she failed in all her endeavours, and could not so much as procure the parliament's consent to his coronation. Philip, sensible of the prejudices entertained against him, endeavoured to acquire popularity by procuring the release of several prisoners of distinction ; but nothing was more agreeable to the nation than the protection he afforded to the lady Elizabeth. This measure was not the effect of any generosity in Philip, a sentiment of which he was wholly destitute, but of a refined policy, which made him foresee that, if that princess were put to death, the next lawful heir was the queen of Scots, whose succession would for ever annex England to the crown of France. § 6. By the revival of the laws against heresy, England was soon filled with scenes of horror which have ever since rendered the Roman catholic religion the object of detestation. Rogers, pre- bendary of St. Paul's, Hooper, bishop of Gloucester, Taylor, parson of Hadleigh, and others were condemned to the flames (1555). Gardiner, who had vainly expected that a few examples would strike a terror into the reformers, finding the work multiply upon him, devolved the invidious office on others, chiefly on Bonner, bishop of London, who was however rebuked, more than once, for his flagging zeal, by the council. It is needless to be particular in enumerating the cruelties practised in England during the course of three years that these persecutions lasted : the savage barbarity on the one hand, and the patient constancy on the other, are so similar in all these martyrdoms, that the narrative, little agreeable in itself, could never be relieved by any variety. It is computed that in this reign 277 persons were brought to the stake; besides those who were punished by imprisonments, fines, and confiscations. Among those who suffered by fire were 5 bishops, 21 clergymen, 8 lay gentlemen, 84 tradesmen, 100 husbandmen, servants, and labourers, 26 women, and 4 children. Ridley, bishop of London, and Latimer, formerly bishop of Worcester, two prelates celebrated for learning and virtue, perished together in the same flames at Oxford, and supported each other's constancy by their mutual exhortations. Latimer, when tied to the stake, called to his companion, " Be of good comfort, 288 MARY.' Chap. xvii. Master Eidley ; we shall this day kindle such a candle in England, as, I trust in God, shall never be extinguished." Instances of bar- barity, so unusual in the nation, excited horror ; the constancy of the martyrs was the object of admiration; and as men have a principle of equity engraven in their minds, which even false re- ligion is not able totally to obliterate, they were shocked to see persons of probity, of honour, of pious dispositions, exposed to punishments more severe than were inflicted on the greatest ruffians for crimes subversive of civil society. Each martyrdom, therefore, was equivalent to a hundred sermons against popery ; and men either avoided such horrid spectacles, or returned from them full of a violent, though secret, indignation against the persecutors. These persecutions had now become extremely odious to the nation ; and the execution of Cranmer rendered the government still more unpopular. The primate had long been detained in prison. The year before he had been condemned for heresy with Eidley and Latimer. But whilst they were burnt immediately after sentence, Cranmer's case was remitted to Eome, where a definite sentence of degradation was passed against him in the December following (1555). When the sentence arrived in England, overcome by the fond love of life, terrified by the prospect of those tortures which awaited him, he allowed, in an unguarded hour, the senti- ments of nature to prevail over his resolution, and he agreed to sub- scribe the doctrines of the papal supremacy and of transubstantiation. The court, however, was determined that this recantation should avail him nothing ; and they sent orders that he should be required to acknowledge his errors in public, and be immediately carried to execution. Cranmer, whether that he had received a secret intima- tion of their design, or had repented of his weakness, surprised his audience in St. Mary's church by a contrary declaration. He bitterly reproached himself for the weakness of which he had been guilty ; and when brought to the stake, thrust the hand which had signed his recantation into the flames, exclaiming aloud, " This hand has offended." He suffered at Oxford (March 21, 1556), and was succeeded by cardinal Pole. These severities, so far from achieving the purposes they were intended, produced the opposite effect. The government was at- tacked with unsparing bitterness at home and abroad. The queen's death was prayed for in secret conventicles. The exiles abroad circulated an address denouncing persecution for conscience sake. Priests were exposed to personal violence. Even those, who were indifferent or opposed to protestantism before, now could not fail of sympathizing with a faith of which the reality was shown in the sufferings and constancy of its professors. But, instead of taking a.d. 1555-1558. LOSS OF CALAIS. 289 warning, the government thought to overcome opposition by re- doubling its measures of repression. In 1557 a commission was issued, of unusual powers, to Bonner and others, for a rigorous inquiry after " devilish and clamorous persons," who issued seditious reports, or brought in heretical or seditious books. Those who maligned the church services were to be treated as vagabonds. To render their proceedings as odious as possible, no limits were as- signed to the punishments the commissioners were empowered to inflict. § 7. The temper of Mary was soured by ill health, by disappoint- ment in not having offspring, and by the absence of her husband, who, finding his authority extremely limited in England, had gone over to the emperor in Flanders. But her affection for Philip was not cooled by his indifference ; and she showed the greatest anxiety to consult his wishes and promote his views. Philip, who had become master of the wealth of the new world, and of the richest and most extensive dominions in Europe, by the abdication of the emperor Charles V. (1556), was anxious to engage England in the war which was kindled between Spain and France. His views were warmly seconded by Mary, but opposed by her council. Her importunities at length succeeded ; she levied an army of 7000 men, and sent them over to the Low Countries, under the com- mand of the earl of Pembroke (1557). The king of Spain had assembled an army which, after the junction of the Englishj amounted to 60,000 men, conducted by Philibert, duke of Savoy, one of the greatest captains of the age. Little interest would attend the narration of a campaign in which the English played only a subordinate part, and which resulted in their loss and disgrace. By Philibert's victory at St. Quentin the whole king- dom of France was thrown into consternation ; and had the Spaniards marched to the capital, it could not have failed to fail into their hands. But Philip's caution was unequal to so bold a step, and the opportunity was neglected. In the following -winter the duke of Guise succeeded in surprising and taking Calais, deemed in that age an impregnable fortress (January 7, 1558). Calais was surrounded with marshes which, during the winter, were impassable, except over a dyke guarded by two castles, St. Agatha and Newnham bridge. The English were of late accustomed, on account of the lowness of their finances, to dismiss a great part of the garrison at the end of autumn, and to recal them in the spring, at which time alone their attendance was judged to be necessary. It was this circumstance that insured the success of the French ; and thus the duke of Guise in eight days, during the depth of winter, made himself master of this strong for- 290 MARY. Chap. xvii. tress, that had cost Edward III. a siege of eleven months, at the head of a numerous army, The English had held it above 200 years ; and, as it gave them an easy entrance into France, it was regarded as the most important possession belonging to the crown. Guisnes fell two weeks later (January 21), and thus the English lost their last hold on French soil. The people murmured loudly against the improvidence of the queen and her council ; who, after engaging in a fruitless war for the sake of foreign interests, had thus exposed the nation to so severe a disgrace. Philip had indeed offered his aid to recover it, and his proposal was strongly seconded by Mary in person, but the council pleaded inability to bear the expense. § 8. The queen had long been in a declining state of health ; and, having mistaken her dropsy for a pregnancy, she had made use of an improper regimen, and her malady daily augmented. Appre- hensions of the danger to which the catholic religion stood exposed, dejection for the loss of Calais, concern for the ill state of her affairs, and, above all, anxiety for the absence of her husband, preyed upon her mind, and threw her into a lingering fever, of which she died, after a short and unfortunate reign of five years (November 17, 1558). It is not necessary to employ many words in drawing the character of this princess. She was obstinate and bigoted: but, among many defects, it must be admitted that she was sincere in her religion, high-spirited, courageous, and resolute in danger. Not naturally cruel, she was soured by a sense of wrongs done to herself by her father and by the remembrance of her mother's sufferings. Extremely beautiful as a child, she had lost all traces of beauty when she arrived at womanhood. Like all the Tudors, she was highly accomplished; an excellent linguist; a finished musician, and skilled, like her mother, in all sorts of embroidery. Cardinal Pole died the same day as the queen. A passage to Archangel had been discovered by the English during the last reign, and a beneficial trade with Muscovy estab- lished. A solemn embassy was sent by the tsar to Mary, which seems to have been the first intercourse which that empire had with any of the western potentates of Europe.* * " She was a little, slim, delicate, sickly woman, with her hair already turning grey. . . On personal acquaintance she made the impression of goodness and mildness. But yet there was something in her eyes that could even rouse fear." — Ranke's Hist, of Eng. i. 208, E.T. He adds that Mary had a loud voice, and all her sympathies leaned to the land of hex mother. Queen Elizabeth. Ornament formed of bust of Queen Elizabeth, cut from a medal and enclosed in a border of goldsmith's work representing Lancaster, York, and Tudor roses. CHAPTEE XYIII. ELIZABETH. FROM HER ACCESSION TO THE DEATH OF MART QUEEN of scots.— b. 1533 ; r. a.d. 1558-1603. § 1. Accession of the queen. Re-establishment of protestantism. §2. Peace with France. The Reformation in Scotland : supported by Elizabeth. §3. French affairs. Arrival of Mary in Scotland. Her administration. § 4. Wise government of Elizabeth. Proposals of marriage. § 5; Civil wars of France. Elizabeth assists the Huguenots. §6. The Thirty-nine Articles. Scotch affairs. The queen of Scots marries Darnley. Hostility of Elizabeth. § 7. Murder of Rizzio. Murder of Darnley. Bothwell marries the queen of Scots. Battle of Carberry Hill. § 8. Mary confined in Lochleven castle. Murray regent. James VI. proclaimed. Mary's escape and flight to England. § 9. Proceedings of the English court. § 10. Duke of Norfolk's conspiracy. Elizabeth excommunicated by the pope. § 11. Rise of the Puritans. Their proceedings in parliament. % 12. Foreign affairs. France and the Netherlands. § 13. .New conspiracy and execution of the duke of Norfolk. § 14. Massacre of St. Bartholomew. Civil war in France. Affairs of the Netherlands. § 15. Elizabeth's prudent government. Naval enterprise of Drake § 16. Negociations of marriage with the duke of Anjou. § 17. Con- spiracies in England. The High Commission court. Parry's conspiracy. § 18. Affairs of the Low Countries. Hostilities with Spain. Battle of Zutphen and death of Sidney. § 19. Babington's conspiracy. § 20 Trial and condemnation of the queen of Scots. § 21, Her execution. § 22. Elizabeth's sorrow. Her apologies to James. 292 ELIZABETH. Chap, xviii. § 1. Elizabeth was at Hatfield when she heard of her sister's death ; and after a few days she went to London (November 24), through crowds of people, who strove with each other in giving her the strongest testimony of their affection. With a prudence and magnanimity truly laudable, she buried all offences in oblivion, and received with affability even those who had taken part against her. « Philip, who still hoped, by means of Elizabeth, to obtain domi- nion over England, immediately made her proposals of marriage, and offered to procure from Rome a dispensation for that purpose ; but Elizabeth saw that the nation had entertained an extreme aversion to the Spanish alliance during her sister's reign.' She was sensible that her affinity with Philip was exactly similar to that of her father with Katharine of Arragon ; and that her marry- ing that monarch was in effect declaring herself illegitimate, and incapable of succeeding to the throne. She therefore gave him an obliging though evasive answer ; and he still retained such hopes of success that he sent a messenger to Rome with orders to solicit the dispensation. Elizabeth, not to alarm the partisans of the catholic religion, retained many of her sister's counsellors ; but in order to balance their authority, she added others who were known to be inclined to the protestant communion, among whom were sir Nicholas Bacon, created lord keeper, and sir William Cecil, secretary of state. With these counsellors, particularly Cecil, she frequently deliberated on the expediency of restoring the protestant religion. She re- solved to proceed by gradual and secure 'teps, but at the same time to discover such symptoms of her intentions as might give encouragement to the protestants, so much depressed by the late violent persecutions. She allowed the exiles to return, and gave liberty to the prisoners who were confined on account of religion. But she published a proclamation forbidding all preaching, and confining all teaching to the epistle and gospel for the day and the Ten Commandments, without any exposition. As the primacy was vacant, and Heath objected to officiate at the coronation, Oglethorpe, bishop of Carlisle, was prevailed on to perform the ceremony (January 15, 1559). In the parliament, which met soon after, the validity of the queen's title was declared. A bill was passed for suppressing the monasteries lately erected, and for restor- ing the tenths and first-fruits to the queen ; and another for restoring to the crown the supremacy in ecclesiastical affairs.* In order to exercise this authority, the queen, by a clause of the act, was empowered to name such commissioners, either laymen or clergy- * Instead of Supreme Head, Elizabeth assumed the title of Supreme Governor. A.D. 1558-1559. PEACE WITH FRANCE. 293 men, as she should think proper ; and on this clause was founded the court of High Commission.* Whoever refused to take the oath of supremacy was incapacitated from holding office, and whoever maintained the authority of any foreign potentate, by word or deed, forfeited, for the first offence, all his goods and chattels; for the second, was subjected to the penalty of a prcemunire ; but the third offence was declared treason. Lastly, an act was passed for establish- ing the second Prayer-book of Edward VI. (1552), with some altera- tions, and prohibiting any minister, whether beneficed or not, from using any other form, under pain for the first offence of forfeiting goods and chattels, for the second of a year's imprisonment, and for the third of imprisonment during life. Thus in one session, without any violence, tumult, or clamour, was the whole system of religion altered. The laws enacted with regard to religion met with little opposition from any quarter. The liturgy was again introduced in the vulgar tongue, and the oath of supremacy was tendered to the clergy. The bishops had taken, such an active part in the restora- tion of popery under Mary, that, with the exception of the bishop of Llandaff, they felt themselves bound to refuse the oath, and were accordingly degraded ; but of the inferior clergy through all England, amounting to nearly 10,000, only about 100 dignitaries and 89 parochial priests sacrificed their livings to their religious principles. The archbishopric of Canterbury, which was vacaut by the death of cardinal Pole, was conferred upon Parker. The two statutes above mentioned, usually called the Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity, were the great instruments for oppress- ing the catholics during this and many subsequent reigns. On the 10th of February the House of Commons made the queen an importunate but tespectful address that she should fix her choice of a husband.. After thanking them for this expression of their love for her, she told them that if ever she married it should be to the contentment of the realm ; but she preferred to live " out of the state of marriage." " This," she added, " shall be for me sufficient, that a marble stone shall declare that a queen, having reigned such a time, lived and died a virgin." § 2. The negociations for a peace with France, in progress at the time of Mary's death, were concluded at Cateau Cambresis (April 12, 1559). By this treaty, Calais remained in the hands of the French monarch, who promised to restore it at the end of eight years — a stipulation, however, which was never intended or expected to be executed. A peace with Scotland was a neces- sary consequence of that with France. But notwithstanding this * The first body of commissioners was appointed in 1559, but the court was not formally established until 1583. 294 ELIZABETH. Chap, xvm. peace there soon appeared a ground of quarrel of the most serious nature, and which was afterwards attended with the most im- portant consequences. The next heir to the English throne was Mary queen of Scots, now married to the dauphin; and the king of France, at the persuasion of the duke of Guise and his brothers, ordered his son and daughter-in-law to assume openly the arms as well as title of king and queen of England, and to quarter these arms on all their equipages, furniture, and liveries. When the English ambassador complained of this injury, he could obtain nothing but an evasive answer ; and Elizabeth plainly saw that the king of France intended, on the first opportunity, to dispute her legitimacy and her title to the crown. Alarmed at the danger, she determineht have a.d. 1641. IRISH REBELLION. 387 been easily diverted to a different object. By this means, however, not only was the standing army in Ireland greatly reduced, but a large body of discontented papists, trained to the use of arms, was suddenly turned loose on society. The old Irish observed these false steps of the English, and resolved to take advantage of them. A gentleman called Roger More, of Kildare, much celebrated among his countrymen for valour and capacity, formed the project of expelling the English ; and he engaged in the conspiracy the chiefs of the native Irish, especially sir Phelim O'Neale, the representative of the Tyrone family, and lord Inniskillen (Macguire). The com- mencement of the revolt was fixed for the approach of winter, that there might be more difficulty in transporting forces from England. An attempt to surprise Dublin castle was betrayed and failed, but O'Neale and his confederates had already taken up arms in Ulster. The Irish, everywhere intermingled with the English, needed but a hint from their leaders to begin hostilities against a people whom they hated on account of their religion, and envied for their riches. The houses, cattle, and goods of the unwary English were first seized. After rapacity had fully exerted itself, a massacre com- menced (October 23, 1641). No age, no sex, and no condition was spared. The English, as heretics abhorred of Grod, were marked out for slaughter. The English colonies were almost annihilated in the open country of Ulster, whence the flames of rebellion diffused them- selves over the other three provinces of Ireland. Not content with expelling the English from their houses, and despoiling them of their manors and cultivated fields, the Irish stripped them of their clothes, and turned them out, naked and defenceless, to all the inclemency of the season. The number of those who perished is estimated at the lowest from 30,000 to 40,000. The English of the pale, or ancient English planters, who were all catholics, were probably not at first in the secret, and pretended to blame the insurrection and to detest the barbarity with which it was accompanied. By their protestations and declarations they engaged the justices to supply them with arms, which they promised to employ in de- fence of the government ; but in a little time the interests of religion were found more powerful than regard and duty to their mother country. They chose lord Gormanston their leader ; and, joining the old Irish, rivalled them in every act of violence to- wards the English protestants. § 16. The king, to whom the Scots could grant no further aid than to despatch a small body to support the Scottish colonies in Ulster, sensible of his utter inability to subdue the Irish rebels, found himself obliged, in this exigency, to have recourse to the English parliament. But the parliament discovered, in every vote, 388 CHARLES I. Chap. xxi. the same dispositions in which they had separated. The Irish rebellion had increased their animosity ; but, while they pretended the utmost zeal against it, they took no steps towards its sup- pression. The necessity to which the king was now reduced, his facility in making concessions fatal to bis own authority, the example of the Scots, all combined in encouraging the commons to impair the prerogatives of the monarchy. They levied money under pretence of the Irish expedition, but reserved it for purposes which concerned them more nearly ; they took arms from the king's magazines, but still kept them, with a secret intention of employing them against himself. To vindicate their conduct aud to show that their dis- trust of the king was well founded, the leaders of the popular party thought proper, in the king's absence, to frame a general Remon- strance on the state of the nation. This memorable document was not addressed to the king, but was openly declared to be an appeal to the people. It consisted of many gross falsehoods, mixed with evident truths. Whatever invidious, whatever suspicious, whatever questionable measure ha 1 been embraced by the king, from the com- mencement of his reign, is insisted on with merciless rhetoric : the unsuccessful expeditions to Cadiz and the isle of Rhe ; the sending of ships to France for the suppression of the Huguenots ; the forced loans ; the illegal confinement of men for not obeying illegal com- mands ; the violent dissolution of four parliaments ; the arbitrary government which always succeeded , the questioning, fining, and imprisoning of members for their conduct in the house ; the levy- ing of taxes without consent of the commons ; the introducing of superstitious innovations into the church, without authority of law: in short, everything which, with or withov reason, had given offence during the course of 15 years, from the accession of the king to the calling of the present parliament. And a'.l their grievances, they said, which amounted to no less than a total subversion of the constitution, proceeded entirely from the combination of a popish faction, which had ever swayed the king's counsels, had endeavoured, by an uninterrupted effort, to introduce their super- stition into England and Scotland, and had now at last excited an open and bloody rebellion in Ireland. But the opposition which the Remonstrance met with in the House of Commons was great. For above 14 hours the debate was warmly maintained, and the vote was at last carried by a small majority of 159 to 148 (No- vember 22). It was two o'clock in the morning — the debate, which was hot and furious, had lasted the whole day before — when a member at once sprang to his feet, and moved that, without wait- ing for the concurrence of the lords, the Remonstrance should be printed, — in effect, that it should be put into general circulation to A.D. 1641. IMPEACHMENT OF THE BISHOPS. 389 excite the passions of the people, before the king, who was then absent, or his council, could have time to answer it. In this memorable debate Hyde and Falkland, who had previously acted with the popular party, were the chief leaders in opposition to the Eemonstrance. Every measure pursued by the commons, and still more every attempt made by their partisans, was full of the most inveterate hatred against the hierarchy, and showed a determined resolution of subverting the whole ecclesiastical establishment. The majority of the peers, who had hitherto supported the commons, now adhered to the king, though a few, as the earl of Northumberland, the earl of Essex, and lord Kimbolton (soon after earl of Manchester), still took the opposite side. The commons professed to be alarmed for their personal safety, and applied to the king for a guard, as they apprehended " some wicked and mischievous practice to interrupt the peaceable proceedings of parliament " (November 30). The pulpits were called in aid, and resounded with the dangers which threatened religion from the desperate attempts of papists and malignants. Multitudes flocked towards Westminster, insulted the prelates and such of the lords as adhered to the crown, and threw out insolent menaces against Charles himself. Several reduced officers and young gentlemen of the inns of court, during this time of disorder and danger, offered their service to the king. Between them and the populace there passed frequent skirmishes, which ended not without bloodshed. By way of reproach, these gentlemen gave the rabble the appellation of Roundheads, on account of the short- cropped hair which they wore ; the latter called the others Cavaliers. And thus the nation, which was before sufficiently provided with religious as well as civil causes of quarrel, was also supplied with party names, under which the factions might rally and signalize their mutual hatred. As the bishops were prevented from attending parliament by the dangerous insults to which they were particularly exposed, twelve of them drew up a remonstrance to the king and House of Lords, in which they protested against all laws, votes, and resolutions, as null and invalid, passed during the time of their constrained absence (December 30). The opportunity was seized with joy and triumph by the commons. An impeachment of high treason was immediately sent up against the bishops, as endeavouring to subvert the fundamental laws, and to invalidate the authority of the legislature. They were, on the first demand, sequestered from parliament and committed to custody. § 17. A few days after, the king was betrayed into an act of in- discretion, which was followed by most disastrous results. He had 390 CHARLES I. Chap. xxi. discovered that six of the foremost leaders of the opposition had entered into treasonable correspondence with the Scots during their invasion of England. These were lord Kimbolton (Edward Montagu, eldest son of the earl of Manchester), Pym, Hampden, Hazelrig, Holies, and Strode. On January 3, 1642, he sent Herbert, the attor- ney-general, to impeach them in the House of Peers. To the demand made the same day by a sergeant-at-arms for the arrest of the five members, the commons returned an evasive answer, and the king resolved to seize them in person on the morrow. It is probable that, if he had been left to himself, he would have shrunk from executing this design on cooler reflection ; but he was surrounded by those who urged him to more violent counsels, especially the queen and her attendants, who taunted him with cowardice and re- flections on his honour. Accompanied by his ordinary retinue, to the number of above 200, armed as usual, some with halberts, some with walking-swords, the king made his appearance at the doors of the House of Commons. Leaving his followers outside, he advanced through the hall alone, while all the members rose to receive him. The speaker withdrew from his chair, and the king took possession of it. He then in a short speech demanded the accused members, who, having received private intelligence from the countess of Carlisle, had withdrawn; and he asked the speaker, who stood below, whether any of those persons were in the house. The speaker (Lenthall), falling on his knee, prudently replied, " I have, sir, neither eyes to see, nor tongue to speak, in this place, but as the house is pleased to direct me, whose servant I am ; and I humbly ask pardon that I cannot give any other answer to what your majesty is pleased to demand of me." " Well, well," rejoined the king, " 'tis no matter ; I think my eyes are as good as another's." Then, convincing himself by a further scrutiny that his search was vain, he added, " As the birds are flown, I do expect from you that you will send them unto me as soon as they return, otherwise I must take my own course to find them." The answer was not ill natured, and probably the king was not ill satisfied at the result ; but as he moved to the doors, shouts of " Privilege I privilege I " followed him from all sides (January 4). The house immediately adjourned till the 5th ; and, appointing a committee to sit at Guild- hall, it put forth a declaration that the king's proceedings were a breach of its privileges, and its sittings at Westminster could no longer be held consistently with its safety. Next morning Charles, attended only by three or four lords, went to Guildhall, and made a speech to the common council containing many gracious expressions. The city was the stronghold of the disaffected members. As he passed through the streets, he heard a.d. 1642. THE FIVE MEMBERS. 391 the cry, " Privilege of parliament ! privilege of parliament ! " re- sounding from all quarters. One of the populace, more insolent than the rest, drew nigh to his coach, and threw in a paper on which w the declining authority of the king. The earl of Clanricarde secretly formed a combination among the catholics. He sent to Paris a deputation, inviting Ormond to return and take possession of his government. Ormond, on his arrival in March, had at first to contend with many difficulties. But in the distractions which attended the final struggle in England, the republican faction totally neglected Ireland, and allowed Jones, and the forces in Dublin, to remain in the utmost weakness and necessity. The lord-lieutenant, having at last assembled a considerable army, advanced upon the parlia- mentary garrisons. Dundalk, Drogheda, and several other towns surrendered or were taken. Dublin was threatened with a siege ; and the affairs of the lieutenant appeared in so prosperous a con- dition, that the young king entertained thoughts of coming in person into Ireland. When the English commonwealth was brought to some tolerable settlement, men turned their eyes towards the neighbouring island. After the execution of the king, Cromwell himself began to aspire to a command where so much glory, he saw, might be won, and so much authority acquired ; and he was appointed by the parliament lieutenant and general of Ireland (June 22). § 2. He applied himself, with his wonted vigilance, to make preparations for his expedition. He sent a reinforcement of 4000 men to Jones, who unexpectedly attacked Ormond near Dublin ; chased his army off the field ; seized all their tents, baggage, ammu- nition ; and returned victorious to Dublin, after killing 600 men, many in cold blood, and taking above 2000 prisoners (August 2). This loss, which threw some blemish on the military character of Ormond, was irreparable to the royal cause. Hearing of Jones's success, Cromwell soon after arrived with fresh forces in Dublin, where he was welcomed with shouts and rejoicings (August 15). He hastened to Drogheda, which, though well fortified, was taken by assault, Cromwell himself, along with Ireton, leading on his 20* 430 THE COMMONWEALTH. Chap, xxiii. men. A cruel slaughter was made of the garrison, orders having been issued to give no quarter (September 10). All priests and monks were put to death without distinction. Cromwell pretended to retaliate, by this severe execution, the cruelty of the Irish massacre ; but he well knew that almost the whole garrison was English. " The enemy," as he stated in his letter to parliament, "were about 3000 strong. We refused them quarter. . . . I believe we put to the sword the whole number of the defendants. I do not think 30 of the whole number escaped with their lives ; those that did are in safe custody for the Barbadoes " — that is, slavery in the West Indies. Parliament ordered a thanksgiving service for such a glorious victory. Wexford was taken (October 9), and the same severity exercised as at Drogheda, between 2000 and 3000 being put to the sword. Every town before which Cromwell pre- sented himself now opened its gates without resistance. Next spring he made himself master of Kilkenny and Clonmel, the only places where he met with any vigorous resistance. Ormond soon after left the island, and delegated his authority to Clanricarde, who found affairs so desperate as to admit of no remedy. The Irish were glad to embrace banishment, and more than 40,000 sought refuge in foreign service. § 3. While Cromwell proceeded with such uninterrupted success in Ireland, which in the space of nine months he had almost en- tirely subdued, fortune was preparing for him a new scene of victory and triumph in Scotland. Charles, by the advice of his friends, who thought it ridiculous to refuse a kingdom merely from regard to episcopacy, had been induced to accept the crown of Scotland on the terms offered by the commissioners of the Cove- nanters. But what chiefly determined him to comply, was the account brought him of the fate of Montrose, which blasted all his hopes of recovering his inheritance by force. That gallant but unfortunate nobleman, having received assistance from some of the northern powers, had landed in the Orkneys with about 500 men, most of them Germans. He armed several of the inhabitants of the Orkneys, and carried them over with him to Caithness ; but was disappointed in his hopes that affection to the king's service, and the fame of his former exploits, would make the Highlanders flock to his standard. Strahan, one of the generals of the Cove- nanters, fell unexpectedly on Montrose, who had no horse to bring him intelligence. The royalists were put to flight, all of them were either killed or taken prisoners, and Montrose himself, having put on the disguise of a peasant, was perfidiously delivered into the hands of his enemies by a friend, named Aston, to whom he had intrusted his person. In this disguise he was carried to Edinburgh, a.d. 1650. CHARLES II. IN SCOTLAND. 431 amid the insults of his enemies ; when he was tried and con- demned by the parliament, and hanged with every circumstance of ignominy and cruelty (May 21, 1650). In this extremity Charles set sail for Scotland ; but before he was permitted to land he was required to sign the Covenant. Many sermons and lectures were made to him, exhorting him to persevere in that holy confederacy. He soon found that he was considered as a mere pageant of state, and that the few remains of royalty which he possessed served only to draw on him the greater indignities. He was constrained by the Covenanters to issue a declaration, wherein he desired to be deeply humbled and afflicted in spirit, because of his father's opposing the Covenant and shedding the blood of God's people throughout his dominions ; he lamented the idolatry of his mother, and the toleration of it in his father's house ; and professed that he would have no enemies but the enemies of the Covenant. Still the Covenanters and the clergy were diffident of his sincerity ; and he found his authority entirely annihilated, as well as his character degraded. He was consulted in no public measure ; and his favour was sufficient to discredit any pretender to office or advancement. As soon as the English parliament found that the treaty between the king and the Scots would probably terminate in an accommo- dation, they made preparations for a war, which, they saw, would in the end prove inevitable. Cromwell, having broken the force and courage of the Irish, was sent for ; and he left the command of Ireland to Ireton. It was expected that Fairfax, who still retained the name of general, would continue to act against Scotland. But he entertained insurmountable scruples against invading the Scots, whom he considered as united to England by the sacred bands of the Covenant. Accordingly, he resigned his commission, which was bestowed on Cromwell, who was declared captain-general of all the forces in England. Cromwell crossed the Tweed (July 16), and entered Scotland with an army of 16,000 men. Leslie, the Scotch general, entrenched himself in a fortified camp between Edinburgh and Leith, and took care to remove everything from the country which could serve for the subsistence of the English army. Crom- well, who had advanced to the Scottish camp, and vainly en- deavoured to bring Leslie to a battle, began to be in want of provisions, which reached him only by sea. He therefore retired to Dunbar. Leslie followed him, and encamped on Down Hill, which overlooked that town. There lay many difficult passes between Dunbar and Berwick, and of these Leslie had taken pos- session. The English general was reduced to extremities. He had even embraced a resolution of sending by sea all his foot and 432 THE COMMONWEALTH. Chap. xxin. artillery to England, and of breaking through, at all hazards, with his cavalry. The madness of the Scottish ecclesiastics saved him from this loss and dishonour. Night and day the ministers had been wrestling with the Lord in prayer, as they termed it ; and they fancied that the sectarian and heretical army, together with Agag, meaning Cromwell, was delivered into their hands. Upon the faith of these visions, they forced their general, in spite of his remonstrances, to descend into the plain, with the view of attack- ing the English in their retreat. Cromwell saw the Scots in motion, and their line widely and loosely extended ; and exclaim- ing (as some say), "The Lord hath delivered them into our hands ! " gave orders far the attack (September 3, 1650). Unable to close their ranks, the Scots, though double in number to the English, were totally defeated and pursued with great slaughter. No victory could have been more complete. About 3000 of the enemy were slain, and 9000 taken prisoners. Cromwell pursued his advan- tage, and took possession of Edinburgh and Leith. The remnant of the Scottish army fled to Stirling. The approach of the winter season, and an ague which seized Cromwell, kept him from pushing the victory further. § 4. This defeat of the Scots was not unacceptable to the royalists. Charles was crowned at Scone (January 1, 1651) with great pomp and solemnity. But amidst all this appearance of respect, Charles remained in the hands of the most rigid Covenanters, and was little better than a prisoner. As soon as the season would permit, the Scottish army was assembled under Hamilton and Leslie ; and the king was allowed to join the camp before Stirling. Cromwell, having failed to bring the Scottish generals to an engagement, crossed the Forth, and took Perth, the seat of government (August 2). Charles now embraced a resolution worthy of a young prince con- tending for empire. Having the way open, he resolved immediately to march into England, and persuaded most of the generals to enter into the same views. But Argyle obtained, permission to retire to his own home. The army, to the number of 14,000 men, rose from their camp, and advanced by great journeys towards the south (July 31). Cromwell was surprised at this movement of the royal army ; but he quickly repaired his oversight by his vigilance and activity, and, leaving Monk with 7000 men to complete the reduction of Scotland, he followed the king with all possible expedition. Charles found himself disappointed in his expectations of increas- ing his army. The Scots, terrified at the prospect of so hazardous an enterprise, fell off in great numbers. The English presbyterians. and royalists, having no warning given them of the king's approach, a.d. 1650-1651. FLIGHT AND ESCAPE OF CHARLES. 433 were not prepared to join him. When he arrived at Worcester he found that his forces, extremely harassed by a hasty and fatiguing march, were not more numerous than when he rose from his camp at Stirling. With an army of about 30,000 men, Cromwell fell upon Worcester (August 28), and, attacking it on all sides, after a desperate resistance of four or five hours, broke in upon the dis- ordered royalists (September 3). The streets of the city were strewed with dead. The whole Scottish army was either killed or taken prisoners. Fifteen hundred were sold for slaves. The country people, inflamed with national antipathy, put to death the few that escaped from the field of battle. The king left Worcester at six o'clock in the afternoon, and, without halting, travelled about 26 miles, in company with 50 or 60 of his friends. To provide for his safety, he thought it best to separate himself from his companions ; and he left them without communicating his intentions to any of them. By the earl of Derby's advice, he went to Boscobel, a lone house, on the borders of Staffordshire, inhabited by one Penderell, a farmer. To this man Charles intrusted himself. Though death was denounced against all who concealed the king, and a great reward promised to any one who should betray him, he maintained unshaken fidelity.* He took the assistance of his four brothers, equally honourable with himself; and, having clothed the king in a garb like their own, they led him to the neighbouring wood, put a bill into his hand, and pretended to employ themselves in cutting faggots. Some nights Charles lay upon straw in the house, and fed on such homely fare as it afforded. For better concealment, he mounted an oak, where he sheltered himself among the leaves and branches for 24 hours. He saw several soldiers pass by. All of them were intent on searching for the king ; and some expressed, in his hearing, their earnest wishes of seizing him. This tree was afterwards denominated the Royal Oak, and for many years was regarded by the neighbour- hood with great veneration. Charles passed through many other adventures, assumed different disguises, in every step was exposed to imminent perils, and received daily proofs of uncorrupted fidelity and attachment. The sagacity of a smith, who remarked that his horse's shoe had been made in the north, not in the west, as he pretended, once detected him, and he narrowly escaped. At Shore- ham, in Sussex, a vessel was at last found, in which he embarked, and after 41 days' concealment he arrived safely at Fecamp in Normandy (October 17). No fewer than 40 men and women had, at different times, been privy to his concealment and escape. * Two of the descendants of this family still receive pensions for their services on this occasion. 434 THE COMMONWEALTH. Chap, xxiii. § 5. Notwithstanding the late wars and bloodshed, and the present factions, the prowess of England had never, in any period, appeared more formidable to the neighbouring kingdoms than it did at this time. The right of peace and war was lodged in the same hands with the power of imposing taxes ; a numerous and well-disciplined army was on foot ; and excellent officers were found in every branch of service. The- confusion into which all things had been thrown had given opportunity to men of low stations to break through their obscurity, and to raise themselves by their valour to com- mands which they were well qualified to exercise, but to which their birth could never have entitled them. Blake, a man of great courage and generous disposition, who had defended Lyme and Taunton with unshaken obstinacy against the late king, was made an admiral ; and though he had hitherto been accustomed only to land-service, into which he had not entered till past 50 years of age, he soon raised the naval glory of the nation to a greater height than it had ever attained in any former period. A fleet was put under his command, with which he chased into the Tagus prince Eupert, to whom the king had intrusted that squadron which had deserted to him. The king of Portugal Jiaving refused Blake admittance and aided prince Kupert in making his escape, the English admiral made prize of 20 Portuguese ships richly laden ; and he threatened still further vengeance. The king of Portugal, dreading so dangerous a foe to his newly acquired dominion, made all possible submission to the haughty republic, and was at last admitted to negociate for a renewal of his alliance.* All the settlements in America, except New England, which had been planted entirely by the puritans, adhered to the royal party, even after the settlement of the republic, but were soon subdued. With equal ease Jersey, Guernsey, Scilly, and the Isle of Man, were brought under subjection ; and the sea, which had been much infested by privateers from these islands, was rendered safe to English commerce. The countess of Derby defended the Isle of Man, and with great reluctance yielded to unavoidable necessity (November, 1651). Ireton, the new deputy of Ireland, at the head of an army 30,000 strong, prosecuted the work of subduing the revolted Irish ; and he defeated them in many encounters, which, though of themselves of no great moment, proved fatal to their declining cause. He died of the plague at Limerick, after he had captured that town (November, 1651). The command of the army in Ireland devolved on lieutenant-general Ludlow. The civil government of the island was intrusted to four commissioners, * The fleet commanded by Blake had, for the most part, been built by Charles, J., out of the ship-money. a.d. 1651. DUTCH WAR. 435 whose chief concern was to dispossess the native Irish of their pro- perty, and confer it on English settlers. Thousands embraced voluntary exile ; others, especially women and children, were shipped to the American plantations ; those who remained were driven from the more fertile districts into Connaught, and their lands were distributed amongst the parliamentary soldiers. The successes which attended Monk in Scotland were no less decisive. After taking Stirling Castle (whence the national records and regalia were conveyed to London), and gaining other advan- tages, he carried Dundee by assault ; and, following the example of Cromwell, put all the inhabitants, consisting of 800, to the sword (September 1, 1651). Warned by this example, Aberdeen, St. Andrews, Inverness, and other towns and forts, yielded, of their own accord, to the enemy. Argyle made his submission to the English commonwealth; and Scotland, which had hitherto, by means of its situation, poverty, and valour, maintained its inde- pendence, was reduced to total subjection. The English parliament sent sir Harry Vane, St. John, and other commissioners, to settle that kingdom. Estates were confiscated, taxes imposed, the people disarmed, their preachers silenced; and, to carry out more com- pletely this appearance of national humiliation, English judges were appointed to administer the laws. § 6. By the total reduction and pacification of the British dominions, the parliament had leisure to look abroad, and to exert their vigour in foreign enterprises. The Dutch were the first that felt the weight of their arms. After the death, in 1650, of William, prince of Orange, who had married Mary, daughter of Charles I., and whose policy had been favourable to the royal cause, the parliament thought that the time had arrived for cement- ing a closer confederacy with the Dutch republican party, which was now in the ascendant. St. John, chief justice, who was sent . over to the Hague, had entertained the idea of forming a kind of coalition between the two republics ; but the States offered only to renew the former alliances with England. The haughty St. John, disgusted with this disappointment, as well as incensed by many affronts which had been offered him with impunity by the retainers of the palatine and Orange families, and indeed by the populace in general, returned into England, and, by his influence over Cromwell, determined the parliament to change the proposed alliance into a furious war against the United Provinces. To cover these hostile intentions the parliament embraced such measures as they knew would give disgust to the States. They framed the famous act of navigation (October 9, 1651), by which all nations were prohibited from importing into England any goods, except 436 THE COMMONWEALTH. Chap, xxiit. in English bottoms, or in the vessels of the country where the goods were produced. By this law the Dutch were principally affected, because they subsisted chiefly by being the general carriers and factors of Europe. Letters of reprisal were granted to several merchants, who complained of injuries, and above 80 Dutch ships were made prizes. Tromp, an admiral of great renown, with a fleet of 42 sail, being forced by stress of weather, as he alleged, to take shelter in the roads of Dover, there met with Blake, who com- manded an English fleet much inferior in number. Who was the aggressor in the action which ensued between these two admirals, both of them men of such prompt and fiery dispositions, it is not easy to determine. Blake, though his squadron consisted only of 15 vessels, reinforced, after the battle began, by eight more under captain Bourne, maintained the fight with bravery for five hours, and sunk one ship of the enemy, and took another (May 19, 1652). Night parted the combatants, and the Dutch fleet retired towards the coast of Holland. The Dutch despatched their pensionary Pauw to conciliate matters ; but the imperious parliament would hearken to no explanations or remonstrances. They demanded that, without any further delay or inquiry, reparation should be made for all the damages which the English had sustained. When this demand was not complied with, they despatched orders for commencing war against the United Provinces (July 8). Several naval engagements followed. Sir George Ayscue, though he com- manded only 40 ships, engaged, near Plymouth, the famous De Euyter, who had under him 50 ships of war, with 30 merchantmen (August 1G). H - Night parted them in the greatest heat of the action. De Euyter next day sailed off with his convoy. The English fleet had been so shattered in the fight, that it was not able to pursue. Near the coast of Kent, Blake, seconded by Bourne .and Penn, met a Dutch squadron nearly equal in numbers, com- manded by De Witt and De Euyter (September 28). A battle was fought much to the disadvantage of the Dutch. Their rear-admiral's ship was boarded and taken. Two other vessels were sunk, and one blown up. The Dutch next day made sail towards Holland. On November 28, Tromp, seconded by De Euyter, met, near the Goodwins, with Blake, whose fleet was inferior to the Dutch, but who resolved not to decline the combat. In this action the Dutch had the advantage, and Blake himself was wounded. After this victory, Tromp, in bravado, fixed a broom to his mainmast, as if he were resolved to sweep the sea entirely of all English vessels. In order to wipe off this disgrace, great preparations were made in England. A gallant fleet of 80 sail was fitted out. Blake commanded, with Monk under him, who had been sent for from a.d. 1652-1G53. CROMWELL EXPELS THE PARLIAMENT. 437 Scotland. When the English lay off Portland (February 18, 1653), they descried, near break of day, a Dutch fleet of 78 vessels sailing up the Channel, along with a convoy of 300 merchantmen. Tromp, and under him De Kuyter, commanded the Dutch. This battle was the most furious that had yet been fought between these war- like and rival nations. Three days was the combat continued with the utmost rage and obstinacy ; and Blake, who was victor, gained not more honour than Tromp, who was vanquished. The Dutch admiral made a skilful retreat, and saved all the merchant-ships except 30. He lost, however, 11 ships of war, had 2000 men slain, and near 1500 taken prisoners. The English, though many of their ships were extremely shattered, had but one sunk. Their slain were not much inferior in number to those of the enemy. § 7. Meanwhile the parliament, no longer apprehensive of domestic war, had proposed, at the close of 1651, to reduce the number of the army. In 1652 they attempted to carry this project into execution. Cromwell, perceiving that the parliament entertained a jealousy of his power and ambition", and was resolved to bring him to sub- ordination under its authority, determined to prevent it. The same year he summoned a general council of officers, in which it was voted to frame a remonstrance to parliament (August 13) After complaining of the arrears due to the army, they desired the parliament to reflect how many years it had sat, and that it was now full time for it to give place to others. They therefore desired it to summon a new parliament, and establish that free and equal government which it had so long promised the people. The parliament took this remonstrance in ill part, and much alter- cation ensued (March, 1653). At last, Cromwell being informed that it had come to a resolution not to dissolve, but to fill up the house by new elections, immediately hastened thither, and carried with him a body of 300 soldiers. Some of them he placed at the door, some in the lobby, some on the stairs. He first addressed himself to his friend St. John, and told him that he had come with a purpose of doing what grieved him to the very soul, and what he had earnestly with tears besought the Lord not to impose upon him; but there was a necessity, in order to the glory of God and good of the nation. He then sat down for some time, and heard the debate. Presently he beckoned Harrison, and told him that he now judged the parliament ripe for dissolution. " Sir," said Harrison, " the work is very great and dangerous ; I desire you seriously to consider, before you engage in it." " You say well," replied the general ; and thereupon sat still about a quarter of an hour. When the question was ready to be put, he said again to Harrison, "This is the time: I must do it." And 438 THE COMMONWEALTH. Chap. xxm. suddenly starting up, he commenced in a tone of forced calmness, but ended in loading the parliament with the vilest reproaches, for their tyranny, oppression, and robbery. Then stamping with his foot, which was a signal for the soldiers to enter, "For shame," said he to the members, " get you gone ; give place to honester men ; to those who will more faithfully discharge their trust. You are no longer a parliament : I tell you, you are no longer a parlia- ment. The Lord has done with you. He has chosen other instru- ments for carrying on His work." Sir Harry Vane exclaiming against this proceeding, he cried with' a loud voice, " sir Harry Vane, sir Harry Vane ! The Lord deliver me from sir Harry Vane ! " Taking hold of Martin by the cloak, " Thou art a whoremaster," said he. To another, " Thou art an adulterer." To a third, " Thou art a drunkard and a glutton ; " " And thou an extortioner," to a fourth. He then commanded a soldier to seize the mace. " What shall we do with this fool's bauble ? Here, take it away. It is you," said he, addressing himself to the house, " that have forced me upon this. I have sought the Lord night and day, that He would rather slay me than put me upon this work." Having commanded the soldiers to clear the hall, he himself went out the last, and, ordering the doors to be locked, departed to his lodgings in White- hall (April 20, 1653). To such ignominy was the celebrated Long Parliament reduced. As the Rump was hated, the indignation entertained by the people against this manifest usurpation was not so violent as might have been expected. Congratulatory addresses, the first of the kind, were made to Cromwell by the fleet, by the army, even by many of the chief corporations and counties of England ; but especially by the several congregations of saints or independents dispersed throughout the kingdom. § 8. Cromwell, however, thought it requisite to establish some- thing which might bear the face of a commonwealth ; and without any more ceremony, he formed himself, with eight others of his officers and four civilians, into a council of state. By their advice he sent summonses to 128 persons of different towns and counties in England, to five of Scotland, and to six of Ireland (June 8). He pretended, by his sole act and deed, to devolve upon them the whole authority of the state. This legislative power they were to exercise during 15 months, and they were afterwards to choose the same number of persons who might succeed them in that high and im- portant office. In this assembly, which voted themselves a parlia- ment (July 4), were many persons of the rank of gentlemen ; but the greater part were fifth monarchy men, anabaptists, and in- dependents. They began with seeking God by prayer. They con- a.d. 1653. CROMWELL APPOINTED PROTECTOR. 439 templated some extraordinary schemes of legislation, but had not leisure to finish any, except that which established the legal solemnization of marriage by the civil magistrate alone. Among the fanatics of the house there was an active member, much noted for his long prayers, sermons, and harangues. He was a leather-seller hi London, named Praise-God Barebone. This ridiculous name struck the fancy of the people, and they commonly called this assembly Barebone 's Parliament, or the Little Parliament. The parliament was obsequious enough. Besides the executive, it transferred the highest judicial powers to Cromwell and his council. It abrogated the high court of chancery (August 5). It constituted a new high commission court in the form of a high court of justice for trials of offenders against the common- wealth (August 10). It empowered the council of state to revise acts of treason. To put an end to this farce of government, it re- solved (December 13) that, as its further sitting was no longer for the good of the commonwealth, it was requisite to deliver up to the lord-general, Cromwell, the powers it had received from him. This was formally proposed by Sydenham, an independent. Eous, the speaker, who was one of Sydenham's party, forthwith left the chair, followed by several members, and the few who remained in the house were ejected by colonel White, with a party of soldiers. Cromwell at first refused the offer ; but the resignation of their powers being signed by the majority of the house, he accepted the trust, and a deed was drawn up, called the Instru- ment of Government, which received the approval of the council of officers. By this instrument Cromwell received the title of " His Highness the Lord Protector " (December 16), and a council was appointed of not more than 21, nor less than 13 persons, who were to enjoy their office during life or good behaviour. The legislative power was vested in the protector and a parliament. The protector was bound to summon a parliament every three years, and allow them to sit five months, without adjournment, prorogation, or dissolution. The bills which they passed were to be presented to the protector for his assent; but if within 20 days it were not obtained, they were to become laws by the authority of parliament alone. The number of members was determined at 400 for England, and 30 each for Scotland and Ireland. A standing army of 20,000 foot and 10,000 horse was established for Great Britain and Ireland, and funds were as- signed for its support. The protector was to enjoy his office during life, to treat with foreign states, and make peace or war with the assent of his council. He had the disposal of the military and naval power, and the appointment of great officers of state, with uo THE COMMONWEALTH. Chap xxin. the consent of parliament. Finally, on his death the place was immediately to be supplied by the council. Thus, in fact, the sovereign authority of which parliament had deprived the king was transferred to the protector and the general of its armies. With such a power at his back, the authority of the protector was virtually and practically absolute, and the forms of the con- stitution depended solely on nis will. § 9. In spite of these distracted scenes, the military prowess of England was exerted with vigour; and never did it appear more formidable to foreign nations. The English fleet gained several victories over the Dutch, in the last of which Tromp, while gallantly animating his men, was shot through the heart with a musket ball (July 31, 1653). Monk and Penn commanded in Medal given for service in the action with the Dutch, July 31, 1653. Ohv. : a naval battle : above, for eminent service in saving t triumph fiered in fight wh y dvch in ivly 1653. Rev. : arms of the three kingdoms suspended on an anchor. this engagement, Blake being ill on shore. The States, over- whelmed with the expense of the war, terrified by their losses and defeats, were extremely desirous of an accommodation ; and a peace was at last signed by Cromwell (April 5, 1654). A defensive league was made between the two republics, and the honour of the flag was yielded to the English. § 10. The new parliament summoned by the protector met on September 3, 1654. The elections had been conducted agreeably to the instrument of government, and precautions were taken to form a house subservient to the wishes of the protector. All persons who had in any way assisted the king, presbyterians, episcopalians, or royalists, were declared incapable of serving. The smaller boroughs were deprived of the franchise. Of 400 members, a.d. 1654-1655. CROMWELL'S FIRST PARLIAMENT. 441 which represented England, 250 were chosen hy the counties; the rest were elected by London and the more considerable cor- porations. The lower populace, as easily guided or deceived, were excluded from the elections. An estate of 200?. value was necessary to entitle any one to a vote. Further, in imitation of the old regal practice, Cromwell and his officers nominated 144 of the members for the united knigdoms, including themselves. But the protector soon found that he did not possess the con- fidence of this parliament. Having heard his speech, three hours long, and chosen Lenthall for their speaker, they immediately entered into a discussion of the pretended instrument of govern- ment, and of that authority which Cromwell, by the title of protector, had assumed over the nation. The greatest liberty was used in arraigning this new dignity ; and even the personal character and conduct of Cromwell escaped not without censiire. The protector was surprised and enraged at this refractory spirit. On September 12 he had the parliament doors locked and guarded, and sending for the members to the painted chamber, with an air of great authority inveighed against their conduct. He told them that he had received his office from God and the people, and none but God and the people should take it from him — un- consciously admitting that parliament, though mainly of his own choice, did not represent the people. It was not to be expected, he added, that when he assured them that they were a free parlia- ment, they were free in any other sense than as they should act under that government. He was unwilling to violate their privileges, but necessity had no law. If he had studied to devise a justification for Charles I., it would have been impossible for him to have found words more significant or more appropriate. He then obliged the members to sign an agreement in recognition of his authority. A hundred of the members refused ; the rest, after some hesitation, submitted : but retaining the same independent spirit which they had discovered in their first debates, Cromwell dissolved the house in a confused and angry harangue (January 22, 1655). The discontent discovered by this parliament encouraged the royalists to attempt an insurrection, which was soon put down, and served only to strengthen Cromwell's government. He issued an edict (October, 1655), with the consent of his council, for ex- acting the tenth penny from the royalists, in order, as he pretended, to make them pay the expenses to which their mutinous disposition continually exposed the nation. To raise this imposition, which commonly passed by the name of decimation, the protector ap- pointed 12 major-generals, and divided the whole kingdom of England into so many military jurisdictions. These men, assisted by com- 442 THE COMMONWEALTH. Chap. xxm. missioners, had power to subject whom they pleased to decimation, to levy all the taxes imposed by the protector and his council, and to imprison any person who should be exposed to their jealousy or suspicion ; nor was there any appeal from them but to the protector himself and his council. In short, they acted as if absolute masters of the property and person of every subject. Meanwhile the resentment displayed by the English parliament at the protection afforded by France to Charles, induced that court to change its measures. Anne of Austria had become regent of France, in the minority of her son Louis XIV., and cardinal Mazarin had succeeded Eichelieu in the ministry. Charles was treated by them with so much neglect and indifference, that he thought it more decent to withdraw, and prevent the indignity of being desired to leave the kingdom. He went first to Spa, thence he retired to Cologne, where he lived two years on a small pension paid him by the court of France, and on some contributions sent him by his friends in England. The French ministry deemed it still more necessary to pay defer- ence to the protector when he assumed the reins of government. They were now at war with Spain, and wished to defeat the in- trigues of that court, which, being reduced to greater distress than the French monarchy, had been still more forward in their advances to the prosperous parliament and protector. Cromwell resolved for several reasons to unite his arms to those of France. The extensive empire and yet extreme weakness of Spain in the West Indies, the vigorous courage and great naval power of England, made him hope that he might, by some gainful conquest, render for ever illustrious that dominion which he had assumed over his country. Should he fail of these durable acquisitions, the Indian treasures, which must every year cross the ocean to reach Spain, were, he thought, a sure prey to the English navy, and would support his military force, without his laying new burthens on the discontented people. These motives of policy were probably seconded by his religious principles ; and as the Spaniards were more bigoted papists than the French, and had refused to mitigate on Cromwell's solici- tation the rigours of the Inquisition, he hoped that a holy and meritorious war with such idolaters could not fail of protection from Heaven. § 11. Actuated by these motives, he concluded a treaty offensive with France (October 24), stipulating that neither Charles nor the duke of York should be suffered to remain in that kingdom. He equipped two considerable squadrons, one of which, consisting of 30 capital ships, was sent into the Mediterranean under Blake, whose fame was now spread over Europe. Blake sailed to Algiers, and a.d. 1655-1657. DEATH OF BLAKE. 443 compelled the dey to restrain his piratical subjects from further violences on the English. He then presented himself before Tunis, where, incensed by the insolence of the dey, he destroyed the castles of Porto Farino and Goletta, sent a numerous detachment of sailors in their long-boats into the harbour, and burned every ship which lay there. This bold action filled all that part of the world with the renown of English valour. The other squadron was not equally successful. It was com- manded by Penn, and carried on board 4000 men, under the com- mand of Venables. An attack upon St. Domingo was repulsed with loss and disgrace ; but Jamaica surrendered to them without a blow (May, 1655). Penn and Venables returned to England, and were both of them sent to the Tower by the protector, who, though com- monly master of his fiery temper, was thrown into a violent passion at this disappointment. He had, however, made a conquest of greater importance than he was himself at that time aware of; and Jamaica has ever since remained in the hands of the English. As soon as the news of this expedition, which was an unwar- rantable violation of treaty, arrived in Europe, the Spaniards de- clared war against England, and seized all the ships and goods of English merchants of which they could make themselves masters. Blake, with whom Montague was now joined in command, prepared himself for hostilities against the Spaniards, and lay some time off Cadiz in expectation of intercepting the treasure -fleet, but was at last obliged, for want of water, to make sail towards Portugal. Captain Stayner, however, whom he had left on the coast with a squadron of seven vessels, took two ships valued at nearly 2,000,000 of pieces of eight (September 9, 1656). The next action against the Spaniards was more honourable, though less profitable, to the nation. Blake pursued a Spanish fleet of 16 ships to the Canaries, where he found them in the bay of Santa Cruz, defended by a strong castle and seven forts. Blake was rather animated than daunted with this appearance. The wind seconded his courage, and, blowing full into the bay, brought him in a moment among the thickest of his enemies. After a resistance of four hours, the Spaniards yielded to English valour, and aban- doned their ships, which were set on fire, and consumed with all their treasure. The wind, suddenly shifting, carried the English out of the bay, where they left the Spaniards in astonishment at the happy temerity of their audacious visitors (April 20, 1657). This was the last and greatest action of Blake. He was worn out with dropsy and scurvy, and hastened home, that he might yield up his breath in his native country, but expired within sight of land. Never man, so zealous for a faction, was so much respected 444 THE COMMONWEALTH. Chap, xxiii. and esteemed even by the opposite parties. He was by principle an inflexible republican ; and the late usurpations, amidst all the trust and caresses which he received from the ruling powers, were thought to be very little grateful to him. " It is still our duty," he said to the seamen, "to fight for our country, into what hands soever the government may fall." The protector ordered him a pompous funeral at the public charge : but the tears of his country- men were the most honourable panegyric on his memory. § 12. As the last parliament did not prove more compliant, not- withstanding all the precautions taken by the protector, he dismissed it, waiving all ceremony, with the announcement that its continu- ance was not for the good of the nation (January 22, 1655), and dispensed with so useless an encumbrance until September 17, 1656, when a deficit of 800,000£. made him anxious to obtain its assist- ance. In summoning this third parliament, he used every art in order to influence the elections, and fill the house with his own creatures; yet, notwithstanding all these precautions, he still found that the majority would not be favourable to him. Accord- ingly, on their assembling, he set guards at the door, who permitted none to enter but such as produced a warrant from his council; and the council rejected about 100, who either refused a recognition of the protector's government, or were on other accounts obnoxious to him. They protested against so egregious a violence, as subversive of all liberty; but every application lor redress was disregarded. The majority, by means of these arts and violences, was friendly to the protector, who now be^an to aspire to the crown ; and in order to pave the way to this advancement, he resolved to sacrifice his major-generals, whom he knew to be extremely odious to the nation. On the 19th of January, 1657, it was moved by one Aske " that his highness would be pleased to take upon him the government according to the ancient constitution." The proposition was not received without murmurs. It was asked whether the house in- tended to set up again the kingly government it had been so zeal- ous in putting down. But the design was too agreeable to Crom- well to be set aside. Colonel Jephson was employed to sound the inclinations of the house ; and the result appearing favourable, a motion in form was made by alderman Pack, one of the city members, for investing the protector with the dignity of king (February 23). This motion excited great disorder, and divided the house. The chief opposition came from the usual adherents of the protector, the major generals, and such officers as depended on them ; and particularly from Lambert, a man of deep intrigue, and of great interest in the army, who had long entertained the ambition of succeeding Cromwell in the protectorship. The bill, entitled an a.d. 1655-1658. CROMWELL REFUSES THE CROWN. 445 humble petition and advice, was voted by a majority of 123 against 62, and a committee was appointed to reason with the protector, and to overcome his scruples. The conference lasted several days. The difficulty consisted not in persuading Cromwell, whose incli- nation, as well as judgment, was entirely on the side of the committee. The opposition which Cromwell most dreaded was that which he met with in his own family, and from men who, by interest as well as inclination, were the most devoted to him. Fleetwood had mar- ried his daughter ; Desborough, his sister : yet these men, actuated by principle alone, could by no persuasion, artifice, or entreaty, be induced to consent that he should be invested with regal dignity. Colonel Pride procured a petition against the office of king, signed by a majority of the officers who were in London and the neigh- bourhood. A sudden mutiny in the army was justly dreaded, and, after the agony and perplexity of long doubt, Cromwell was at last obliged to refuse the crown. The provisions, however, of the humble petition and advice were retained as the basis of the repub- lican establishment, instead of the former instrument of government. By the new deed the protector had the power of nominating his successor ; he had a perpetual revenue assigned him ; and he had authority to name another house, who should enjoy their seats during life, and exercise some of the functions of the former house of peers (May 26, 1657). Cromwell, as if his power had just com- menced from this popular consent, was inaugurated anew in West- minster Hall, after the most solemn and most pompous manner (June 26). Shortly after, Lambert was deprived of his post. Richard, eldest son of the protector, was now brought to court, introduced into public business, and thenceforth regarded by many as his heir in the protectorship. Cromwell had two daughters un- married : one of them he now gave in marriage to Mr. Rich, the grandson and heir of his great friend, the earl of Warwick, with whom he had, in every fortune, preserved an uninterrupted intimacy and good correspondence. The other he married to the viscount Faulconbridge, of a family formerly devoted to the royal party. The parliament assembled again on January 20, 1658, consisting, as in the times of monarchy, of two houses. Cromwell had summoned a House of Peers, which consisted of 60 members. They were composed of five peers of ancient date, of several gentlemen of fortune and dis- tinction, and of some officers who had risen from the meanest stations. The proceedings of the houses were brought to a dead- lock, the commons declining to allow the title of the House of Lords, and unable to determine by what appellation they should be called. But Cromwell soon found that, by bringing so great a number of bis friends and adherents into the other house, he had lost the 21 446 THE COMMONWEALTH. Chap, xxiii. majority among the national representatives. Dreading combina- tions between them and the malcontents in the army, he dissolved the parliament, telling them that he would not undertake the government unless there might be some other persons (the lords) tvho might interpose between himself and the Bouse of Commons, and prevent tumultuous and popular spirits (February 4). § 13. He still pursued his war of conquest. In 1658 siege was laid to Dunkirk ; and when the Spanish army advanced to relieve it, the combined armies of France and England marched out of their trenches, and fought the battle of the Dunes, where the Spaniards were totally defeated (June 4). Dunkirk was by agreement delivered to Cromwell. But his situation at home kept him in perpetual disquietude. His military enterprises had exhausted his revenue, and involved him in considerable debt.* The royalists, he heard, had renewed their preparations for a general insurrection. Ormond had come over to England ; sir William Waller and many heads of the presby- terians had secretly entered into the engagement, and Fairfax was expected to join. Even the army was infected with the general spirit of discontent ; and some sudden and dangerous eruption was every moment to be dreaded. This conspiracy, however, was dis- covered, and promptly suppressed. Ormond was obliged to fly, and he deemed himself fortunate to have escaped so vigilant an adminis- tration. Great numbers were thrown into prison. A high court of justice was erected anew for the trial of those criminals whose guilt was most apparent, for the protector would not trust a common jury. Sir Henry Slingsby and doctor Hewitt were condemned and beheaded (June 8). The conspiracy of the millenarians in the army struck Cromwell with still greater apprehensions, and he lived in continual dread of assassination. The death of Mrs. Claypole, his favourite daughter, a lady endued with many humane virtues and amiable accomplish- ments, depressed his mind and poisoned his enjoyments. All composure had now fled from him. Common fame reported that he never moved a step without strong guards attending him ; that he wore armour under his clothes, and further secured himself by offensive weapons, which he always carried about him. He returned from no place by the direct road, or by the same way which he went. Every journey he performed with hurry and pre- cipitation. Seldom he slept above two nights together in the same chamber : and he never let it be known beforehand in what chamber he intended to repose. * His average revenue was 2,000,0002. a year; that of Charles I., less than 1,000,0002.; that of Charles II., 1,250,0002. a.v. 1658. cromwell's death. 447 § 14. His body began to be affected from the contagion of his mind, and his health sensibly declined. He was seized with a slow fever, which changed into a tertian ague. For the space of a week no dangerous symptoms appeared ; and in the intervals of the fits he was able to walk abroad. At length the symptoms began to wear a more fatal aspect, and the physicians were obliged to break silence, and to declare that the protector could not survive the next fit with which he was threatened. The council was alarmed. A deputation was sent to know his will with regard to his successor. They asked him whether he did not mean that his eldest son, Richard, should succeed him in the protectorship. A simple affirmative was, or seemed to be, extorted from him. Soon after, on the 3rd of September (1658), the very day on which he had gained the victories of Dunbar and Worcester, he fell into a pro- found lethargy, at the close of which he uttered a deep sigh and expired, between three and four o'clock in the afternoon. A violent tempest, which immediately preceded his death, served as a subject of discourse to the vulgar — his partisans and his enemies endeavouring by forced inferences to interpret it as a confirmation of their particular prejudices. If we survey the moral character of Cromwell with that indul- gence which is due to the blindness and infirmities of the human species, we shall not be inclined to load his memory with such violent reproaches as those which his enemies have usually thrown upon it. In the murder of the king, the most atrocious of all his actions, he was too clear-sighted to be misled by those republican and religious illusions, which might induce his followers to believe it was a meritorious action. He had not intended or even anticipated it in the outset of his career. Nor, probably, if he could have chosen his own path, would he have ever consented to it. But he was led on step by step into a position from which he could not extricate himself or his party with safety except by putting Charles to death. His subsequent usurpations were the effect of necessity, as well as of ambition ; nor is it easy to see how the various factions could at that time have been restrained without a mixture of mili- tary and arbitrary authority. But such are the evils of a civil war. § 15. His conduct in foreign affairs was full of vigour and enter- prise. It was his boast that he would render the name of an Englishman as much feared and revered as ever was that of a Roman ; and as his countrymen found some reality in these pre- tensions, the gratification of their national vanity made them bear with more patience the indignities and calamities under which they laboured. The protestant zeal which animated the presbyterians and independents was gratified by the manner in which Cromwell supported the Vaudois against the duke of Savoy. 448 THE COMMONWEALTH. Chap. xxm. In his general behaviour he maintained the dignity of his station without either affectation or ostentation, and supported before strangers that high idea with which his great exploits and pro- digious fortune had impressed them. At times he would indulge in actions that bordered on buffoonery, even with his officers of state, either to conceal his true feelings or relax that tension of mind which was habitual with him. The manners of his court were serious and regular, but strongly infected with the puritanical tone of his age. He would gladly have rid himself of many of the turbulent spirits to whose unrestrained enthusiasm he owed his exaltation. But he had none to support him in this design, or to fill their places. The nobility held aloof; the ancient gentry were attached to the king and the church of England, whilst the main body of the presbyterians hated him bitterly. Cromwell was in the 60th year of his age when he died. He was of a robust frame, of a manly, though not of an agreeable, aspect. He left only two sons, Richard and Henry ; and three daughters. His father died when he was very young. His mother lived till after he was protector, and, contrary to her wish, he buried her with great pomp in Westminster Abbey. To educate her numerous family she had been obliged to set up a brewery at Huntingdon, which she managed to good advantage. Hence Cromwell, in the invectives of that age, is often stigmatized with the name of the brewer. She was of a good family, of the name of Stuart, remotely allied, as is supposed by some, to the royal family. § 16. Cromwell left the nation in the utmost embarrassment and disorder. Never in the worst period of the Stuarts had government assumed a more arbitrary shape. His rule was regarded with aversion by presbyterians and royalists, with good reason. But even his own officers, and especially the anabaptists, considered him as a traitor to his former and their present principles. Men like sir Harry Vane held him forth to reprobation as a greater obstacle to real liberty and the reign of righteousness than Charles had ever been. His favourite officers rallied round his dying bed, caballing and intriguing among themselves ; waiting until the last gasp should leave his body, before they grasped at the sceptre which was falling from his dying hand. Richard, his eldest son, born 1626, was a young man of no experience. He was given to field sports, was indolent, incapable, and irresolute. The council, however, recognized his succession. Fleetwood, in whose favour it was supposed Cromwell had formerly made a will, professed to renounce all claim to the protectorship. Henry, Richard's brother, who governed Ireland with popularity, insured him the obedience of that kingdom. A.D. 1659. RICHARD CROMWELL PROTECTOR. 449 Monk, whose authority was well established in Scotland, proclaimed the new protector. The army and the fleet acknowledged Ids title ; and above 90 addresses, from the counties and most consider- able corporations, congratulated him on his accession, in all the terms of dutiful allegiance. A new parliament (January 27, 1659) proceeded to examine the humble petition and advice ; and, after great opposition aad many vehement debates, it was at length, with much difficulty, carried by the court party. On the other hand, the most influential officers of the army, and even Fleetwood, brother- in-law to the protector, were caballing against him ; and were joined by the whole republican party among the soldiers, which was still considerable. Above all, the intrigues of Lambert inflamed those dangerous humours, and threatened the nation with some great .convulsion. Richard was prevailed upon to give an un- guarded consent for calling a general council of officers, who pro- posed that the whole military power should be intrusted to some person in whom they might all confide. The parliament, not less alarmed than the protector, voted that there should be no meeting or general council of officers, except with the protector's consent, or by his orders. This vote brought affairs immediately to a rupture. The officers hastened to Richard and demanded of him the dissolution of the parliament. Desborough threatened him if he refused. The protector wanted resolution to deny, or ability to resist. The parliament was dissolved (April 22). And though Richard remained nominally protector a few weeks longer, all his real authority was gone. § 17. The council of officers now resolved, after much debate, on restoring what remained of the Long Parliament. Its numbers were small ; but being all of them men of violent ambition, some of them men of experience and capacity, they were resolved, since they enjoyed the title of the supreme authority, not to act a subordinate part to those who acknowledged themselves as their servants. They voted that all commissions should be received from the speaker, and be assigned by him in the name of the house. These precautions gave great disgust. Encouraged by these dissensions, the royalists determined on a rising in several counties ; but their plans were betrayed, and the only project which took effect was that of sir George Booth for the seizing of Chester. He was, however, soon routed and taken prisoner by Lambert (August 19), and the parliament had no further occupation than to fill the jails with their open or secret enemies. This success hastened the ruin of the parliament. Alarmed at the proceedings of Lambert and his faction, they voted that they would have no more general officers. On this Lambert 450 THE COMMONWEALTH. Chap, xxiir. and the other officers expelled the Rump (October 13), and elected a committee of 23 persons, whom they invested with sovereign authority, under the name of a committee of safety. Throughout the three kingdoms there prevailed nothing but melancholy fears ; among the nobility and gentry, of a bloody massacre and exter- mination ; for the rest of the people, a perpetual servitude beneath military despotism of the worst kind ; whilst the condition of Charles seemed totally desperate. But amidst all these gloomy prospects, fortune, by a surprising revolution, was now paving the way for the king to mount in peace and triumph the throne of his ancestors. § 18. General Monk still held the supreme military command in Scotland. After the army had expelled the parliament, he protested against the violence, and resolved, as he proposed, to vindicate their invaded privileges. Deeper projects, either in the king's favour or his own, were from the beginning suspected to be the motive of his actions. How early he entertained designs for the king's restoration is not certainly known. It is likely that as soon as Richard was deposed he foresaw that, without such an expedient, it would be impossible ever to bring the nation to a regular settlement. But his conduct was full of dissimulation, and no less was requisite for effecting the difficult work which he had undertaken. All the officers in his army, of whom he entertained any suspicion, he immediately cashiered ; and, hearing that Lambert was marching northwards with a large body of forces, he amused the committee with offers of negociation. Meanwhile these military sovereigns found themselves surrounded on all hands with inextricable difficulties. The city established a kind of separate government, and assumed the supreme authority within itself. While Lambert's forces were assembling at New- castle, Hazelrig and Morley took possession of Portsmouth, and declared for the parliament. Admiral Lawson, with his squadron, came into the river, and followed their example. Hearing of this important event, Hazelrig and Morley left Portsmouth and ad- vanced towards London. The city regiments, solicited by their own officers, who had been cashiered by the committee of safety, revolted again to the parliament. Lenthall, the speaker, invited by the officers, again assumed authority, and summoned together the parlia- ment, which twice before had been expelled with so much reproach and ignominy (December 26). Monk now advanced into England with his army. In all counties through which he passed the gentry flocked to him with addresses, expressing their earnest desire that he would be instrumental in restoring the nation to peace and tran- quillity. He entered London without opposition (February 3, 1660), was introduced to the house, and thanks were given him by Lenthall A.D. 1660. LONG PARLIAMENT DISSOLVED. 451 for the eminent services which he had rendered his country. Monk's conduct was at first ambiguous. lie appeared ready to obey all the commands of the parliament, and marched into the city to seize several leading citizens who had refused obedience to the orders of the house; but two days afterwards he wrote a letter to the parliament, requiring them, in the name of the citizens, soldiers, and whole commonwealth, to issue writs within a week for filling their house, and to fix the time for their own dissolution and the assembling of a new parliament. The excluded members, upon the general's invitation, returned to the house, and immediately appeared to be the majority ; most of the independents left the place (February 21), The restored members renewed the general's commission, and enlarged his powers ; and, after passing some other measures for the present settlement of the kingdom, they dissolved them- selves, and issued writs for the immediate assembling of a new parliament. A council of state was appointed, consisting of men of character and moderation, who conferred on Montague, a royalist, in conjunction with Monk, the command of the fleet ; and secured the naval as well as military forces in hands favourable to the public settlement (March 3). Notwithstanding all these steps, Monk still maintained the appearance of zeal for a commonwealth, and had hitherto allowed no channel of correspondence between himself and the king to be opened ; but he now sent a verbal message by sir John Grenville, assuring the king of his services, giving advice for his conduct, and exhorting him instantly to leave the Spanish territories and retire into Holland. He was apprehensive lest Spain might detain him as a pledge for the recovery of Dunkirk and Jamaica. Charles, who was at Brussels, followed these directions, and very narrowly escaped to Breda. Had he delayed his journey, he had certainly, under pretence of honour and respect, been arrested by the Spaniards. (Supplement, Note VI.) § 19. The elections for the new parliament went everywhere in favour of the king's party. The presbyterians and the royalists, being united, formed the voice of the nation, which, without noise, but with infinite ardour, called for the king's restoration. When the parliament met (April 25) — which, from its not being regularly summoned, was called the Convention Parliament — they chose sir Harbottle Grindstone as speaker. On the 27th April a motion for the restoration of the king was made by colonel King, a presbyterian, ^>nd Mr. Finch. On the 1st of May, Monk gave directions to Annesley, president of the council, to inform the house that sir John Grenville, a servant of the king's, had been sent over by his majesty, and was now at the door with a letter to the commons. The loudest acclamations were excited by this intelligence. Grenville was 452 THE COMMONWEALTH. Chap, xxiii. called in ; the letter, accompanied with a declaration, was greedily- read. Without one moment's dt .a^;, and without a contradictory vote, a committee was appointed to prepare an answer ; and, in order to spread the same satisfaction throughout the kingdom, it was voted that the letter and declaration should be published immediately. It offered a general amnesty, within 40 days, without any excep- tions but such as should afterwards be made by parliament; it promised liberty to tender consciences in matters of religion which did not disturb the peace of the kingdom ; it submitted to the arbi- tration of the same assembly the inquiry into all grants, purchases, and alienations ; and it assured the soldiers of all their arrears, and promised them for the future the same pay which they then enjoyed. Such was the celebrated Declaration of Breda. The lords, perceiving the spirit by which the kingdom, as well as the commons, was animated, had hastened to reinstate themselves in their ancient authority, and to take their share in the settlement of the nation. Soon afterwards the two houses attended, while the king was proclaimed with great solemnity, in Palace-yard, at White- hall, and at Temple Bar (May 8, 1660). A committee of lords and commons was then despatched to invite his majesty to return and take possession of the government. Charles embarked at Scheveling on board a fleet commanded by the duke of York. At Dover he was met by Monk, whom he cordially embraced. The king entered London on the 29th of May, which was also his birthday. The fond imaginations of men interpreted as a happy omen the concurrence of two such joyful periods. Medal of Charles II. and Catherine of Braganza, probably relating to the queen's dowry. Obv. : carolus . et . catharina . rex . et . regina. Busts of king and queen to right. Rev. : diffvsvs . in . orbe . britannvs . 1670. A globe. CHAPTER XXIV. charles ii., h. 1630; r. 1660-1635, or from 1649, according to LEGAL RECKONING. FROM THE RESTORATION TO THE PEACE OF NIMEGUEN, A.D. 1660-1678. § 1. Character of Charles II. The ministry. Act of Indemnity. Trial of the regicides. Disbanding of the army. § 2. Chancellor Clarendon. Prelacy restored. Affairs of Scotland. § 3. Conference at the Savoy. Act of Uniformity. §4. Charles marries Catharine of Portugal. Trial and execution of Vane. § 5. Presbyterian clergy ejected. Dunkirk sold. Declaration of Indulgence. § 6. Triennial Act repealed. War with Holland. Naval victory. Plague of London. Five-mile Act. § 7. Great sea fight. Fire of London. Disgrace at Chatham. Peace of Breda. § 8. Fall of Clarendon. § 9. The Cabal. The triple alliance. Secret treaty of Dover. § 10. Blood's crimes. The duke of York declares himself a papist. § 11. The bankers' funds in the exchequer seized. War with Holland. Battle of Southwold Bay. Successes of Louis XIV. Massacre of the De Witts. Prince of Orange stadtholder. § 12. The Test Act. Peace with Holland. § 13 Earl of Danby prime minister. His policy. Parliamentary struggles. § 14. The continental war. Marriage of the prince of Orange and princess Mary. Peace of Nimeguen. § 1. When Charles II. ascended the throne of his ancestors, he was thirty years of age. He possessed a vigorous constitution, a fine shape, a manly figure, a graceful air ; and though his features were harsh, yet was his countenance in the main lively and engaging. To a ready wit and quick comprehension he united a just under- standing and a keen observation both of men and things. The easiest manners, the most unaffected politeness, the most engaging 21* 454 CHAELES II. Chap xxiv gaiety, accompanied his conversation and address. Accustomed during his exile to live among his courtiers rather like a companion than a monarch, he retained, even while on the throne, that open- ness and affability which were capable of reconciling the most determined republicans to his royal dignity. Into his council were admitted the most eminent men of the nation, without regard to former distinctions. The presbyterians, equally with the royalists, shared his favours. The earl of Man- chester, the former friend of Cromwell, was appointed lord cham- berlain, and lord Say privy seal ; Calamy and Baxter, presbyterian clergymen, were even made chaplains to the king. Admiral Mon- tague, created earl of Sandwich,* was entitled, from his recent .services, to great favour, and he obtained it. Monk, created duke of Albemarle,t had performed such signal services, that, according to a vulgar and malignant observation, he ought rather to have expected hatred and ingratitude ; yet was he ever treated by the king with great marks of distinction. But the king's principal ministers and favourites were chosen from his ancient friends and supporters. Sir Edward Hyde, created earl of Clarendon, was chan- cellor and prime minister ; the marquis, created duke, of Ormond was steward of the household; the earl of Southampton, high treasurer ; sir Edward Nicholas, secretary of state. Agreeable to the present prosperity of public affairs was the universal joy and festivity diffused throughout the nation. The melancholy austerity of the puritans fell into discredit, together with their principles. The royalists, who had ever affected a contrary disposition, found in their recent success new motives for mirth and gaiety ; and it now belonged to them to give repute and fashion to their manners. One of the king's first acts was a declaration of general pardon to all who chose to accept it within forty days, " excepting only such persons as shall hereafter be excepted by parliament." On May 14 an order was made by the convention parliament that the late king's judges should be secured, colonel Tomlinson excepted. Nineteen surrendered themselves, and their lives were spared. Some were taken in their flight ; others escaped beyond sea. Those who had an immediate hand in the late king's death were excepted from the act of indemnity : Cromwell, Ireton, Bradshaw, and others now dead, were attainted, and their estates forfeited. Twenty in all, with Vane and Lambert, though none of the regicides, were at first excepted ; but the commons, in compliance with popular demand, * He was the ancestor of the present earl of Sandwich. + This t tie became extinct upon the death of the second duke in 1688. The present earl of Albemarle is a descendant of Keppel, created earl oi Albemarle in 1696. A.D. 1660-1661. DISBANDING OF THE ARMY. 455 continued to augment the list. AH who had sat in any illegal high court of justice were disabled from bearing offices. The parliament voted that the settled revenue of the crown, for all charges, should be 1,200,000Z. a year. They abolished the feudal tenure of knights' service and its incidents, as marriage, relief, and wardship, and also purveyance, and in lieu thereof settled upon the king an hereditary excise duty.* Indeed, it would have been im- possible to restore these onerous burdens after their disuse during the time of the commonwealth. Tonnage and poundage were granted to the king during life. Before the parliament adjourned (September 13), it resolved on the punishment of the regicides. They were arraigned before 34 commissioners appointed for that purpose. Twenty-nine were tried and condemned, but only six of the late king's judges were executed. These were Harrison, Scot, Carew, Clement, Jones, and Scroop. Axtel, who had guarded the high court of justice ; Hacker, who commanded on the day of the king's execution ; Cook, the solicitor for the people of England ; and Hugh Peters, the fanatical preacher, who had inflamed the army, were tried, condemned, and suffered by order of the house at the same time (October 19). At their desire, on the anniversary of Charles I.'s execution, the bodies of Cromwell, Ireton, and Bradshaw were disinterred, hanged on the gallows at Tyburn, then decapitated, and their heads fixed on West- minster Hall. After a recess of nearly two months the parliament met ; and having despatched the necessary business, the king, in a speech full of the most gracious expressions, thought proper to dissolve them (December 29, 1660). By the advice of Clarendon the army was disbanded. No more troops were retained than a few guards and garrisons, about 1000 horse and 4000 foot. The church of England was restored. Eight bishops still remained alive, and were replaced in their sees ; the ejected clergy recovered their livings ; the liturgy was again admitted into the churches ; but at the same time a declaration, containing a promise of some reforms, was issued, in order to give contentment to the presbyterians and preserve an air of moderation and neutrality. § 2. Affairs in Scotland hastened with still quicker steps than those in England towards a settlement and a compliance with the king. The Scotch parliament met January 1, 1661. It rescinded all the statutes passed in 1640 and subsequently. By this act legisla- tion returned to the state in which it was left in 1639. The Covenant was renounced ; the king's supremacy was asserted in all cases, civil • The principal excise duties were upon I ciseable article, but did not yield much to liquors and beer. Tea was also an ex- | the revenue in the reign of Charles II. 456 CHARLES II. Chap. xxiv. or ecclesiastical. The lords of articles were reinstated and episcopacy restored. James Sharp, who had been commissioned by the pres- byterians in Scotland to manage their interest with the king, was persuaded to abandon that party ; and, as a reward for his com- pliance, was created archbishop of St. Andrews. The parliament now resolved to single out as victims of their severity the marquis of Argyle, and one Guthrie, a preacher, who had urged the execution of Montrose, both of whom seemed to be more deeply implicated than others in the late rebellion. But, as the acts of indemnity passed by the late king in 1641, and by the present in 1651, seemed obstacles to the punishment of Argyle, he was tried for his com- pliance with the usurpation. Some letters of "his to Monk were produced, which could not, by any equitable construction, imply the crime of treason. The parliament, however, scrupled not to pass sentence upon him, and he died with great constancy and courage (May 27). § 3. Meanwhile, in England, a conference was held in the Savoy (April 15— July 25, 1661), between 12 bishops and 12 leaders among the presbyterian ministers, with an intention of bringing about an accommodation between the two parties ; but the result was unsuccessful, and each party separated more confirmed than ever in their several opinions. The temper of the new parliament, which assembled in May, 1661, hastened the decision of the question. Not more than 56 members of the presbyterian party had obtained seats in the lower house, and they were not able either to oppose or retard the measures of the majority. The Covenant, together with the acts for erecting the high court of justice, for subscribing the engagement, and for declaring England a commonwealth, were ordered to be burnt by the hands of the hangman. The bishops were restored to their seats in parliament. The command of the militia was declared to be solely vested in the crown. The preamble to this statute went so fa- as to renounce all right even of defensive arms against the king. By passing the Corporation Act in this session, parliament compelled all corporate bodies to receive the sacrament according to the rites of the church of England, to re- nounce the Covenant, and to take the oath of Non-Resistance ; * following, in this and its other religious acts, the example set by the Long Parliament in respect to the Solemn League and Covenant. In the next year (1662) the Act of Uniformity was passed. Among other of its clauses, it was enacted that no person should hold preferment in the church of England, or administer the sacra- ment of the Lord's Supper, unless he had been episcppally ordained in the form and manner enjoined by the Book of Common Prayer. * Foi further detaila see Notes and Illustrations (A), a.d. 1662. HIS MARRIAGE. 457 He was also to declare his assent to the said book ; to take the oath of canonical obedience ; abjure the Solemn League and Covenant ; and renounce the right of taking arms, on any pretence whatsoever, against the king. This act, which received the royal assent on May 19, and was to come into operation on St. Bartholomew's Day (August 24), reinstated the church in the same condition in which it stood before the commencement of the civil wars. It has been urged that some such act was necessary if the church of England was to continue and preserve uniformity in its teaching and ministrations. Its benefices had been usurped, in the late troubles, and freely given away to men who were most acceptable to those in power, for the violence of their denunciations against its doctrines and its discipline. Innumerable heresies had sprung up, partly the result of ignorance, partly in the absence of all authority, and were freely disseminated from the pulpit. Such, at that time, was the judgment of the nation as represented by parlia- ment, and there is no reason to suppose that it was represented falsely. § 4. On the king's restoration proposals were received from Portugal for renewal of the alliance which the protector had made with that country. To bind the friendship closer, an offer was made of the Portuguese princess, Catharine of Braganza, and a por- tion of 500,000^., together with two fortresses, Tangier in Africa, and Bombay in the East Indies. The marriage was solemnized by bishop Sheldon (May 20, 1662). But though Catharine was a princess of virtue, she was never able, either by the graces of her person or her mind, to render herself agreeable to the king. Pur- suant to an address of the Commons, Lambert and Vane were now brought to trial. The indictment of Vane did not comprehend any of his actions during the life of the late king : it extended only to his behaviour after the late king's death, as member of the council of state, and secretary of the navy. Vane wanted neither courage nor capacity to avail himself of this advantage. He pleaded the famous statute of Henry VII., in which it was enacted that no man should be questioned for his obedience to the king de facto. He urged that, whether the established govern- ment were a monarchy or a commonwealth, the reason of the thing was still the same ; and maintained that the commons were the root and foundation of all lawful authority. But the zeal he had displayed in bringing Strafford to his death, steeled men's hearts against him. His courage deserted him not upon his con- demnation. Lest pity for his sufferings should make an impression on the populace, drummers were placed under the scaffold, whose noise, as he began to launch out in reflections on the government, drowned his voice (June 14). Lambert, though also condemned, 458 CHARLES II. Chap. xxrv. was reprieved at the bar ; and the judges declared that, if Vane's behaviour had been equally dutiful and submissive, he would have experienced like lenity from the king. Lambert survived his con- demnation thirty years. He was confined to the isle of Guernsey, where he amused himself with painting and botany. He died a Eoman catholic. § 5. The fatal St. Bartholomew approached (August 24), the day when the clergy were obliged, by the late law, either to relinquish their livings or to sign the articles required of them. A large number relinquished their cures, and sacrificed their interest to their religious convictions. Bishoprics were offered to Calamy, Baxter, and Reynolds, leaders among the presbyterians ; but the last only could be prevailed on to accept promotion. In June, 1663, archbishop Juxon died, and was succeeded by Sheldon, bishop of London. This year, for the last time, the clergy granted four subsidies to the crown; for from this date, though never formally relinquishing their ancient right of taxing them- selves, they were taxed with the laity by their representatives in parliament. With a view of mitigating the rigours of the act of uniformity, a declaration was issued by the king on the 26th of December, 1662, in which he mentioned the promises of liberty of conscience contained in the declaration of Breda ; and he expressed his intention of making it his special care to incline the parliament to concur with him in some such act for that purpose as might enable him to exercise, with a more universal satisfaction, that power of dispensing with the penalties of the law, in case of dissenters, which he conceived to be inherent in him.* In confor- mity with this design, at the meeting of parliament (February 18, 1663), the king made a speech intimating his desire of granting some indulgence to dissenters. But the commons were not inclined to concede it. They petitioned against it (February 18), and on the 1st of April followed up their opposition by an address, that all popish priests and Jesuits might be banished the kingdom. Whether they began to suspect the king of an inclination to Roman- ism, and were even then aware that his brother, the Duke of York, had embraced that faith, is uncertain.! Notwithstanding the supplies voted to Charles, his treasury was * The Dispensing and Suspending Powers, as they are called, were claimed both by Charles II and James II. The Dispensing Power consists in the exemp- tion of particular persons, under special circumstances, from the operation of penal laws ; the Suspending Power in nullifying the ».ntire operation of any statute or any number of statutes. (Amos, The Eng- lish Constitution in the Reign of Charles II. p 19, seq.) Charles II. made a second attempt in 1672 to suspend the penal laws against nonconformists. See below, p. 468. \ The duke did not avow his conversion until 1669. a.d. 1662-1664. TRIENNIAL ACT REPEALED. 459 still very empty and very much indebted. The forces sent over to Portugal, and the fleets maintained in order to defend it, had already cost the king nearly double the money which had been paid as the queen's portion. The time fixed for payment of his sister's portion to the duke of Orleans was approaching. Tangier had become an additional burden to the crown, and Dunkirk cost 12O,000Z. a year. Clarendon advised the accepting of a sum of money in lieu of a place which he thought the king, from the narrow state of his revenue, was no longer able to retain ; and a bargain was at length concluded with France for 400,000Z. (November, 1662). The artillery and stores were valued at a fifth of the sum. The act was unpopular, but the impolicy of the sale consisted only in its having been made to France. (Supplement, Note VII.) § 6. Next session the parliament (March, 1664) brought in a bill for repealing the triennial act ; and in lieu of the former securities passed a bill " for assembling and holding of parliaments once in three years at least." By the act of uniformity, every clergyman who should officiate without being properly qualified was punishable by fine and imprisonment. To give effect to this act, a statute was passed for " preventing and suppressing seditious conventicles." It provided that, wherever five persons above those of the same house- hold should assemble in a religious congregation, every one of them should be liable, for the first offence, to be imprisoned three months, or pay 5Z. ; for the second, to be imprisoned six months, or pay 101. ; and for the third, to be transported seven years, or pay 1001. A second conventicle act, passed six years later (1670), reduced the penalties on hearers, but inflicted a fine on preachers and those who lent their houses for this purpose. The commons likewise presented an address to the king, complaining of the wrongs offered to the English trade by the Dutch, and promising to assist the king with their lives and fortunes in asserting the rights of his crown against all opposition whatsoever. This was the first open step towards the Dutch war. The rivalship of commerce had produced among the English a violent enmity against the neighbouring re- public. The English merchants had the mortification to find that all attempts to extend their trade were still turned by the vigilance of their rivals to their loss and dishonour, and their indignation in- creased when they considered the superior naval power of England. The duke of York was eagerly in favour of the war with Holland, and desired an opportunity of distinguishing himself. The trade of the new African company was checked by the settlements of the Dutch.* The king yielded to the wishes of the nation ; war was * Guineas were now first coined in England of the gold brought from the settlement of that name. 460 CHARLES II. Chap. xxiv. Medal of James duke of York, afterwards James II., commemorating the Naval Victory over the Dutch, June 3, 1665. Obverse : iacobtjs . dvx . ebok . et . alban . dom . magn . admikaiaus . anglijE . &c. Bust to right. declared with the Dutch (February 22, 1665). To support it par- liament voted two millions and a half, the largest supply that had ever yet been given to any king of England. The English fleet, consisting of 98 sail, was commanded by the duke of York, and under him by prince Eupert and the earl of Sandwich. Opdam was admiral of the Dutch navy, of nearly equal force. A battle was fought in Solebay off the coast of Suffolk (June 3). In the heat of action, when engaged in close fight with the duke of York, Opdam's ship blew up. This accident much discouraged the Dutch, who fled towards their own coast. The vanquished had 1 9 ships sunk and taken ; the victors lost only one. In this war the method of fighting in line was first introduced into naval tactics by the duke of York. The French monarch, alarmed lest the English should establish an uncontrollable dominion over the sea and over commerce, resolved to support the Dutch in the unequal contest in which they were engaged, and declared war A.D. 16GG. THE PLAGUE OF LONDON. 461 Reverse : nec minor in teeris. A Naval Engagement : in front the Admiral's ship ; beneath, iivnii 1665. against England. (January 16, 1666). He was joined by the king of Denmark. In this year the plague broke out in London with great violence. In July the weekly deaths were 1100 ; they increased to 10,000 a week in September ; and not less than 100,000 persons were com- puted to have perished in the course of the year. In consequence of the plague, the king summoned the parliament to Oxford ; and they voted him 1,250,000Z., to be levied in two years by monthly assessments. In the same session was passed the Five-mile Act, by which it was enacted that any dissenting teacher who had not subscribed the declaration required by the act of uniformity, and refused to subscribe the oath of non-resistance, should not, except in travelling, come within five miles of any corporate town sending members to parliament, or of any place where he had formerly preached. The penalty was a fine of 401., and six months' im- prisonment. Many of the nonconformists after their ejection obtained a living by keeping schools, but this resource was denied 462 CHAELES II. Chap. xxiv. them, under colour of removing them from places where their in- fluence might be dangerous. § 7. After France had declared war, England was evidently over- matched in force. Louis had given orders to the duke of Beaufort, his admiral, to sail from Toulon with 40 sail. Monk, now duke of Albemarle, and prince Hupert commanded the English fleet, which exceeded not 74 sail. Albemarle detached prince Eupert with 20 ships in order to oppose the duke of Beaufort. It had been reported that the Dutch fleet was not ready for sea ; but Albemarle, to his great surprise, descried off the North For* land the Dutch fleet of more than 80 sail, under De Iiuyter and Tromp, son of the famous admiral. Nevertheless he gave orders to attack. The battle that ensued is one of the most memorable that we read of in story, whether we consider its long duration or the desperate courage with which it was fought (June 1-4, 1666). Albemarle made here some atonement by his valour for the rashness of the attempt. On the first day darkness parted the combatants before any decided result had been achieved. On the second day 16 fresh ships joined the Dutch fleet during the action ; and the English were so shattered that their fighting ships were reduced to 28, and they found them- selves obliged to retreat towards their own coast. Next morning the English were compelled to continue their retreat. About two o'clock the Dutch had come up and were ready to renew the fight, when a new fleet was descried from the south, crowding all sail to reach the scene of action. It was prince Rupert's fleet ; and Albe- marle, who had received intelligence of the prince's approach, bent his course towards him. Unhappily the Prince Royal, a ship of 100 guns, the largest in the fleet, ran on the Galloper sands, and was obliged to strike. Next morning the battle began afresh, with more equal force than ever, and with equal valour. After long cannonading, the fleets came to a close combat, which was continued with great violence till they were parted by a mist. The English retired first into their harbours, and victory remained uncertain. It was the conjunction alone of the French that could give a decisive superiority to the Dutch. In order to facilitate this conjunction, De Ruyter, having repaired his fleet, posted himself at the mouth of the Thames. The English, under prince Rupert and Albemarle, were not long in coming to the attack (July 25). The numbers of each fleet amounted to about 80 sail ; and the valaur and experience of the commanders, as well as of the seamen, rendered the engagement fierce and obstinate. The battle ended in the defeat of the Dutch ; and De Ruyter, full of indignation at yielding the superiority to the enemy, frequently exclaimed, "My God! what a wretch am I! Among so many thousand bullets, is there not one to put an end to A.D. 1666-1667. THE FIRE OF LONDOtf. 468 my miserable life ? " All that night and next day the English pressed upon the rear of the Dutch, and it was only by the redoubled efforts of De Ruyter that the latter saved themselves in their har- bours. The English now rode incontestable masters of the sea, and insulted the Dutch in their havens. During this war a calamity happened in London which threw the people into great consternation. ' A fire, breaking out in a baker's house near the bridge, spread itself on all sides with such rapidity that no efforts could extinguish it till it had laid in ashes a consider- able part of the ci'.y. Four days and nights did the fire advance (September 2-5), and it was only by the blowing up of houses that it was at last extinguished. The king and the duke used their utmost endeavours to stop the progress of the flames, but all their efforts were unsuccessful. About 400 streets and 13,000 houses were reduced to ashes. The causes of this calamity were evident. The narrowness of the streets of London, where the houses were almost entirely built of wood, the dryness of the season, and a violent east wind: these were so many concurring circumstances which rendered it easy to divine the reason of the destruction. But the multitude was not satisfied with this obvious account. As the papists were the chief objects of public detestation, the rumour which threw the guilt on them was favourably received by the people. No proof, however, or even presumption, after the strictest inquiry by a committee of parliament, ever appeared to authorize such a calumny; yet, in order to give countenance to the popular prejudice, the inscription engraved by authority on the Monument ascribed this calamity to that hated sect. Though the ruins of the city extended over 436 acres, the fire proved in the issue beneficial. Care was taken to make the streets wider and more regular than before, and London became much more healthy. The plague, which used to break out with great fury twice or thrice every century, and indeed was always lurking in some corner or other of the city, has never appeared since that calamity. In this fire old St. Paul's was destroyed, and as the books published during that year were stored under its vaults, they perished in the flames. The fruitless and destructive nature of the war, combined with the plague and fire, disposed the English cabinet to make advances for a peace. Conferences were opened at Breda in May, 1667. Money was scarce in consequence of the embarrassments occasioned by the plague and the fire, and the large ships were laid up in the hopes of peace. De Witt, who governed the Dutch republic at this time, saw that it was a favourable opportunity for striking a blow which might at once restore to the Dutch the honour lost during the war, and severely revenge those injuries which he ascribed to the wanton 464 CHARLES II. Chap. xxiv. ambition and injustice of the English. Instigated also by the English refuges in Holland, he refused an a— -listice, protracting the negociations at Breda, whilst he hastened the naval preparations. The Dutch fleet appeared in the Thajnes under the command of De Euyter. The new fort of Sheerness, built to replace the strong castle of Queenborough, foolishly dismantled by thr commonwealth, was destroyed (June 11). Taking ine advantage of a spring tido and an easterly wicd, the Dutch pressed on and broke the chain which had been drawn across the Medway, though the passage had been obstructed by sunken vessels. Three ships which guarded the chain were destroyed ; several more were damaged, others were bu-ned at Chatham (June 13). The Dutch Ml down the Medway without receiving any considerable damage ; and '.t was apprehended that they might next tide sail up the Thames, and extend their hostilities even to London bridge. Thirteen ships were sunk at Woolwich, four at Blackwall ; platforms were raised in many places, furnished with artillery ; the trained bands were called out ;. and every place was in a violent agitation. The Dutch sailed next to Ports- mouth, where they made a fruitless attempt ; they met with no better success at Plymouth ; they insulted Harwich ; they sailed again up the Thames as far as Tilbury, where they were repulsed. The whole coast was in alarm ; and had the French thought proper at this time to join the Dutch fleet and to invade England, conse- quences the most fatal might justly have been apprehended. But Louis had no intention to push the victory to such extremities : his interest required that a balance should be kept between the two maritime powers, not that an uncontrolled superiority should be given to either. The second Dutch war was ended by the treaty of Breda (July 21, 1667). The acquisition of New York, formerly New Amsterdam, captured by sir Robert Holmes (August 27, 1664), was one of the chief advantages the English reaped from the war. By the same treaty Nova Scotia was given up to France in return for Antigua, Monserrat, and St. Kitts. § 8. On the 11th of August the great seal was taken from the earl of Clarendon, who had always been the king's most trusty adviser, and was given to sir Orlando Bridgman. On the 15th of October both houses returned the king thanks for Clarendon's dismissal. Although the duke of York exerted his utmost interest in behalf of his father-in-law, these proceedings against the dis- graoed minister were followed up by an impeachment against him, opened in the House of Commons by Mr. Edward Seymour (Novem- ber 12). He was accused, amongst other offences, of venality and cruelty in his office as chancellor, of acquiring enormous wealth, A.D. 1667. THE CABAL. 465 and selling Dunkirk to the French. Most of the cnarges were false or frivolous ; but some could not so easily be disproved ; and the minds of men were so much irritated against him that they were ready to condemn him on very insufficient evidence. During his administration he had offended both parties ; by cavaliers and presbyterians he was equally disliked ; and his severe and unbend- ing manners unfitted him to mix in a gay and licentious court. The marriage of his daughter, Anne Hyde, with the duke of York, the heir presumptive to the throne, did not tend to render Clarendon less austere and inflexible, or to conciliate adversaries. At the sug- gestion of Charles, the earl withdrew to the continent (December 1). From Calais he addressed a petition to the lords, which was voted scandalous by both houses, as reproaching the king and impugning the justice of the nation. It was condemned to be burned by the hands of the hangman. Both houses then passed upon him sentence of banishment, and this act received the royal assent (December 19). He survived his sentence seven years, living first at Mont- pellier, afterwards at Rouen ; and he employed his leisure chiefly in reducing into order his celebrated " History of the Civil Wars," for which he had collected ample materials. § 9. The ministry formed after the dismissal of Clarendon, called the " King's Cabal," from the initial letters of the names of its five principal members, consisted of sir Thomas Clifford, afterwards lord Clifford ; lord Ashley, afterwards earl of Shaftesbury ; the duke of Buckingham; lord Arlington, previously sir Henry Ben- nett ; and the earl of Lauderdale. But the word itself Is of much earlier origin. The ignominious close of the Dutch war, the fall of Clarendon, and the discontents of parliament, convinced the new ministry of the necessity of conciliating popular feeling ; and the policy which they now adopted equally surprised and delighted the nation. Louis XIV., who now filled the throne of France, surpassed all contemporary monarchs, as in grandeur, so likewise in fame and glory. His ambition, regulated by prudence, not by justice, care- fully provided every means of conquest ; and before he put himself in motion he seemed to have absolutely insured success. The sudden decline and almost total fall of the Spanish monarchy opened an inviting field to so enterprising a prince. Setting up a claim to the Spanish Netherlands in right of his wife Louis invaded the country with a powerful army ; Lisle, Courtray, and several other cities were immediately taken ; and it was visible that no force in the Netherlands was able to stop or retard the progress of the French arms. Sir "William Temple, the British resident at Brussels, urged upon his government the importance of forming a league with 466 CHARLES II. Chai\ xxiv. Holland in order to save the Netherlands, and he received instruc- tions to go secretly to the Hague, and enter into negociations with the States. He found in De Witt, then the chief minister of the republic, a man of generous and enlarged sentiments ; and in five days' time an alliance was formed between England and Holland to check the ambitious schemes of Louis. This league was joined by Sweden, and hence is known by the name of the Triple Alliance (January 13, 1668). Louis was obliged to give way ; the plenipotentiaries of all the powers met shortly afterwards at Aix-la-Chapelle ; and a treaty was concluded upon the terms agreed upon by Temple and De Witt, by which it was arranged that Spain should resign to France all the towns conquered by the French in the last campaign, but should be guaranteed in the possession of the rest of Flanders. But the triple alliance was not popular with Charles. He had no liking for the Dutch, who were republicans, still less for the party of De Witt. Many of the bitterest opponents to the mon- archy, who still hoped for the restoration of the good old cause, as they termed the commonwealth, had found refuge and favour in Holland. From Holland their political and religious emissaries passed over to England, to sow disaffection and foment insurrections. However ostensibly submissive, parliament had resolved to keep the reins in its own hands ; and Charles did not trust parliament, nor had he much reason for trusting it. He was a keen observer of mankind, and it did not require much keenness of observation to see that those very men who were now loudest in their professions of loyalty had once been as loud in their denunciation of monarchy. But to secure independence, he must court the alliance of Louis. Accordingly, soon after the conclusion of the triple alliance, he entered into negociations with Louis through his sister, the duchess of Orleans, by whose means a secret treaty between England and France was concluded at Dover (May 22, 1670). By this treaty Charles was, at a convenient time, to make a public profession of the Roman catholic religion, and also assist Louis against Holland. Louis, in return, agreed to pay Charles 200,000Z. a year for the support of the fleet so long as the war lasted, and to aid him with an army of 6000 men in the event of an insurrection in England. The treaty was signed by all the members of the " Cabal ; " but the article relating to religion was divulged only to Clifford and Arlington, both of whom were catholics. The treaty was disgrace- ful ; but it is probable that neither of the principal contrahents ever seriously intended to carry out his part of the treaty. Louis was not to advance the money until Charles found it con- venient to turn catholic ; and Charles, on his part, never found it a.d. 1670-1671. blood's ceimes. 467 convenient to turn catholic, because he never could be sure, if he did, that Louis would advance the money. § 10. About this time Blood made himself memorable by his daring and his crimes. He was a disbanded officer of the protector's, and having been attainted for an insurrection in Ireland, he medi- tated revenge upon Ormond, the lord-lieutenant. Having by artifice drawn off the duke's footmen, he attacked his coach in the night time, as it drove along St. James's street in London, and made himself master of the duke's person. He might have accomplished his crime on the spot had he not meditated refinements in his vengeance. He was resolved to hang the duke at Tyburn, and for that purpose bound him, and mounted him on horseback behind one of his companions. They were advanced a good way into the fields, when the duke, making efforts for his liberty, threw himself to the ground, and brought down with him the assassin to whom he was fastened. As they were struggling together in the mire, Ormond's servants, roused by the alarm, came up to the rescue. Blood and his companions, firing their pistols in a hurry at the duke, rode off, and saved themselves by means of the darkness (December 6, 1670). Buckingham was at first, with some appear- ances of reason, suspected to be the author of this attempt ; and Ossory, Ormond's son, told him in the king's presence, that, if his father came to a violent end, he would pistol him, though he stood behind the king's chair. Shortly after, Blood nearly succeeded in carrying off the regalia from the Tower (May 9, 1671). He had wounded Edwards, the keeper of the jewel-office, and had got out of the Tower with his plunder, when he was overtaken and seized, with some of his associates. One of them was known to have been concerned in the attempt upon Ormond, and Blood was im- mediately concluded to be the ringleader. When questioned, he frankly avowed the enterprise, but refused to name his accomplices. " The fear of death," he said, " should never engage him either to deny guilt or betray a friend." These extraordinary circum- stances made him the general subject of conversation ; and the king was moved, by an idle curiosity, to see and speak with a person so noted for his courage and his crimes. Blood might now esteem himself secure of pardon, and he wanted not address to improve the opportunity. He told Charles that he had been engaged with others in a design to kill him with a carabine above Battersea, where his majesty often went to bathe ; that when he had taken his stand among the reeds, full of these bloody resolu- tions, he found his heart checked with an awe of majesty ; and he not only relented himself, but diverted his associates from their purpose. He warned the king of the danger which might attend 468 CHARLES II. Chap. xxiv. his execution, saying that his associates had bound themselves by the strictest oaths to revenge the death of any of their confederates. Charles not only pardoned Blood, but conferred on him an estate of 5001. a year in Ireland. Eventually he died in prison. § 11. Though peace had been concluded with the Dutch in 1667, and was apparently more strongly cemented by the triple alliance in the next year, their relations with England were far from satisfactory. Continual disputes took place between the Dutch and English fishermen, and the honour of the flag was a fertile source of dis- content and bickering. At the close of 1671, Temple, who was sent ambassador to Holland (January, 1669), was recalled ; and sir George Downing was sent over in his stead to demand satisfaction. But before declaring war it was necessary to raise a large sum of money. The supplies lately voted by the commons were nearly exhausted : and neither Charles nor his ministers ventured as yet upon levying money without consent of parliament. In this diffi- culty either Clifford or Ashley suggested the shameful expedient of seizing all the money which the bankers had intrusted to the exchequer. It had been usual for the bankers to lend large sums of money to the government, upon the security of the taxes, and they were repaid with interest as the latter came in. There were now about 1,300,000Z. thus advanced to the exchequer; and it was suddenly announced that the government did not intend to repay for twelve months the principal, but only the interest, to the depositors (January 2, 1672). The ruin of many followed this open violation of public credit. Many of the bankers stopped payment, and the commercial credit of the nation was shaken. About the same time Charles adopted other arbitrary measures, though some of them were not objectionable in themselves. Of these the most important was a proclamation, which he issued by virtue of his supreme power in ecclesiastical matters, suspending the penal laws enacted against all nonconformists or recusants whatsoever, and granting to the protestant dissenters the public exercise of their religion, to the catholics the exercise of theirs in private houses (March 15). England and France declared war against Holland, March 17, 1672. The Dutch fleet, under the command of De Buyter, sailed against the combined English and French fleets, which lay in South- wold Bay, on the coast of Suffolk. The English fleet was com- manded by the duke of York. A desperate action ensued. The French kept aloof ; but both the English and Dutch fleets suffered severely. The earl of Sandwich, who led the English van, was killed. The fight continued till night, when the Dutch retired (May 28). On land Louis at first carried everything before him. a.d. 1672. WAR WITH HOLLAND. 469 He crossed the Rhine at the head of an irresistible army ; city after city opened its gates to him, and three of the United Provinces were overrun by his arms. The small army of the republic was commanded by William, prince of Orange (afterwards William III. of England), then in the 22nd year of his age.* He gave strong indications of those great qualities by which his life was afterwards so much distinguished. Unable to stem the torrent, he retired into the province of Holland, where he expected, from the natural strength of the country, since all human art and courage failed, to be able to make some resistance. Amsterdam alone seemed to retain some courage ; and the sluices being opened, the neighbour- ing country, without regard to the damage sustained, was laid under water. All the provinces followed the example, and scrupled not, in this extremity, to restore to the sea those fertile fields which with great art and expense had been won from it. In these unfor- tunate circumstances, the Dutch, with the exception of Amsterdam, were prepared to make enormous sacrifices ; and ambassadors were despatched to implore the pity of the two combined monarchs. In answer to their request, Charles sent the duke of Buckingham, the earl of Arlington, and lord Halifax to Holland. When the duke represented to William the impossibility of successful resistance, and asked him whether he did not see that the commonwealth was ruined, " There is one certain means," replied the prince, " by which I can be sure never to see my country's ruin — I will die in the last ditch." The terms proposed by each were the hardest; both united, they appeared absolutely intolerable, and reduced the Dutch, who saw no means of defence, to despair. What- extremely aug- mented their distress were the violent internal factions with which they were agitated. De Witt still persevered in opposing the repeal of the perpetual edict by which the prince of Orange was excluded from the stadtholdership, and from all share in the civil administration. The people rose in insurrection at Dort, and by force constrained their burgomasters to sign the repeal so much demanded. This proved a signal for a general revolt throughout all the provinces. At Amsterdam, the Hague, Middlebourg, Rot- terdam, the people flew to arms, and, trampling under foot the authority of their magistrates, obliged them to submit. This move- ment was followed by the massacre of the brothers De Witt by the populace (August 4, 1672), who exercised on the dead bodies of those virtuous citizens indignities too shocking to be recited. But the * His lather had been stadtholder of the | jealousy was felt of the young prince, and provinces, but upon his death in 1650, the chief opponent of his party was De eight days before the birth of his son, the Witt, the grand pensionary of the pro-' dignity remained in abeyance. Great I vince of Holland. 22 470 CHARLES II. Chap. xxrv. republic, now firmly united under one leader, began to collect the remains of its pristine vigour. William, worthy of that heroic family from which he sprang, adopted sentiments becoming the head of a brave and free people. The intolerable conditions de- manded by their enemies he exhorted the States to reject with scorn ; and by his advice they put an end to negociations which served only to break the courage of their fellow-citizens and delay the assistance of their allies. The spirit of the young prince infused itself into his hearers. Those who lately entertained thoughts of yielding now bravely determined to resist, and defend those last remains of their native soil, of which neither the irruptions of Louis, nor the inundation of waters, had as yet bereaved them. In event of failure, they were resolved to take refuge in the Indies, and erect a new empire in those remote regions. Louis, finding that his enemies gathered courage behind their inundations, and that no further success was likely for the present to attend his arms, retired to Versailles. § 12. In February, 1673, the English parliament met, after pro- rogations continued for nearly two years. They chose for their speaker sir John Charleton, who was displaced on account of illness to make way for Edward Seymour. The king declared to both houses the necessity of the war with the Dutch, desiring supplies. His indulgence to dissenters, he told them, had produced a good effect, and he was resolved to abide by it. He was followed by lord Shaftesbury, the chancellor, who made use of a remarkable expres- sion in his speech, much noticed at the time — Delenda est Car- thago ; meaning that the Dutch must be extirpated, for " they were England's eternal enemy by interest and inclination." On taking the king's speech into consideration, the commons resolved, by 168 to 116, " that the penal statutes against dissenters could not be sus- pended except by act of parliament," and resolved to address his majesty to that effect. After a short resistance Charles gave way ; on March 8th he cancelled his declaration for suspension of the penal laws, and received the thanks of both houses. A motion had been rejected in the commons for declaring dissenters incapable of holding seats in parliament ; but a few days after a law was passed, known as the Test Act, which continued in force till the reign of George IV.* By this act all persons holding any public office were compelled to take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, to receive the sacrament according to the rites of the church of England, and abjure the doctrine of transubstantiation. In consequence of this act, the duke of York resigned his commands, and was succeeded in the fleet by prince Kupert. He fought several battles with the * For further particulars see Notes and Illustrations (A). A.D. 1673-1674. PEACE WITH HOLLAND. 471 Dutch this summer, but the victory was generallj r doubtful. The French alliance, and the war against Holland, became more and more unpopular ; and when the parliament met in the autumn they discovered great symptoms of ill humour (October 20). They ex- pressed great indignation at the marriage of the duke of York with a princess of the house of Modena, who was not of the Protestant religion. They voted the standing army a grievance, and declared that they would grant no more supplies, unless it appeared that the Dutch were so obstinate as to refuse all reasonable conditions of peace (November 4). To cut short these disagreeable attacks, the king prorogued the parliament to January 7. The " Cabal " ministry was now at an end. Lord Shaftesbury, disgusted with the king's compliance on the subject of indulgence, deserted the court, and became chief leader of the opposition (March). Directly after the prorogation he was dismissed from the office of chancellor (November 9), to which he had been elevated in the preceding year. The great seal was given to sir Heneage Finch, afterwards earl of Nottingham. The test had incapacitated Clifford, and the white staff was conferred on sir Thomas Osborne, soon after created earl of Danby,* a minister of some abilities, who had risen by his parliamentary talents. Parliament met at the day appointed (January 7, 1674), when the king desired that they would grant supplies for the war, and dis- charge his debts to the goldsmiths. But the opposition, reinforced and guided by the counsels and activity of Shaftesbury, proceeded to attack the king's ministers. Buckingham and Arlington were examined by the commons, and the latter was impeached. On the 7th of February they indirectly attacked the king. They resolved that the maintaining any standing forces, other than the militia, was a grievance to the nation ; that the king ought not to retain any guards, for it was impossible to deliver the nation from a standing army until the guards were " pulled up by the roots." The king plainly saw that he could expect no supply from the commons for carrying on the war, and concluded a separate treaty with the Dutch (February 9, 1674). The honour of the flag was yielded to the English : all possessions were restored to the same condition as before the war : and the States agreed to pay to the king nearly 300,000?. Charles, though obliged to make a separate peace, still kept up his connections with the French monarch. He apologized for deserting his ally, by representing to him the diffi- culties under which he laboured. On February 24 Parliament was prorogued till November 10. * He was created by William III. I duke of Leeds in 1694, and from him the marquess of Carmarthen in 1689, and | present duke is lineally descended. 472 CHARLES II. Chap. xxtv. § 13. Considerable alterations were made about this time in the English ministry. Buckingham, who had long, by his wit and en- tertaining humour, possessed the king's favour, was dismissed ; and he now, like Shaftesbury, became a leader of the opposition. The earl of Danby, the lord-treasurer, obtained the chief direction of public affairs. He was a declared enemy to the French alliance. But, while he scorned the idea of making the king absolute by the assistance of a foreign court, he had the highest notions of the king's prerogative, and endeavoured to augment the power of the crown. Accordingly, in April, 1675, he introduced a bill into the House of Lords, by which all members of either house, and all who possessed any office, were required to swear that it was not lawful, under any pretence whatsoever, to take arms against the king ; that they abhorred the traitorous position of taking arms by his authority against his person ; and that they would not at any time endeavour to alter the protestant religion, or the estab- lished government either in church or state. Great opposition was made to this bill. For 17 days the debates were carried on with much zeal, and it was passed by two voices only in the House of Peers. During this year great heats arose on a question of privilege between the two houses, and all other business was suspended. To put an end to this unseemly alter- cation Charles, on June 9, prorogued the commons until October 13. But as differences still continued, when the houses met again in the autumn, the commons were further prorogued, on November 22, to February 15, 1677. When the parliament met on that day, Buckingham took exception to its legality on the ground that, by a prorogation extending over 15 months, it was virtually dissolved. The question was debated at great length, and ended in the committal of the duke and his supporters, Shaftesbury, Salisbury, and Wharton,, to the Tower, for contempt of parliament. § 14. Meantime the war continued on the continent. The prince of Orange, supported by the emperor and the German states, con- tinued manfully the struggle against Louis. The earl of Danby and the nation urged Charles to join the Dutch, and put an effectual curb upon the ambition of the French monarch ; and the commons promised suitable supplies. Accordingly, on the 16 th of April, 1677, the royal assent was given to a bill for raising money to recruit the fleet. But on the 25th of May when the king had shown them the necessity of supply before he ventured on a rupture with France, the commons declared they would grant nothing until the king had entered into an alliance offensive and defensive with Holland against France. The king stood upon his prerogative. He refused to be dictated to in matters of peace a.d. 1677-1678. PEACE OF NIMEGUEN. 473 or war, or that the commons should prescribe what alliances he should make. He had already, the year before (February 17), concluded a secret treaty with Louis XIV., by which, on receipt of a considerable pension, he had agreed to enter into no engagements with foreign powers without the consent of France. But Charles was distrusted by Louis as well as by his own subjects. The French ambassador entered into secret negociations with the popular party, and bribed the most eminent of the popular leaders to resist the war against France. Charles, however, was sincerely anxious for peace ; for he was sensible that so long as the war continued abroad he should never enjoy peace at home. As a means to this end, he was persuaded by the earl of Danby and sir William Temple to entertain proposals for marrying the princess Mary, the elder daughter of the duke of York, to the prince of Orange, who came over to England at the close of the campaign of 1677. The marriage was celebrated, November 4, and gave general satisfaction ; but it occasioned no alteration in the policy of Charles, except that he exerted himself more vigorously in arranging the terms of a peace. In the following year (1678) peace was signed at Nimeguen, between France and Holland (August 10). Louis resigned the city of Maestricht to the Dutch, but retained possession of Franche-Comte, together with Valen- ciennes, Cambray, and other towns in the Low Countries. The French king thus obtained considerable accession of territory at the expense of Spain. The king of Spain and the emperor were indignant at this treaty, but were obliged to accept the terms prescribed to them. NOTES AND ILLUSTEATIONS. A. TEST AND CORPORATION ACTS. The Corporation Act was passed in 1661. In it a religious test was com- bined with a political test. All Corpo- rate Officers were required to have taken the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, " according to the rites of the Church of England," within one year before their elections, and, upon being elected, to take the oaths of allegiance and of supremacy, and the following oath: "I, A. B., do declare and believe that it is not lawful, upon any pretence whatsoever, to take arms against the King, and that I do abhor that traitorous position of taking arms by his authority against his person, or against those that are commissioned by him ; " besides subscribing a Declara- tion against the Solemn League and Cove- nant. The Corporation Oath of Non- resistance was abolished, not indeed at the Revolution, though it most probably became a dead letter at that epoch, but at the accession of the House of Bruns- wick, by the " Act for quietnig and establishing Corporations." (5 Geo. I. c. 6, s. 2.) The Test Act was passed in 1673, with the object of preventing political power being placed in the hands of Papists or dissenters. Its title is, " An Act for pre- venting dangers which may happen from 474 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Chap. xxiv. Popish Recusants." Under the provi- sions of the Act, all persons holding any office or place of trust, civil or military, or admitted of the King's or Duke of York's household, were to receive the Sacrament according to the usage of the Church of England, and to make and subscribe the following declaration : " I, A. B., do declare that I believe there is not any transubstantiation in the Sacra- ment of the Lord's Supper, or in the elements of bread and wine, at or after the consecration thereof by any person whatsoever." The Dissenters entertained such fears of the Papists that they actively supported the passing of this Act, though it included them not less than Papists, by reason of the requisition of taking the Sacrament according to the rites of the Church of England. The Parliamentary lest was imposed in the year 1678, five years after the first test. In this interval, the alarm in the country of the designs of Papists had been greatly increased by the discovery of the supposed Popish Plot. The title of the Act is, " An Act for tue more effec- tual preserving the King's person and government, by disabling Papists from sitting in either House of Parliament." Under the provisions of the Act, "No Peer or Member of the House of Commons shall sit or vote without taking the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, and a De- claration repudiating the doctrine of transubstantiation, the adoration of the Virgin, and the sacrifice of the Mass. Peers and Members offending are to be deemed and adjudged Popish Recusants convict, and are to forfeit 5001.," besides suffering numerous disabilities. These Acts were repealed in the reign of George IV.— See Amos, The English Con- stitution in the Reign of Charles II., p. 135, seq. B. THE ACT OP UNIFORMITY. This Act is entitled " An Act for Uni- formity of Public Prayers, and adminis- tration of Sacraments and other rites and ceremonies; and for establishing the fjrm of making, ordaining, and conse- crating bishops, priests, and deacons in the Church of England." In treating of the Act it will be convenient to notice, I., those clauses which have been re- pealed; and II., those clauses touching assent and consent to the Book of Common Prayer and Episcopal Ordination, which continue in force in the present day. I. By the 34th section, all former statutes relating to the uniformity of prayer, and administration of the Sacra- ments, were re-enacted. The Act of Uniformity in force previously to the Statute of Charles II. was the 1st of Elizabeth, c. 2, which incorporates, by reference, penal clauses in the earlier Uniformity Act of 5th and 6th Edward VI., c. 1, which, again, incorporates, *by refer- ence, similar clauses in the Uniformity Act of the 2nd and 3rd Edward VI., c. 1. These obscure references will be found to include "the declaring or speaking any- thing in the derogation, depraving, or despising of the Book of Common Prayer, or of anything therein contained, or any part thereof, the punishment of which, for the third offence, is forfeiture of goods and chattels and imprisonment for life. Among other clauses included, by re- ference, in the Uniformity Act of Charles II., are the -compelling atten- dance at parish churches, and the offence of whoever shall «' willingly and wit- tingly hear or be present at any other manner or form of Common Prayer than is mentioned and set forth in the Book of Common Prayer," provisions which have been repealed by statutes of Vic- toria (7 and 8 Vict. c. 102 ; 9 and 10 Vict, c. 59). By the- 14th section of the Act, it is enacted, " that no person shall presume to administer the holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, before such time as he shall be ordained Priest, according to the form and manner in and by the said Book prescribed, unless he have formerly been made Priest by episcopal ordination, upon pain to forfeit for the said offence the sum of 100L" The 100L penalty was repealed by the Toleration Act of William and Mary. The 9th section of the Act contained the following declaration : " I, A. B., do declare that it is not lawful on any pre- tence whatsoever to take arms against the King ; and that I do abhor that traitorous position of taking arms by his authority against his person, or against those that are commissionated by him; and that I will conform to the liturgy of the Church of England as it is now by law established." This declaration was required to be subscribed not only by Chap. xxiv. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 475 every person in holy orders, but also by public and private schoolmasters, who were likewise required to take out a license from the bishop of the diocese, under penalty of three months' imprison- ment. The Declaration, so far as it re- lates to non-resistance, was abrogated at the Revolution (1 Will, and Mary c. 8). The license of private tutors continued, though latterly a dead letter, till it was abolished by a statute of Victoria (9 and 10 Vict. c. 59). A Declaration, repudiating the Solemn League and Covenant, was, by the Act of Uniformity, to be taken until the 25th of March, 1682, a period allowed for the extinction of Covenanters by the course of nature. II. With respect to the permanent clauses of the Act of Uniformity : these are, 1st, the Declaration of assent and consent to the Book of Common Prayer ; and 2nd, a provision requiring Episcopal Ordination. — Amos, ibid., p. 87, seq. C. IMMUNITY OF JURIES. Previous to the year 1670, juries were frequently fined if they gave a verdict contrary to the dictation of the judge. But in that year, this pernicious practice was finally abolished by the decision of Vaughan, chief justice of the Common Pleas. The Recorder of London had set a fine of 40 marks upon each of the jury who had acquitted the quakers Penn and Mead, on an indictment for an unlawful assembly. Bushell, the foreman, refused to pay, and being committed to prison, obtained his writ of Habeas Corpus from the Court of Common Pleas ; and on the return made, that he had been committed for finding a verdict against full and mani- fest evidence, and against the direction of the court, chief justice Vaughan held the ground to be insufficient, and discharged the prisoner. Erskine, in his famous speech for the dean of St. Asaph, ob- served that the country was almost as much indebted to Bushell, as to Hampden in resisting ship-money. In earlier times, when juries were also witnesses (see p. 150), they were liable to be punished by the terrible writ of Attaint,* if a second jury, consisting of 24 jurors, found them guilty of giving a false ver- dict. The ancient punishment was, in such a case, that the jurors should be de- prived of all their property, be imprisoned, and become for ever infamous ; and that the plaintiff should be restored to all he had lost by reason of the unjust verdict This odious proceeding, though obsolete even in the time of Elizabeth, was not abolished till the 5th of George IV. See Hallam's Constitutional History, iii. p. 9 ; Amos, The English Constitution in the Reign of Charles II, p. 279, seq. ; Kerr's Blackstone, iii. p. 433. * Attinctus, stained or blackened. Medal relating to the Rye-house plot. Obv. : peribvnt fvlminis ictv 1683. The king as Hercules menaced by a hydra-like monster, having seven human heads, which represented those of the supposed conspirators : above, a hand in the clouds holding a thunderbolt. CHAPTEE XXV. CHARLES II. CONTINUED. FROM THE PEACE OF NIMEGUEN TO THE DEATH OF THE KING, A.D. 1678-1685. § 1. The popish plot. Oates's narrative. Godfrey's murder. § 2. Zeal of the parliament. Bedloe's narrative. Bill for a new test. § 3. Accusa- tion of Danby. Dissolution of parliament. § 4. Trial and execution i Coleman and others. The duke of Monmouth. § 5. A new parliament. Danby's impeachment. New council. §6. The Exclusion Bill. Habeas Corpus Act. § 7. Prosecutions of papists. Affairs of Scotland. Murder of archbishop Sharpe. § 8. Meal-tub plot. Whig and Tory. § 9. Violence of the new parliament. Exclusion Bill rejected in the lords. Trial and execution of lord Stafford. Parliament dissolved. § 10. The new parliament dissolved. Turn of the popular feeling. Court prosecutions. § 11. Trial of Shaftesbury London and other cities deprived of their charters. § 12. Ry°-house plot. Trial and execu- tion of lord Russell and Algernon Sidney. § 13. State of the narion. Monmouth banished. § 14. Marriage of prince George of Denmark and the prinoess Anne. Death and character of Charles II. § 1. Jealousy of Romanism was no novel thing in this country. It had prevailed with greater or less degree of force from the reign of Elizabeth. The terrors engendered by the gunpowder plot had produced an indelible impression on the mind of the nation, and the dread of it, even when unfounded, had often been employed by politicians to work out their own purposes. It was in vain that the Stuart sovereigns wished to ameliorate the restrictions imposed A.v. 1678. THE POPISH PLOT. 477 Rev. : devs nobis H.2EC otia fecit. A shepherd, the king, keeping his flock, fn the midst of which two wolves hanging : in the distance a view of London. upon their Roman catholic subjects. All such efforts were resented by the commons, and exposed the authors of them to the un- generous suspicion of encouraging popery. The fanaticism of the Long Parliament, which found an outlet for its vengeance in perse- cuting and suppressing the church of England, was not yet ex- tinguished, but now had a solitary victim in the Roman catholics. The fire of London, as we have seen, was ascribed to their machinations, and though this might be only a popular delusion, an error suitable to the vulgar, the House of Commons had maintained its influence over the minds of men by a succession of anti-popery cries and remonstrances, which culminated in the Test Act. Popular apprehension was at this era augmented by the marriage of the duke of York, the heir presumptive to the throne, with a Roman catholic princess; by the duke's avowal of the same' faith ; by the successes of Louis XIV. ; by rumours of the true character of the treaty of Dover, of which it was impossible that either Shaftesbury or Buckingham, both violent opponents of the court, both fomenters of these disgraceful plots, could be ignorant ; by dark rumours spread in coffee-houses, which the government had attempted in vain to regulate ; by the reports of secret emissaries, chiefly sent over from Holland. The nation was agitated by some vague and uncertain apprehension, which only required an un- scrupulous agent to give it form and consistency. That agent was found in Titus Oates. On the 12th of August, 1678, as the king was walking in the park, he was accosted by one Kirby, a chemist. " Sir," said he, " keep within the company : your enemies have a design upon your life ; and you may be shot in this very walk." 478 CHARLES II. Chap. xsv. Being asked the reason of these strange speeches, he said that two men, called Grove and Pickering, were engaged to shoot the king, and sir George Wakeman, the queen's physician, to poison him. This intelligence, Kirov added, had been communicated to him by Dr. Tonge, whom he proposed to introduce to his majesty. Tonge was rector of St. Michael's, Wood-street ; active, restless, full of projects, void of understanding. He brought certain papers to the king, which contained information of a plot, and were digested into 43 articles. Tonge said that they had been secretly thrust under his door, and that, though he suspected, he did not know certainly, who was the author. The king gave no credit to the story ; but the duke of York, hearing that priests and Jesuits, and even his own confessor, had been accused, was desirous that a thorough inquiry should be made by the council into the intended conspiracy. Kirby and Tonge were found to be living in close connection with Titus Oates, the person who was said to have conveyed the first intelligence to Tonge. Oates was a man of infamous character. He had been originally an anabaptist, had become a clergyman of the established church at the Eestoration, and subsequently went abroad, pretending to be a convert to Eomanism. He had been expelled from the English college at St. Omer, where he had become acquainted with the names of the leading Eomanists. As this man expected more encouragement from the public than from the king and his ministers, he thought proper, before he was presented to the council, to go with his two companions to sir Edmondbury Godfrey, a noted and active justice of peace, and to give evidence before him of the conspiracy. The main articles of this wonderful intelligence were, that the pope had delegated the sovereignty of Great Britain to the Jesuits, who had proceeded to name a government and fill up the dignities of the church ; that the king, whom they named " the Black Bastard," was to be put to death as an heretic ; that Pere la Chaise, the celebrated confessor of Louis XIV., had remitted 10,000Z. to London, as a reward of the king's assassination, and other foreign ecclesiastics had offered further sums ; that London was to be fired in several places by means of fire-balls, which they called Tewkesbury mustard-pills ; that the protestants were to be massacred all over the kingdom ? the crown to be offered to the duke on condition of his receiving it as a gift from the pope, and utterly extirpating the protestant religion : if he refused these conditions, he himself was immediately to be poisoned or assassinated. To pot James must go — according to the expression ascribed by Oates to the Jesuits. Oates, when examined before the council, contradicted himself in many particulars (August 13). While in Spain, he had been carried, he said, to Don John, who promised great assistance to the execution. A.D. 1678. MURDER OF GODFREY. 479 of the catholic designs. The king asked him what sort of a man Don John was : he answered, a tall lean man — directly contrary to truth, as the king well knew. He totally mistook the situation of the Jesuits' college at Paris, and failed to identify persons whom he pretended to know. Notwithstanding these objections, the violent animosity which had been excited against the catholics in general made the public swallow the grossest absurdities: the more diabolical any con- trivance appeared, the better it suited the tremendous idea enter- tained of the Jesuits. Danby, likewise, who opposed the French and catholic interest at court, was willing to encourage every story which might serve to discredit that party. By his suggestion a warrant was signed for arresting Coleman, who had been secretary to the late duchess of York, and whom Oates had implicated in his evidence. Coleman's papers were seized, among them copies of letters to Pere la Chaise and other eminent foreign catholics. These did indeed betray a scheme for the conversion of the nation to popery ; but instead of the king being murdered, he was to be bribed by the king of France, and the design was altogether different from Oates's pretended discovery. Yet his plot and Coleman's were universally confounded together ; and the evidence of the latter being unquestionable, the belief of the former, aided by the passions of hatred and of terror, took possession of the people. The murder of sir Edmondbury Godfrey completed the general delusion. The body of this magistrate was found lying in a ditch at Primrose Hill (October 17) : marks of strangling were thought to appear about his neck, and some contusions on his breast : his own sword was sticking in his body : he had rings on his fingers, and money in his pocket: it was therefore inferred that he had not fallen into the hands of robbers. Without further reasoning, the cry rose that he had been assassinated by the papists, on account of his taking Oates's evidence. The dead body of Godfrey was carried into the city, attended by vast multitudes. The funeral was celebrated with great parade. Yet the murder of Godfrey, in all likelihood, had no connection, one way or other, with the popish plot; and, as he was a melancholy man, there is some reason to suspect, notwithstand- ing the pretended appearances to the contrary, that he fell by his own hands. § 2. When the parliament met (October 21), Danby, who hated ihe catholics and courted popularity, opened the matter in the House of Peers. The king was extremely displeased with this temerity, and told his minister that he had given the parliament a handle to ruin himself, and that he would surely live to repent it. Danby had afterwards sufficient reason to applaud the sagacity of 480 CHARLES II. Chap. xxv, his master. The cry of the plot was immediately echoed from one house to the other. The authority of parliament gave sanction to that fury with which the people were already agitated. A solemn fast was appointed : addresses were voted for the removal of popish recusants from London, and for appointing the trained bands of Loudon and Westminster to be in readiness. The catholic lords Powys, Stafford, Arundel, Petre, and Bellasis, were committed to the Tower, and were soon after impeached of high treason. Both houses, after hearing Oates's evidence, voted that there had been, and still was, a damnable and hellish plot, carried on by popish recusants. Oates, though an infamous villain, was by every one applauded, caressed, and called the saviour of the nation ; was recommended by the parliament to the king ; was lodged in White- hall, protected by guards, and encouraged by a pension of 1200Z. a year. It was not long before such bountiful encouragement brought forth a new witness, William Bedloe, formerly a stable-boy to lord Bellasis, and a man, if possible, more infamous than Oates. When he appeared before the council, he gave intelligence of God- frey's murder only, which, he said, had been perpetrated in Somer- set House, where the queen lived, by papists, some of them servants in her family. He at first pretended ignorance of Oates's plot; but afterwards gave a narrative of it, making it to tally, as well as he could, with that of Oates, which had been published. But that he might make himself acceptable by new matter, he added some absurd circumstances of vast invasions projected by France and Spain. Lord Carrington and lord Brudenel, with all the other persons mentioned by Bedloe, as concerned in the conspiracy, were immediately committed to custody by the parliament. The king, though he scrupled not, wherever he could speak freely, to throw ridicule on the plot, and on all who believed it, yet found it necessary to adopt the popular opinion. In his speech to both houses, he told them that, provided the right of succession were preserved, he would consent to any laws ior restraining a popish successor ; exhorted them to think of effectual means for the con- viction of popish recusants; and highly praised the duty and loyalty of all his subjects who had discovered such anxious concern for his safety (November 9, 1678). An act for disabling papists, aimed by Shaftesbury, Russell, and their party, at the duke of York, passed the commons without much opposition ; but in the upper house the duke of York moved that an exception might be admitted in his favour. With great earnest- ness, and even with tears in his eyes, he told them, that he was now to cast himself on their kindness, in the greatest concern which he could have in the world ; and he protested that, whatever his a.d. 1678-1679. IMPEACHMENT OF DANBY. 481 religion might be, it should only be a private thing between God and his own soul, and never should appear in his public conduct. Notwithstanding this strong effort, in so important a point, he pre- vailed only by two voices. By this bill no peer or member of the House of Commons could sit or vote without making a declaration repudiating the doctrine of transubstantiation, the adoration of the Virgin, and the sacrifice of the Mass. Thus all Roman catholics were excluded from both houses of parliament till the repeal of this act in the reign of George IV.* Encouraged by the general fury, Oates and Bedloe were now so audacious as to accuse the queen herself of entering into the design against the life of her husband. The commons, in an address to the king, gave countenance to this scandalous accusation ; but the lords could not be prevailed on to join in the address. Charles had sufficient generosity to protect his injured consort. " They think," said he, " I have a mind to a new wife ; but, for all that, 1 will not see an innocent woman abused." § 3. The present ferment and credulity of the nation engaged even persons of rank and condition to become informers. Mon- tague, the king's ambassador at Paris, without obtaining or asking the king's leave, suddenly came over to England. Charles, suspect- ing his intention, ordered his papers to be seized ; but Montague had taken care to secrete two papers, which he laid before the House of Commons. One of these was a letter from the treasurer Danby, written during the negociations at Nimeguen. Montague was there directed to demand money from France ; in other words, to pledge the king's good offices to Louis, contrary to the general interests of his confederates. Unwilling to engage personally in this negociation, the king, to satisfy Danby, subjoined, with his own hand, these words : " This letter is writ by my order, C. R." The commons were inflamed with this intelligence against Danby, and immediately voted an impeachment of high treason against him (December 21). Danby made it appear to the lords, not only that Montague had all along promoted the money nego- ciations with France, but that he himself was ever extremely averse to the interests of that crown, which he esteemed pernicious to his master and to his country. The peers plainly saw that Danby's crime fell not under the statute of Edward III., and could not sub- ject him to the penalties annexed to treason. They refused, there- fore, to commit him. The commons insisted on their demand ; and a great contest was likely to arise, when the king first prorogued, and then dissolved, the parliament (January 24, 1679). Thus came to an end the parliament which had sat during the whole course of * See Notes and Illustrations, p. 474. 482 CHARLES II. Chap. xxv. this reign. Being elected during the joy and festivity of the Eestoration, it consisted mainly of royalists, who were disposed to support the crown by all the liberality which the habits of that age would permit. Alarmed by the alliance with France, they gradually withdrew their confidence from the king ; and, finding him still to persevere in a foreign interest, they proceeded to dis- cover symptoms of the most refractory and most jealous disposition. The popish plot pushed them beyond all bounds of moderation ; and before their dissolution they seemed to be treading fast in the footsteps of the last long parliament, on whose conduct they threw at first such violent blame. § 4. During the sitting of the parliament, and after its proroga- tion and dissolution, the trials of the pretended criminals were carried on, and the courts of judicature, places which, if possible, ought to be kept more pure from injustice than even national assemblies themselves, were strongly infected with the same party rage and bigoted prejudices. Coleman, the most obnoxious of the conspirators, was first brought to his trial. His letters were pro- duced. Oates and Bedloe deposed against him, and he was con- demned and executed, persisting to the last in the strongest pro- testations of innocence (December 3). The same fate attended Grove, Pickering, and father Ireland, who, it was pretended, had signed, together with 50 Jesuits, the great resolution of murdering the king. All these men, before their arraignment, were con- demned in the opinion of the judges, jury, and spectators ; and to be a Jesuit, or even a catholic, was of itself a sufficient proof of guilt. Bedloe still remained a single evidence against the persons accused of Godfrey's murder; but at last means were found to complete the legal evidence. One Prance, a silversmith and a catholic, had been accused by Bedloe of being an accomplice in the murder ; and upon his denial, being thrown into prison, loaded with heavy irons, and confined to the condemned hole, a place cold, dark, and full of nastiness, was at length wrought upon, by terrors and sufferings, to make a confession. Upon his evidence three servants of the queen were condemned and executed for the murder (February 21, 1679). All through the year the ferment continued. By a proclamation from the king, all catholics, not being householders, were com- manded to quit London. Posts and chains were provided in the city for securing the streets ; 50,000 men were kept continually under arms ; batteries were planted ; patrols paraded, and the great gates were kept constantly closed. As the army could neither be kept up, nor disbanded, without money, the king found himself obliged to summon a new parlia- ment (March 6, 1679). The popish plot had a great influence upon a.d. 1679. THE DUKE OF MONMOUTH. 483 the elections, and, in spite of the exertions of the government, all the zealots of the former parliament were rechosen : fresh ones were added : and it was apprehended that the new representatives would, if possible, exceed the old in their refractory opposition to the court, and their furious persecution of the catholics. The king was alarmed, when he saw so dreadful a tempest arise from such small and unaccountable beginnings. To appease the parliament, he desired the duke to withdraw beyond sea, that no further suspicion might remain of the influence of popish counsels. The duke re- tired to Brussels ; but first required an order, signed by the king, lest his absenting himself should be interpreted as a proof of fear or of guilt. He also desired that his brother should satisfy him, as well as the public, by a declaration of the illegitimacy of the duke of Monmouth. That person was the king's natural son by Lucy Walters, and born about ten years before the Eestoration. He pos- sessed all the qualities which could engage the affections of the populace ; a distinguished valour, an affable address, a thoughtless generosity, a graceful person. But his capacity was mean ; his temper pliant : so that, notwithstanding his great popularity, he would never have been dangerous, had he not implicitly resigned himself to the guidance of Shaftesbury, a man of restless temper, subtle wit, and abandoned principles. That daring politician had flattered Monmouth with the hopes of succeeding to the crown. The story of a contract of marriage passed between the king and Monmouth's mother, and secretly kept in a certain black box, had been industriously spread abroad, and was greedily received by Monmouth's adherents. § 5. In the new parliament the refractory humour of the lower house appeared in its first step. In the election of their speaker, it had ever been usual for the commons to consult the inclinations of the sovereign, although the Long Parliament in 1641 had thought proper to depart from the established custom. The king now desired that the choice should fall on sir Thomas Meres ; but Seymour, speaker to the last parliament, was instantly called to the chair by a vote which seemed unanimous. When Seymour was presented for his approbation, the king rejected him, and ordered the commons to proceed to a new choice. A great contest ensued, till by way of com- promise it was agreed to set aside both candidates. William Gregory, a lawyer, was chosen ; and the election was ratified by the king. It has ever since been understood that the choice of the speaker lies in the house, but that the king retains the power of rejecting any person disagreeable to him. The impeachment of Danby was revived. The king had beforehand taken the precaution to grant a pardon to Danby ; and, in order to screen the chancellor from all 484 CHARLES II. Chap. xxv. attacks of the commons, he had taken the great seal into his own hands, and had himself affixed it to the parchment. But the commons maintained that no pardon of the crown could he pleaded in bar of an impeachment, though the prerogative of mercy had hitherto been understood to be altogether unlimited in the king ; and James had remitted the sentence on lord Bacon. On the other hand, if such a principle were allowed, there was an end of the supposed responsibility of the advisers of the crown, and any minister might set parliament at defiance.* The commons per- sisted, and the peers ordered Danby to be taken into custody. Danby absconded ; but a bill having been passed for his attainder in default of his appearance, he surrendered, and was immediately committed to the Tower (April 16). In order to allay the jealousy displayed by the parliament and people, the king, by the advice of sir William Temple, laid the plan of a new privy council, without whose advice he declared himself determined for the future to take no measure of importance (April 20). This council was to consist of 30 persons ; 15 of the chief officers of the crown were to be continued ; the other half was to be composed, either of men of character, detached from the court, or of those who possessed credit with both houses. The earl of Essex, a nobleman of the popular party, was created treasurer in the room of Danby ; the earl of Sunderland, a man of intrigue and capacity, was made secretary of state; viscount Halifax, a fine genius, possessed of learning, eloquence, industry, but restless and am- bitious, was admitted into the council. These three, together with Temple, who often joined them, though he kept himself more detached from public business, formed a kind of cabinet council, in which all affairs received their first digestion. Shaftesbury was made president of the council, contrary to the advice of Temple, who foretold the consequence of admitting a man of so dangerous a character into any part of the public administration. § 6. As Temple foresaw, it happened. Shaftesbury, finding that he possessed no more than the appearance of court favour, was re- solved still to adhere to the popular party, by whose attachment he enjoyed an undisputed superiority in the lower house, and possessed great influence in the other. By his advice the celebrated Exclu- sion Bill was brought into parliament, the object of which was to exclude the duke of York from the succession to the throne. It was carried by a majority of 79 votes in the House of Commons, but its further progress was stopped by the dissolution of parlia- * This question was not finally decided under the great seal can be pleaded in till the Act of Settlement in 1701 (13 Will, bar of an impeachment of the commons. — III. c. 2), which provides that no pardon Hallam, Const. Hist, ii. 417. A.D. 1679. THE HABEAS CORPUS ACT. 485 ment (May 27). Before its dissolution, the king had, though reluctantly, given his consent to the Habeas Corpus Act, for the enactment of which this parliament is entitled to the gratitude of posterity. The Great Charter had provided against arbitrary imprisonment, and the Petition of Right had renewed and extended the principle ; but some provisions were still wanting to render it complete, and prevent all evasion or delay by ministers and judges. By the act of Habeas Corpus it is prohibited to send any one to a prison beyond sea; no judge, under severe penalties, must refuse to any prisoner a writ of habeas corpus, by which the gaoler is directed to produce in court the body of the prisoner (whence the writ had its name), and to certify the cause of his detainder and imprison- ment; every prisoner must be indicted the first term after his commitment, and brought to trial in the subsequent term ; and no man, after being enlarged by order of court, can be recommitted for the same offence.* § 7. But, whether parliament was sitting or was not sitting, the prosecution of the catholics continued with the same unrelenting severity. Whitbread, provincial of the Jesuits, and four others of the same order, w r ere condemned and executed (June 20). Lang- horne, an eminent lawyer, by whom all the affairs of the Jesuits were managed, was the next victim. Oates and Bedloe, as in the former cases, were the chief witnesses against him. When the verdict was given, the spectators expressed their savage joy by loud acclamations. So high indeed had the popular rage mounted, that the witnesses for this unhappy man, on approaching the court, were nearly torn in pieces by the rabble. The first check which the informers received was on the trial of sir George Wake- man, the queen's physician, whom they accused of an intention to poison the king. Oates, on his examination before the council, had said that he knew nothing against sir George ; yet, on the trial, he positively deposed to his guilt. The chief justice, Scroggs, who had hitherto countenanced the witnesses, gave a favourable charge to the jury ; for which Oates and Bedloe had the assurance to attack him to his face, and even to accuse him of partiality before the council (July 18). During these transactions, serious disturbances occurred in Scot- land. Lauderdale had ruled that country with great severity, and an incident at last happened which brought on an insurrection. The Covenanters were much enraged against Sharpe, the primate, whom they considered as an apostate from their principles, and found an unrelenting persecutor of all those who dissented from the established worship. A bodyof them falling in with him by * For further details, see Notes and Illustrations, p. 497. 486 CHARLES II. Chap. xxv. accident on the road near St. Andrews, dragged him from his coach ; tore him from the arms of his daughter, who interposed with cries and tears; and piercing him with redoubled wounds, left him dead on the spot, and immediately dispersed (May 3). The assassins retired towards Glasgow ; obtaining reinforcements, they appeared in arms at Rutberglen (May 29), and defeated a small body of cavalry under Graham of Claverhouse, at Drumclog, near Loudon Hill (June 3). Pushing on to Glasgow, they made themselves masters of the city, dispossessed the established clergy, and issued proclamations, in which they declared they fought against the king's supremacy, against popery and prelacy, and a popish successor. But though they succeeded in raising an army of 8000 men, they were soon dispersed by Monmouth, whom the king had sent against them, at the battle of Both well Bridge (June 22). In consequence of an illness of the king, the duke of York returned to England, and shortly afterwards was sent to Scotland as lord high commissioner. He is accused of using the Covenanters with great cruelty, but the evidence on which the accusation rests is doubtful. § 8. The plan of government recommended by Temple was soon abandoned. Shaftesbury was dismissed from the presidency of the council, and became more violent than ever in his opposition to the court (October 15). Essex also quitted the ministry, and joined the opposition. Temple withdrew to his books and his gardens. Monmouth was sent to Holland. But Halifax and Sunderland still continued in office ; and the ministry was recruited by two new men who afterwards played a conspicuous part in public life. These were Lawrence Hyde, the second son of the chancellor Clarendon, who succeeded Essex at the treasury, and Sidney Godolphin. It was the favour and countenance of the parliament which had chiefly encouraged the rumour of plots; but the nation had got so much into that vein of credulity, and every necessitous villain was so much incited by the success of Oates and Bedloe, that even during the prorogation the people were not allowed to remain in tranquillity. There was ODe Dangerfield, a fellow who had been burned in the hand for crimes, transported, whipped, pilloried four times, fined for cheats, outlawed for felony, convicted of coining, and exposed to all the public infamy which the laws could inflict on the basest and most shameful enormities. The credulity of the people, and the humour of the times, enabled even this man to become a person of consequence. He was the author of a new incident called the Meal-tub Plot, from the place where some papers relating to it were found. Under pretence of betraying the con- spiracies of the presbyterians, he had been countenanced by some A.D. 1679. WHIG AND TORY. 487 catholics of condition, and had even been admitted to the duke's presence and the king's ; and, under pretence of revealing new popish plots he had obtained access to Shaftesbury and some of the popular leaders. Which side he intended to cheat is uncertain, or whether he did not rather mean to cheat both ; but he soon found that the belief of the nation was more open to a popish than a presbyterian plot, and he resolved to strike in with the prevailing humour. The dismissal of Shaftesbury had only made him more violent. He got up in the metropolis an immense anti-popery demonstration, attended by 200,000 persons, on November 17, queen Elizabeth's accession, in which the effigies of the pope and the devil, sir George Jeffreys, and others who had provoked his displeasure, were carried in procession and burnt at Temple Bar. He sought to win popular favour in behalf of Monmouth's pretensions to the throne, as the only security against French invaders and popish rebels. To over- awe the court, he employed emissaries throughout the country to solicit subscriptions to petitions or addresses praying the king for the speedy meeting of parliament, in order to resist the ascendency of popery and the establishment of despotism. No man understood better the arts of inflaming the vilest passions of the multitude, and no one was more unscrupulous in using them. Charles was greatly angered. The intolerable factiousness of the earl, who trusted too much to the king's easiness or indolence, had at last the effect of rousing him into resistance. Unlike his father, Charles II. had no mind to sacrifice his ease to his principles, or to provoke oppo- sition, if he could possibly avoid it. Now his father's fate seemed looming over his own head. He swore though the whigs might " knock out his brains," they should " never cut off his head." He issued a proclamation to every magistrate, threatening with punish- ment all those who should subscribe petitions contrary to the laws of the land. A reaction followed. The friends of the court came forward with addresses expressing their abhorrence of any undue interference with the royal prerogative. Thus the two parties ob- tained the appellations of addressors and abhorrers. These names were soon forgotten. The court party reproached their antagonists with their affinity to the fanatical conventiclers in Scotland, who were known by the name of Whigs (sour whey) ; the country party found a resemblance between the courtiers and the popish banditti in Ireland, to whom the appellation of Tory was affixed ; and thus these terms came into general use. (Supplement, Note VIII.) In order to keep alive the ferment against popery, Shaftesbury appeared in Westminster Hall, attended by several persons of dis- tinction, and presented to the grand jury of Middlesex the duke of 488 CHARLES II. Chap. xxv. York, who had returned from Scotland in February, 1680, as a popish recusant (June 26). While the jury were deliberating, the chief justice sent for them, and suddenly dismissed them. Shaftesbury, however, obtained his end by showing his followers the desperate resolution he had embraced, never to admit of any accommodation with the duke, who returned to Scotland (October 20). § 9. The king opened his fourth parliament (October 21, 1680) with a speech containing many mollifying expressions, offering to give them any satisfaction for the security of the protestant religion ; but the commons displayed the most violent and refractory disposition. Great numbers of the abhorrers, from all parts of England, were seized by their order ; and they renewed the vote of the former parliament, which affirmed the reality of the horrid popish plot. The whole tribe of informers were applauded and rewarded ; and their testimony, however frivolous or absurd, met with a favourable reception. The king was applied to in their behalf for pensions and pardons ; and doctor Tonge was recommended for the first considerable church preferment which should become vacant. So much were the popular leaders determined to carry matters to extremities, that, in less than a week after the commencement of the session, a motion was made for again bringiDg in the Exclusion Bill, and a committee was appointed for that purpose. Shaftesbury and many considerable men of the party had rendered themselves irreconcilable with the duke, and could find their safety no way but in his ruin. Monmouth's friends hoped that the exclusion of that prince would make way for their patron; and the oountry party expected that the king would at last be obliged to yield to their demand. Though he had withdrawn his countenance from Monmouth, he was known secretly to retain a great affection for him. On no occasion had he ever been found to persist obstinately against difficulties and importunity ; and as his beloved mistress, the duchess of Portsmouth, had been engaged to unite herself with the popular party, this incident was regarded as a favourable prog- nostic of their success. Sunderland, secretary of state, who had linked his interest with that of the duchess, had concurred in the same measure. The debates were carried on with great violence on both sides. In the House of Commons the bill passed by a great majority (November 11). In the House of Peers the contest was violent. Shaftesbury, Sunderland, and Essex argued for it ; Hali- fax chiefly conducted the debate against it, and displayed an extent of capacity, and a force of eloquence, which had never been sur- passed in that assembly. The king was present during the whole debate, which was prolonged till eleven at night. The bill was thrown out by a considerable majority. The commons discovered much A.D. 1680-1681. EXECUTION OF STAFFORD. 489 ill humour at this disappointment. The impeachment of the catholic lords in the Tower was revived ; and as viscount Stafford, from his age, infirmities, and narrow capacity, was deemed the least capable of defending himself, it was determined to make him the first victim, that his condemnation might pave the way for a sen- tence against the rest. The witnesses produced against the prisoner were Oates, Dugdale, and Turberville. The prisoner made a better defence than was expected either by his friends or his enemies. With a simplicity and tenderness more persuasive than the greatest oratory, he still made protestations of his innocence, and could not forbear, every moment, expressing the most lively surprise and indignation at the audacious impudence of the witnesses. The peers, after a solemn trial of six days, gave sentence against him by a majority of 24. Stafford received with resignation the fatal ver- dict. " God's holy name be praised ! " was the only exclamation which he uttered.* On the day of his execution (December 29), the populace, who had exulted at Stafford's trial and condemnation, were melted into tears at the sight of that tender fortitude which shone forth in each feature, motion, and accent of this aged noble. Their profound silence was only interrupted by sighs and groans. With difficulty they found speech to assent to those protestations of innocence which he frequently repeated. " We believe you, my lord ! " " God bless you, my lord ! " These expressions flowed from them with a faltering accent. The executioner himself was touched with sympathy. Twice he lifted up the axe, with an intent to strike the fatal blow, and as often felt his resolution to fail him. A deep sigh was heard to accompany his last effort, which laid Staf- ford for ever at rest. All the spectators seemed to feel the blow ; and when the head was held up to -them with the usual cry, "This is the head of a traitor ! " no clamour of assent was uttered. Pity, remorse, and astonishment had taken possession of every heart, and displayed itself in every countenance. This was the last blood which was shed on account of the popish plot. The execution of Stafford gratified the prejudices of the country party, but it con- tributed nothing to their power and security ; on the contrary, by exciting commiseration, it tended still further to increase that disbelief of the whole plot which now began to prevail. § 10. The violence of the commons continued. On January 5, 1681, they drew up articles of impeachment against the lord chief justice, Scroggs, for discharging the grand jury when the duke of York was presented for recusancy. They refused all supplies until * It adds to the infamy of these pro- j not a man beloved, especially of his own ceedings that his near relations among family," says Evelyn, the peers voted against him. " He was 490 CHARLES II. Chap. xxv. the bill of exclusion should be passed. On the 10th they resolved that whoever should advise his majesty to prorogue the parliament should be adjudged a traitor. Finding them in this humour, the king prorogued them on the 10th, and dissolved them nine days after. His fifth parliament met at Oxford (March 21, 1681). The leaders of the exclusionists came, attended not only by their servants but by numerous bands of armed partisans. The four city members in particular were followed by great multitudes, wearing ribbons, in which were woven these words. No popery ! no slavery ! The king had his guards regularly mustered : his party likewise endeavoured to make a show of their strength : and, on the whole, the assembly at Oxford rather bore the appearance of a tumultuous Polish diet, than of a regular English parliament. The king, in his speech, offered to adopt any expedients the com- mons might propose to allay their fears of a popish successor, without altering the succession, and for keeping the administration in pro- testant hands. But the commons turned a deaf ear, and fell instantly into the same measures as their predecessors had done— the impeachment of Danby, the enquiry into the popish plot, and the bill of exclusion. So violent were they on this last article, that, though one of the king's ministers proposed that the duke of York should be banished, during life, 500 miles from England, and that on the king's demise the next heir should be constituted regent with regal power, even this expedient, which left the duke only the bare title of king, could not command the assent of the house. No method but their own of excluding the duke could give them any satisfaction. As there were no hopes of a compromise, Charles again dissolved the parliament, after it had sat only seven days. This rigorous measure, though it might have been foreseen, excited such astonishment in the country party as deprived them of all spirit and reduced them to despair. They were sensible, though too late, that the king had finally taken his resolution, and was de- termined to endure any extremity rather than submit to the terms which they had resolved to impose upon him. They found that he had patiently waited till affairs should come to full maturity ; and, having now engaged a national party on his side, had boldly set his enemies at defiance. The violences of the exclusionists were everywhere exclaimed against and aggravated, and even the reality of the plot, that great engine of their authority, was now openly called in question. The reaction was not a little assisted by a declaration published by the king, assigning his reasons for dissolving parliament. He insisted on its entire neglect of the public interest, and on its factious proceedings ; its arbitary violation of the laws, in taking his subjects into custody when its privileges were not con- a.d. 1681-1682. TRIAL OF SHAFTESBURY. 491 cerned ; its declaring many persons enemies to the king, without process of law or hearing their defence ; its pertinacious efforts to render him contemptible in the eyes of his subjects, by reducing him to the most helpless condition. This declaration was received with enthusiasm ; loyal addresses poured in, congratulating the king on his deliverance from the republicans, and offering support. The celebrated political satire of Dryden, called " Absalom and Achi- tophel," holding up to unsparing ridicule the characters and pre- tensions of the whig leaders, helped still further to turn the scale ; and, instead of being assailed, the king was now in a condition to become the aggressor. The gang of spies, witnesses, and informers, who had so long been supported and encouraged by the leading patriots, finding now that the king was entirely master, turned short upon their old patrons, the whigs, and offered their services to the ministers. One College, a London joiner, who had become extremely noted for his zeal against popery, and who had been in Oxford, armed with sword and pistol, during the sitting of the parliament, was indicted for conspiracy. The witnesses produced against him were Dugdale, Turberville, and others who had before given evi- dence against the catholics. College was condemned, and the. verdict was received with shouts of applause (August 17). Medal struck in commemoration of the acquittal of the earl of Shaftesbury. Obv. ANTONIO C< 'MITI DB SHAFTESBURY. Bust to right. Eev. : LvETAMVR ; a view of London, with the sun appearing from behind a cloud ; below, 24 nov. 1681. § 11. The court now aimed their next blow at Shaftesbury ; and Turberville, Smith, and others, gave information of high treason against their former patron. There was found in his possession a manifesto against the duke of York, and indications of a design (as it was said) to compel the king to submit to the terms imposed upon him by the whigs. He was committed to prison, and his indictment was presented to the grand jury ; but the sheriffs of 492 CHARLES II. Chap. xxv. London were engaged deeply to the country party, and they took care to name a jury devoted to the same cause. As far as swearing could go, the treason was proved against Shaftesbury. That veteran leader of a party, inured from his early youth to faction and intrigue, to cabals and conspiracies, was represented as betray- ing without reserve his treasonable intentions, and throwing out outrageous reproaches upon the king, such as none but men of low education could be supposed to employ. The grand jury rejected the indictment. The people in court testified their joy by their ac- clamations, which were echoed throughout the city (November 24, 1681). In March, 1682, the duke of York left Scotland to visit the king at Newmarket, and so great was the change in the feelings of the city, that the mayor and corporation thought good to congratulate the king, at his return, on the safe arrival of the duke. Shortly before, the duke had held a parliament in Scotland, in which a test act had been framed, binding all persons from attempting any alteration in church and state. When the earl of Argyle was summoned to take the test, he attempted to make distinctions, which the crown lawyers there interpreted into a capital offence. He was imprisoned and condemned, but made his escape into Holland, and his estate was confiscated. The duke on his return to Scotland was shipwrecked (May 5). The frigate struck upon a rock; among the few survivors was Churchill, afterwards the famous duke of Marlborough, who owed his safety mainly to the efforts of the duke. Having constituted the Scotch council, the duke returned to England (May 27), was met by the king, congratulated by the citizens, and bonfires were lighted in honour of his safe return. Charles, however, still countenanced the duke's opponent, Halifax, whom he created a marquess, and made privy seal. Halifax maintained a species of neutrality between the parties, and was esteemed the head of that small body known by the denomination of Trimmers. Sunderland, more of a trimmer even than Halifax, who had promoted the Exclusion Bill, and had been displaced on that account, was, with the duke's consent, again brought into the administration. Hyde, created earl of Rochester, was first com- missioner of the treasury, and was entirely in the duke's interests. As the power of the whigs was greatest in the corporate towns, it was resolved to proceed against them by a writ of quo warranto, which would lead to a strict inquiry by what warrant they claimed their rights and privileges. The attack began upon London. After lengthy proceedings, it was declared to have forfeited its charter by imposing an illegal tax, and by circulating a libel upon the king, charging him with interfering with the liberties of his subjects by A.D. 1682. DEATH OF SHAFTESBURY. 493 the prorogation of parliament. The common council petitioned and obtained a restoration of their former franchises ; the king retaining a veto, which is still exercised, on the appointment of the lord mayor, the sheriffs, the recorder, and other influential officers. These reforms were advantageous and honourable to the city, whatever opinion may be formed as to the means by which they were intro- duced. A similar course was taken, for the next five years, with other corporations, and procured both power and profit to the crown. § 12. In the spring of 1681, when the king was seized with a fit of sickness at Windsor, the duke of Monmouth, lord William Eussell, and others, instigated by the restless Shaftesbury, had agreed, in case it should prove mortal, to rise in arms and to oppose the succession of the duke. Charles recovered, but these dangerous projects were not laid aside. Shaftesbury's imprisonment and trial put an end for some time to these machinations ; and it was not till the new sheriffs of London were chosen, after much dispute, that they were revived. Monmouth made a sort of triumphal pro- gress through the country, doubtless at the suggestion of Shaftes- bury. The gentry and nobility in several counties of England were solicited to rise in arms. The whole train was ready to take fire, but was prevented by the caution of lord Eussell, who induced Monmouth to delay the enterprise. Shaftesbury left his house and secretly lurked in the city. Enraged at perpetual cautions and delays in an enterprise which he thought nothing but courage and celerity could render effectual, he retired into Holland (October 19, 1682), where he died next year (January 22). After Shaftesbury's flight, the conspirators with some difficulty renewed their correspondence with the city malcontents, and a regular project of an insurrection was again formed. A council of six was erected, consisting of Monmouth, Eussell, Essex,* lord Howard of Escrick, Algernon Sidney, and John Hampden, grand- son of the great parliamentary leader. These men entered into an agreement with Argyle and the Scottish malcontents, and insur- rections were anew projected in Cheshire and the west, as well as in the city. The conspirators differed extremely in their views. Sidney and Essex were for a commonwealth. Monmouth enter- tained hopes of acquiring the crown. Eussell, as well as Hampden, intended only the exclusion of the duke and the redress of grievances. Lord Howard was ready to embrace any party or design recommended by his immediate interest. While these * The title of earl of Essex became extinct on tbe death of the parliamentary general in 1646. The earl of Essex men- tioned in the text was the son of lord 23 Capel, beheaded in 1649 for his loyalty to Charles I. He was created earl of Essex in 1061, and was tbe aucestor of the present earl. 494 CHARLES II. Chap. xxv. schemes were concerted among the leaders, there was an inferioi order of conspirators who carried on a project of their own. Rum- bold, an old republican officer, was a maltster, and possessed a farm called the Rye-house, which lay on the road to Newmarket, whither Charles commonly went once a year for the diversion of the races. A plan was formed by overturning a cart to stop the king's coach at that place, while they might fire upon him from the hedges, and be enabled afterwards, through by-lanes and across the fields, to make their escape. The scheme was disconcerted by the king leaving Newmarket eight days sooner than he in- tended (March 26, 1 688), in consequence of a fire. Some of the conspirators betrayed the plot ; and colonel Rumsey, who was ac- quainted with the conspiracy of Monmouth and the others, informed the government that the, latter had been accustomed to hold their meetings at the house of Shepherd, an eminent wine merchant in the city. Shepherd was immediately apprehended, and had not courage to maintain fidelity to his confederates (July). Upon his information, orders were issued for arresting the noblemen engaged in the conspiracy. Monmouth absconded ; Russell was sent to the Tower ; Howard was taken, while he concealed himself in a chimney, and scrupled not, in hopes of pardon, to reveal the whole conspiracy. Essex, Sidney, and Hampden were immediately apprehended upon his evidence. Several of the conspirators in the Rye-house plot were condemned and executed. From their trial and confession it was sufficiently apparent that the plan of an insurrection had been regularly formed, and that even the assassination had been often talked of, not without the approbation of many of their confederates. Lord Russell was next brought to trial. The witnesses produced against him were Rumsey, Shepherd, and lord Howard. On the whole, it was undoubtedly proved that the insurrection had been deliberated on by the prisoner, and fully resolved ; a surprisal of the guards deliberated on, but not fully resolved ; but Howard, the principal witness, stopped short of accusing him of any design upon the king's life. Russell contented himself with protesting that he had never been guilty of any such intention; but his veracity would not allow him to deny the conspiracy for an insurrection. The jury were men of fair and reputable characters, but zealous royalists ; after a short deliberation, they brought in the prisoner guilty. Applications were made to the king for a pardon. It is said that money to the amount of 50,000Z. was offered to the duchess of Portsmouth by the old earl of Bedford, father to Russell. The king was inexorable, and would go no further than remitting the more ignominious part of the sentence, which the law requires to be pronounced against traitors. Russell's consort, a woman of virtue, A.D. 1683. EXECUTION OF KUSSELL AND SYDNEY. 495 daughter and heiress of the good earl of Southampton, threw herself at the king's feet, and pleaded with many tears the merits and loyalty of her father as an atonement for those errors, into which honest, however mistaken, principles had seduced her husband. But finding all applications vain, she collected courage, and not only fortified herself against the fatal blow, but endeavoured by her example to strengthen the resolution of her unfortunate lord. With a tender and decent composure they took leave of each other on the day of his execution. " The bitterness of death is now past," said he, when he turned from her. The scaffold was erected in Lincoln's Inn Fields. Without the least change of countenance, he laid his head on the block, and at two strokes it was severed from his body (July 21, 1683). On the day that lord Russell was tried, Essex was found in the Tower with his throat cut. The coroner's jury brought in a verdict of self-murder. Essex was subject to fits of deep melancholy ; yet the murder was unscrupulously ascribed to the king and the duke, who happened that morning to pay a visit to the Tower. Algernon Sidney was next brought to his trial. This gallant person, son of the earl of Leicester, was in principle a republican, and had entered deeply into the war against the late king. He had been named on the high court of justice which tried and condemned that monarch, but he thought not proper to take his seat among the judges, and had opposed Cromwell's usurpation with zeal and courage. After the Restoration he went into voluntary banishment ; but in 1677, having obtained the king's pardon, he returned to England. When the factions arising from the popish plot began to run high, Sidney, full of those ideas of liberty which he had imbibed from the great examples of antiquity, joined the popular party ; but his temper was sullen and morose, his conduct deficient in practical good sense, and his fame tarnished by acceptance of bribes from the French king. The only witness who deposed against Sidney was lord Howard ; but as the law required two witnesses, the deficiency was supplied by producing some of his papers, in which he maintained the lawfulness of resisting tyrants, and the preference of liberty to the government of a single person. Sir George Jeffreys, who had been created lord chief justice (September 23), presided at the trial, and the jury was easily prevailed on to give a verdict against Sidney. His execution followed a few days after (December 7) ; but he had too much greatness of mind to deny those conspiracies with Monmouth and Russell in which he had been an accomplice. He rather gloried that he now suffered " for that good old cause in which he had been engaged," as he said, " from his earliest youth." 496 CHAKLES II. Chap. xxv. Howard was also the sole evidence against Hampden. He was convicted only of misdemeanour, but the fine imposed upon him was no less than 4O,O00Z. § 13. Some other memorable causes were tried about this time. Oates, convicted of having called the duke a popish traitor, was condemned in damages to the amount of 100,000Z. (June 18, 1684). Sir Samuel Barnardiston was fined 10,000Z. because, in some private letters, which had been intercepted, he had reflected on the govern- ment, asserting that the plot for which Eussell and Sidney were condemned was a sham (February 14). Monmouth had absconded on the first discovery of the conspiracy ; but Halifax, having discovered his retreat, prevailed on him to write two letters to the king full of the tenderest and most submissive expressions. The king's fondness revived ; he permitted Monmouth to come to court on condition of his making a confession of his offences. He obtained his pardon in due form ; but finding that by taking this step he was entirely disgraced with his party, he instructed his emissaries to deny that he had ever made any such confession as that which was imputed to him, asserting it was an imposture of the court. Provoked at this conduct, the king banished Monmouth from his presence, and afterwards ordered him to quit the kingdom. § 14. The duke of York now exercised great influence. Through his mediation Danby and the popish lords who had so long been confined in the Tower were admitted to bail — a measure just in itself, but deemed a great encroachment on the privileges of par- liament. The duke, who had been specially exempted from the Test Act, was restored to the office of high-admiral. But James's hasty counsels gave the king uneasiness. He was one day over- heard to say, " Brother, I am too old to go again on my travels ; you may if you choose it." On the 2nd February, 1685, the king was seized with a sudden fit, which resembled an apoplexy ; and though he recovered from it by bleeding, he languished only a few days, and expired on the 6th, in the 55th year of his age and the 25th of his reign. He was so happy in a good constitution of body, and had ever been so remarkably careful of his health, that his death struck as great a surprise into his subjects as if he had been cut off in the flower of his youth. At the solicitation of the duke of York, he received the rites of the Eomish church in his last illness. In society, Charles II. was the most amiable and engaging of men. This, indeed, is the most shining part of his character ; and he seems to have been sensible of it, for he was fond of dropping the formality of state, and of relapsing every moment into the companion. In his a.d. 1684-1685. HIS CHARACTER. 497 relations with the other sex he was loose and immorai. Yet he was a friendly brother, an indulgent father, and a good-natured master. As a sovereign his character was dangerous to his people, and dishonourable to himself. Negligent of the true interests of the nation, he was sparing only of its blood. It was remarked to Charles that he never said a foolish thing, nor ever did a wise one ; which he admitted, observing that his words were his own, but his actions were his ministers'.* * Hi3 favourite son, the duke of Mon- mouth, by Lucy Walters, was beheaded in the following reign, and left no issue. By the duchess of Cleveland (Barbara Villiers) he had three sons, the duke of Southampton, the duke of Grafton (an- cestor of the present duke), and the duke of Northumberland. The duke of Rich- mond (the ancestor of the present duke) was his son by the duchess of Portsmouth (Louise de Querouaille) ; and the duke of St. Albans (also the ancestor of the present duke) was his son by Eleanor Gwynu. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. HABEAS CORPUS ACT. 31 Car. II. c. 2 (a.d. 1679). This celebrated statute did not intro- duce any new principle, but only con- firmed and rendered more available a remedy which had long existed. "The writ of Habeas Corpus, requiring a return of the body imprisoned and the cause of his detention, and hence anciently called corpus cum causa, was in familiar use between subject and subject in the reign of Henry VI. Its use by a subject against the crown has not been traced during the time of the Plantagenet dynasty ; the earliest precedents known being of the date of Henry VII." (See Amos, The English Constitution in the Reign of Charles II, p. 171, and the authorities there quoted.) The privilege of Habeas Cmpus was twice solemnly confirmed in the reign of Charles I., first by the Peti- tion of Right (1628), and secondly by the statute abolishing the Star Chamber and other arbitrary courts (1640), which con- tained a clause that any person impri- soned by orders of the abolished courts, or by command or warrant of the king or any of his council, should he entitled to a writ of Habeas Corpus from the courts of King's Bench or Common Pleas, without delay upon any pretence whatsoever. But as Charles II . and his ministers still found means to evade these enactments, the celebrated statute was passed in 1679, known as the Habeas Corpus Act. Its principal author was lord Shaftesbury, and it was for many years called " Lord Shaftesbury's Act." It enacts :— "1. That on complaint and request in writing by or on behalf of any person committed and charged with any crime (unless committed for treason or felony expressed in the warrant ; or as accessory or on suspicion of being accessory before the fact to any petit treason or felony ; or upon suspicion of such petit treason or felony plainly expressed in the warrant ; or unless he is convicted or charged in execution by legal process), the lord chan- cellor, or any of the judges in vacation, upon viewing a copy of the warrant or affidavit that a copy is denied, shall (un- less the party has neglected for two terms to apply to any court for his enlargement) award a habeas corpus for such prisoner, returnable immediately before himself or any other of the judges ; and upon the re- turn made shall discharge the party, if bailable, upon giving security to appear and answer to the accusation in the proper court of judicature. 2. That such writs shall be indorsed as granted in pur- suance of this act, and signed by the per- son awarding them. 3. That the writ shall be returned and the prisoner brought 498 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Chap. xxv. up within a limited time according to the distance, not exceeding in any case twenty days. 4. That officers and keepers neg- lecting to make due returns, or not delivering to the prisoner or his agent within six hours after demand a copy of the warrant of commitment, or shifting the custody of the prisoner from one to another without sufficient reason or authority (specified in the act), shall for the first offence forfeit 1001., and for the second offence 2001., to the party grieved, and be disabled to hold his office. 5. That no person once delivered by habeas corpus shall be recommitted for the same offence, on penalty of 500J. 6. That every person committed for treason or felony shall, if he requires it, the first week of the next term, or the first day of the next session of oyer and terminer, be indicted In that term or session, or else admitted to bail, unless the king's wit- nesses cannot be produced at that time ; and if acquitted, or not indicted and tried in the second term or session, he shall be discharged from his imprisonment for such imputed offence; but that no per- son, after the assizes shall be open for the county in which he is detained, shall be removed by habeas corpus till after the assizes are ended, but shall be left to the justice of the judges of assize. 7. That any such prisoner may move for and obtain his habeas corpus as well out of the Chancery or Exchequer as out of the King's Bench or Common Pleas ; and the lord chancellor or judges denying the same on sight of the warrant or oath that the same is refused, forfeits severally to the party grieved the sum of 5001. 8. That this writ of habeas corpus shall run into the counties palatine, cinque ports, and other privileged places, and the islands of Jersey and Guernsey. 9. That no inhabitant of England (except persons contracting or convicts praying to be transported, or having committed some capital offence in the place to which they are sent) shall be sent prisoner to Scot- land, Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey, or any places beyond the seas within or without the king's dominions, on pain that the party committing, his advisers, aiders, and assistants, shall forfeit to the party aggrieved a sum not less than 500Z., to be recovered with treble costs ; shall be dis- abled to bear any office of trust or profit ; shall incur the penalties of praemunire ; and shall be incapable of the king's pardon ." The Habeas Corpus Act was confined to criminal cases, but by the 56 Geo. III. c. 100, it was extended not only to cases of illegal restraint by subject on subject, but also to those in which the crown has an interest, as in instances of impress- ment or smuggling.— See Kerr's Black- stone, iii. 137 ; Amos, p, 201. Obverse of medal of James II. and Mary of Modena. iacobvs . ii . et . maeia . d . G . mag . bei . fean . et . hib . eex . et . eegina. Busts of king and queen to right. CHAPTER XXVI. james n., K a.d. 1633; r. 1685-1688; oh. 1701. § 1. Accession of James. His arbitrary proceedings. Conviction and punishment of Titus Oates. § 2. Invasion and execution of Argyle. Monmouth's invasion, defeat, and execution. § 3. Cruelties of Kirke and Jeffreys. § 4. A parliament. Popish measures. § 5. Court of High Commission revived. Sentence against the bishop of London. Penal laws suspended. Embassy to Rome. § 6. The king's violent proceedings with corporations. Affair of Magdalen college. Imprison- ment and trial of the seven bishops. § 7. Birth of the prince of Wales. Conduct of the prince of Orange. § 8. Coalition of parties in his favour. The king retracts his measures. § 9. The prince of Orange lands at Torbay. The king deserted by the army and by his family. § 10. The king's flight. His character. § 11. Convention summoned. Debates. Settlement of the crown. § 12. Review of the Stuart dynasty. Principles of government. § 13. Foreign affairs. § 14. Internal state of England. § 15. Revenue. Army and navy. § 16. Colonies and commerce. § 17. Manners, literature, art, etc. § 1. The first act of James's reign was to summon the privy counoil, where, after some praises bestowed on the memory of his predecessor, " I shall make it my endeavour," he said, " to preserve the government, both in church and state, as it is now by law estab- lished." But the first exercise of his authority seemed little in harmony with these professions. Before parliament could be as- 500 JAMES II. Chap. xxvi. sembled, he issued a proclamation, ordering the customs and excise to be collected as usual. He excused this act by stating that the necessities of trade required it, and that the forthcoming parliament would settle, without doubt, a sufficient revenue on the crown for the service of government. He went openly, and in royal state, to mass, and liberated from prison, on his own authority, Romanists and nonconformists. The earl of Danby and the Roman catholic lords committed to the Tower on the charge of Titus Oates were brought to the bar of the House of Lords and discharged. Neverthe- less all the chief offices of the crown continued still in the hands of protestants. Rochester was made treasurer ; his brother Clarendon lord privy seal ; Godolphin chamberlain to the queen ; Sunderland secretary of state ; Halifax president of the council. On the 23rd of April James and his queen were crowned by archbishop Sancroft in Westminster Abbey. The communion and a few minor cere- monies only were omitted. Parliament assembled on May 19. Many of the new House of Commons were strongly biased in favour of the crown, but it also contained no small number of the king's former enemies, the exclusionists. On the 22nd the king repeated the declaration he had already made, adding that he desired the continuance of his revenues as they were granted to his predecessor. To this the commons unanimously assented, proposing to assist him with their lives and fortunes against the earl of Argyle, who had broken out into rebellion. Three days before the meeting of parliament Oates was convicted of perjury on two indictments, was fined 1000 marks on each, and sentenced to be whipped on two different days from Aldgate to Newgate, and from Newgate to Tyburn, to be imprisoned during life, and to stand in the pillory five times every year. Oates survived this terrible sentence. At the Revolution he was sought out by William III., received from the king a pension, and died in 1705. § 2. Monmouth, when ordered to depart the kingdom during the late reign, had retired to Holland, where he was well received by the prince of Orange. Pushed on by his followers, and especially by the earl of Argyle, contrary to his judgment as well as inclination, he made a rash and premature descent upon England. The fate of Argyle, however, was decided before that of Monmouth. Having landed in Argyleshire in May, 1685, he collected and armed a body of about 2500 men ; but his small and still decreasing army, after wandering about for a little time, was at last dissipated with- out a battle. Argyle himself, in attempting to escape, was seized and carried to Edinburgh, where, after enduring many indignities with a gallant spirit, he was publicly executed (June 30). a.d. 1685, DEFEAT OF MONMOUTH. 501 Meanwhile Monmouth, leaving Holland in three ships, with a small force of 150 men, but with equipments for an army, had landed at Lyme in Dorsetshire (June 11). So popular was his name, that in four days he had assembled above 2000 horse and foot. Most of them were tbe lowest of the people ; and the declaration which he published was chiefly calculated to suit the prejudices of the vulgar, or the most bigoted of the whig party. He called the king, duke of York ; and denominated him a traitor, a tyrant, an assassin, and a popish usurper. He imputed to him the fire of London, the murder of Godfrey and of Essex, nay, the poisoning of the late king; and he invited all the people to join in opposition to his tyranny. At Taunton, where twenty-six young maids presented him with a pair of colours, their handiwork, together with a copy of the Bible, Monmouth took upon himself the title of king. His numbers had now increased to 5000 ; and he was obliged every day, for want of arms, to dismiss many who crowded to his standard. He entered Bridgewater, Wells, Frome, and was proclaimed in all these places ; but forgetting that such desperate enterprises can only be ren- dered successful by the most adventurous courage, he allowed the expectations of the people to languish, without attempting any considerable undertaking. The king's forces, under the command of Feversham and Churchill, now advanced against him ; and Monmouth, observing that no considerable persons joined him, finding that an insurrection which was projected in the city had not taken place, and hearing that Argyle, his confederate, was already defeated and taken, sunk into despondency. He had resolved to withdraw, and leave his unhappy followers to their fate ; but was encouraged, by the negli- gent disposition made by Feversham, to attack the king's army at Sedgemoor, near Bridgewater, and might have obtained a victory had not his own misconduct and the cowardice of lord Grey, who commanded his cavalry, prevented it. After a combat of three hours the rebels gave way, and were pursued with great slaughter (July 6). Monmouth fled from the field of battle above 20 miles, till his horse sank under him. He then changed clothes with a peasant in order to conceal himself. The peasant was discovered by the pursuers, who now redoubled the diligence of their search. At last the unhappy Monmouth was found lying at the bottom of a ditch, covered with fern, in Cranborn Chase; his body de- pressed with fatigue and hunger ; his mind, by the memory of past misfortunes, and by the prospect of future disasters (July 8). He burst into tears when seized by his enemies, and he seemed still to indulge the fond hope and desire of life. He wrote to James a most submissive letter, conjuring him to spare the issue of a 23* 502 JAMES II. Chap. xxvr. brother who had always been strongly attached to his interest. He had a secret, he said, to reveal, of the utmost importance to the kind's safety. Brought to London five days after, he stood before the king with his hands free and his arms tied behind him. Twice he fell on his knees and begged his life with the most abject entreaties. But James remained inexorable. Either Monmouth had no secret to reveal or on reflection altered his mind. "Is there no hope for me, sire ? " said the unhappy prisoner. James made no reply. The same day the duke w£f attainted in parlia- ment. He prepared himself for death, with a spirit better suited to his rank and character. He appeared on the scaffold, on Tower Hill, in a long peruke and a grey suit lined with black. He warned the executioner not to fall into the error which he had committed in beheading Kussell, where it had been necessary to repeat the blow. The precaution served only to dismay the executioner. He struck a feeble blow on Monmouth, who raised his head from the block and looked him in the face, as if reproaching him for his failure. He then laid down his head a second time, and the executioner struck him again, to no purpose. Throwing aside the axe, he cried out that he was incapable of finishing the bloody office. The sheriff obliged him to renew the attempt, and at two blows more the head was severed from the body, amidst the tears of the spectators (July 15, 1685). § 3. When Monmouth fled, the peasants and miners fought bravely, and 300 of the royal troops fell dead on the field. Fever- sham pursued the fugitives, and hanged 20 prisoners without trial ; but he was outdone by Colonel Kirke, a soldier of fortune, who had long served at Tangier, and had contracted, from his inter- course with the Moors, an inhumanity less known in European and in free countries. At his entry into Bridgewater, three days after the battle, he executed nine of the insurgents for high treason, with- out any trial. Other barbarous actions are related of him and his soldiers, whom, by way of pleasantry, he used to call his lambs, from the device which they bore on their colours, an appellation long remembered with horror in the west of England.* To punish those who had taken part in the rebellion, the lord chief justice, Jeffreys, was sent into^the west, with four other judges, to try the rebel prisoners (August 26). He opened his * This was the ensign they had adopted in their wars with the Moors to signify that they were Christians. Coarse, how- ever, and brutal as Kirke and Jeffreys might be, these and similar stories must not be implicitly accepted. Many of them were gross exaggerations ; many were fabrications to serve the purposes of the Revolution, and render the reign of James more odious by the contrast. It was in Somersetshire, and at Taunton in particular, that James II. found his warmest adherents in 1692. a.d. 1685. EXECUTION OF ARGYLE. 503 court at Winchester with the trial of Mrs. Alice Lisle, the widow of one of king Charles's judges. She was convicted of harbouring two of the rebels, and, with great barbarity, was sentenced to be burnt. Through the influence of the clergy she obtained a respite, but only to suffer death by beheading (September 2). The commission passed through the tainted districts, complying strictly with the legal forms, but with indecent haste, and marking all their proceedings with merciless severity. Women as well as men were condemned and executed for harbouring those who had taken part in the rebellion; and, according to the barbarous usage of the times, in the case of treason, their mangled limbs were exposed in the streets, the highways, and on public buildings, to strike the passers-by with the greater terror. Besides Mrs. Lisle, the burning of Mrs. Gaunt, for a similar offence, was espe- cially cruel and unjust.* In this way, it has been computed that more than 200 persons suffered. Even those who received pardon were obliged to atone for their guilt by fines which reduced them to beggary ; or, where their former poverty made them incapable of paying, were condemned to cruel whippings or severe imprison- ments. Jeffreys was soon after created chancellor (September 28). The insurrection in Scotland was quelled with little bloodshed. The Scotch parliament showed entire subserviency to the government. § 4. On November 9, at the opening of parliament, James avowed his gratitude to many catholic officers who had distin- guished themselves in his service, and his determination to pro- tect them. The declaration struck terror into the church, which had hitherto been the chief support of monarchy ; and it even dis- gusted the army. At the same time the revocation by Louis XIV. of the edict of Nantes, granted by Henry IV. in favour of his protestant subjects, tended mightily to excite the animosity of the nation against the Eoman catholics. Above 500,000 of the most useful and industrious subjects deserted France; and exported, together with immense sums of money, those arts and manufactures which had chiefly tended to enrich that kingdom. Nearly 50,000 refugees passed over into England ; and all men were dis- posed, from their representations, to entertain the utmost horror of the projects which they apprehended to be formed by the king for the abolition of the protestant religion. The smallest approach towards the introduction of popery, in the present disposition of the people, afforded reason for jealousy. Yet the king was resolute ; and, having failed to convince the parliament, he made an attempt, with more success, for establishing his dispensing power by a verdict of the judges (December). A feigned action was instituted. Sir * She was condemned by eight of the Judges, but Jeffreys was not of the number. <..■• 504 JAMES II. Chat, xxvi. Edward Hales, a new proselyte, Lad accepted a commission of colonel ; and directions were given to his coachman to prosecute him for the penalty of 500Z. which the Test Act had granted to informers (June 16, 1686). Before the cause was tried, four of the judges — Jones, Montague, Charlton, and Nevil — were displaced (April 21). Sir Edward Herbert, the chief justice, declared that there was nothing with which the king might not dispense ; and when the matter was referred to the judges, eleven out of the twelve adhered to this decision. The nation thought the dispensing power dangerous, if not fatal, to liberty. It was not likely that an authority which James had assumed through so many obstacles would in his hands lie long idle and unemployed. Four catholic lords were brought into the privy council — Powys, Arundel, Bellasis, and Dover (August 16, 1686). Halifax had been dismissed already, and the office of privy seal given to Arundel. The king was open as well as zealous in his desire of making converts ; and men plainly saw that the only way to acquire his affection and confidence was to sacrifice their religion. Sunderland had not scrupled to gain favour at this price, and Rochester, the treasurer, though the king's brother- in-law, had been turned out of office because he refused to give a similar instance of complaisance (December, 1685). The treasury was put in commission, and Bellasis was placed at the head of it. In Scotland James's zeal for proselytism was still more successful. In Ireland the mask was wholly taken off. The duke of Ormond had been recalled (March 27, 1685), and the whole power lodged in the hands of Talbot, soon after created earl of Tyrconnel — a man carried away by the blindness of his prejudices, and the fury of his temper, with immeasurable ardour for the catholic cause. Protestants were disarmed on pretence of securing the public peace. The army was new-modelled ; the militia, with most of its officers, being pro- testants, and consisting of 4000 or 5000 men, were disbanded, and deprived of their arms and regimentals. When Clarendon, who had been named lord-lieutenant, came over, he soon found that, as he had refused to give the king the desired pledge of fidelity by changing his religion, he possessed little credit or authority ; and he was even a kind of prisoner in the hands of Tyrconnel. All judi- cious persons of the Roman catholic communion were disgusted with these violent measures, and easily foresaw the consequences. § 5. The proceedings of the court awakened the alarm of the established church. Instead of avoiding controversy, according to the king's injunctions, the preachers everywhere declaimed against popery ; and among the rest, doctor Sharp, rector of St. Giles's, London, particularly distinguished himself. His discourses gave great offence at court ; and positive orders were issued to Compton, a.d. 1C86. THE BISHOP OF LONDON SUSPENDED. 505 bishop of London, to suspend Sharp till his majesty's further pleasure (June, 1686). The prelate replied that he was not empowered to in- flict punishment in such a summary manner, even upon the greatest delinquent. But neither this obvious reason, nor the most dutiful submissions, both of the prelate and of Sharp himself, could appease the king. The court of High Commission had been abolished in the reign of Charles I. by act of parliament ; and although that act was partly repealed after the Eestoration, yet the clause was retained which prohibited its re-erection in all future times. An ecclesiastical commission was issued anew, almost in the words which created the court under Elizabeth, and seven commissioners were vested with full and unlimited authority over the church of England (August 16, 1686). The bishop of London was cited before them, and by a majority of votes he, as well as Sharp, was suspended. Almost the whole of this short reign consists of attempts, always imprudent, often illegal, sometimes both, against whatever was most loved and revered by the nation. Not content with granting dispensations to particular persons, the king assumed a power of issuing a declaration of general indulgence, and of suspending at once all the penal statutes, by which conformity was required to the established religion. In this declaration he promised that he would maintain his loving subjects in all their properties and pos- sessions, as well of church and abbey lands as of any other. Men thought that if the full establishment of popery were not at hand, this promise was quite superfluous ; and they concluded that the king was so replete with joy on the prospect of that glorious event, that he could not, even for a moment, refrain from expressing it. But what afforded the most alarming prospect was the continuance and even increase of the violent and precipitate conduct of affairs in Ireland. Clarendon was dismissed, and Tyrconnel set in his place. The catholics were put in possession of the council-table, of the courts of judicature, and of the bench of justices. The charters of Dublin and of all the corporations were annulled ; and new charters were granted, subjecting the corporations to the will of the sovereign. The protestant freemen were expelled, and catho- lics introduced ; and as they were always the majority in number, they were now invested with the whole power of the kingdom. But, not content with discovering in his own kingdom the im- prudence of his conduct, the king was resolved that all Europe should be witness of it. He publicly sent the earl of Castlemaine as ambassador extraordinary to Eome, in order to express his obedi- ence to the pope, and to make advances for reconciling his king- doms, in form, to the catholic communion. : The pope in return 506 JAMES II. Chap. xxvi. sent Francisco d'Adda as nuncio to England (July 3, 1687) ; and though any communication with the pope was treason, yet so little regard did the king pay to the laws that he gave the nuncio a puhlic and solemn reception at Windsor. Four catholic bishops were publicly consecrated in the king's chapel ; the regular clergy of that communion appeared at court in the habits of their order; and some of them were so indiscreet as to boast that in a little time they hoped to walk in procession through the capital. Disgusted with these proceedings, the earl of Shrewsbury, lord Lumley, and admiral Herbert resigned. The whole conduct of affairs fell into the hands of the earl of Sunderland and father Petre, of whom the former was as dishonest as the latter was incapable. § 6. By the practice of annulling the charters, the king had be- come master of all the corporations, and could at pleasure change everywhere the whole magistracy. The church party, therefore, was deprived of authority; and, by an unnatural and impolitic coalition, the dissenters were, first in London and afterwards in every other corporation, substituted in their place. Not content with this violent and dangerous innovation, the king appointed certain regulators to examine the qualifications of electors; and directions were given them to exclude all such as adhered to the (est and penal statutes. He sought to bring over the chief public functionaries to his views in private conferences which were then called closetings. The whole power in Ireland had been committed to catholics. In Scotland, the ministers whom the king chiefly trusted were converts to that religion. The great offices in England, civil and military, were gradually transferred from the protestants. Nothing remained but to open the door in the church and univer- sities to the intrusion of the catholics, and it was not long before the king made this rash effort. Cambridge successfully resisted the king's mandate to confer the degree of master of arts on father Francis, a Benedictine; but Massey, a Bomanist, was installed dean of Christ Church in Oxford (December 29, 1686), and an attempt was made to thrust Farmer into the headship of Magdalen college, in the same university; and, when this failed, doctor Parker, suspected of an inclination to Bomanism, was forced upon the fellows as president. In April, 1687, the king published a declaration of indulgence for liberty of conscience; and, fortified in his resolution by various addresses from non- conformists and others in its favour, he proceeded to put forth another (April 25, 1688), almost in the same terms as the former; and ordered that, immediately after divine service, it should be read by the clergy in all the churches on May 20. Hereupon six of the bishops— Lloyd of St. Asaph, Ken of Bath a.d. 1687-1688. TRIAL OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 507 and Wells, Turner of Ely, Lake of Chichester, White of Peter- borough, and Trelawney of Bristol — held a consultation with the primate, and drew up a respectful petition to the king, representing that, as this declara- tion of indulgence was founded on a preroga- tive formerly declared illegal by the parlia- ment, they could not, in prudence, honour, or conscience, make them- selves parties to its publication, and they besought the king that he would not insist upon their reading it (May 18). The king imme- diately embraced a reso- lution of punishing the bishops for a petition so popular in its matter, and so prudent and cautious in its expres- sions. He summoned them before the council ; and when they avowed the petition, an order was immediately drawn for their commitment to the Tower. The crown lawyers received directions to prosecute them for the seditious libel which, it was pre- tended, they had com- posed and uttered. When the people beheld these fathers of the church brought from court under the custody of a guard, and saw them embark at the Thames to be conveyed to the Tower, their affection for liberty and zeal for religion blazed up at once. The whole shore was covered with crowds of prostrate spectators, who at once implored their blessing, and addressed their petitions towards heaven for protection during Medal of archbishop Sancroft and the seven bishops. Obv. : GVIL . SANCROFT . ARCHIEPISC . CANTUAR . 1688. Bust to right. Rev. : Busts of the 6even bishops in circles, with their names. 508 JAMES II. Chap. xxvi. this extreme danger to which their country and their religion were exposed. Even the soldiers, seized with the contagion of the same spirit, flung themselves on their knees before the distressed prelates, and craved their benediction. Their passage, when con- ducted to their trial, was, if possible, attended by greater masses of anxious spectators. Twenty-nine temporal peers (for the other prelates kept aloof) attended the seven prisoners to West- minster Hall. Such crowds of gentry followed the procession that scarcely room was left for the populace to enter. No cause, even during the prosecution of the popish plot, was ever heard with so much zeal and attention. The arguments of counsel in favour of the bishops were convincing in themselves, and were heard with a favourable disposition by the audience. The jury, however, for some cause unknown, took several hours to deliberate, and kept the people in the most anxious expectation. Night was setting in when they retired. The next morning, at ten, on the assembling of the court, the foreman returned a verdict of not guilty (June 18). The announcement was received with deafening shouts of applause They were repeated by the thousands outside, who in vain crowded for admittance. From the court to the Thames, from the Thames to the Tower, the news spread like wildfire. The city bells rang out with one universal peal; at nightfall, bonfires blazed and windows were illuminated. James was then in the camp at Hounslow, where he had formed a standing army of about 16,000 men. It happened that, the very day on which the trial of the bishops was finished, he had reviewed the troops, and had retired into the tent of lord Feversham, the general, when he was surprised to hear a great uproar in the camp, attended with the most ex- travagant symptoms of tumultuary joy. He suddenly inquired the cause, and was told by Feversham, " It was nothing but the rejoicing of the soldiers for the acquittal of the bishops." " Do you call that nothing ? " replied he. " But so much the worse for them.' § 7. A few days before the acquittal of the bishops the queen was delivered of a son (June 10, 1688), who was baptized by the name of James. This blessing had been impatiently longed for, not only by the king and queen, but by all zealous catholics both abroad and at home. Vows had been offered at every shrine for a male successor, and pilgrimages undertaken, particularly one to Loretto, by the duchess of Modena. But the protestant party went so far as to ascribe to the king the design of imposing on the world a suppo- sititious child, who might be educated in his principles, and after his death support the catholic religion in his dominions. Until now the nation, sick of factions and the civil war, had endured with extraordinary patience the arbitrary proceedings of A.D. 1688. CONDUCT OF THE PRINCE OF ORANGE. 509 James. He was well advanced in years, and had had no issue by his queen, except such as had died prematurely. In the event of his death, the crown would devolve on his daughter Mary, married to William of Orange, and in her default on Anne, both of whom were staunch protestants. Now, by the birth of his son, all these hopes were disappointed. It was certain that the child would be brought up under influences most hostile to the religion of the nation, and a protestant succession had thus become more remote than ever. Unhappily, too, for James, whatever hopes his son-in-law or his daughters had once entertained of succeeding him — and Mary had no children — were equally dashed by the birth of an heir. He had offended the church of England ; he had alienated from himself and his counsels the tory nobility, and driven them, by his foolish partiality for father Petre and the most violent of the Eomish communion, into the ranks of the whigs. He was without support and without advice. Already, in 1687, William had sent over Dykvelt as envoy to England, and given him instructions to apply, in his name, to every sect and denomination. To the church party he sent assurances of favour and regard ; whilst the nonconformists were exhorted not to be deceived by the fallacious caresses of a popish court, but to wait patiently till laws, enacted by protestants, should give them that toleration which, with so much reason, they had long demanded. Dykvelt executed his commission with such dexterity, that all orders of men turned their eyes towards Holland, and many of the most considerable persons, both in church and state, made secret applications through him to the prince of Orange. The event which James had so long made the object of his most ardent prayers, and from which he expected the firm estab- lishment of his throne, proved the immediate cause of his ruin. William had sent over Zuleistein to congratulate the king on the birth of his son. The Dutch envoy brought back to the prince entreaties from many of the great men in England, to assist them in the recovery of their laws and liberties. At the suggestion of Edward Eussell, a cousin of William, lord Kussell, who, like Her- bert, had been a member of the duke of York's household, a formal invitation was addressed to William by the earls of Danby, Devon- shire, and Shrewsbury, and other discontented leaders of the whigs. Even Sunderland, the king's favourite minister, entered into corre- spondence with the prince ; and, at the expense of his own honour and his master's interests, secretly favoured a cause which, he foresaw, was likely soon to predominate. § 8. The prince was easily engaged to yield to these applications. The time when he entered on his enterprise was well chosen, as the people were then in the highest ferment, on account of the insult 510 JAMES II. Chap. xxvi. which the imprisonment and trial of the bishops had put upon the church, and indeed upon all the protestants of the nation. The political condition of Europe enabled William to carry on his preparations without attracting observation. In 1686 several of the continental powers had framed the league of Augsburg, nomi- nally with a view of maintaining the peace of the empire, in reality to oppose the power of France. As France moved to support the elector of Cologne, "William set on foot an army of 20,000 men, and ordered the fleet to be increased. So secret were his counsels, so fortunate the situation of affairs, that he could still cover his preparations under other pretences. Yet all his artifices could not entirely conceal his real intentions from the sagacity of the French court. Louis conveyed the intelligence to James, and offered to join a squadron of French ships to the English fleet, and to send over any number of troops which James should judge requisite for his security. But the French king's proposals were imprudently rejected. Solemnly assured by Citters, the Dutch ambassador, that the prince's preparations were not intended against him, James could not be convinced that his son-in-law intended an invasion of England. Notwithstanding the strong symptoms of discontent which broke out everywhere, a universal combination in rebellion appeared to him nowise credible. In September James received a letter from the Hague, which informed him with certainty that he must soon look for a power- ful invasion from Holland. Though he could reasonably expect no other intelligence, he was astonished at the news ; his colour fled, and the letter dropped from his band. His eyes were now opened, and he found himself on the brink of a frightful precipice, which his delusions had hitherto concealed from him. His minis- ters and counsellors, equally astonished, saw no resource but in a sudden and precipitate withdrawal of all those fatal measures by which he had created to himself so many enemies, foreign and domestic. He paid court to the Dutch, and offered to enter into any alliance with them for common security ; he replaced in all the counties the deputy-lieutenants and justices, who had been deprived of their commissions for their adherence to the test and the penal laws; he restored the charters of London, and of other corpora- tions ; he annulled the court of ecclesiastical commission ; he took off the bishop of London's suspension ; he reinstated the expelled president and fellows of Magdalen college ; and he was even reduced to caress those bishops whom he had so lately persecuted and in- sulted. But all these measures were regarded as symptoms of fear, not of repentance. § 9. Meanwhile the prince of Orange published a declaration A.D. 1688. PRINCE OF ORANGE LANDS IN ENGLAND. 511 (September 30), which was dispersed over the kingdom. It set forth that the prince, from his near relationship to the kingdom, felt it was a duty imposed upon him to protect the civil and religious liberty of its people ; that he had no other object in view except to facilitate the calling of a free parliament, and enquiring into the birth of the prince of Wales. He set sail from Helvoetsluys (October 19), with 60 ships of war and 700 transports, carrying 4500 cavalry and 11,000 foot, with large military stores. He had intended to land in Yorkshire, where the earl of Derby was await- ing his arrival; but a strong west wind setting in at night, he was compelled to return. He sailed again on November 1, and landed safely in Torbay on November 5, the anniversary of the gunpowder treason. The Dutch army marched first to Exeter, when the prince's declaration was there published ; but the whole country was so terrified with the executions which had ensued on Monmouth's rebellion, that no one for several days ventured to join him. Sir Edward Seymour made proposals for an associa- tion, and by degrees the earl of Abingdon, Mr. Eussell, son of the earl of Bedford, and others, came to Exeter. All England was in commotion, and the nobility and gentry in various counties em- braced the cause of the invader. But the most dangerous symptom was the disaffection which had crept into the army. The officers seemed disposed to adhere to the interests of their country and of their religion. Lord Cornbury, son of the earl of Clarendon, was the first to desert his sovereign, and carried off with him part of his cavalry regiment (November 14). The contagion of such an example spread rapidly. In the north the standard of rebellion was raised by Danby and Lumley, by Delamere and Brandon in Cheshire, by Devonshire in the midland counties. James joined his camp (November 19), but only to find treachery. On the 22nd lord Churchill (afterwards duke of Marlborough), who had been raised from the rank of a page, had been invested with a high command in the army, had been created a peer, and had owed his whole fortune to the king's favour, went over to the enemy. He carried with him the duke of Grafton, natural son of the late king, colonel Berkeley, and some troops of dragoons. In this perplexity James embraced a sudden resolution of drawing off his army, and retiring towards London — a measure which could only serve to betray his fears and provoke further treachery. But Churchill had prepared a still more mortal blow for his dis- tressed benefactor. His lady and he had an entire ascendency over the family of prince George of Denmark ; and the time now ap- peared seasonable for overwhelming the unhappy king, who was already staggering with the violent shocks which he had received. 512 JAMES II. Chap. xxvi. Andover was the first stage of James's retreat towards London ; and there prince George, together with the young duke of Ormond and some other persons of distinction, after supping with the king, deserted him in the night-time, and retired to the prince's camp. No sooner had this news reached London, than the princess Anne, pretending fear of the king's displeasure, withdrew herself in com- pany with the bishop of London and lady Churchill. She fled to Nottingham ; where the earl of Dorset received her with great respect, and the gentry of the county quickly formed a troop for her protection. The king burst into tears when the first intelli- gence of this astonishing event was conveyed to him. " God help me ! " cried he, in the extremity of his agony, " my own children have forsaken me ! " Unable to resist the torrent, he called a council of the peers and prelates who were in London ; and, follow- ing their advice, issued writs for a new parliament, sending Halifax, Nottingham, and Godolphin as commissioners to treat with the prince of Orange. § 10. The prince of Orange, with keen policy, declined a personal conference with James's commissioners, and sent the earls of Clarendon and Oxford to treat with them (December 8-9). It was his purpose throughout that those who had joined him should so implicate themselves as to render retreat impossible. He gained also the further advantage of making it appear that whatever he did emanated from Englishmen, not from himself. The terms which he proposed implied almost a present participation of the sovereignty; and he stopped not a moment the march of his army towards London. The news which the king received from all quarters served to continue the panic into which he had fallen. Impelled by his own fears and those of others, he precipitately embraced the resolution of escaping into France ; and he sent off beforehand the queen and the infant prince, under the conduct of count Lauzun, an old favourite of the French monarch. He him- self disappeared in the night-time, attended only by sir Edward Hales, and made the best of his way to a ship which waited for him near the mouth of the river (December 11). Nothing could equal the surprise which seized the city, the court, and the king- dom, upon the discovery of this strange event. The more effectu- ally to involve everything in confusion, the king threw the great seal into the river ; and he recalled all those writs which had been issued for the election of the new parliament. By this temporary dissolution of government, the populace be- came masters. They rose in a tumult and destroyed the catholic chapels They even attacked and rifled the houses of the Floren- tine envoy and the Spanish ambassador, where many of the cathe- A.D. 1688. ABDICATES THE THRONE. 513 lies had lodged their most valuable % effects. Jeffreys, the chancellor, who had disguised himself in order to fly the kingdom, was dis-' covered by them, and so maltreated that he died not long after in the Tower (April 18, 1689). To add to the disorder, Feversham, the royal general, had no sooner heard of the king's flight, than he disbanded the troops in the neighbourhood, and, without either dis- arming or paying them, let them loose to prey upon the country. In this extremity, the bishops and peers who were in town thought proper to assemble, and to interpose for the preservation of the community. Archbishop Sancroft absenting himself, the marquis of Halifax was chosen speaker. They gave directions to the mayor and aldermen for keeping the peace of the city ; they issued orders, which were readily obeyed, to the fleet, the army, and all the gar- risons ; and they declared their adhesion to the prince of Orange in his design of calling a free parliament. The citizens begged him to march at once to London ; and the prince, on his part, was not want- ing to the tide of success which flowed in upon him. While every one, from principle, interest, or animosity, turned his back on the unhappy king, who had abandoned his own cause, the unwelcome news arrived that he had been seized by some fisher- men near Sheerness, as he was making his escape in disguise. On his arrival in London (December 16), the populace, moved by com- passion for his unhappy fate, and actuated by their own levity, received him with shouts and acclamations. But this change in the humours of the populace did not suit the partisans of William. Halifax hastened to Henley, and urged him to come instantly to London. To get rid of James, it was determined to push him into that measure which, of himself, he seemed sufficiently inclined to embrace. Lord Feversham, whom he had sent on a civil message to the prince desiring a conference, was put under arrest, on the pretence that he had come without a passport ; the Dutch guards were ordered to take possession of Whitehall ; and Halifax, Shrews- bury, and Delamere delivered a message to the king in bed after midnight, ordering him to leave his palace next morning, and to depart for Ham, a seat of the duchess of Lauderdale's (December 17). He desired permission, which was easily granted, of retiring to Eochester, a town near the seacoast. Here he lingered some days, under the protection of a Dutch guard ; but, urged by earnest letters from the queen, he privately embarked on board a frigate which waited for him (December 23), and arrived safely at Amble- teuse, in Picardy. Hence he hastened to St. Germains, where Louis received him with the highest generosity, sympathy, and regard. § 11. William of Orange entered London (December 18) with 6000 514 JAMES II. Chap. xxvi. Dutch troops. Strictly speaking, the purposes for which he came, as set forth in his declaration, were in great measure accomplished, and nothing remained except for the prince to retire and allow the nation to call a "free parliament." For this the peers then sitting at Guildhall might he considered amply qualified ; and, as William appeared to acquiesce in their powers to speak in behalf of the nation, and even to command their natural sovereign, it seemed no more than ajjpropriate that they should issue writs for a new election, and use the liberty the prince had held out to them. But this was by no means William's intention. He took the sovereign authority at once into his own hands, and on the 23rd of December he published an order commanding those who had served as members in any parliament held in the reign of Charles II. to meet him at St. James's three days after, together with the aldermen and 50 of the common council of London. This act must have opened men's eyes to William's real intentions, and the hopelessness at the same time of resisting a victorious prince, with a foreign army at his heels. Still more hopeless was the case of those whom he had contrived to implicate in this invasion, and made responsible for it. To go back was to confess themselves traitors ; to go forward was to accept all William's pretensions. With mixed feelings, therefore, the lords, most of whom had already deserted to William, and afterwards the commons, requested the prince to take upon him the administration of public affairs, both civil and military — as if he had not done it in reality already — and to dispose of the revenue, until the meeting of a convention, for which he was requested to issue writs. With that prudence for which he was distinguished, William observed all the consti- tutional forms on this occasion. He gave proofs to Englishmen that no native sovereign could be more tender and careful than he of their national rights and privileges. Though hostile in reality to the church of England, and indifferent to all forms of religion, he received the sacrament from the bishop of London. He was con- siderate to every one ; he authorized all officers and magistrates to continue in their places. He was severe to none, except papists ; and such severity was popular. Such moderation contrasted all the more favourably with the earnest but narrow-minded pre- judices of his father-in-law, who would make no concessions to the religious or political scruples of other men. The conduct of the prince with regard to Scotland was founded on the same pru- dent and moderate maxims. He summoned all the Scotchmen of rank at that time in London, who, without any authority from their nation, made an offer to the prince of the government, which he willingly accepted. a.d 1689. WILLIAM AND MARY PROCLAIMED. 515 The English convention assembled at Westminster (January 22, 1689) , and, as two-thirds of them were whigs, they experienced no difficulty in choosing Halifax as speaker in the upper., and Powle as speaker in the lower house. They returned thanks to William for delivering them from popery and arbitrary power. Next day the commons sent up to the peers the following vote for their concurrence : " That king James II. having endeavoured to subvert the constitution of the kingdom, by breaking the original contract between king and people ; and, by the advice of Jesuits and other wicked persons, having violated the fundamental laws, and withdrawn himself out of the kingdom, has thereby abdi- cated the government, and that the throne is become vacant.' This vote, carried by Hampden to the upper house, met with great opposition. Part of them desired the conditional restoration of James ; others advocated a regency during his life, thus securing the succession of his son, whom it seemed unjust to exclude for the offences of his father. Great debates followed on the word abdicated, for which it was unanimously resolved to substitute the word deserted. The next question arose, whether the throne was vacant in consequence of desertion ; and it was declared by a majority of 14 that it was not. William kept wary and watchful eyes on these discussions. Till now he had remained silent ; but, though he had come to secure a free parliament, this was a freedom to which he would be no party. Sending for Halifax, Danby, and other whig chiefe, he plainly assured them he would not consent to a regency, nor share the throne with his wife simply for her lifetime. This declaration produced the necessary effect. Some anticipated, not unreasonably, that it was better to offer a crown, with good grace, of which William was in effect possessed already ; others dreaded political disturbances. By a majority of 15, the resolution of the commons was accepted without any amendment, but 28 of the peers protested (February 6). Thereupon, the marquis of Halifax, in the name of the convention, tendered the crown to William and Mary (February 13, 1689), who accepted the offer, and were proclaimed king and queen of England, France, and Ireland. The crown was settled on the prince and princess of Orange, the sole administration to remain in the prince. The succession was to rest in William and Mary and their issue ; next in Mary's issue by any husband; then in Anne and her children ; lastly, in the children of William. The convention an- nexed to this settlement a Declaration of Eights, by which the prerogative was more narrowly circumscribed and more exactly de- fined. This declaration was subsequently confirmed and extended by the Bill of Bights, as will be related in the following chapters. 510 JAMES II. Chap. xxvi. § 12. Thus ended, for the present, the long dispute between the prerogative of the crown and the privileges of the House of Com- mons. James L, in adopting the maxim, " a Deo rex, a rege lex," raised the abstract question of principle, and inculcated on his subjects his own divine right, and their duty of passive obedience. Fortunately for the nation, Charles 1. and James II., possessed sufficient courage, or sufficient obstinacy, to stake their lives and fortunes on the maintenance of what they considered a sacred principle, and thus to bring the question to an issue, which James I. had avoided out of natural timidity, and Charles II. partly from good sense and partly from the careless indolence of his temper. The antagonistic theories of the times provoked a host of writers to treat on the fundamental principles of government, and to examine the foundations on which all legislative and executive authority is built. Harrington, Sidney, Milton, and Locke ranged themselves on the side of popular liberty : of the other side, Hobbes, a profound and original thinker, is the chief ; a writer who affords a striking instance that the utmost freedom and originality of philosophical speculation may not be incompatible with the enter- tainment of arbitrary political principles. Nothing can more strongly show how generally the theory of government occupied the attention of reflecting men in the time of the Stuarts, than the solemn assertion by the convention of 1688 of an original contract between prince and people; an hypothesis utterly incapable of proof, however wholesome in itself, and however useful as the postulate of a political disquisition. (Supplement, Note IX.) § 13. With regard to foreign affairs, the era of the first four Stuarts presents almost a blank ; and what little is to be noted is not very creditable to the nation. James I. added to England the power of Scotland as well as that of pacified Ireland. The short effort of Charles I. in favour of the French protestants was inglorious and unsuccessful ; and the domestic troubles, which occupied the remainder of his reign, diverted his attention from the affairs of the continent. The energetic administration of Cromwell revived for a while the lustre of the English arms. Under Charles II., the pensioner of France, England was eclipsed by the glories of Louis XIV. § 14. Yet during the reigns of the Stuarts the nation advanced steadily, though slowly, in wealth, power, and civilization. In the time of Charles II., the population of England had increased to about five millions and a quarter. The addition was principally in the southern counties. The district north of Trent still continued thinly peopled, and comparatively barbarous ; although the coal- beds which it contained were destined eventually to attract to it an A.D. 1689. REVENUE. 517 immense increase of population, and to make it the seat of manufac- turing industry. The archiepiscopal province of York, which at the time of the Revolution was thought to contain only one-seventh of the English population, contained in 1841 two-sevenths. In Lancashire the number of inhabitants appears to have increased ninefold.* But the means of communication throughout the kingdom were wretched in the extreme. Canals did not exist ; the roads were execrable, and infested with highwaymen. Four horses, sometimes six, were required to drag the coaches through the mud ; and the traveller who missed the scarce discernible track over the heaths, which were then frequent and extensive, might wander lost and benighted. Some improvement was effected by the introduction of posts in the reign of Charles I., which were brought to more perfection after the Restoration. In 1680, a penny post was established in London for the delivery of letters and parcels several times a day. The first law for erecting turnpikes was passed in 1662 ; but no very considerable improvement in the roads took place till the reign of George II. § 15. The annual revenue of James I. was estimated at about 450,000?., a great part of which arose from the crown lands, from purveyance and other feudal rights which were abolished, as before related, soon after the Restoration. The customs in the reign of James I. never exceeded 190,000?., and were supposed to be an ad valorem duty of five per cent., both on exports and imports. The excise was not established till the next reign, when both the customs and the total amount of the revenue had more than doubled ; the income previous to the meeting of the Long Parliament being about 900,000?., of which the customs formed about 500,000?. During the commonwealth the revenue was about 2,000,000?. ; yet it was exceeded by the expenditure. The average revenue of Charles II. was about 1,200,000?. The first parliament of James II. put him in possession of 1,900,000?. per annum, though the country was at peace; and, adding his income as duke of York, James had a revenue of about 2,t00,000?. The national debt at the time of the Revolution was only a little more than 1,000,000?. These facts show a vast increase in the trade and resources of the country. But the increased revenue was absorbed by augmented expenditure. The first two Stuarts had no standing army. Regular troops were first kept constantly on foot in the time of the Commonwealth. Charles II. had a few regiments of guards ; but James II. possessed a regular force of 20,000 men. The navy was also vastly augmented under the Stuarts. In Elizabeth's reign the whole naval force of the kingdom consisted of only 33 ships, * Macaulay, History of England, i. 286. 24 518 JAMES II. Chap. xxn. besides pinnaces, and the largest of them wou not now equal a fourth rate. In the reign of James I. a ship was constructed larger than had yet been seen in the English navy, being of 1400 tons, and carrying 64 guns. The navy was greatly increased under Charles I. and Charles II., and still more under James II. The last had an affection for the service, showed considerable talent as an admiral, and was the inventor of naval signals. He was well seconded by Pepys, the secretary of the admiralty. At the period of the Eevolution the fleet consisted of 173 vessels, manned by 42,000 seamen. § 16. The increase of revenue and of military power denoted, and was accompanied with, a corresponding increase in wealth and com- merce. The first foundations of the North American colonies were laid, as we have seen, in the reign of James I. ; when also the Bermudas and the island of Barbadoes were planted, the East India trade began to flourish ; Greenland was discovered, and the whale fishery begun. The population of the North American colonies was augmented in the reign of Charles I., when the puritans settled in New England, and many catholics in Maryland. Under Charles II., New York and the Jerseys were recovered or conquered, and Carolina and Pennsylvania settled. The two Dutch wars, by disturbing the trade of that republic, promoted the commerce of this island ; and after Charles II. had made a separate peace with the States, his subjects enjoyed unmolested the trade of Europe. The commerce and riches of England increased very fast from the Re- storation to the Revolution ; and it is computed that during these 28 years the shipping of England was more than doubled. Several new manufactures were introduced, and especially that of silk, by the French protestants who took refuge here after the revocation of the edict of Nantes. Sir Josiah Child, the banker, who wrote upon trade, states that in 1688 there were more men on 'Change worth 10,0002., than there were in 1650 worth 10002. § 17. The manners of the nation underwent great changes during this period. Under the first two Stuarts many religious sects sprung up ; that of the Quakers was founded about 1650 by George Fox, a native of Drayton, in Leicestershire. Of this sect, Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, was an eminent member. Each of these classes had its literature. The greatest genius among the puritans, and indeed one of the greatest among the English poets, was Milton. The writers who succeeded the Restoration, and who belonged to what may be called the cavalier literature, are more numerous but less remarkable than their predecessors. Their works, and especially those of the dramatists, though often sparkling with wit, are for the most part disfigured by indecency. It is the a.d. 1689. LITERATURE, ART, ETC. 519 chief merit of these authors to have moulded our language, and especially its prose, into that easy, perspicuous, and equable flow which makes their writings still seem modern. The principal refiners of our language and versification were Denham, AValler, and Dryden. The prose of the last has seldom been equalled; whilst Jeremy Taylor, South, and Bunyan, as preachers or writers in their own particular subjects, have never been surpassed. The same era of the Stuarts counts the names of our greatest philosophers ; among others those of Bacon, Hobbes, Locke, Boyle, Newton, and Harvey, the discoverer of the circulation of the blood. The Royal Society was founded in 1660 by a small circle of Oxford philosophers, and obtained the king's letters patent. Charles I. encouraged the fine arts ; but we cannot yet be said to have had a school either of painting or sculpture. The artists employed were commonly foreigners, as Vandyck, Verrio, Kneller, Lely, and others. Cibber, the sculptor, was a Dutchman. Almost the only Englishmen eminent in art at this period we^elnigo Jones and Wren, the architects. The former built Whitehall and several mansions of the nobility. The great fire which swept away the wooden tenements of London opened a noble field for the display of Wren's genius, which, however, was checked by the penuriousness of the government. Nevertheless we are indebted to him for St. Paul's cathedral, as well as for several of the finest churches in London. Had there existed in the time of the Stuarts better vehicles for the expression of public opinion, they might probably have been saved from some of those schemes which proved so fatal to themselves. Newspapers had indeed been established in the reign of Charles 1. ; but even in that of his successor they were small and unimportant, and appeared only occasionally. Towards the close of his reign Charles II. would allow only the London Gazette to be published. Till 1679 the press in general was under a censorship ; but though it was then emancipated for a short period, till the censorship- was revived by James, the liberty was not extended to gazettes. In this state of things the coffee-houses, which were established in the reign of Charles II. — for tea, coffee, and chocolate were first introduced about the time of the Restoration — were the chief places for the ventilation of political and literary opinions. The government re- garded these places of resort with much uneasiness and suspicion, and once made an ineffectual attempt to suppress them. 520 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Ceap. xxvi. NOTES AND ILLUSTKATIONS. AUTHORITIES FOR THE PERIOD OF THE STUARTS. During this epoch the materials of history become more abundant. The following list gives only the more im- portant writers. For the reign of James I, the chief authorities are — Winwood's Memorials; Camden's Annals of King James I., and Wilson's History of King James I. (both in Kennett) ; Dalrymple's Memorials and Letters, illustrative of the reigns of James I. and Charles I. ; Carleton's Letters dur- ing his embassy in Holland ; Rush worth's Historical Collection (1618-1648) ; Birch's Negotiations from 1592 to 1617 ; Bacon's works ; king James's works. Sully's Mi- moires and Boderie's Ambassades en Angle- terre throw considerable light on the state of James's foreign relations. For the reign of Charles I., Clarendon's History of the Rebellion is the principal ; a classical performance in regard to style and historical description, espe- cially the delineation of characters, but not always trustworthy. An unmuti- lated edition of this work was not published till 1826. To this must be added Clarendon's Life and State Papers; Whitelock's Memorials (from Charles I. to the Restoration), Nalson's Collection (1639-1648); Scobell's Acts and Ordi- nances (1640-1656); Husband's Collection (1642-1646) ; Thurloe's State Papers (1638- 1660) , May's History of the Long Parlia- ment; Strafford's Letters and Despatches ; the Sydney State Papers; Spriggs's Anglia Rediviva; Dugdale's Short View of the late Troubles; Robert Baillie's Letters and Journals (1637-1662); Ludlow's Memoirs ; Lucy Hutchinson's Memoirs of her husband, colonel Hutchinson ; sir John Berkeley's Memoirs ; John Ashburnham's Narrative; Fairfax's Memorials; sir T. Herbert's Memoirs ; Slingsby's and Hodg- son's Memoirs ; Baxter's Life and Times ; Bishop Hacket's Memorial of Archbishop Williams; Laud's Remains, with the History of his Troubles and Trial ; Carte's Life of Ormonde ; sir P. Warwick's Me- moirs of Charles I. ; Denzil lord Holles's Memoirs (1641-1648); Bishop Hall's Hard Measure ; Evelyn's Memoirs (1641- 1796); sir Ed. Walker's Historical Dis- courses relative to king Charles I. ; Dr. John Walker's Number and Sufferings of the Clergy sequestered in the Great Re- bellion ; Clement Walker's History of In- dependency; Burton's Cromwellian Diary; sir John Temple's History of the Irish Rebellion ; Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches, with elucidations by Thomas Carlyle; S. R. Gardiner's History of England from 1603-1637 ; Markham's Life of Fairfax; Forster's Life of Sir John Eliot, and other works. For the reigns of Charles II. and James II. — Burnet's History of his own Times ; Reresby's Memoirs; North's Examen and the Lives of the Norths; Pepys's Diary (1659-1669) ; Dalrymple's Memoirs of Great Britain and Ireland, from Charles II. to the battle of La Hogue ; Life of Charles II., collected out of Memoirs writ of his own hand, edited by the Rev. J. S. Clarke ; Correspondence of Henry and Lawrence Hyde, earls of Clarendon and Rochester ; Diary of Lord Clarendon ; and Christie's Life of Shaftesbury. The Memoires de Gram- mont illustrate the court and times of Charles II. It is scarcely necessary to mention the recent work of lord Macaulay. The (Euvres de Louis XIV., and the letters of Barillon and D'Avaux, show the rela- tions of Charles II. and his brother with the French court. Among the latest authorities is Ranke's History of the Seventeenth Century. Other works which illustrate the whole period are— the Journals of the Lords and Commons, the Parliamentary History, Howell's State Trials, the Hardwicke Papers, Coke's Detection of the Court and State of England from James I. to Queen Anne, Neal's History of the Puritans, and Luttrell's Diary. Medal of William III. invictissimvs gviilelmvs mag. Bust laureate to right. BOOK VI. FROM THE REVOLUTION OF 1688 TO THE YEAR 1878. CHAPTER XXVII. WILLIAM III. AND MARY II. william, I. a.d. 1650 ; r. 1689-1702. maey, b. a.d. 1662; r. 1689-1694. § 1. Character of William III. His ministry. Convention parliament. § 2. Discontents and mutiny. Nonjurors. Toleration Act. Settle- ment of Scotland. § 3. James lands in Ireland. Naval action at Bantry Bay. Siege of Londonderry. Battle of Newton Butler. § 4. Bill of Rights. Attainders reversed. Change of ministers. § 5. William proceeds to Ireland. Battle of the Boyne. Siege of Limerick and return of William. § 6. Action off Beachy Head. Campaign in Ireland. Pacification of Limerick. § 7. Altered views of William. Massacre of Glencoe. § 8. Intrigues in favour of James. Marlborough sent to the Tower § 9. Battle of La Hogue. § 10. Attack on the Smyrna fleet. Growing unpopularity of William. Ex- pedition to Brest betrayed by Marlborough. § 11. Bill for triennial 522 WILLIAM AND MARY. Chap, xxvii. parliaments. Death of queen Mary. §12. General corruption. Aboli- tion of the censorship. Campaign in Flanders. § 13. Conspiracy against the king. Loyal association. Attainder of sir J. Fenwick § 14. Treaty of Ryswick. § 15. Miscellaneous transactions. Negotia- tions respecting the Spanish succession. First partition treaty. § 16. William's unpopularity. Dismissal of his Dutch guards. Resumption of forfeited estates in Ireland. § 17. Second treaty of partition. William acknowledges the duke of Anjou as king of Spain. § 18. The cabinet council. § 19. Discontent of the commons. The grand alliance. Death of king James II. Preparations for war. Death of king William. § 1. William Henry, prince of Orange, ascended the throne by the title of William III., and was now in his 39th year. In person he was of the middle size, his shoulders bent, his limbs slender and ill-shaped, yet capable of sustaining considerable fatigue in hunting and other athletic sports, in which he delighted. His forehead was shaded by light-brown hair ; his nose was high and aquiline ; a pene- trating eye lighted up a pale and careworn countenance, the expres- sion of which indicated a degree of sullenness as well as thought and resolution. His manners were ungraceful and taciturn, and little calculated to win love or popularity ; and, though he had the art to conceal his designs, he could not always suppress the mani- festation of his passions. Notwithstanding his feeble health, he frequently indulged to excess in the pleasures of the table, and abandoned the society of his wife for that of other women. He possessed some skill as a linguist, and knew enough of mathematics to understand fortification ; but he had no taste for literature and art. A very indifferent soldier, he was an excellent politician, never suffering his judgment to be swayed by affection or enthusiasm. In the choice of his ministers William seemed to ignore personal as well as political animosities and predilections. The earl of Nottingham, who had violently opposed his elevation to the throne, as well as the earl of Shrewsbury, who had zealously promoted it, were made secretaries of state. Danby and Halifax took their seats in the council, the former as president, the latter as privy seal. The great seal was intrusted to commissioners, with sergeant Maynard at their head. The treasury was also put into com- mission, the chief commissioner being lord Mordaunt, afterwards earl of Peterborough ; but that post was not then so important as it subsequently became. At the same time William's Dutch favourites were not forgotten, much to the discontent of many Englishmen. Bentinck * was made a privy councillor, privy purse, and groom of * Bentinck was created earl of Portland in 1689. He died in 1T09, and was suc- ceeded in the title by his son, who was created in 1T16 duke of Portland, and was the ancestor of the present duke. a.d. 1689. THE CONVENTION PARLIAMENT. 523 the stole ; Zuleistein * was appointed master of the robes : Schom- berg f was placed at the head of the ordnance ; and Auverqnerque J became master of the horse. To these he gave his entire confidence, and was guided by their counsels, to the neglect of his English ministers. For himself William claimed the full and undivided authority of the crown. The name of Mary, the heiress by blood, was indeed inserted with his own in all the acts of government ; yet, as her easy and unambitious temper disposed her to implicit obedience to her husband, she soon appeared to sink into the position of a queen consort, and lost all importance in the consideration of the people. In order to avoid the hazards of an election under existing cir- cumstances, the convention passed a bill for converting itself into a parliament. The bill received the royal assent on the 23rd of February. Some members of the opposition party in the commons retired from an assembly which they declared to be illegal ; and even those who remained displayed the greatest frugality in their votes for the public service. They postponed the settlement of the revenue, until the return of expenditure and income had been brought in ; granting the king extraordinary assessments. They even established the precedent, which has since been followed, of appropriating the supplies, and determined that one-half of the sum voted should be applied to the public expenses, and the other half to the civil list. When William represented the justice and necessity of refunding the charge of 700,000Z. in- curred by the Dutch republic for his expedition, they voted only 600,000Z. This frugality alienated the king's mind from the whigs, and he talked of abandoning the government. § 2. No sooner was William seated on the throne than he seemed to have lost all his former popularity. The emissaries of James were active, and even Halifax and Danby expressed their apprehen- sion that, if he would only give securities for the maintenance of the protestant religion, nothing could prevent his restoration. Symptoms of discontent having shown themselves in the army, the king resolved to send the malcontent regiments to Holland, and to supply their place at home with Dutch troops. The first regiment of the line, composed chiefly of Scotchmen, being ordered abroad, resented this order, as William was not yet their king, and marched northwards with drums beating and colours flying, carrying with * Zuleistein was created in 1695 earl of Rochford. The title became extinct on the death of the fifth earl in 1830. f Schomberg was created duke of Schomberg in 1689. His son Charles, the second duke, was killed at the battle of Marsaglia, 1693. Another son, Meinhardt, third duke of Schomberg, and first duke of Leinster in Ireland, died in 1719, when the title became extinct. J Auverquerque was created in 169S earl of Grantham. He died in 1754, when the title became extinct. 524 WILLIAM AND MARY. Chap, xxvii. them four pieces of artillery ; but being overtaken, near Sleaford, by three regiments of Dutch dragoons under Ginkell, they were com- pelled to surrender, and men and officers were treated with great ignominy (March 15). This affair occasioned the mutiny bill. The soldier had been hitherto regarded only as a citizen, and amenable to the civil tribunals : the army was now placed under martial law, and the mutiny bill has since been continued from year to year. The House of Commons, or such members of it as remained, did not hesitate to take the oath of allegiance (March 5) ; but many of the temporal peers, as well as eight bishops, including the primate Sancroft, refused, and their example was speedily followed by about 400 of the inferior clergy, all of whom were afterwards deprived. The party that refused the oaths were designated by the title of non- jurors. The oaths were to be taken by the beneficed clergy, and by those holding academical offices, on the ensuing 1st of August. This opposition on the part of the church furnished the king with an opportunity for displaying his predilection for dissenters, towards whom he was naturally inclined by his religious tenets. The bill known as the Toleration Act, to relieve protestant dissenters from certain penalties, was introduced this session, and passed on the 24th of May. All who took the new oaths of allegiance and supremacy, and made a declaration against transubstantiation, were thereby exempted from the penalties incurred by absenting them- selves from church, or by frequenting unlawful conventicles. Dis- senters were restrained from meeting with locked doors ; but, on the other hand, a penalty was enacted against disturbing the congrega- tion. The ancient penal statutes remained, however, unrepealed, and persons who denied the Trinity, as well as papists, were excluded from the benefit of the new act. In November, a commission was issued to the archbishop of York and nine other bishops, to review the liturgy, in order to admit dissenters by adopting certain altera- tions, and leaving certain ceremonies discretionary. But their recommendations were rejected by convocation, and have never since been renewed. • During the debates on these measures William and Mary were crowned in Westminster Abbey (April 11). Sancroft, the primate, declined to act, and the ceremony was performed by Compton, the bishop of London. With regard to Scotland, it has been already mentioned that the prince of Orange was acknowledged in January by an unauthorized assemblage of Scotch nobility and gentry resident in London. A more regular convention was held at Edin- burgh in March ; and 50 malcontent members having deemed it prudent to withdraw, it was unanimously decided that James had forefaulted his right, and that the throne had become vacant. AD. 1689. JAMES LANDS IN IRELAND. 525 There was, however, in Scotland a strong party in favour of James, headed by the duke of Gordon, and supported by the archbishop of Glasgow, the earl of Balcarras, viscount Dundee (formerly Graham of Claverhouse), and others. Dundee succeeded in raising between 2000 and 3000 Highlanders, with whom he defeated at Killiecrankie, on July 27, the king's forces of double the number. But Dundee received a mortal wound in the action, and with him expired all James's hopes in Scotland. The Highlanders, dispi- rited by the loss of their leader, dispersed after a few skirmishes, and the duke of Gordon having surrendered Edinburgh Castle on June 13, the whole country was reduced to obedience to William. In return he abolished episcopacy, and presbyterianism was estab- lished as the only lawful religion of the state. § 3. In Ireland Tyrconnel was still lord deputy. His govern- ment had been marked by violence towards the protestants ; many towns were deprived of their charters, and the public offices were filled with Boman catholics. Alarmed, however, at William's success, he pretended to enter into negociations for the surrender of Ireland. The design was vehemently opposed by the Irish. Tyrconnel then invited James to return, and employed himself in raising a force of half-wild, half-armed, and worse disciplined Irish. James landed at Kinsale on the 12th of March, and was received with every demonstration of joy. Louis XIV. had furnished him with 16 ships of the line, 7 tenders, and 3 fireships ; but the whole land force which he brought with him consisted only of 1200 of his own subjects in the pay of France, and 100 French officers. At Cork James was met by Tyrconnel, whom he raised to the rank of duke. The view of the troops that were to fight for his cause was not calculated to inspire him with very sanguine hopes of success. Scarcely two in a hundred were provided with muskets fit for service ; the rest were armed with clubs and sticks tipped with iron. James found himself obliged to disband the greater part, and retained only 35 regiments of infantry and 14 regiments of horse. His whole artillery consisted of 12 field-pieces and 4 mortars. After summoning a parliament to meet at Dublin on the 7th of May, James set out for his army in the north, where Londonderry was invested. That place and Enniskillen, being inhabited by protestants, were the only towns in Ireland that declared for king William. Lundy, the governor of Londonderry, had sent a message to James's head-quarters, with assurances that the place would be surrendered on the first summons ; but his treachery was fortunately discovered, and it was with difficulty that he escaped with his life, by letting himself down from the walls in the disguise of a porter. James, who had ridden up with his staff to within a short distance 24* 526 WILLIAM AND MARY. Chap, xxvii. of the gates, was saluted with a cry of " No surrender ; " and at the same time a discharge from the fortifications killed an officer hy his side. The citizens, after the flight of Lundy, chose Walker, a clergyman, and major Baker, for their governors, and resolved to hold out to the last extremity. The army of James was destitute of all the materials required for a siege. Few of the soldiers had even muskets, and it was therefore resolved to turn the assault into a blockade. James now returned to Dublin. But his cause was ruined hy the violence of the Irish parliament. Disregarding the king's wishes, it repealed the act of settlement, thus confiscating at a blow all the English property in the country. It passed a general bill of attainder, com- prehending more than 2000 persons ; and the scheme for replenishing the king's coffers by an issue of base coin occasioned universal dislike. In June marshal de Bosen was appointed to take the command of the besieging army at Londonderry. The town being completely invested on the land side, and cut off from all relief by sea by means of a boom about a mile and a half down the Foyle, the inhabitants were reduced to the last extremity of famine, and obliged to subsist on horses, dogs, rats, starch, and other food of the like revolting kind. The hopes of the garrison had been raised and disappointed by the appearance of a small squadron in the Lough, commanded by Kirke, of west of England notoriety, who was obliged to retire. Towards the end of July, however, he again appeared, and two merchantmen, the Mountjoy and the Phoenix, covered by the Dartmouth frigate, succeeded on the 30th in 'breaking the boom. The Phoenix easily forced a passage. De Bosen's trenches were filled with water ; and the relief of the town deter- mined him to abandon the siege. On the 1st of August his army decamped, after burning their huts. The siege, one of the most memorable in the history of Britain, lasted 105 days, and the garrison had been reduced from 7000 to about 3000 effective men. On the same day that Londonderry was relieved, lord Mount- cashel had been completely routed by the protestants of Enniskillen at Newton Butler, and he himself wounded and taken prisoner. To add to James's misfortunes, Schomberg, whom the commons had presented with 100,O0OZ. , landed with 10,000 men near Dona- ghadee, on the coast of Down (August 12). Carrickfergus sur- rendered after a short siege, and was treated with great cruelty. He then encamped in the neighbourhood of Dundalk, the duke of Berwick, James's natural son, retiring on his approach. James, having in vain endeavoured to draw him to a battle, closed the campaign of 1689 by retiring into winter quarters at Atherdee. § 4. While these things were passing in Ireland, the English A.D. 1689-1690. BATTLE OF THE BOYNE. 527 parliament had been employed on important measures. The chief of these was the Bill of Eights, the third great charter of English liberty, which embodied and confirmed the provisions of the De- claration of Bight* and also included a settlement of the crown in the manner already related in the preceding chapter.f It reversed the attainders of lord Eussell, Algernon Sidney, alderman Cornish, and Mrs. Lisle. The exorbitant fines imposed in the preceding reign were declared illegal, and the money extorted by Jeffreys was charged against his estate, with interest. All these proceedings were unexceptionable ; but the same cannot be said of the reversal of the judgment on the perjured Oates, and the granting him a pension of 300Z. a year (June 6). To the dismay of the whigs, William dissolved the convention parliament on February 6, 1690. Halifax was soon after removed from office ; and Dan by, now marquess of Caermarthen, appointed many of his own creatures to the higher offices of state. The new parliament, which met in March, comprised many tories. The king announced his intention of passing over to Ireland, and a supply of 1,200,000Z. was unanimously voted. § 5. William arrived at Carrickfergus on June 14, 1690, and proceeded to Schomberg's head-quarters at Lisburn. His army amounted to about 36,000 men, variously composed of English, Dutch, Germans, and other foreigners. On his approach the Irish army retired to the south bank of the Boyne, which is steep and hilly, and had been fortified with intrenchments. When James joined them there with 10,000 French troops under Lauzun, his whole army amounted to about 30,000 men ; and, though his force was thus considerably inferior to that of William, he was induced, by the strength of the position, to hazard a battle. On the 30th of June both armies were in presence on either bank of the river ; and on the following morning (July 1) James drew up his troops in two lines, his left being covered by a morass, whilst in his rear was the village of Dunmore, and three miles further on the narrow pass of Duleek. William, who had been reconnoitring the enemy's position, was slightly wounded the day before the action by a cannon-ball which grazed his shoulder. He ranged his army in three columns. The centre, led by the duke of Schomberg, was to ford the river in front of the enemy ; the right, under count Schomberg, his son, was to cross near the bridge of Slane ; while William himself headed the passage of the left between the camp and the town of Drogheda. The attack was successful at all points ; the Irish horse alone made some resistance ; the foot fled • See p. 515. f The Bill of Rights is printed at lengLh in Notes and Illustrations, p. 544. 528 WILLIAM AND MARY. Chap, xxyii. without striking a blow. James parted from his army at the pass of Duleek, and made the best of his way to Dublin. This engagement, celebrated as the Battle of the Boyne, decided the fate of James, though the loss on both sides was small, that of the Irish being about 1500, chiefly cavalry, whilst that of William was only 500, but among them was the duke of Schomberg. Walker, the brave defender of Londonderry, also fell in this engagement. James, having no army left — for the Irish had dispersed themselves in the night — abandoned Dublin and hastened to Kinsale, where he got on board a French frigate, and arrived at Brest on July 9. William arrived in Dublin a few days after his victory, and treated the inhabitants with considerable harshness. He then marched southwards, took Wexford, Clonmel, Waterford, Dun- cannon, and laid siege to Limerick (August 8-30) ; but having been repulsed in an assault, and the rains setting iu, he found it necessary to raise the siege, and early in September he left Ireland for London. Soon after his departure, Marlborough landed near Cork with 5000 men ; and, having received some reinforcements, captured that town after a short siege. He next took Kinsale after a desperate resistance ; and, as the winter was approaching, he returned to England, from which he had been absent only five weeks. § 6. Whilst William was in Ireland, a naval engagement took place off Beachy Head, on the 30th of June, between the combined Dutch and English fleets, commanded by admiral Herbert, now created earl of Torrington,* and the French fleet under admiral Tourville. Torrington, with a policy hardly justifiable, placed the Dutch vessels in the van, which in consequence suffered severely. The victory remained with the French ; and Torrington, taking the disabled ships in tow, made for the Thames. London was filled with consternation, as it was expected that the French would sail up the river ; but they made little use of their victory. An inva- sion at this juncture would probably have been successful, as the French had the command of the sea, and might easily have disembarked a large army, whilst there were not 10,000 regular troops in England ; but they attempted no more than the burning of Teignmouth. William was incensed against Torrington on account of the losses suffered by the Dutch, and denounced him to parliament in the speech with which he opened the autumnal session. Torrington was tried by a court-martial at Sheerness, and honour- ably acquitted; but the king deprived him of his pommand, and forbad him his presence. (Supplement, Note X.) * The title became extinct on the death I son of sir George Byng, created viscount of the first earl in 1716. The present Torrington in 1721. viscount Torrington is descended from a . a.d. 1690-1691. SIEGE OF LIMERICK. 529 In the following year (1691) the campaign in Ireland was brought to a close. That country was in a very distracted state. Bodies of wild Irish, called rapparees, from a species of pike with which they committed their massacres, went roaming about the country, and hung upon and infested the quarters of the English army, who in their turn committed great barbarities. Towards the end of June, Ginkell, who commanded the English forces, bombarded and took Athlone. It was a masterpiece of audacity, as a large army of Irish, commanded by St. Ruth, a Frenchman, lay behind the town, while the storming columns had to ford the Shannon, with the water breast-high, in order to gain the breach. St. Ruth now took up a strong position at Aghrim, where Ginkell did not hesitate to attack him. For some time the battle raged with doubtful fury, till, St. Ruth being killed by a cannon-ball, his army was seized with a panic, and fled in disorder towards Limerick (July 12). Ginkell sat down before that place on the 25th of August ; and, after a siege of six weeks, the Irish, much to the discontent of the French, agreed to the very favourable terms which he offered for a general pacification. By the chief articles of this treaty, signed October 3, and called the Pacification of Limerick, it was agreed that the Irish should enjoy the exercise of their religion as in the time of Charles II.; that all included in the capitulation should remain unmolested in their estates and possessions ; and that those who wished to retire to the continent should be conveyed thither at the expense of the government. By virtue of this last clause, Sarsfield and about 12,000 men were • conveyed to France, and entered the service of Louis XIV. Thus an end was put in every part of the empire to the authority of James, who had been de facto king in Ireland more than a year and a half after his flight from England. As Sancroft, the primate, and six of the bishops still refused to take the oath of allegiance, they were deprived of their sees on February 1, 1691. Tillotson, dean of St. Paul's, succeeded Sancroft as archbishop of Canterbury. § 7. William had spent the greater part of the year in Holland, fur the purpose of conducting the campaign against Louis XIV. He had repaired thither in the middle of January ; and though the wea- ther was foggy, and the coast lined with ice, he attempted to land in a boat. The steersman lost his way, and the king was obliged to pass the night in the boat, covered up with a cloak. The following day he succeeded in landing at Goree. The campaign was not marked by any important event, except the taking of Mons by Louis. William paid a short visit to England in April, and finally returned in October to open the parliament. A bill was passed for facilitating the execution of the Pacification of Limerick, though 530 WILLIAM AND MARY. Chap. xxvh. that treaty was not approved of in England. Although William had been brought in by the whigs, he was now chiefly supported by the tories. He rejected a bill which had passed both houses for making the judges independent of the crown; and his reign was now sullied by an act of great barbarity — the infamous massacre of Glencoe. A pacification had been entered into in August with the Scotch Highlanders, and an indemnity offered to all who should take the oaths of allegiance to the king and queen by the 31st of December, 1691. All the Jacobite heads of clans had complied, except the chief of the M'Donalds of Glencoe, whose delay arose more from accident than design. He had repaired to Fort William on the 31st of December, where to his surprise and alarm he found nobody who could administer the oath. Colonel Hill, the com- mandant, directed him to Inverary ; but the season was rigorous, the country mountainous and covered with deep snow, so that Maclan did not arrive till the 6th of January 1692. After many entreaties, sir Colin Campbell, the sheriff of Argyle, consented to receive his oath ; but sir John Dalrymple, the master of Stair, and secretary for Scotland, who bore a deadly hatred to the M'Donalds and the Highlanders, took advantage of Maclan's negligence to destroy him and his whole clan, having procured from William an order for that purpose. On the 1st of February, 1692, a body of 120 soldiers appeared in that lonely mountain-glen, which lies near Loch Leven. They were commanded by Campbell of Glenlyon : and as Campbell was the uncle of young M' Donald's wife, they were welcomed with unsuspecting friendship. For nearly a fortnight the troops en- joyed free quarters and hospitable entertainment. On the evening of the 12th the officers played at cards in the house of Maclan. At five o'clock the next morning, lieutenant Lindsay, with a party of soldiers, appeared at his door and were instantly ad- mitted. They had come in the guise of friendship to act the part of assassins. Maclan was shot in the back as he was rising from his bed ; his wife, who had already risen, was stripped, and the rings torn from her fingers by the soldiers' teeth. Young and old were murdered without pity ; even some of the women fell in attempt- ing to defend their children. About 40 persons were massacred, and as many more, chiefly women and children, who had escaped among the mountains, perished there of cold and hunger. The massacre wouid have been more complete had lieutenant-colonel Hamilton, whom the master of Stair had charged with the execution, arrived at the appointed time. The severity of the weather delayed his arrival till the following day, and nothing remained for nim but to complete the inhuman deed by burningjhe houses, driving off the A.D. 1692. THREATENED INVASION BY JAMES. 531 cattle, and dividing the spoil. By this fortunate delay 150 men were enahled to escape through the mountain-passes, which were not sufficiently guarded.* § 8. This year (1692) William again embarked for Holland, leaving the administration of affairs in England to queen Mary. He was not aware of all the danger that threatened his newly acquired crown. Intrigues had been formed for the restoration of James, and were entered into not only by nonjurors and tories, but even by whigs. One of the principal leaders in them was the in- constant and treacherous Marlborough, who had induced the prin- cess Anne to write a letter to her father, in which she penitently asked his forgiveness. Admiral Eussell, commander of the fleet, lord Godolphin, and others, were also implicated. Marlborough invited James to invade England, and in some degree pledged him- self for the conduct of the English army. A large body of Irisli troops had been conveyed to France in 1690 ; and by the Pacifica- tion of Limerick, which allowed a free passage, their number had been swelled to nearly 20,000. These were at James's disposal, and Louis engaged to add 10,000 French. A camp was formed in the Cotentin, near La Hogue ; and marshal Bellefonds was appointed to command the army of invasion, which was to be convoyed by 80 sail of the line. Early in 1692 everything was in a state of forwardness, and James had even drawn up his manifesto. With his usual infelicity of judgment, its tone was impolitic, and disgusted many who might have been prepared to serve him. From the general indemnity held out to others he excepted not only many noblemen, but even the fishermen who had insulted him near Sheerness. The English ministry thought that they could not do him a greater injury than to publish the document at full length, accompanied with a biting commentary. The government had received some vague information of a plot ; and the earls of Marlborough, Huntingdon, and Scarsdale were ap- prehended and sent to the Tower on the information of one Young, a man of infamous character, and actually in Newgate on a charge of forgery. As the government suspected Marlborough, they en- couraged Young, paid his fine, and released him from prison , and Marlborough was detained some weeks in the Tower, till Young's falsehood was discovered. * It is urged in palliation of this bar- | and that tribe, if they can be well dis- parity that William did not read the war- ! tinguished from the rest of the High- rant, though it was carefully signed by ' landers, it will be proper for the vindica- him at top and at bottom, and the contents I tion of public justice to extirpate that set of it are too brief and too singular to have I of thieves. — W. E." The king never been easily overlooked. It runs as follows : i marked his abhorrence of the deed by — " William R. AsforMacIanof Glencoe 1 punishing the actors. 532 WILLIAM AND MARY. Chap, xxvii. § 9. The combined Dutch and English fleets, consisting of 99 sail of the line, together with many frigates and. fireships, carrying 6000 guns and about 40,000 men, assembled at St. Helens m May. As the fidelity of the admiral himself, as well as of many of his officers, was suspected, with good reason, Mary wrote a letter which Kus.sell was ordered to read to all the officers of the fleet assembled on his quarter-deck. In it she stated that she had heard certain reports respecting their conduct, but that she regarded them as calumnies, and put entire confidence in their loyalty. This politic step was attended with excellent effects. At tbe same time the militia was called out, and a camp formed between Petersfield and Portsmouth. James was waiting at La Hogue for the arrival of admiral Tour- ville, who was to bring 44 ships from Brest. About the middle of May Tourville's fleet was descried off the coast of Dorsetshire, whence it made for La Hogue, where the army of invasion was embarking. Eussell also directed his course towards that port ; and on the 19th of May, the haze having suddenly cleared off, the hostile fleets came unexpectedly in sight of each other. Tourville, though much inferior in force, bore down upon the allies, in the expectation that several of the English ships would come over to his side; but in this he was disappointed. Eussell's ship, the Britannia, of 100 guns, engaged that of the French admiral, of 104 ; and the battle, which raged from 11 o'clock to about 4, soon became general. The French admiral's ship was disabled. Towards evening, a breeze having sprung up from the east, and the haze having cleared a little, the French were descried running on all sides, and signal was given to chase ; but the pursuit was arrested by the flood-tide and the approach of night. Several of the smaller French ships escaped through the race of Alderney into St. Malo ; the larger ones sought refuge at Cherbourg and La Hogue (May 19). Altogether 16 French men-of-war, eight of which were three-deckers, were sunk or burnt, besides several transports that were cut out of the harbour. This victory averted the threatened invasion. After this battle queen Mary ordered the royal palace at Greenwich to be converted into an hospital for disabled seamen.* § 10. The campaign in Flanders was unfavourable to the arms of William. In June, 1692, he lost Namur ; on August 3, he was defeated, with great loss, at Steinkirk. Next year he sustained a further reverse at Landen, where he was driven by Luxembourg from a formidable position. The only important event at sea, in 1693, was also disastrous to the allies. The Smyrna fleet, con- sisting of about 400 English, Dutch, and Hamburg merchantmen, * The first stone of the new building, the present Greenwich Hospital, was not laid till 1696 It is now the chief naval college. a.d. 1693-1694. DEATH OF QUEEN MARY. 533 was intrusted, after passing Ushant, to the convoy of a detached squadron of 23 English and Dutch men-of-war under sir George Rooke, while the remainder of the combined fleet returned to Torbay. Tourville, with a far superior force, now issued from the bay of Lagos ; Rooke was obliged to fly, and signalled the merchantmen to shift for themselves. About 80 of the latter were captured, as well as three Dutch men-of-war; the rest escaped into Spanish ports (June 17). This disgrace, as well as William's ill success in the Netherlands, tended to increase his unpopularity and to encourage the party of James (1694). Bristol, Exeter, and Boston adhered to his cause. In the north several considerable bodies of horse were enlisted in his name ; and many of the nobility and gentry engaged for them- selves, as well as for different towns and counties with which they were connected. Sunderland had again veered round, and entered into correspondence with James. The treason of Marlborough proved more useful to Tames and more disastrous to his own country- Marlborough informed him of an expedition that was fitting out at Portsmouth, under the command of the earl of Berkely and general Talmash, for an attack upon Brest. Berkely appeared off that port on the 7th of June, and 900 men were landed in Camaret Bay : but the French were prepared to receive them, and they were all slain except 100, Talmash himself receiving a mortal wound. Dieppe, Havre, Calais, and Dunkirk were afterwards bombarded, but with- out much effect. § 11. As the parliament, which met in November (1694), refused to grant supplies except on the passing of a bill for triennial parliaments, William, though he had previously refused his assent to a similar bill, was now obliged to yield. He had also another motive. Mary lay dangerously ill with the small-pox ; and in the event of her death, which must naturally shake his influence with the nation, William was unwilling to incur any further unpopularity. The queen died on the 28th of December. In person she was tall and well proportioned, and her countenance, though not regularly beautiful, was animated and pleasing. Her manners were affable. She was a submissive wife, but her affections were no less limited than her abilities. Her death made no change in the government ; and William, in accordance with the act for settling the succession of the crown, became sole ruler. Tillotson had died shortly before the queen (November 22), and was succeeded in the primacy by Tenison, bishop of Lincoln. 534 WILLIAM III. Chai\ xxvii. WILLIAM III. alone, 1694-1702. Anne, influenced by Marlborough and his wife, had lived on bad terms with her sister and brother-in-law ; but now, at the instance of Sunderland, she was induced to send a letter of condolence to William, who thought it politic to meet her advances, and even presented her with the greater part of Mary's jewels. § 12. The session of 1695 was signalized by the discovery of an almost universal corruption in high places. Sir John Trevor, speaker of the House of Commons, for taking a bribe of 1000 guineas, was expelled the house (March 18). The East India Company had distributed upwards of 87,O0OZ. in bribes in order to secure a new charter ; of this sum 10,000?. were said to be traced to the king himself, 5000Z. to Danby (now duke of Leeds), and further sums to other men in power. The commons impeached the duke of Leeds ; but the court connived at the escape of his Swiss servant, the only person who could establish his guilt, and the case was brought to an end by the sudden prorogation of parliament (May 3). As the licensing act expired in 1693, the liberty of the press was established. An unsuccessful attempt was made to renew it this year. But the authors of the abolition were hardly aware of the important step they were taking. Their arguments turned solely on matters of detail, such as the hardships occasioned to printers, booksellers, etc. ; nor was the measure noticed in any contemporary publication. The abolition of the censorship was soon followed by the establishment of several newspapers. The London Gazette was the only one previously published. This session was also memorable for an excellent statute respect- ing the law of treason. " It provides that all persons indicted for high treason shall have a copy of their indictment delivered to them five days before their trial, a period extended by a subsequent act to ten days, and a copy of the panel of jurors two days before their trial ; that they shall be allowed to have their witnesses examined on oath, and to make their defence by counsel. It clears up any doubt that could be pretended on the statute of Edward VI., by requiring two witnesses, either both to the same overt act, or the first to one, the second to another overt act of the same treason (that is, the same kind of treason), unless the party shall voluntarily confess the charge. It limits prosecutions for treason to the term of three years, except in the case of an attempted assassination of the king. It includes the contested provision for the trial of peers by all who have a right to sit and vote in parlia- ment. A later statute, 7 Anne, c. 21, which may be mentioned here as the complement of the former, has added a peculiar privi- a.d. 1695-1696. CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE KING. 535 lege to the accused, hardly less material than any of the rest. Ten days before the trial a list of the witnesses intended to be brought for proving the indictment, with their professions and places of abode, must be delivered to the prisoner, along with a copy of the indictment. The operation of this clause was suspended till after the death of the pretended prince of Wales." * After the prorogation of the parliament, William passed over to Holland, and distinguished himself this year, in the campaign in the Low Countries, by his greatest military feat, the taking of Namur in presence of a large force of the enemy (July 2). The marshal de Luxembourg was dead, and the French army was now commanded by marshal Villeroi and marshal Boufflers : France was becoming exhausted with the length of the war, and Louis was anxious to conclude a peace on any decent terms, whilst William's reputation was rising in Europe. His success abroad confirmed his power at home ; for, though the Jacobite party was increasing in England, they could hardly hope to succeed without the aid of France. § 13. A conspiracy against the throne and life of William was, nevertheless, formed and detected early in 1696. The principal agent in it was sir George Barclay, a Scotch officer, who received a commission from James to attempt a general insurrection in his favour. Barclay arrived in London in January, and associated in his design one Bookwood, a priest ; Charnock, formerly a fellow of Magdalen college, Oxford, but now a captain ; sir John Friend, sir William Perkins, a captain Porter, and others. Their first scheme was to seize William and carry him over to France ; but as this seemed impracticable without taking his life, they resolved to attack him in the midst of his guards between Turnham Green and Brentford, through which places he passed every Saturday to hunt in Bichmond Park. With this view they procured a body of 40 armed men, and fixed the 15th of February for the attempt. But the secret was betrayed to the earl of Portland, a day or two previously, by captain Fisher, one of the conspirators, and his information was soon after confirmed by an Irishman named Prendergast. The king having consequently remained at home on the 15th, and again on the 22nd, to which day the con- spirators had adjourned the execution of their plot, they were seized with alarm ; some of them fled, but others were captured the next night in their beds. On the following day the king laid the whole plot before the parliament, and both houses responded with a joint address, breath- ing the most zealous expressions of duty and affection. A loyal * H illam's Constitutional History, iii. 221. 536 WILLIAM III. Chap, xxvii. association was formed in imitation of that in the reign of Elizabeth, which was signed the same day by 400 members of the House of Commons ; and such members as were absent were required to sign it by the 16th of March, or to notify their refusal. The association was adopted, with very little alteration, by the House of Lords; and of the whole parliament, only 15 peers and 92 commoners refused to add their names. Shortly afterwards an act was passed to make the signing of the association imperative on all holders of civil or military employments. Charnock, King, sir John Friend, sir "William. Perkins, and four other conspirators were condemned and executed. On the execution of Friend and Perkins, the celebrated Jeremy Collier, the nonjuring divine, appeared on the scaffold, and publicly absolved them (April 3). The trial of sir John Fenwick, implicated in a scheme for a Jacobite rising, who had been captured at New Romney while endeavouring to escape to France, did not corne on till the autumn. "While he lay in Newgate he sought to pro- cure a pardon by turning evidence, and accused the duke of Shrewsbury, the earls of Bath and Marlborough, lord Godolphin, ind admiral Russell, of corresponding and intriguing with king James. Though this information is now known to have been correct, William refused to listen to it. As only one witness could be produced against Fenwick, while the law required two in cases of high treason, admiral Russell, to his lasting disgrace, brought in a bill of attainder against him, which was passed after consider- able opposition. Fenwick was beheaded on Tower Hill, on January 28, 1697. § 14. During the campaign of 1696 the French remained on the defensive ; nor did anything of importance take place at sea. All parties were looking forward to a peace ; and on the 9th of May a conference was opened between the belligerent powers, on the mediation of the king of Sweden, at Ryswick, a village between Delft and the Hague. "William had as usual gone over to Holland. Alt that he desired was to fix a barrier to the French power in Flanders, and to procure from Louis the acknowledgment of his title to the English throne ; but the negociations were protracted by the emperor of Germany and the king of Spain, who were desirous of continuing the war. William, therefore, while the hostile armies Jay opposed to each other near Brussels, caused a separate negocia- tion to be opened in July between the earl of Portland on his part and marshal Boufflers on that of Louis. The taking of Carthagena, in America, by a French squadron, and the capture of Barcelona by a French army, inclined the Spaniards to come to terms with Louis, and the Peace oe Ryswick was a.d. 1697-1698, THE SPANISH SUCCESSION. 537 signed on September 10. 1697. Louis resigned several of his con- quests, and recognized William as king of England. The peace of Ryswick seems to have been necessary in consequence of the defec- tion of the duke of Savoy, and of the bad state of public credit in England; but William foresaw that it could be no more than * sort of armistice, and that a fresh struggle must soon take place on the subject of the Spanish succession. § 15. The parliament, which met soon after the peace of Ryswick. voted that the army should be reduced to 7000 men, and they were with difficulty persuaded to allow it to remain at 10,000; at the same time they granted the king the large sum of 700,000?. for the civil list.* William was exceedingly annoyed at the vote for reducing the army ; and, before he repaired to Holland in the spring (1698), he ventured to leave sealed orders that the army should be raised to 16,000 men, which his ministers refused to obey. During his residence in Holland he negociated a treaty respecting the Spanish succession. Charles II. of Spain was now supposed to be at the point of death ; and as he left no heirs within the kingdom, the question of his succession threatened to disturb the peace of Europe. Philip IV- of Spain had had three chil- dren : one son, Charles II., and two daughters — the eider, Maria Theresa, was married to Louis XIV. of France, and the younger, Margaret Theresa, to the emperor Leopold I. Maria Theresa had renounced her pretensions to the Spanish succession on her marriage with the king of France. The younger sister, Margaret Theresa, made a similar renunciation on her marriage with Leopold; and their only child, a daughter, married to Maximilian Emanuel, elector of Bavaria, followed their example. France and Bavaria maintained that these princesses had no power to renounce the claims of their posterity ; Louis XIV. therefore demanded the Spanish throne for his son the dauphin, and the elector of Bavaria for his son the electoral prince. A third claimant was the emperor Leopold, who by a second marriage had two sons, Joseph king of the Romans, and the archduke Charles. Leopold claimed the* succession as the son of Maria Anne, daughter of Philip III., but waived his claim in favour of the archduke Charles.f William would have been content to gratify France, by conceding part of the Spanish dominions; and Louis was, or pretended to be, better satisfied with this partial inheritance than to have to fight for the whole. A treaty for the partition of Spain was ac- cordingly negociated in the summer at Loo, and signed on the 1st * They had resolved, in March, 1689, I f The genealogical table in the follow- that the fixed revenue of the crown should ing page exhibits the relationship of the be 1,200,0001. I different claimants. 538 WILLIAM III. Chap. xxvn. 3 »H ■83m t-H m J'3 .♦3 « P. Dharles took of Cha ofS |! _<1 5 S _S gfe ■So a cfi Q S letter of this period, that if 5000 French had landed in any part of the island, the conquest would not have cost them a battle. But the court of France lost the only favourable opportunity that ever occurred of restoring the Stuarts. They were not hearty in the cause ; and on the news of Charles's success they contented themselves with sending him small supplies of arms and money. George II., who had returned in alarm from Hanover, sent a requisition to the Dutch for 6000 auxiliaries. After the victory at Preston Pans, many of the Highlanders had returned home with their booty ; and, as Charles could now muster only about 1500 men, he was advised to wait and recruit his army. He therefore returned to Holyrood House. He might now be con- sidered master of all Scotland, except some of the country beyond Inverness, the Highland fort's, and the castles of Edinburgh and Stirling. His father was proclaimed as James VIII. in most of the towns ; and in Glasgow, the least disposed to the Jacobite cause, an extraordinary levy of 5000£. was made. In a few weeks Charles's army was raised to nearly 6000 men ; and some French ships brought him, besides money, 5000 stand of arms, six field-pieces, and several 592 GEORGE II. Chap. xxx. French and Irish officers. Lord Lovat still hesitated, and at last adopted the dastardly expedient of sending his son, with 700 or 800 of the clan, protesting, at the same time, that it was contrary to his will and orders. Charles now determined to march into England, much against the will of most of his followers, who were of opinion that he should content himself with the conquest of Scotland ; but Charles wisely thought that he should not be able to hold the one without the other. The English government, however, was now better prepared. The commons had voted loyal addresses and liberal supplies ; the Habeas Corpus Act was suspended ; the militia was raised; marshal Wade had an army of nearly 10,000 men at Newcastle, and another under the duke of Cumberland was as- sembling in the midland counties. Charles began his march on October 31. It was resolved to proceed through Cumberland, where the mountainous country is better suited to the Highland mode of fighting. Carlisle was entered on the 17th, after a slight show of resistance, the garrison being allowed to withdraw on delivering up their arms and horses. On the 20th the insurgents proceeded in two separate columns, which united at Preston ; and the next day they crossed the Eibble. In these difficult marches in bad weather the chevalier resigned his carriage to the aged and infirm lord Pitsligo, and marched on foot, in Highland dress, at the head of the clans. At Manchester he was received with enthusiasm ; and 200 English volunteers who had joined him here were called the Manchester regiment. But his prospects were not encouraging. Wade was advancing against him through Yorkshire ; the duke of Cumberland lay at Lichfield with 8000 men : a third army was forming at Finchley ; admiral Vernon was cruising in the Channel to prevent any assistance from France ; and admiral Byng was blockading the east coast of Scotland. Many of Charles's officers advised a retreat, but lord George Murray per- suaded them to advance as far as Derby, promising that, if they were not then joined by a considerable force, he would consent to their wishes. They reached Derby in safety (December 5). The Chevalier was in high spirits. He had slipped away from both the English armies, and nothing obstructed his march on the capital. London was in a panic ; all business was suspended, and the shops were shut. The day was long remembered as Black Friday. Even the king had ordered his yacht to the Tower stairs, and embarked his most precious effects. But the alarm soon came to an end. The day after their arrival, Murray and the other generals insisted on a retreai, on the ground that there had been neither an English rising nor a French invasion ; and Charles, a.d. 1745-1746. BATTLE OF CULLODEN. 593 after exhausting arguments, threats, and entreaties, was forced to comply. § 11. Horsing 1000 of his infantry, the duke of Cumberland overtook the retreating Scots at Penrith, and a skirmish took place at night on Clifton Moor (December 10). The English were re- pulsed with considerable loss, and the retreat was not again molested. On December 20, the prince's birthday, the Scots passed the Esk, and entered Glasgow on the 24th, having marched 600 miles in 56 days. The Chevalier arrived at Stirling (January 3, 1746), and having received large reinforcements, as well as some artillery from France, he resolved to besiege the castle. General Hawley, to whom the duke of Cumberland had delegated the command, attempted to raise the siege, but was defeated with great loss at Falkirk Muir, and made a precipitate and disgraceful flight to Edinburgh (January 17). But the siege was badly conducted by a French engineer named Mirabelle ; his batteries were silenced ; and the Chevalier's chief officers insisted on going home for the remainder of the winter, promising to return in the spring with 10,000 men. The heavy guns were spiked, and the retreat began towards Inver- ness (February 1). The duke of Cumberland, who had resumed the command, and who had been reinforced with 5000 Hessians, pursued the Scots, but could not overtake them. On April 8 the duke, with 8000 foot and 900 horse, marched from Aberdeen to attack Inverness. Charles, though his troops had dwindled to 5000 men, resolved to surprise the duke at Nairn by a night march of 12 miles. Lord George Murray led the first column, Charles himself the second ; but the marshy nature of the ground delayed their progress so much that all hopes of a surprise were abandoned, and they took up a position on Culloden Moor. The duke of Cumberland drew up his army with great skill in three lines, with cavalry on each flank, and two pieces of cannon between every two regiments of the first line. His artillery did great execution, whilst that of the Scots was ill- directed. Murray therefore requested permission to attack, and made a furious charge with the right wing and centre. He broke the first line of the English ; but the second, three deep, the first rank kneeling, and the next stooping, received the Scots with a murderous fire, which threw them into disorder. The English then charged, and drove the clans before them in one confused mass. The left wing was not engaged. About 1000 of the Scots fell ; of the English, hardly a third of that number (April 16). This defeat put an end to all Charles's hopes. He rode from the field to the residence of lord Lovat, whom he now met for the first and the last time. Lovat 594 GEOKGE II II Chap. xxx. hardly behaved with common civility, and they parted in mutual displeasure. Some attempt was made to rally the army at Ruthven, but Charles sent a message thanking the leaders, and bidding them consult their own safety. They dispersed accordingly, and the rebellion was extinguished. The duke of Cumberland fixed his head-quarters near Fort Augustus, and permitted every sort of outrage and cruelty, in which he was well seconded by general Hawley, surnamed for this brutality the Butcher. When the duke returned to London in July, he was hailed as the deliverer of his country ; a pension of 25,000Z. per annum was settled on him and his heirs, and he was presented with the freedom of numerous companies. Murray and several other leaders escaped abroad. The govern- ment succeeded in capturing the earl of Kilmarnock, lord Balmerino, secretary Murray, and lord Lovat. The last was discovered in a Medal of the young Pretender. Obv. : CAEOLtrs wallije princeps. Bust to right. Below, 1745. Rev. : amor et spes. Britannia standing on the sea-shore : two ships arriving. Below, Britannia. little island in a lake in Inverness-shire, wrapped up in a blanket, and concealed in a hollow tree. Charles wandered about the country till September, undergoing during these five months a variety of hardships and dangers ; yet, though his secret was in- trusted to several hundreds of persons, he was not betrayed, not- withstanding a reward of 30,000?. had been offered for his capture. Among all these acts of loyalty the heroic devotion of Flora Macdonald was conspicuous. At last, on September 20, Charles got safely on board a French vessel in Lochnanuagh, and on the 29th he landed in France, near Moiiaix. A great number of prisoners were brought to trial for this rebel- lion, of whom 80 were executed, and the rest were transported. a.d. 1746-1748. CHANGE OF MINISTRY. 595 The ancient and barbarous ceremony of disembowelling and burning the heart and intestines was not omitted on this occasion, and was received with the shouts of the populace. The earl of Kilmarnock and lords Balmerino and Lovat were executed on Tower Hill, the last of whom met his fate with a strange compound of levity and courage. The suppression of the rebellion was followed by the total pacification of the Scottish highlands ; and various measures were adopted for their permanent improvement. § 12. Lord Harrington having resigned the seals of secretary of state (October 29, 1746), they were transferred to Philip Dormer Stanhope, earl of Chesterfield, the lord-lieutenant of Ireland, in which office he was succeeded by lord Harrington. Chesterfield, who is commonly regarded as a fine gentleman, had also a large fund of wit and wisdom, and was one of the most accomplished orators of his day. Conversant with foreign languages as well as history, he had distinguished himself as a diplomatist, and had discharged with reputation two embassies to Holland. His govern- ment of Ireland had been wise and firm, and at the same time liberal. His defects were a want of generosity, a proneness to dissimulation, a passion for gambling, and a laxity of religious principle. During the years 1746 and 1747 the French were successful in arms ; but in the latter year the English gained two naval victories, one by Anson near Cape Finisterre (May 3), the other by admiral Hawke off Belleisle (October 14). The French, as well as a large party in England, were desirous of peace ; but Maria Theresa and the prince of Orange were not satisfied with the results obtained, and their views were adopted by George II. and the duke of Cum- berland. Chesterfield, a warm advocate for peace, finding his counsels disregarded and himself treated with coldness by the king, resigned the seals (February 6, 1748), and was succeeded by the duke of Bedford. Chesterfield never afterwards took office ; but he did not altogether withdraw from public life, and in 1751 he intro- duced a most useful measure, the reformation of the caleudar. The Julian year, or Old Style as it is called, had been corrected by pope Gregory XIII. in 1582, and the Gregorian calendar, or New Style, had been adopted by every country on the continent of Europe, except Sweden and Bussia. The error of the Old Style had now grown to 11 days. In preparing the bill for the reformation of the calendar, Chesterfield was assisted by the earl of Macclesfield and Mr. Bradley, two of the ablest mathematicians in Europe. By this bill the year was to commence on January 1, instead of March 25, and 11 days in September, 1752, were to be nomi- nally suppressed, in order to bring the calendar into unison with the 596 GEORGE II. Chap. xxx. actual state of the solar year. The great body of the people, how- ever, regarded the reform as an impious and popish measure, and numbers were of opinion that they had been robbed of 11 days. Sweden followed the example of England in 1753 ; but Eussia and those countries which belong to the Greek church still follow the Old Style, which is now 12 days behind the New Style. The continued success of the French, who had invested Maestricht in the spring of 1748, increased the desire for peace ; and even the Dutch, who now saw an invasion imminent, signified their willing- ness to treat. In October a definitive treaty was signed by all the belligerents at Aix-la-Chapelle, which ended the war of the Austrian succession. The only gainer was the king of Prussia, by the cession of Silesia. The article for the mutual restitution of all conquests was very unpopular in England, and the more so as France demanded and obtained two hostages for the delivery of Cape Breton. The earl of Sussex and lord Cathcart were sent to Paris in that capacity. § 13. By one of the articles of this treaty the French court under- took to expel the Pretender from France, and they offered him an establishment at Friburg in Switzerland, with a gnard and the title of prince of Wales ; but Charles, regarding such a course as a mean compliance with orders from Hanover, obstinately refused to quit Paris. At length it became necessary to use force. He was seized in his coach while going to the opera, bound hand and foot, and carried to the dungeon of Vincennes. After a few days' confine- ment, he was conveyed to Pont de Beauvois on the frontiers of Savoy, and abandoned to his lonely wanderings. He now appears to have visited Venice and Germany, to have resided some time secretly in Paris, and even to have paid two visits to England. After the death of his father, James, in 1765, he returned to Rome, and in his later years fell into habits of intemperance. In 1772, at the age of 52, he married the princess Louisa of Stolberg, a young lady of 20. They subsequently lived at Florence under the title of the count and countess of Albany. But the union was unhappy. He was harsh, and she faithless ; and in 1780 she eloped with Alfieri, the dramatic poet. Charles died at Rome (January 30, 1788). His younger brother, Henry Benedict, commonly called from his ecclesiastical dignity, " Cardinal York," lived at Rome till 1807, having for many years received a pension from George III. One of the results of the late war was the founding of Halifax in Nova Scotia, named after the earl of Halifax, president of the Board of Trade. To relieve the great number of discharged soldiers and sailors, they were encouraged to emigrate by a grant of 50 acres to each, a free passage, and immunity from taxes for a period of 10 A.D. 1755. HOSTILITIES WITH FRANCE. 597 years. At this time also Pelhaui seized the opportunity of reducing the national deht, by lowering the rate of interest. On March 20, 1751, died Frederick, prince of Wales, little regretted. His eldest son, George William Frederick, was now made prince of Wales ; and as he was only 11 years of age, while the king was 67, it became necessary to appoint a regency, in the event of a demise of the crown before the prince attained his majority. After considerable debate, a bill was passed appointing his mother, the dowager princess of Wales, guardian of his person and regent of the kingdom ; but subject, in the latter capacity, to the control of a council composed of the duke of Cumberland and nine of the prin- cipal officers of state at the time of the king's decease. The influence of John Stuart, earl of Bute, now became predominant at Leicester House, the residence of the princess dowager of Wales. Bute pos- sessed many accomplishments, but had no great abilities. He had a fine person, and his political enemies were not slow in misrepre- senting the favour he enjoyed, and its motives. § 14. On the death of Henry Pelham (March 6, 1754), the duke of Newcastle resolved to be first lord of the treasury himself, and to make Henry Legge, son of the earl of Dartmouth, his chancellor of the exchequer. For the leadership of the House of Commons his choice wavered between William Pitt, Henry Fox, and Murray. But the ambition of the last was directed to the bench. He was the fourth son of lord Stormont, in the Scottish peerage, and had distinguished himself by his eloquence both at the bar and in the House of Commons. Pitt, besides being personally disliked by the king, was laid up at Bath with the gout. The seals were therefore offered to Henry Fox, younger son of sir Stephen Fox, and brother of the first earl of Ilchester. Fox had already some experience in business as secretary at war. He possessed wit and discernment, and, without much eloquence, was a ready debater ; but he had not the disinterestedness of Pitt. The negociation was broken off by a disagreement respecting the disposal of the secret-service money, and the seals were at last given to sir Thomas Robinson, a man of no ability, but entirely at Newcastle's command. That such a man should be set up to lead the House of Commons excited the indignation both of Pitt and Fox, and they united to attack and ridicule him. (Supplement, Note XIII.) Quarrels had long prevailed, both in the East Indies and in North America, between the French and English settlers, which threatened to produce hostilities between the mother countries. A large French armament, equipped at Brest, was watched by admiral Boscawen, who had orders to attack them in case their destination should be for the bay of St. Lawrence. At a signal from the admiral, 27* 598 GEORGE II. Chap. xxx. two English vessels had captured two French ships off Newfound- land (June 8, 1755) ; and some skirmishing had also occurred on the Ohio and near Lake George. The king had as usual gone to Hanover, and these events threw the regency into great perplexity. The duke of Cumberland was anxious to declare war immediately ; others desired to wait : the prime minister, as usual, vacillated between both opinions. At length sir Edward Hawke, who was in command of a powerful fleet, received orders to take and destroy every French ship that he could find be ween Cape Ortegal and Cape Clear — an act which, as no declaration of war had been made, was justly censured as piratical. (Supplement, Note XIV.) This state of things caused George II. great alarm for his elec- toral dominions, which he suspected would be seized by his nephew, Frederick of Prussia, whenever a war broke out. He therefore concluded with the landgrave of Hesse, and subsequently with the empress of Eussia, subsidiary treaties of the same sort as had already created so much disgust in England. Newcastle's ministry began to totter. In order to support it he applied to Pitt ; but that statesman disdained the seals at the price of subserviency to Hanoverian policy. Fox was not so delicate ; he engaged to sup- port the treaties : Eobinson was dismissed with a pension, and Fox became secretary of state. The French meanwhile were making vast naval preparations ; they threatened a descent upon England, but their real object was Minorca, which had been secured to the English by the treaty of Utrecht. The duke of Newcastle could not be persuaded that the French harboured any such designs. He neglected all necessary precautions till it was too late ; and then he sent out 10 ships badly equipped, under admiral Byng, fourth son of George, viscount Torrington. On April 13, 1756, a French fleet of 12 ships of the line, and a large number of transports, having 16,000 troops on board, appeared off Minorca, and threatened Mahon. The castle of St. Philip, which commands the town and harbour, was a strong fortress ; but the garrison had been reduced to 3000 men, and lord Tyrawley, the governor, was absent. The defence of the place therefore fell upon general Blakeney, a brave but old and invalid officer. When Byng hove in sight of St. Philip's, on May 19, the British flag was still flying there. On the following day the French admiral, De la Galissoniere, bore down with his whole force. Byng ranged his ships in line of battle ; and admiral West, the second in com- mand, engaged with his division and dispersed the ships opposed to him ; but Byng kept aloof. On the following morning the French were out of sight. Byng then called a council of war, expressed his determination to retreat, as his force was inferior to that of the a.d. 1756-1757. PITT PRIME MINISTER. 599 enemy ; and, sailing to Gibraltar, he left Minorca to its fate. Never- theless St. Philip's held ont till June 29, when, some of the out- works having been carried, the garrison was obliged to capitulate, § 15. The popular indignation at this loss was uncontrollable. The cry was loud against the ministry, but louder still against Byng. Either treachery or cowardice was universally imputed to him, and he was burnt in effigy in all the great towns of the kingdom. The duke of Newcastle, willing to make a scapegoat of Byng, appointed admiral sir Edward Hawke to supersede him, and to send him and West home as prisoners. West was imme- diately liberated, but a court-martial was held on Byng in the following December, at Portsmouth. He was acquitted of cowardice and of treachery, but condemned, by the 12th article of war, for not having done all in his power to relieve St. Philip's and attack the French. At the same time he was unanimously recom- mended to mercy. But the popular clamour was too great to allow this recommendation to prevail. He was shot on the quarter-deck of the Monarque (March 14, 1757), and met his fate with courage.* In dread of the impending storm, Newcastle resigned (November 1 1, 1756). Fox followed him a few days after. Murray, on the death of sir Dudley Ryder, was made lord chief justice, and obtained a peerage with the title of lord Mansfield (October 25). The king was now reluctantly compelled to have recourse to Pitt (December 4) ; but be had held the seals as secretary of state only for a few months, when the duke of Cumberland persuaded the king to dismiss him and recal Newcastle (March 29, 1757). As Newcastle found it impos- sible to form a ministry without Pitt's assistance, for Pitt was popular with the nation for opposing the Hanoverian partialities of George II., the king, after various attempts, was obliged to submit to Pitt's terms. Newcastle returned to the treasury, but without one of his own party at the board. Legge was made chancellor of the ex- chequer ; Pitt became secretary of state ; his brother-in-law, earl Temple,f privy seal ; and Fox condescended to accept the lucrative * Byng was accompanied by a clergy- man and two of his relatives. He was dressed in a light grey coat, white waist- coat, and white stockings, and wore a large white wig, and held in each hand a white handkerchief. Passing from the great cabin to the larboard side of the quarter- deck, he dropped his hat, kneeled on a cushion, tied one handkerchief over his eyes, and let the other fall as a signal for the marines to fire. f Earl Temple (Richard Grenville), born 1711, was the eldest son of Mr. Gren- ville and countess Temple, to whose title he succeeded upon her death in 1752. He died without issue in 1779. His only sister, Hester, was married, in 1754, to William Pitt, afterwards earl of Chatham, by whom she became the mother of the younger Pitt. George Grenville, second brother of earl Temple, was prime minister in the reign of George III., upon the resignation of lord Bute in 1763. (See p. 610.) He was born 1712, and died 1770. He had three distinguished sons : 1. George, who suc- ceeded his uncle as earl Temple, and became marquess of Buckingham ; his 600 GEORGE II. Chap. xxx. office of paymaster of the forces, without a seat in the cabinet (June 29). This was the first ministry of Pitt, who was now 48 years old. § 16. It was too late in the season to attempt any enterprise of importance, and an expedition despatched against Kochefort, con- sisting of 16 ships of the line, with frigates and transports, com- manded by sir Edward Hawke, and having on board 10 regiments of foot under general sir John Mordaunt, proved abortive, through the irresolution of the latter. But England had now another war on hand. In the previous year France and Austria had leagued them- selves for the partition of Prussia by the treaty of Versailles (May 1, 1756), to which Kussia, Saxony, and Sweden afterwards acceded. Apprised of this confederacy through the treachery of a clerk in the Saxon service, Frederick of Prussia was the first to strike a vigorous blow by seizing Dresden. Thus began the Seven Years' War (1756-1763). Frederick now drew closer his alliance with England; and in April, 1757, the duke of Cumberland proceeded to the continent to fight in his cause, and to defend the electorate. The French, advancing with a large army, compelled the duke to retreat, and overran all Hanover. Supported by four British men-of-war in the Elbe, the duke took refuge under the guns of Stade. In this critical position he appealed to the mediation of the king of Den- mark, and was compelled to enter into the convention of Kloster Seven, by which he agreed to dismiss his auxiliaries, withdraw his troops over the Elbe, and disperse them in cantonments, leaving only a garrison in Stade (September 8). Thus Hanover was lost. George II. was as indignant at this failure as Frederick himself, and received his son on his return with the greatest coldness. Offended by this treatment, the victor of Culloden threw up his employments, and lived in comparative obscurity till 1765, when he died in his 45th year. Frederick, reduced to the last extremity, retrieved his affairs by the victories of Eossbach and Leuthen. This success made him popular in England. He was regarded as the protestant hero ; and when, early in 1758, Pitt proposed a new convention with Prussia, with a subsidy of 670,OOOZ., it was carried almost unanimously. § 17. In 1758 the war raged in all quarters of the world. The brilliant achievements of Clive, which decided whether the empire of India should fall to England or to France, are related in the next son became duke of Buckingham ; 2. Thomas, -who held several high offices in the state, and bequeathed to the country his splendid library, now in 1;h,e British Museum ; 3. William Wyndham, the friend and colleague of the younger Pitt, who was made lord Grenvillein 1790, and who became prime mini-ter in 1806. He died in 1834 without issue. A.D. 1756-1759. THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR. 601 chapter (§ 4). In Africa, the island of Goree was wrested from the French. In America, Pitt projected the conquest of Cape Breton and St. John's ; and a fleet and army were despatched under admiral Boscawen and general (afterwards lord) Amherst. At the same time Wolfe, who had attracted Pitt's notice during the Eochefort expe- dition, was sent out as second in command, with the title of briga- dier-general. In these appointments, Pitt, disregarding seniority, as well as aristocratic and parliamentary interest, was guided by merit alone. The armament was composed of 150 ships and 12,000 soldiers. Louisburg capitulated after a siege of two months (July 26), in which Wolfe distinguished himself. After the fall of the capital, the whole of Cape Breton submitted ; and soon after the island of St. John did the same. The name of the latter was changed to Prince Edward's Island, in honour of the next brother of the prince of Wales. A secret expedition against Cherbourg was planned by Pitt, under commodore Howe and lord Anson, with 20,000 soldiers and marines, commanded by Charles, second duke of Marlborough, and lord George Sackville. The attempt partially failed, but was renewed with more success in August, under general Bligh, accom- panied by prince Edward. When the troops landed, the town was found to be deserted. The forts and basin were destroyed, together with 170 pieces of iron cannon, and 22 brass guns were carried off. The troops were then landed near St. Malo; but the duke d'Aiguillon coming up with superior forces, the English re-embarked in preci- pitation, and 1000 men of the rear-guard were either killed or made prisoners. By these exploits, the attention of the French was diverted from the campaign in Germany. Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick not only drove them out of Hanover, but even over the Bhine, whither he followed them, and gained on the left bank a victory at Crefeld ; but the advance of the prince de Soubise obliged him to fall back on Munster. Frederick had achieved brilliant successes, chequered by a disastrous defeat inflicted on him at Hochkirchen by the Austrian generals Daun and Laudon (October 14). § 18. In 1759 the arms of England were successful by sea and land. The French, though scarcely able to defend their own coasts, threatened an invasion, and made preparations in Havre, Toulon, and other ports ; but in July admiral Bodney bombarded Havre, and did great damage to the town, destroying many of their fiat- bottomed boats ; whilst the Toulon fleet was dispersed with loss by admiral Boscawen, off Lagos in Algarve. Another fleet under sir Edward Hawke blockaded Brest, and a squadron of observation hovered near Dunkirk. Hawke gained a signal victory (November 602 GEORGE II. Chap. xxx. 20) near Quiberon, over a French fleet under De Conflans, con- sisting of 21 sail of the line and four frigates. Hawke's fleet, which was rather stronger, sunk or burnt three of the Frenchmen and captured two ; the others, more or less damaged, succeeded in getting into the river Vilaine. Frederick sustained a terrible defeat this year at Kunersdorf, near Fraukfort-on-the-Oder ; but from want of cordiality between the Anstrians and Russians, its consequences did not prove very dis- astrous. On the other hand, prince Ferdinand, who bad in his army 10,000 or 12,000 English troops under lord George Sackville, was more fortunate. He failed indeed in an attack on the French position at Bergen ; but he more than retrieved this reverse by the brilliant victory of Minden (August 1), which would have been still more complete had Sackville, who commanded the cavalry, obeyed the orders to charge the routed enemy. Loud clamours were raised against him, both in England and Germany, and Pitt dis- missed Sackville from all his employments. But the chief success this year was achieved in Canada. The French had colonized that province in the reign of Francis I., but it was not till the following century that the cities of Quebec and Montreal rose to importance. Pitt proposed a plan of invasion by three separate divisions, which were to unite at Quebec. One of these, composed of colonists and Indians under general Prideaux and sir William Johnson, was to advance by way of Niagara and Lake Ontario towards Montreal ; another, of 8000 men, under the com- mand of general Wolfe, was to proceed up the St. Lawrence, and lay siege to Quebec ; whilst in the centre the main army under general Amherst was to attack Ticonderoga, secure the navigation of Lake Champlain, and, proceeding by the river Richelieu, form a junction with Wolfe. The first and last of these expeditions succeeded as far as they went. ' Niagara and Ticonderoga were captured, but it was too late in the season to form a junction with Wolfe. The fleet of admiral Saunders carried Wolfe safely to the Isle of Orleans, opposite Quebec, where the army disembarked on June 27, 1759. Wolfe formed a lodgment on the westernmost point of the island, where Quebec rose to his view, strong in its natural position, but without artificial defences. It is washed on two sides by the rivers St. Charles and St. Lawrence, whose banks are almost inaccessible, while a little below the town the Montmorency falls into the St. Lawrence. The entrance of the harbour is defended by a sand- bank ; the castle of St. Louis commands the approaches ; and above the city rise from the St. Lawrence the rugged Heights of Abraham. Quebec at that time contained a population of about a.d. 1760. HIS DEATH. 603 7000 ; but it had a cathedral, a bishop's palace, and other public buildings. The marquis de Montcalm, the French governor of Canada, a distinguished officer, lay with an army of 10,000 men? chiefly Canadian colonists or native Indians, outside the city, on the line called Beauport, between the rivers St. Charles and Mont- morency. The ground was steep ; in his front lay the Mont- morency ; his rear was protected by dense woods, and every open space had been fortified. As Wolfe's attempts to draw Montcalm from this position failed, it only remained to attack him in his entrenchments. Eepulsed in an assault on July 31, Wolfe deter- mined on the hazardous exploit of proceeding up the St. Lawrence and scaling the Heights of Abraham, though, through deaths, sickness, and the necessary detachments for securing important points, he could muster no more than 4500 men. Early in the morning of September 13, the troops were silently conveyed by the tide in boats to a small cove, now called Wolfe's Cove, over- hung by lofty rocks. As they rowed along to this place, Wolfe repeated in a low voice to the officers in the boat with him Gray's beautiful " Elegy in a Country Churchyard," adding at the end, " Now, gentlemen, I would rather be the author of that poem than take Quebec." Wolfe himself was one of the first to leap ashore. The precipitous path was climbed ; an outpost of the enemy fled in alarm; and at daybreak the British army stood arrayed upon the heights, but without cavalry, and having no more than a single gun. Montcalm was now obliged to abandon his position and advance to siive battle. The English, by Wolfe's direction, reserved their fire till the enemy were within 40 yards, and then delivered a well-directed and destructive volley. Many fell, the rest wavered ; Wolfe, though wounded in the wrist, seized the favourable moment, and springing forwards ordered his grenadiers to charge. At this instant he was struck by another ball in the groin, and shortly after by a third in the breast, which caused him to fall, and he was conveyed to the rear. Before he breathed his last, an officer who was standing by exclaimed, " See, they run ! " " Who run ? " eagerly cried Wolfe. " The enemy," cried the officer. " Then God be praised!" said Wolfe, "I shall die h»ppy;"and immediately expired. Thus fell this gallant officer at the early age of 33. Montcalm, the French commander, was also mortally wounded. Quebec capitulated on September 17 ; the French garrison was conveyed by agreement to the nearest French port; and in the following year the conquest of all Canada was achieved. This event threw a lustre over the close of the reign of George II., which in other respects had not been inglorious. He died suddenly on October 25, 1760, at the age of 77, from the bursting of the right ventricle of the heart. Medal commemorating Battle of Plassy. Obv. victory . at . plassy clive . commandee. Victory without wings, bearing tropby and palm, seated on elephant, to left. Below, soc # p _ A C- ' Rev. : INIYRIES . ATTONED . PRIVILEGE . AVGMENTED . TERRITORY . ACQVIRED. Clive, . „ . . . . T j- x> i A SOVBAH GIVEN TO BENGAL in Roman costume, giving a sceptre to an Indian. Below, mdcclviii. (in imitation of the rex parthis datus, and the like, of the Roman imperial coinage). CHAPTER XXXI. George hi., I. 1738 ; r. 1760-1820. PROM THE KING'S ACCESSION TO THE RECOGNITION OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE, AND THE PEACE OF VERSAILLES, A.D. 1760-1783. § 1. Accession of George III., and settlement of the government. King's marriage and coronation. § 2. State of the campaign. Negotiations. Pitt resigns. § 3. War with Spain. Lord Bute's administration. Peace of Fontainebleau. § 4. Rise and progress of the Indian empire. § 5. Unpopularity of lord Bute. Wilkes and the North Briton, No. XLV. General warrants. § 6. Grenville's American Stamp Act. § 7. Lord Rockingham prime minister. Succeeded by lord Chatham. Lord North's American taxes. § 8. Proceedings against Wilkes. Disturb- ances in America. Lord North prime minister. Royal Marriage Act. § 9. Effect of the tea duties in America. Commencement of the re- bellion. Skirmish at Lexington. Battle of Bunker's Hill. § 10. Attempts at conciliation. American independence. Progress of the war. § 11. La Fayette. Philadelphia taken. Capitulation of Saratoga. Treaty between France and the Americans. § 12. Death of Chatham. § 13. The French fleet in America. Actions in the Channel. Spain joins the French and Americans. Paul Jones. § 14. Lord George Gordon's riots. § 15. Rodney's victory at Cape St. Vincent. The "Armed Neutrality." American campaign. Battles of Camden and Eutau Springs. Capitulation of York Town. § 16. Naval engagements. Losses and disasters. Lord Rockingham's second ministry. Inde- pendence of the Irish parliament. Parliamentary reform. § 17. Rodney's victory in the West Indies. Lord Shelburne's ministry. A.D. 1760-1761. MARRIAGE OF GEORGE III. 605 Foundering of the Royal George. Siege of Gibraltar. § 18. Treaty with America, and recognition of American independence. Peace of Versailles. § 1. The young prince who now ascended the throne of his grand- father, with the title of George III., was 22 years of age. His person was tall and strongly built, his countenance open and engaging. In his first address to the parliament he inserted, with his own hand, the words " Born and educated in this country, I glory in the name of Briton " — an expression which could not but awaken a cordial echo in a nation governed by foreigners during the greater part of a century. His conduct answered to his pro- fessions. The party distinctions which had prevailed during the reign of his grandfather seemed to be forgotten ; the Jacobites, who had absented themselves, returned to court, and some of the principal of them obtained places in the royal household. The old ministers were retained ; but it was soon evident that the earl of Bute would be the king's principal adviser, and both he and prince Edward, the king's next brother, were made privy councillors. After the dissolution of parliament (December 23), the seals of secretary of state were transferred from lord Holderness to lord Bute — a step in which Pitt acquiesced, though he had not been consulted. At the same time Legge vacated the chancellorship of the exchequer, and was succeeded by lord Barrington ; and lord Henley, who after the resignation of lord Hardwicke had been made lord keeper only, now became lord chancellor. Next year the king contracted a marriage with Charlotte, second sister of the duke of Mecklenburg Strelitz, then only 17 years of age. In person she was short, thin, and pale ; but she was sensible, cheerful, and good-tempered. The king is said to have been capti- vated by a spirited letter which she wrote to Frederic of Prussia, beseeching him to spare her country. She arrived at St. James's September 8, 1761, and the marriage was celebrated on the same day. The coronation followed (September 22). § 2. During the last two or three years the campaign in Germany had proceeded with varied success ; and on the whole the con- tending parties stood much in the same position. The British con- tingents, under the marquess of Granby and general Conway, had made some atonement for the disgrace of lord Sackville at Minden. The losses sustained by France had made that country sincerely desirous of peace. Its affairs were now conducted by the duke de Choiseul, always, however, under the control of Madame de Pompa- dour, the mistress of Louis XV. A conference at Augsburg was agreed to by all the belligerents ; but between France and England Choiseul preferred a separate negociation ; and with this view M. de 606 GEORGE III. Chap. xxx. Bussy was accredited to London,, and Mr. Hans Stanley to Paris. To strengthen his negociations, Pitt sent an expedition under commo- dore Keppel, with 9000 troops under general Hodgson, against Belleisle, a barren island, strongly fortified, on the coast of Brittany. Belleisle was taken (June 7) ; and it was considered that it might be set off against Minorca, not for its importance, but as a point of honour in the sight of France. Good news also arrived from other quarters. The island of Dominica had been reduced by lord Bolls ; and in the east Pondicherry had been captured, the last of the French strongholds in India. Ohoiseul might probably have yielded all the points demanded by Pitt, had not the court of France been supported by that of Madrid. Ferdinand VI. had died in 1759 ; and his brother Charles, formerly king of Naples, now ruled Spain and the Indies with the title of Charles III. He had been obliged to relinquish Naples to his third son Ferdinand, as by the treaty of Vienna the crowns of Spain and Naples could not be united on the same head. Charles naturally regarded the French Bourbons as the head of his house. He was desirous of acting with them, and he had besides several causes of complaint against England. He now proposed -that the contemplated peace between England and France should be guaranteed by Spain, and that at the same time certain claims of Spain on England should be adjusted. Pitt at once refused, and the court of Spain was informed that no negociations could be opened with it through the medium of France. In consequence of this refusal the Family Compact, as it was called, was concluded (August 15, 1761). France and Spain mutually agreed to regard for the future the enemy of either as the enemy of both, and to guarantee their respective dominions. The king of Naples too, as a Bourbon, also acceded to this alliance. A secret convention was also entered into, that in case England and France should be still at war on May 1, 1762, Spain should declare war against England, in consideration of which France should restore Minorca to Spain. As soon as Pitt obtained certain intelligence of this agreement, he strongly advised that the Spanish declaration should be antici- pated. He urged the importance of striking the first blow against Spain, and he showed that expense would be saved by taking the Spaniards unawares, and seizing their merchantmen and treasure- ships ; but in this daring counsel he could find none to second him, except his relative Temple. They consequently tendered their resignations, which were received by the king with many gracious expressions towards Pitt (October 5, 1761). Thus fell an adminis- tration which had raised England to a great pitch of military glory. Pitt was offered the governorship of Canada, without residence, and a.d. 1761-1762. WAR WITH SPAIN. 607 5000Z. a year; or the duchy of Lancaster, with about the same emolument. These offers he rather haughtily refused, but he accepted the title of baroness Chatham for his wife, lady Hester Pitt, and a pension of 30001. per annum for three lives — his own, lady Chatham's, and their eldest son's. Pitt's retirement paved the way for lord Bute. § 3. Pitt's anticipations were fulfilled. No sooner were the Spanish West Indiamen safe in harbour, than the Spaniards began to alter their tone ; and before the close of the year the ambassadors on both sides were dismissed from London and Madrid. Before his departure, the Spanish minister inveighed against Pitt by name, in an angry memorial which he presented to lord Egremont, the new secretary. War was declared against Spain (January 4, 1762). Shortly afterwards France and Spain made a joint demand on Portugal to renounce her neutrality, and large bodies of Spanish troops were collected on the Portuguese frontiers to enforce it. The king of Portugal gave a spirited refusal, and applied to England for assistance, which Bute, in spite of his pacific policy, could not refuse. The duke of Newcastle still continued at the head of the treasury, though the chief share of power fell to Bute. But as Bute had refused to support the king of Prussia and had withdrawn the subsidy, Newcastle tendered his resignation, and was surprised to find it accepted (May 14, 1762). Bute was advanced to be first lord of the treasury ; George Grenville became secretary of state in his stead, and sir Francis Dashwood was made chancellor of the ex- chequer. Bute's rapid promotion procured him many enemies. A strong whig phalanx, headed by Pitt, was arrayed against him. Wilkes, who was now beginning to emerge into notice, directed popular indignation against him in the North Briton, and was assisted by his friend and fellow-satirist, the poet Churchill. The thoughts of Bute were constantly directed towards peace, though the arms of Great Britain and her allies had been successful on every side. In Germany, Frederick and prince Ferdinand had been victorious. In Portugal, the British troops under Burgoyne had arrested the progress of the Spaniards. In the West Indies, an armament under admiral Eodney and general Monckton had taken Martinique in January. Grenada, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent, subsequently surrendered; Guadaloupe had been taken in 1759, and thus the whole of the Caribbees were now in the power of Eng- land. The Havannah also capitulated after a desperate siege, where the booty, in treasure and merchandise, was computed at three millions (August 12). About the same time, in the eastern hemisphere, Manilla, the capital of the Philippine Islands, was taken ; and several rich Spanish prizes were captured at sea. 608 . GEORGE III. Chap. xxxi. In spite ot tnese brilliant successes, overtures for a peace, made through the neutral court of Sardinia, were readily caught at. Bute seems to have been alarmed at the great increase of the national debt, which had doubled during the war, and now amounted to 132,600,0002. A treaty, concluded at Paris (February 10, 1763), put an end to the Seven Years' War. By the peace of Paris Minorca was exchanged for Belleisle ; the provinces of Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, and Canada were ceded to England; the islands of Guadaloupe, Martinique, and St. Lucia were restored ; but Tobago, Dominica, St. Vincent, and Grenada were retained. These were the principal provisions with regard to the interests of England. By a clause in the treaty, all conquests made in any part of the world during the negociations were to be given up. This involved the cession of the Havannah and Manilla, the conquest of which was not yet known. Bute seemed inclined to yield them without an equivalent ; and it was only at the pressing instance of George Grenville and lord Egremont that Florida or Porto Kico was demanded in return. The former was readily conceded. § 4. Among the places restored to the French was also Pondi- cherry in the East Indies ; but they could never recover their lost4n- fluence in that country, and soon after this their East India Company was dissolved. The genius and courage of Clive had now converted an association of traders into the rulers of a large and magnificent empire. Though established in the latter part of Elizabeth's reign, it was not till the time of Charles II. that the East India Company made any considerable advances in wealth and power. Charles granted them a new charter, conveying many exclusive rights and privileges, and also ceded to them the settlement of Bombay, which he had received as a marriage portion with Catherine of Braganza. Fort St. George and the town of Madras had already been founded in the Carnatic. The first English factories were settled at Bantam and Surat, but were subsequently abandoned. At the period of the Revolution a new company was instituted, the rivalship of which produced much mischief, till the two were amalgamated in 1702. In 1698, a grant of land on rent having been obtained from Aurungzebe, the Mogul emperor, at Chutternuttee, on the river Hooghly, Fort William was erected, under shelter of which the town of Calcutta, ultimately expanded into the magnificent capital of modern India. Thus, before the accession of the house of Hanover, the three presidencies of Madras (Fort St. George), Calcutta (Fort William), and Bombay, had already been erected ; but no central government yet existed. These settlements had but little territory attached to them, and often trembled for their own safety. The French, who had established an East India Company in the a.d. 1755-1757. RISE OF CLIVE. ■ 609 reign of Louis XIV., were our only formidable rivals in India. The Portuguese were our allies, and their power was but small; the Dutch confined their attention chiefly to Java and the neighbouring islands. The French had two important settlements : Chander- nagore on the Hooghly, higher up than Fort William ; and Pondi- cherry on the coast of the Carnatic, about 80 miles south of Madras. They also possessed two fertile islands in the Indian Ocean : the Isle of Bourbon, and Mauritius or the Isle of France. The wars of the mother countries extended to these colonies. In 1746 the French under La Bourdonnais took Madras; and Dupleix, governor of Pondicherry, in violation of the terms of the capitulation, carried the principal inhabitants to that town, and paraded them through the streets in triumph. Madras was restored at the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. During the peace, Dupleix, by intrigues with the native princes, endeavoured to extend the French empire in India at the expense of the English; but he was en- countered by the superior genius and valour of Clive, a writer or clerk, who had been among the captives of Madras. The taking of Arcot, the victory over Eajah Sahib at Arnee, the capture of the^ Great Pagoda, were some of the wonderful exploits of that merchant-soldier. After a two years' visit to England for the sake of his health, Clive returned to India in 1755, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the king's service, and his appointment from the company as governor of Fort St. David. His abilities were soon called into action. Surajah Dowlah, viceroy of Bengal, had taken Calcutta, and thrust the English in- habitants, to the number of 146, into a small and loathsome dungeon known as the Black Hole, where in one night 123 of them were stifled (June 20, 1756). But a signal vengeance followed. In January, 1757, Clive, with an army of 900 Europeans and 1500 sepoys, retook Calcutta ; kept at bay the Surajah's army of 40,000 men, and compelled him to make peace. Shortly after Clive took Chandernagore, as before related. His next exploit was to defeat the Surajah Dowlah at Plassy (1757). The nabob had 50,000 men and 40 pieces of cannon, Clive only 1000 Europeans and 2000 sepoys, with eight field-pieces and two howitzers ; yet the rout was complete, and the Surajah lost all his artillery and baggage. This victory decided the fate of India, and laid the foundation of our empire. Meer Jaffier, a rebellious vassal of the Surajah's, was installed in the capital of Moorshedabad as nabob of Bengal, Orissa, and Bahar ; his predecessor was put to death, and the new nabob ceded to the English all the land within the Mahratta ditch or fortification round Calcutta, and all the country from Calcutta to the sea. Clive was now made governor of Bengal 610 GEORGE III. Chap. xxxi. "by the East India Company. In return for Give's assistance against the emperor of Delhi, Meer Jaffier presented him with a domain worth 27,000Z. a year. In 1760 Clive returned to England, having previously defeated an attempt of the Dutch upon Calcutta. He received an Irish peerage as lord Clive and baron Plassy, and obtained a seat in the House of Commons. The hostilities between the French and English in India, after the declaration of war in 1758, have already been related, to which it may be added that the defeat of Lally Tollendal by sir Eyre Coote, at Wandewash, and the surrender of Pondicherry (January 17, 1761), secured the Carnatic. The further history of India will be resumed hereafter. § 5. As Grenville was deficient in those qualities which are required for the leadership of the House of Commons, he was pre- vailed upon with great reluctance to make way for Fox, and to exchange the post of secretary of state for that of first lord of the admiralty. The seals were conferred upon the earl of Halifax, Fox still remaining paymaster of the forces, with a seat in the cabinet. Out of doors the peace was very unpopular. Bute was hissed and pelted. But, in spite of a bitter invective against it by Pitt, the address was carried by a large majority in the commons. Another cause of lord Bute's unpopularity was his Scotch descent. Wilkes branded him with the epithet of favourite. In some of the rural districts he was burnt under the effigy of a jack-boot, a rustic allusion to his name (Bute) ; and on more than one occasion when he walked the streets, he was accused of heing surrounded by prize-fighters. These symptoms of popular dislike drove him to resign (April 8, 1763), to the surprise of all. Fox was at the same time raised to the upper house with the title of lord Holland, still, however, retaining his office. Bute was succeeded by George Grenville, who became first lord of the treasury and chancellor of the exchequer* (April 16). The two secretaries of state were lords Egremont and Halifax. Parliament was prorogued by a speech from the throne, in which the king adverted to the late peace as honourable to the crown and beneficial to the people (April 18). This was immediately attacked in the North Briton (April 23), in the celebrated No. 45. Grenville was impolitic enough to order the prosecution both of author and publisher ; and to this circumstance the article owed its notoriety, for it did not equal, either in ability or virulence, many of the preceding numbers. On April 30, Wilkes was arrested in * "Lord Bute," said WaTburton, his 1 First, he is a Scotchman ; secondly, he is political opponent, " is a very unfit the king's friend ; and thirdly, he is an man to be prime minister of England. ' honest man." A.D. 1763-1764. WILKES AND THE NORTH BRITON. 611 his own house by virtue of what was called " a general warrant," that is, a warrant not specifying any particular person, but directed against "the authors, printers, and publishers" of the obnoxious paper. His papers were seized at the same time, and he was committed to the Tower. On May 6 he was brought before chief justice Pratt, who, without pronouncing any opinion on general warrants, discharged him on the ground that his offence did not destroy his privilege as a member of parliament. In the next session, which opened November 15, Wilkes took his seat as usual. Warm debates ensued in the commons. It was voted that No. 45 was a false, scandalous, and malicious libel, and it was ordered to be burnt by the hangman (December 3). The attempt to execute this sentence in the Royal Exchange produced a serious riot. A jack-boot and a petticoat, the latter denoting the princess of Wales, were thrown into the fire prepared for the paper, the mob shouting " Wilkes and liberty for ever ! " A few days after, he recovered 1000Z. damages against Mr. Wood, the under- secretary of state, for seizing his papers (December 6). Some delay was occasioned in the measures against Wilkes from his having been wounded in a duel by Mr. Martin, who challenged him on account of a libel in some former numbers of the North Briton. Wilkes fled to Paris, and at length was expelled from the house by a unanimous vote (January 19, 1764). On February 21, a verdict was obtained against him, both for No. 45, and for an obscene and scurrilous pamphlet, called an " Essay on Woman," a parody of Pope's " Essay on Man," containing reflections on lord Sandwich, secretary of state, bishop Warburton, and others. Wilkes remaining still abroad, and not appearing to receive judgment, was outlawed. Wilkes's case derives its chief importance from the question which it raised respecting the legality of general warrants. Chief justice Pratt and the most eminent lawyers of the day declared them illegal from their form, their tenor being to appre- hend all persons guilty of a certain crime, thus assuming a guilt which remained to be proved. For the present, however, the government had influence enough to postpone a resolution to that effect being carried in the commons. § 6. Another impolitic step of Grenville's, but attended with far more momentous consequences, was that of extending the Stamp Act to the North American colonies. The late war had been very expensive ; and, as it had been partly undertaken for the defence of those colonies, it occurred to Grenville that they might not unjustly be called upon to bear a part of the burthen. He consulted the agents of the several North American colonies in London upon his project, inquired whether any other tax would be more agree- 612 GEORGE III. Chap, xxxl able to them, and gave a year's notice of his plan by a resolution entered on the Journals of the Commons in March, 1764. The American colonies had been continually increasing in strength and prosperity, and at this time they consisted of 13 states, with a population of about two millions of whites, and half a million of coloured people. They were — 1-4. The New England colonies, settled by the puritans, consisting of the four states of Massachu- setts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Khode Island; 5. New York ; 6. New Jersey ; 7. Pennsylvania ; 8. Delaware ; 9. Maryland ; 10. Virginia; 11, 12. The two states of North and South Carolina; and 13. Georgia. Each of these colonies was governed on the English model, and had a House of Assembly elected by the people. There was also a governor appointed by the crown, and a council. In Connecticut the governor was elective. Hitherto the mother country and her colonies had lived in tolerable harmony ; but at this time the Americans were in a dis- tressed and irritable condition. They were suffering from the effects of a terrible border war with the Indians ; they considered themselves aggrieved by new duties imposed on their foreign trade, as well as by the stringent regulations by which their illicit traffic with the Spanish colonies was repressed. All were opposed to a stamp act, which from its nature was far more obnoxious than any custom-house duties. The latter might be regarded as imperial, the former was a sort of local excise. They refused to suggest any substitute, but based their opposition on the broad principle, that there should be no taxation without representation, and that they were not represented in the House of Commons. They intimated however a wish that, as in former instances, a letter from the secretary of state, in the king's name, requiring contributions for his service, should be laid before the different Houses of Assembly. It is possible that such a project might have succeeded, partially at least, for a short time longer, and have produced 100,000Z. a year, as much as was expected from the Stamp Act. In February, 1765, the measure passed through parliament. It attracted little or no notice. Pitt was absent; Barre alone raised Lis voice against it, and was languidly supported by three or four more. Nobody suspected that this little spark would burst out into a vast and inextinguishable flame. Even Dr. Franklin, the agent for Pennsylvania, one of the chief and ablest representatives of the views of the colonists, expected little else than acquiescence from his countrymen. (Supplement, Note XV.) Far different was the spirit which the act excited in some parts of America. It was reprinted with a death's head at top in place of the king's arms, and was hawked about under the title of " The a.v. 1764-1765. THE AMERICAN STAMP ACT. 613 Folly of England and Ruin of America." The vessels in Boston harbour hoisted their colours half-mast high, and the muffled bells of the churches tolled out a death-knell. The Virginian House of Assembly, roused by the eloquence of Patrick Henry, took the lead in opposition, and drew up a series of resolutions, accompanied by a petition to the king, denying the right of the mother country to tax the colonists without their consent. Most of the otber assem- blies followed this example, and a general congress was appointed to meet at New York in October, when resolutions and petitions, much the same as those of Virginia, were adopted. In some parts associations were formed against the importation or use of British manufactures ; and presently a small party began to appear, who promulgated their views of a federal republic. When the ships arrived with the stamps, it became necessary to stow them away in some place of safety. Nobody would use them, and the persons who had been appointed distributors resigned their posts. § 7. While these things were going on, the author of the mis- chief had been compelled to resign his office. On the 12th of January, 1765, George III. was attacked with a severe illness, accompanied with symptoms of that dreadful malady which darkened his later years. On his recovery, in April, he was the first to propose a regency. The ministers wished to leave out his mother's name, and the king had been surprised into giving his consent, on the assurance that, if it were inserted in the bill, it would be struck out by the House of Commons. It was unani- mously restored by the house. But the king's mind was alienated from Grenville in consequence of his behaviour on this occasion, and shortly after he entered into negociations with Pitt and Temple. On their refusal, the king applied to the marquess of Rockingham. This nobleman, who was descended from a sister of the famous earl of Strafford, and thus inherited his great estates, now became first lord of the treasury (July 13, 1765). Rockingham was one of the greatest landholders in England. Without possessing any shining talents, his judgment was sound and his character honourable. His chief passion was horse-racing. Under him the duke of Grafton and general Conway became secretaries of state; Mr. William Dowdeswell, chancellor of the exchequer ; and the veteran duke of Newcastle was propitiated with the privy seal. Pitt was conciliated by the raising of his confidential friend, chief justice Pratt, to the peerage, with the title of lord Camden. The state of America was very embarrassing for the new ministry. To withdraw the Stamp Act was regarded as an evil precedent and a confession of weakness : to press it would be painful, and might had to dangerous consequences. The vigour with which Pitt dc- 28 614 GEORGE III. Chap. xxxi. nounced Grenville and attacked his measure, in the session of 1766, decided the cabinet. They brought in two bills : one to repeal the Stamp Act, the other declaring the power of parliament over the colonies to be supreme. Both measures were carried. The majority of the colonists were still loyal, and the news of the repeal of the obnoxious act was received with great satisfaction in America. It was not, however, in human nature but that some soreness should be left behind, as well as a still more dangerous feeling of secret triumph at this recognition of their strength. (Sup. N. XVI.) Rockingham adopted other measures of a popular nature. A silk bill, introduced by the late ministry, had occasioned serious riots in the preceding year among the Spitalfields weavers; siege had been laid to the duke of Bedford's house in Bloomsbury-square, and it became necessary to disperse the rioters by means of the military. Rockingham now restrained the importation of foreign silks. He also repealed the unpopular cider-tax, obtained a resolution of the House of Commons declaring general warrants illegal, and another condemning the seizure of papers in cases of libel. The ministry, however, was tottering through internal weakness ; lord Northing- ton, the chancellor, told the king at the end of the session that they could not go on, and advised him to send for Mr. Pitt. This time Pitt accepted office, and succeeded in forming a ministry ; but, to the surprise of all, he reserved for himself the office of privy seal, with a peerage as earl of Chatham (July 30, 1766). Pitt named the duke of Grafton as head of the treasury ; Charles Townshend became chancellor of the exchequer ; general Conway continued secretary of state and leader of the House of Commons, with the earl of Shelburne * as his colleague ; and lord Camden was made chancellor. The prospect of Pitt's support in the House of Commons had been the chief inducement with most of the ministers to take office, and they were naturally much disappointed to find themselves deprived of it by his elevation to the peerage. " This fatal title," writes Walpole, "blasted all the affection which his country had borne to him." To increase his mortification, his ministry was assailed by the most scurrilous lampooners, hounded on by the ceaseless malignancy of Temple. Disappointment at his proceed- ings did not end here. He appeared but seldom even in the lords ; and in the spring of 1767 .he was so prostrated by the gout or some mysterious malady, that he would neither see any one of his colleagues on the most urgent business, nor attend to business. * William Petty, 2nd earl of Shelburne, l minister in 1782 (see p. 631), and was in the Irish peerage, and 2nd Baron created marquess of Lansdownc in 178-4. "Wycombe, in England, became prime I a.d. 1766-1769. PROCEEDINGS AGAINST WILKES. 615 Edmund Burke, who was now rising into eminence, adverted to him in one of his speeches as a great invisible power — a being so im- measurably high that not even his own cabinet could get access to him.* In his absence the opposition carried a motion to reduce the land-tax, by which the revenue was deprived of half a million. To repair this loss, Charles Townshend resolved to raise a revenue in America by small taxes on tea, glass, paper, and painters' colours, the whole amount of which would not exceed 40,000?. a year. He died in the following September, in the 41st year of his age, and lord North accepted the vacant office of chancellor of the exchequer (December 1). Changes soon after occurred in the ministry, and the new office of colonial secretary was established, in which the earl of Hillsborough f was installed (January, 1768). § 8. In the elections of 1768 for a new parliament, the second of this reign, Wilkes, who was still under a sentence of outlawry, being rejected by the city of London, contrived to obtain his return ai member for Middlesex (April 20). He was committed to prison. On the road a vast mob removed the horses from his coach and drew it to a tavern on Cornhill. But Wilkes effected his escaps, and delivered himself up at the King's Bench prison. Parliament met on May 10, when a vast concourse assembled in St. George's Fields, expecting to see Wilkes emerge from confinement on his way to the House of Commons ; but being disappointed in their hopes, they became ungovernable, and were fired on by the soldiers. To add to the disorders, the sailors and coal-heavers had risen in a body, filling the whole city with consternation. On June 18 Wilkes's sentence of outlawry was reversed by lord Mansfield ; but the original verdicts were confirmed, and Wilkes was sentenced to two years' imprisonment, computed from the day of his arrest, and to pay two fines of 500Z. each for No. 45 and the "Essay on Woman." Wilkes appealed to the House of Commons, but it pro- nounced him guilty of an insolent libel, for publishing a letter of lord Weymouth's, now secretary of state, to the magistrates of Surrey, accompanied with some caustic remarks. On the motion of lord Barrington he was expelled the house for the second time (February 3, 1769). His popularity was undiminished. In the city he had been elected alderman of Farringdon Without; and * In a letter written to a private friend the year before, Burke says of him : " A few days will show whether he will take this part, or that of continuing on his back at Hayes, talking fashion, excluded from all ministerial and incapable of all parliamentary service ; for his gout is worse than ever, but his pride may dis- able him worse than his gout." — "Corre- spondence," i. 341. Whether it was gout or mortified pride which determined Chatham's strange conduct on this oc- casion, it is not easy to decide. f Wills Hill, first earl of Hillsborough, created marquess of Downshire in Ireland in 17S9 ; ancestor of the present marquess. 616 GEOEGE III. Chap. xxxi. when the election for Middlesex came on, he was again unanimously returned (February 16). The House insisted on his exclusion (February 17). A third time he was returned (March 16), and a third time the House of Commons declared him ineligible (March 17), and ordered a new writ to be issued. Their tactics were now changed. Wilkes was opposed by colonel Luttrell (April 13) ; and the house pronounced Luttrell duly elected, though Wilkes had a great majority (April 16). So ended " the fifth act of this tragi- comedy," as Burke called it. But though the ministers carried their point, they had rendered Wilkes the idol of the nation. In the autumn he brought an action against lord Halifax for having seized his papers, and obtained 4000Z. damages (November 10). Meanwhile Townshend's ill-advised taxes had revived in the North American colonies all the animosity occasioned by the Stamp Act. In this opposition the state of Massachusetts took the lead. A violent altercation arose between the House of Assembly and Bernard the governor, who finally, by lord Hillsborough's instruc- tions, dissolved the Assembly (July 1, 1768). Biots of the most serious description ensued at Boston. The other American states, though not so violent, displayed a sort of passive resistance. Asso- ciations were formed calling themselves " Sons of Liberty," and even " Daughters of Liberty," to enter into non-importation agreements, and forbear the use of tea. Subsequently it became customary to strip those who refused to enter into these agreements, and to cover them with tar and feathers. (Supplement, Note XVII.) The cabinet now deemed it prudent to propose a repeal of the obnoxious taxes ; but lord North, at the suggestion of lord Hills- borough, supported the tea-duties, merely as a question of right. Lord Hillsborough communicated the determination of the ministry in a circular to the governors of the North American colonies, but in terms so ungracious, as only served to increase the irritation. Chatham, who had held aloof from the administration, resigned (October 15, 1768), and the duke of Grafton, first lord of the Treasury, became the recognized premier. In July, 1769, Chatham was able to attend the king's levee, and when parliament opened in January, 1770, he appeared in his place and denounced in severe terms both the foreign and the American policy of the ministers, all of whom had been his own chosen colleagues in office a few weeks before. Shortly after Grafton resigned, and North accepted the place of first lord of the treasury, in addition to that of chan- cellor of the exchequer, and thus became prime minister. As two of the king's brothers, the dukes of Cumberland and Gloucester, had contracted marriages, the former with Mrs. Horton, sister of colonel Luttrell, the latter with an illegitimate daughter a.d. 1772-1774. THE AMERICAN TEA-DUTY. 617 of sir Edward Walpole, the king caused the Royal Marriage Bill to be introduced into the House of Lords. By this act every prince or princess, the descendant of George II., except only the issue of princesses married abroad, is prohibited from marrying without the king's consent before attaining the age of 25. After that age they may be relieved from the king's veto if, after formal notice to the privy council, parliament expresses no disapprobation of the pro- posed marriage within 12 months (1772). This statute still remains in force. § 9. With the exception of some disturbances in Massachusetts, no great disaffection appeared in America. The colonists apparently acquiesced in the tea-duty, which was only 3c?. per pound. But in 1773 an act was committed which, though far from being so intended, finally estranged the American colonies. The East India Company had contracted a large debt. An enormous stock of tea was accumulated in their warehouses, for which they could find no sale. In order to relieve them by procuring a market for their stock, lord North now proposed that the tea exported to America, which had a drawback of only three-fifths of the duty paid in England, should have a drawback of the whole duty, thus leaving it subject only to the 3c?. duty in America. This appeared to be a boon, not only to the East India Company, but also to the American colonists, as it would enable them to purchase their tea at a cheaper rate than they could obtain it even before the 3d duty was im- posed. Accordingly the East India Company freighted several ships with tea, and appointed consignees in America for its sale. Meanwhile events had occurred which' embittered the feeling of the colonists against England. Mr. Thomas Whately, Grenville's private secretary, and under-secretary of state to lord Suffolk, had been engaged in a private correspondence with Hutchinson, governor of Massachusetts, Oliver, the lieutenant-governor, and other officers of the crown in that province. After Whately died, these letters were purloined, and were confidentially communicated to Dr. Franklin. At Franklin's earnest solicitations, and on his solemn vow of secrecy, they were forwarded to Boston, to be shown, as he promised, only to a few influential friends, and no others. No copies were to be taken. The promise was not observed. The letters were formally laid before the House of Assembly of Massachusetts ; they were voted subversive of the constitution, and printed, and a petition was drawn up for the removal of Hutchinson and Oliver. The matter was subsequently referred to the privy council, where Wedderburn, the solicitor-general, attacked Franklin for his breach of confidence in a most biting and sarcastic speech (January 29, 1774). The privy council decided that the petition was founded 618 GEORGE III. Chap. xxxi. on false and erroneous allegations, and that it was groundless, vex- atious, and scandalous. Two days after, Franklin was deprived of his post as deputy postmaster-general in America. (Sup.N.XVIII.) Public feeling in America was in a great state of excitement, when the first tea-ships made their appearance. It was given out that they were only the forerunners of further taxation ; that the ships were laden, not with tea, but with fetters. The consignees were threatened, and obliged to fling up their engagements. At Charleston the teas were allowed to be landed, but not to be sold, and were stowed in cellars, where they perished from damp. The Boston people went further. On December 18, 1773, a body of men disguised as Mohawk Indians boarded the tea-ships and scattered their cargoes in the water, to the value, it is computed, of 18,O0OZ. To punish this outrage, lord North carried through parliament certain acts for transferring the Boston custom-houses to Salem, another port of Massachusetts, and he made important alterations in the charter granted to that state by William III. (March 14, 1774). This last step excited the jealousy and alarm of the other states. They were encouraged to resist by finding that they were supported by a powerful party in the British parliament, which numbered in its ranks Chatham, Burke, Charles James Fox, third son of lord Holland, and other eminent men. The royalist colony of Virginia, where the popular feeling was directed by Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson, was one of the first to give in its adhesion to the puritan Massachusetts. In imitation of the puritan opposition in Charles I.'s time, they set on foot a " Solemn League and Cove- nant." Committees of correspondence were established, and a congress was summoned at Philadelphia. Delegates from 12 colonies met in September, and debated with closed doors. The assembly drew up a Declaration of Rights, claiming all the liberties of Englishmen, and adopted resolutions to suspend all trade be- tween England and America till their grievances were redressed. Addresses were prepared to the people of Great Britain, to the people of Canada, and to the king. After appointing another congress for May 10, 1775, the meeting quietly dispersed. (Sup. N. XIX.) When the parliament met in January, 1775, Burke brought forward his propositions for conciliation, and denounced the attempts which were making to coerce the Americans, as pregnant with the most fatal consequences. They were negatived by a large majority. Meanwhile a militia had been raised in Massachusetts, called minute men, because they were to be ready at a minute's notice ; arms also and other stores were provided, and deposited in an arsenal at Concord, a town about 18 miles from Boston. General a.d. 1775. THE AMERICAN REBELLION. 619 Gage, who commanded at Boston, secretly despatched a few hundred light troops ou the night of April 18, to destroy these stores. The design, however, had oozed out ; and the van, on reaching Lexington, a place about six miles from Concord, found about 70 militiamen, part of their main army, drawn up on the parade.* A collision took place, and several Americans were killed and wounded. The troops then proceeded to Concord, spiked three guns, and destroyed some stores. But the whole country, already prepared for this event, was roused ; the British, on their return, were surrounded and galled on every side by an incessant fire, poured upon them by marksmen posted behind walls and hedges. Their loss was 273 killed and 174 wounded, while the Americans, sheltered by their mode of fighting, did not lose a third of that number. The ardour of the Americans was excited. A force of 20,000 men was raised in the New England provinces, and blockaded general Gage in Boston ; whilst a party of Connecticut men marched to Lake Champlain, and surprised and captured the forts of Ticonderoga and Crown Point. On the appointed day the congress met at Philadelphia. They prohibited the export of provisions to any British colony, the supply of necessaries to the British army and navy, and the negociation of bills drawn by British officers. They took measures for pro- viding supplies of men and money. They appointed, as com- mander-in-chief, George Washington, who had distinguished himself in the wars with the French. On June 21 Washington set out to take the command of the army blockading Boston. The English had then been reinforced by divisions under general Burgoyne, general William Howe, brother of lord Howe, and general Clinton. Their whole force amounted to about 10,000 men. A considerable body of Americans, having been sent to occupy Bunker's Hill, proceeded by mistake to Breed's Hill, which also forms part of the peninsula on which Charlestown stands ; and as that frontier overlooks Boston, from which it is separated only by an arm of the sea about as broad as the Thames at London, it became necessary to dislodge them. This was not effected till after three assaults, and with the loss of 1000 men, while the Americans did not lose half that number. This is known as the battle of Bunker's Hill (June 17). (Supplement, Note XX.) § 10. A civil war was now fairly kindled. Yet the Americans were still reluctant to break off from the mother country, and in June congress signed a petition to the king, expressing their loyalty and their desire for reconciliation. They called this petition * As the colonists were still under the crown, these were acts of rebellion which tho authorities were bound in duty to suppress. 620 GEORGE III. Chap, xxxl the " Olive Branch," and sent it to England by Richard Penn. In September it was submitted to the cabinet, by whom it was re- solved that no answer should be given, as they could not recog- nize the congress, which was a self-constituted body and guilty of rebellion. In his opening speech to parliament (October 26), the king stated that the rebellion had become general, showing a purpose of establishing an independent empire ; but as he would never consent to surrender the colonies, he was resolved to put an end to these disorders by decisive exertions. Loyal addresses poured in from all parts of the kingdom, expressive of satisfaction at the attitude assumed by the king and his ministers. Several changes took place in the ministry. The colonial secretaryship was transferred to lord George Germaine, formerly lord George Sackville, a man of some ability, but of a violent temper. On November 23, lord North obtained a repeal of the acts re- specting the port of Boston and the Massachusetts charter ; but, on the other hand, all commerce with the insurgent colonies was strictly forbidden, so long as they remained in a state of rebellion, and the capture of American goods and vessels was authorized. The burning of the town of Falmouth, and soon after of Norfolk on the Chesapeake, further incensed the Americans. They had this year invaded Canada, and laid siege to Quebec, which they blockaded during the winter ; but they were foiled in their purpose by general Guy Carleton, and decamped in the following summer. As Boston did not afford a good point for entering the country, and they were surrounded by a superior force, the British, under the command of sir William Howe, evacuated the place in March, 1776, by a sort of tacit convention with the " Select Men," that, if their embarkation was not molested, the town should not be injured. They proceeded by sea to Halifax and thence to Staten Island, and Boston was immediately occupied by Washington's troops. The recovery of this place was regarded as a triumph by the Americans. The inhabitants of Staten Island were loyally disposed, and ad- mitted the British without resistance. (Supplement, Note XXI.) At this time the determination to assert their independence was more fully entertained by the Americans. Their views had expanded with the progress of the rebellion. At first they had merely con- templated redress of grievances ; now, a large party was inclined to separation. These sentiments were kept alive by a host of writers, especially by Thomas Paine, an Englishman settled in America. A committee of five was appointed to draw up a Declaration of Independence, which was composed by Jefferson, corrected by Adams and Franklin, and subsequently amended by the congress. It was a long time, however, before the 13 colonies A.D. 1776. AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE. 621 could be induced to concur in it. South Carolina, Pennsylvania, New York, and Delaware, held back. Maryland acceded reluctantly. At length unanimity prevailed ; and, on July 4, 1776, the United Colonies declared themselves Free and Independent States. On July 12, eight days after the proclamation of Independence, lord Howe arrived off Sandy Hook, furnished with full powers to treat. He sent a letter with a flag of truce to Washington (July 14) ; but as it was addressed to G. Washington, Esq., instead of General Washington, it was not received. Howe then addressed himself to Franklin, but was met with discourtesy. (Sup. N. XXII.) The British government had collected a body of about 13,000 German troops, for which they paid large subsidies to the land- grave of Hesse, the duke of Brunswick, and other petty German sovereigns. On receiving these reinforcements, general Howe sent over in August a detachment of 8000 men to Brooklyn, where the Americans were defeated and compelled to evacuate the town. In this affair the American general Sullivan had been captured, through whom lord Howe induced congress to send three members to Staten Island, to discuss an accommodation, in the character of private gentlemen. The congress deputed three of their members known to be most inimical to the British connection : namely, Dr. Franklin, John Adams, and Edward Butledge of South Carolina. As this deputation at once declared that the colonies could enter into no peace, except as independent states, the conference proved abortive (September 11). (Supplement, Note XXIII.) Four days after, Howe crossed the water and attacked New York, which was abandoned on his approach. In the autumn the Ameri- cans gradually retired before the British, till they had crossed the Delaware into Pennsylvania. Howe was loth to pursue his ad- vantages, and he ordered lord Cornwallis, who had overrun New Jersey, not to attempt to follow the enemy over the Delaware, but to disperse his troops in winter quarters. Washington, on the other hand, recrossed that river, and by his skilful manoeuvres re- covered nearly the whole of the Jerseys. These successes produced a great moral effect on the Americans, and the congress which met at Baltimore conferred extraordinary powers upon their general. § 11. Out of hatred to this country, the American cause was popular in France. Franklin and Silas Deane had been sent as envoys to Paris, to solicit the support of the French ; and, though the latter were not yet prepared to declare openly in favour of the Americans, they gave them secret assistance. Many French officers proceeded to America to offer their services, among whom the most distinguished in rank and fortune was the young marquis de la Fayette, who was not yet 20 years of age. The Americans gave 28* 622 GEORGE III. Chap. xxxi. him the rank of major-general, and he undertook to serve without emolument. In England, Chatham appeared in the House of Lords (May 30, 1777), and made an eloquent appeal for con- ciliating America, hut was defeated hy a large majority. Public opinion, with the exception of a few turbulent demagogues, was against any surrender. To them it served as an occasion for ex- citing sedition and disturbance. The Rev. Mr. Home, better known by his subsequent name of Home Tooke, was convicted before lord Mansfield of a libel, for having, in advertising for subscriptions for the relief of the Americans, stigmatized the affairs at Lexington and Concord as inhuman murders ; and he was sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment. Abandoning the design of reaching Philadelphia through the Jerseys, Howe, withdrawing his troops, embarked them at New York, with the intention of proceeding by water. Finding the banks of the Delaware well fortified, he proceeded up the Chesapeake, and landed his men at the head of the Elk. Midway between that place and Philadelphia runs the stream called the Brandywine, where the Americans occupied a strong position. They were attacked and completely routed (September 11), and the British vanguard took possession of Philadelphia without resistance. In an attempt to recover it, the Americans were repulsed at German Town. These successes were more than counterbalanced by re- verses in the north, in which quarter General Burgoyne was directed to operate down the Hudson, in order to prevent any further attempts on Canada. He took Ticonderoga, but two advanced divisions, consisting chiefly of Germans, which he had thrown across the Hudson, were defeated at Bennington by general Starke. After collecting provisions, Burgoyne again crossed that river and advanced beyond Saratoga. He defeated the Americans at Be- rnis's Heights (September 19), but gained no advantage by the victory ; and he was himself shortly afterwards attacked near the same spot by Arnold, who was presently superseded by the abler general Gates. After waiting in vain for the expected co-operation of sir Henry Clinton, and having failed in an effort to force his way onwards, Burgoyne attempted to retrace his steps towards Canada. But on reaching the fords of the Hudson, near Saratoga, he found himself almost surrounded by the enemy; and, as his provisions were nearly exhausted, he had no course left but to enter into a convention with general Gates, by which he agreed to lay down his arms (October 17). His fighting men had been reduced to 3500, whilst Gates had upwards of 13,000 fit for duty. This capitula- tion was the turning-point in the American war. (Sup. N. XXIV.) The news of Burgoyne's disaster roused a patriotic spirit in Eng- a.d. 1778. DEATH OF LORD CHATHAM. 623 land. Voluntary subscriptions were opened, and a sum was raised sufficient to maintain 15,000 soldiers without the aid of govern- ment. In France the news had a decisive effect. It was officially announced to the American envoys that Louis XVI. was prepared to acknowledge the independence of America ; and two treaties of commerce and alliance with that country were signed at Paris (February 6, 1778). Now, when it was too late, lord North attempted measures of conciliation. He formally renounced the right of the British par- liament to tax America ; he appointed five commissioners with the most ample powers, who were instructed to raise no difficulties respecting the rank or legal position of those who might be ap- pointed to treat with them ; and it seemed to be intimated that any terms short of independence would be conceded. The bills were received by parliament with astonishment and dejection ; but no opposition was made, and the royal assent was given (March 11, 1778). Two days after, the marquis de Noailles, the French ambassador, delivered a note, couched in ironical and insulting terms, announcing the treaties concluded between France and the United States. At this juncture, in the hour of danger, lord North deserted his post. On the very next day he tendered his resigna- tion to the king, and advised him to send for lord Chatham ; butk the king's mind was embittered against that statesman by his previous condnct and his groundless insinuations of Bute's secret influence, which had long ceased to exist. The king expressed his determination not to accept the services of that " perfidious man," except in a subordinate post. § 12. But the days of Chatham were drawing to a close. Although suffering severely from the gout, he was supported into the house by his second son, William Pitt, and his son-in-law, lord Mahon (April 7). He had resolved to oppose a motion of the duke of Richmond for an address to the king recommending peace and the recognition of American independence ; for, though Chatham had always been the warm advocate of conciliation, he regarded such a step with the utmost abhorrence, as a dismemberment of the empire, and especially under present circumstances, when it would seem to be taken at the dictation of France. He made a speech against the motion, in which, though traces of faltering were sometimes visible, flashes of his former eloquence seemed to revive as if for some grand and last occasion. He was answered by the duke of Richmond ; and, as Chatham rose to reply, he staggered and fell back in convulsions. The peers crowded round him with marks of the deepest sympathy. He was carried to a neighbouring house, where, with the aid of a physician, he rallied 624 GEORGE III. Chap. xxxi. in some degree, and was conveyed to his house at Hayes, where, after lingering a few weeks, he expired (May 11), in the 70th year of his age. Parliament voted a public funeral, with a monument in Westminster Abhey, an annuity of 4000Z., to he attached for ever to the earldom of Chatham, and a sum of 20,000Z. to discharge his debts. The king had prevailed upon lord North to continue in office ; and the ministry was strengthened in the House of Lords by con- ferring the great seal upon Thurlow. § 13. The Americans had been encouraged by the French alli- ance, and by the retreat of sir Henry Clinton from Philadelphia to New York ; and congress refused to hold any conference with lord North's commissioners unless the British fleets and armies were firet withdrawn from America, or unless at all events the indepen- dence of the United States was acknowledged — conditions which were of course inadmissible; and all communications were conse- quently broken off (June 17). In July a French fleet of 12 ships of the line and six frigates, under count d'Estaing, appeared off the coast of America. This summer, Clinton reduced the whole pro- vince of Georgia, the inhabitants of which were for the most part loyally inclined. By orders from home, 5000 of his troops had been detached, and effected the conquest of St. Lucia, St. Pierre, and Miquelon ; but, on the other hand, the French took Dominica. Several actions were fought in the Channel, where admiral Keppel commanded the English fleet. In July a general engagement took place off Ushant. The French fleet, under d'Orvilliers, was much superior in force ; but the action was indecisive, and the respective fleets retired to Brest and Plymouth. Keppel had signalled sir Hugh Palliser, his second in command, to bear up with his squad- ron and renew the combat ; but, Palliser's ship being much crippled, he was unable to comply. Both of these admirals had seats in parliament, and, being political adversaries, they now began to incriminate each other. Keppel was brought to a court-martial on charges made against him by Palliser, and after a trial of 32 days was honourably acquitted. As he was the popular favourite, all London was illuminated on his acquittal, whilst Palliser was burnt in effigy. The latter, having demanded a court-martial on himself, was also acquitted; In the next summer (1779), Spain joined France in the war against England; and manifestoes were published, both at Paris and Madrid, containing long statements of alleged grievances. In answer to the former, Gibbon the historian drew up a Memoire Justificatif, which, though not exactly official, was circulated in the different courts of Europe as a state paper. The combined a.d. 1780. LORD GEORGE GORDON'S RIOTS. 625 Spanish and French fleets amounted to 66 sail of the line, besides frigates and other smaller vessels. The French began to threaten an invasion, and 50,000 men were spread along the coast of France, from Havre to St. Malo. The threat, as usual, created considerable alarm in England, which was perhaps all that was contemplated. Sir Charles Hardy, who now commanded the English fleet, had only 38 ships, and was therefore obliged to remain on the defensive ; but dissensions broke out between the enemy's admirals about the mode of conducting the war, and, the Spanish commander having retired into port, it became necessary for the French admiral to follow his example. It was at this time that Paul Jones, a Scotchman by birth, but hold- ing a commission in the American service, appeared off the eastern coast of Scotland, with three small ships of war and one armed brigantine. He attacked our Baltic fleet, captured the Serapis and the Scarborough that were convoying it (September 23), and carried his prizes to Holland. He then appeared in the Firth of Forth, and filled Edinburgh with alarm and humiliation, till a steady west; wind blew him out of the Firth. (Supplement, Note XXV.) The war was now raging in various quarters of the globe. The Spaniards formed the siege of Gibraltar ; the French made an attempt upon Jersey, took Senegal in Africa, but lost Goree. In the West Indies, D'Estaing, in the absence of admiral Byron, reduced St. Vincent and Grenada (July 4, 1779) ; but an attempt which he made, in conjunction with some American land forces, on Savannah, the capital of Georgia, was repulsed. § 14. The year 1780 is memorable for the " No popery riots " excited by lord George Gordon. To explain their origin it will be necessary to remember that, in 1778, sir George Savile had pro- cured the repeal of a very severe act against the Roman catholics, passed in 1699 in consequence of the number of priests that came over to England after the peace of Ryswick. By this law priests or Jesuits exercising their functions, or teaching, were liable to im- prisonment for life ; and all catholics who within six months after attaining the age of 18 refused to take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, and to subscribe the declarations against transubstantia- tion and the worship of saints, were declared incapable of purchasing, inheriting, or holding landed property, which passed, during their lives, to their next of kin who happened to be protestants. The very severity of this law had rendered it inoperative, yet its repeal excited among the more bigoted protestants, especially in Scotland, and among the English populace, the most violent animosity. Protestant associations were formed, both in England and Scotland ; and lord George Gordon, a younger son of the duke 626 GEORGE III. Chap. xxxi. of Gordon, a young man of turbulent temper, fond of notoriety, but without either ability or principle, put himself at the head of the movement. He made many silly and violent speeches in the House of Commons, and even went so far as to insinuate that the king himself was at heart a Eoman catholic. On June 2 he assembled a vast mob in St. George's Fields, to accompany him to the House with a petition against the recent changes in the penal laws. Many of the members of both Houses were insulted and ill-treated ; the mob broke into the lobby of the House of Commons, and, knocking violently at the door, shouted out " No popery ! " while lord George appeared at the top of the gallery stairs to encourage and incite them. There was then no organized police ; but lord North, who displayed the utmost courage and firmness, privately sent for a detachment of the Guards. Colonel Murray, a kinsman of lord George, drew his sword and threatened to run him through the body if any one of the mob entered the House. The Guards arrived and cleared the lobby. Lord George Gordon's proposal for immediate deliberation was rejected by a majority of 192 to 6, and the rioters dispersed, but not before they had burnt the chapels of the Sardinian and Bavarian legations. On the following day (Saturday) the mob was tolerably quiet ; but on Sunday the blue cockades reassembled in great numbers, and burnt two or three catholic chapels. On Monday more chapels were burnt, as well as the house of sir George Savile in Leicester Fields. On Tuesday, lord George having appeared in the House with a blue cockade, colonel Herbert desired him to remove it, or threatened to remove it himself. For some days the mob were in possession of London. Fiercer spirits had now appeared — men who thirsted for plunder and revolution. On Tuesday evening Newgate was broken open, the prisoners to the number of 300 were released, and the building, lately rebuilt at a cost of 140,000/., was reduced to a heap of smouldering ruins. Clerkenwell was also entered, and the houses of three or four magistrates were destroyed. Towards midnight the mob proceeded to the residence of lord Mansfield in Bloomsbury- square, destroyed all hid furniture, and his valuable library, con- taining letters which he had been collecting nearly 50 years, with the view of writing the history of his times. Lord and lady Mans- field had barely time to escape by the back door. On June 7 the riot was at its height. All the shops were shut, the mob were un- controlled masters, and most of the prisons were forced and their inmates released. The magistrates seemed paralyzed. Kennett, the lord mayor, displayed a great dereliction of duty, for which he was afterwards prosecuted and convicted ; while alderman Wilkes, on the contrary, was active in suppressing the tumult. The king him- a.d. 1780. THE " ARMED NEUTRALITY." 627 self showed the greatest resolution on this occasion. Having assembled a council, he caused a proclamation to be issued warning the people to keep within doors, and intimating that the military had instructions to act without waiting for orders from the civil magistrates. That night London bore the aspect of a place taken by storm. In various quarters parties of soldiers fired upon the mob, and the fire was sometimes returned ; people might be seen removing their goods in haste and alarm from the numerous houses which had been set on fire; and the streets resounded with the groans and yells of the wounded and the drunken. Nearly 500 persons were killed or wounded. But the riot was at an end : next day London was tranquil. Lord George Gordon was apprehended on the 9th, and committed to the Tower on a charge of high treason, of which he was acquitted ; but at last he died, mad, in Newgate, a prisoner on another charge (1793). Shortly afterwards 59 of the rioters were convicted, of whom 21 were executed. On this occasion Wedderburn, the solicitor-general, was made chief justice of the common pleas, with the title of lord Loughborough, his predecessor, sir William de Grey, having resigned in alarm. § 15. Admiral sir George Rodney gained a signal victory this year (January 16) over the Spanish fleet off Cape St. Vincent. Eight Spanish ships were taken or destroyed, and only four of their fleet escaped into Cadiz. He had previously captured a rich Spanish convoy in the Bay of Biscay. But the Spaniards amply avenged their losses by intercepting, off the Azores, our East and West India fleets, Avhich had been sent to sea with a convoy of only two men-of-war. These escaped, but nearly 60 sail of merchantmen, freighted with valuable cargoes, were carried into Cadiz. Besides her declared enemies, England had now to contend with the neutral powers, who, under cover of their flags, supplied our enemies with warlike stores. Our first quarrel on this account was with the Dutch ; and in February the empress Catharine of Eussia issued a declaration to the belligerent courts, in which it was insisted that free ships make free goods ; that no goods are contraband, except those declared such by treaty ; and that blockades to be acknowledged must be effective. This declaration became the basis of the " armed neutrality " subsequently estab- lished between Russia, Sweden, and Denmark, to which Holland and Prussia, and eventually Spain and Prance, also acceded. Its object was to support the claims of neutrals, if necessary, by force of arms. Thus all the more powerful nations of Europe seemed arrayed against England, if not actively, at all events in sullen and indirect hostility. Before the end of the year the Dutch were added to the number. On board an American packet that had 628 GEORGE III. Chap. xxxr. been captured, there was found among the papers of Mr. Laurens, an envoy to Holland, the plan of an alliance between Holland and America, dated as far back as September, 1778. Kemonstrances and negociations ensued; and on December 20, 1780, war was declared against the Dutch. During this year's campaign in America, sir Henry Clinton succeeded in taking Charleston after a protracted siege (May 12). All the American naval force at that place was destroyed or seized by admiral Arbuthnot, and 400 guns and a great quantity of stores were captured. On the news that a French fleet, with a considerable number of troops on board, had sailed for New England, Clinton re-embarked for New York with a por- tion of his force, leaving lord Cornwallis, with about 4000 men, to hold Charleston and South Carolina, and. if possible, to subdue North Carolina. General Gates was now approaching with a con- siderable army; and on August 16 an engagement ensued at Camden, in which the Americans were completely routed and dispersed, with the loss of all their baggage. The French ex- pedition against New England appeared off Rhode Island in July ; but admiral Arbuthnot, having been reinforced by admiral Graves, blockaded the French in Newport harbour during the remainder of the year. Clinton had now arrived at a just appreciation of the war. He perceived that his force was not strong enough, by some thousands, effectually to reduce the revolted provinces; and he wrote home to that effect, at the same time tendering his resignation. The campaign in America ceased in the next year (1781), though the war was not absolutely terminated. The last action, at Ewtaw Springs, about 60 miles from Charleston, fought on September 8, was one of the sharpest of the whole war. The American artillery was taken and retaken several times, and several hundreds of men were slain. Notwithstanding their great inferiority in numbers, the English, who were commanded by colonel Stewart, remained masters of the field ; yet, in spite of their victory, they were obliged to retreat to Charleston Neck, and the Americans recovered the greater part of South Carolina and Georgia. To increase the dis- proportion between the two combatants, the count de Grasse now arrived from the West Indies with 28 sail of the line and about 4000 troops. Sir Samuel Hood had followed him with only 14 ships ; but, being reinforced by admiral Graves with five ships, he brought the French to an action off the coast of Virginia (Sep- tember 5). It proved indecisive, and both fleets retired — the Eng- lish to New York, the French to the Chesapeake, where De Grasse landed the troops intended for the Americans. (Sup. N. XXVI.) Lord Cornwallis, with only 7000 men, took up a position at the a.d. 1782. RESIGNATION OF LORD NORTH. 629 half-fortified village of York Town, surrounded by an army of 18,000 men, with 50 or 60 pieces of artillery, commanded by Washington, La Fayette, and St. Simon. The bombardment commenced on October 9. By the 14th two redoubts had been carried, and the town more closely invested. A s all relief or escape was impossible, Cornwallis was now obliged to capitulate, and he obtained certain honours of war (October 19). With this capitulation the American war may be said to have ceased. § 16. In other quarters the British were more successful. In the West Indies admiral Bodney captured the Dutch island of St. Eustatius, with an immense amount of property and ships (February 3, 1781). The Dutch shipping lying at Demerara and Essequibo was also captured by English privateers, and these settlements were surrendered to the governor of Barbadoes. On August 5, admiral Hyde Parker, convoying a fleet from the Baltic, fell in with a Dutch fleet and convoy off the Dogger Bank ; but though the Dutch admiral, Zoutman, was beaten, and bore away for the Texel, Parker was in no condition to pursue (November 27). General Eliott made a vigorous sortie from Gibraltar, and succeeded in destroying the immense batteries raised by the Spaniards. But these successes did little to relieve the general despondency. Tobago was taken by the French, and the island of St. Eustatius was re- captured by the marquis de Bouille (November 26). Demerara and Essequibo were lost, together with St. Kitt's, Nevis, and Montserrat ; so that of all the Leeward Islands England retained only Barbadoes and Antigua. These misfortunes were crowned by the surrender of Minorca (February 6, 1782), after an heroic defence, and when, chiefly from the ravages of disease, only about 700 men were left fit for duty. Parliament met on November 27, 1781. On February 27, 1782, general Conway carried a resolution in the House of Commons against any further attempts to reduce the insurgent colonies ; and subsequently an address to the king, that whosoever should advise the prosecution of the war should be regarded as enemies of the throne and the nation. On March 15, the ministry escaped a vote of non-confidence, proposed by sir John Bous, only by a majority of nine, and lord North announced his resignation four days after. The marquess of Bockingham now became prime minister a second time, with lord John Cavendish as chancellor of the exchequer, admiral viscount Keppel first lord of the admiralty, the duke of Bichmond master of the ordnance, the earl of Shelburne and Mr. Fox secre- taries of state, and general Conway commander-in-chief. The tory chancellor, lord Thurlow, retained the seals (March 27). Burke was not admitted into the cabinet, but was made paymaster of the forces ; and a small appointment was conferred upon his son. 630 GEORGE III. Chap. xxxi. In the preceding year two young men of distinguished ability had entered on their political career: Kichard Brinsley Sheridan, and William Pitt, the second son of lord Chatham. Sheridan's maiden speech was a failure. Pitt's first address, on the contrary, was that of a practised orator, and was received with applause and warm congratulations, even by his opponents. Sheridan accepted the place of under-secretary of state in the new ministry. A choice of some of the smaller posts was offered to Pitt, but, though he was only 23 years of age, he had already declared in the House of Commons that he would not accept any subordinate position. The ministry were embarrassed at the outset by the state of Ireland, where great discontent prevailed on account of commercial restrictions. The catholic question had not yet arisen, but the question of the independence of the Irish parliament was agitated with great warmth. Henry Grattan, the eloquent leader of the opposition, was a protestant. On April 16, 1782, he carried an address to the crown, declaratory of the legislative independence of the Irish houses. Such an independence was clearly an i aomaly, which might lead to the greatest practical inconvenience, if, for instance, the Irish parliament should vote for peace with a foreign country against which England had declared war. The English ministers could not but perceive this glaring evil ; but the present state of the country rendered a breach with Ireland highly inex- pedient, and Fox carried a motion (May 17) which, by repealing the act 6 Geo. I., acknowledged the independence of the Irish legislature. The gratitude of the Irish was unbounded. They immediately passed a vote to raise 20,000 seamen, and they prevailed upon Grattan to accept 50,000/. for himself. The question of parliamentary reform had now begun to excite considerable attention in England. It had been warmly advocated by lord Chatham ; and Pitt, who took up his father's views on this subject, moved for a committee to inquire into the state of the re- presentation. Opinions were divided in the cabinet, but the motion was negatived in the commons by 20 votes (May 7). Some measures of reform were introduced by the ministry, such as a bill to prevent revenue officers from voting at elections, and another forbidding contractors to sit in the House of Commons. Burke car- ried a bill by which many useless offices were abolished, the pension- list was reduced, and the amount of secret-service money limited. § 17. On April 12, 1782, admiral Eodney succeeded in. bringing to an engagement the French fleet under De Grasse, which, with a large body of troops on board, had sailed from Martinique to attack Jamaica. Each fleet consisted of upwards of 30 ships of the line. The action lasted nearly 11 hours, and was desperately contested. a.d. 1782. LORD SHELBURNE's MINISTRY. 631 but ended in the decisive victory of the English. The Ville de Paris, carrying admiral De Grasse's flag, the largest ship in the French navy, was taken, together with four more first-rate vessels, and another was sunk. Admiral Hood captured two more as they were retreating. Owing to the French vessels being crowded with troops, they are said to have lost 3000 killed and 6000 wounded, whilst the loss on the side of the English did not exceed 1100 men. In the Ville de Paris were 36 chests of money to pay the soldiers, and their whole train of artillery was on board the other captured ships. The remainder of the French fleet were scattered, and could not contrive to reunite. Thus was Jamaica saved. The ministry had just before sent out orders recalling Eodney, with every mark of coolness and almost disgrace ; but they now found themselves called upon to reward him with a barony and a pension. An Irish barony was bestowed on Hood. Negociations for a peace had already been opened at Paris. Dr. Franklin, the American minister there, refused to treat on any other terms than the recognition of the independence of the United States, to which also he at first added a demand for the cession of Canada. In the midst of these negociations lord Rockingham died (July 1). The king now sent for the earl of Shelburne, who accepted the office of first lord of the treasury, upon which many of the ministry, including Fox, lord John Cavendish, the duke of Portland, Burke, and Sheridan, resigned. Under lord Shelburne, Pitt became chan- cellor of the exchequer, Thomas Townshend and lord Grantham secretaries of state. The combined French and Spanish fleets again swept the Channel this summer, yet lord Howe, with a far inferior force, contrived to screen from them the East and West India merchantmen convoyed by sir Peter Parker. After Howe's return to Portsmouth, the Royal George, of 108 guns, reckoned the first ship in the British navy, having been laid slightly on her side in order to stop a leak, was capsized at Spithead by a squall. As all her ports were open, she sank immediately. Most of the crew were drowned, with many women and children who had come on board, as well as admiral Kempenfeldt, who was writing in his cabin (August 29) Rodney's prizes also, including the Ville de Paris, unfortunately- foundered on their way home from the West Indies. On September 11, lord Howe sailed with 34 ships of the line to relieve Gibraltar, which had now endured a memorable siege of more than three years. It was defended by sir George Eliott, with a garrison of more than 5000 men. They had been relieved on different occasions by admirals Rodney and Darby, but were reduced at times to such distress as to feed on vegetables and even 632 GEOKGE III. Chap. xxxi. weeds. In the spring of 1781 the bombardment was terrible. It is computed that the enemy fired 56,000 balls and 20,000 shells from the middle of April till the end of May, yet the casemates afforded so effectual a protection that only 70 men were killed. The bombardment was relaxed during the summer, but was renewed again in the autumn. On the night of November 26, Eliott made a sortie with 2000 men. The Spaniards were taken by surprise, and fled on all sides ; their works were destroyed, their guns spiked, their ammunition blown up. It was long before the bombardment was renewed, and then not with the previous vigour. Early in 1782 the Spaniards were encouraged by the arrival of De Crillon, the victor of Minorca, who assumed the chief command. The total French and Spanish force now collected before Gibraltar amounted to 33,000 men, with 170 pieces of heavy artillery. The English had likewise been reinforced, and had a garrison of 7000 men, with 80 guns of large calibre. The siege now attracted the eyes of all Europe. The comte d'Artois and the duke of Bourbon came from Paris to share the expected glory of its termination. King Charles of Spain was accustomed to ask every morning on waking, " Is it taken ? " and to the invariable " No," he invariably replied, " It will be soon." De Crillon, deeming the land side impregnable, caused immense floating batteries to be constructed, mounted with 142 guns ; and on the morning of September 13 a fire was opened on the English works at a distance of about 600 yards, the batteries on the land side playing at the same time. All day this terrific bombardment continued, but towards evening the red-hot shot from the English batteries began to tell ; and before midnight one of the largest floating batteries, as well as the Spanish flag-ship Pastora, was in flames. The light served to direct the aim of the besieged, and at last every one of the batbering-ships was on fire. The enemy lost 1600 men on this occasion. Soon afterwards lord Howe entered the bay, and the combined fleet did not venture to attack him. The siege was continued til] the peace in 1783, but only nominally. General Eliott, on his return to England in 1787, was raised to the peerage as lord Heathfield of Gibraltar.* § 18. As France and Spain seemed desirous of continuing the war, lord Shelburne hastened to renew the negociations for a separate treaty with America; and though the terms of the American alliance with France, which had been carried out in the most liberal spirit by the latter country, strictly precluded a separate peace, yet as it was obvious that the continuance of the war for any object beyond the recognition of the independence of the American States could serve only French or Spanish interests, Dr. Franklin, and the three * The title became extinct on the death of the tecond lord Heathfield in 1S13. a.d. 1782-1783. PEACE OF VEESAILLES. G33 other American commissioners in Paris, did not hesitate to respond to the advances of the British government. Articles were signed at Paris (November 30, 1782), the chief of which were the recogni- tion of the independence of the United States, an advantageous irrangement of their boundaries, and the concession of the right of fishing on the banks of Newfoundland. Great Britain recognized and satisfied the claims of the American loyalists, to the extent of nearly ten millions sterling for losses of real or personal property, and of 120,000Z. per annum in life annuities for loss of income in trades or professions — a splendid instance of good faith after so expensive a war. Many, however, withdrew and settled in Nova Scotia and Canada, to escape the hostility of their countrymen. It was not till June, 1785, that George III. had an interview with Mr. Adams, the first minister from the United States, which naturally occasioned considerable emotion on both sides. The king received Mr. Adams with affability and frankness. He remarked that he wished it to be understood in America, that, though he had been the last to consent to a separation, he would be the first to welcome the friendship oi the United States as an independent power. (Sup. N. XXVII.) During the Christmas recess the ministers exerted themselves to bring to a close the negociations with France and Spain. The latter power at first insisted on the restoration of Gibraltar, and lord Shel- burne seemed not unwilling to exchange it against Porto Rico, whilst his colleagues required the addition of Trinidad. But since its gal- lant defence, the heart of the nation was fixed on that barren rock ; and lord Shelburne, perceiving that to cede it would bring great unpopularity upon the ministry, informed the Spaniards that no terms would tempt him to its surrender. The Spanish court were indignant ; but, finding they were not backed by France, they sullenly acquiesced, and the preliminaries of a peace between the three countries were signed at Versailles (January 20, 1783). England restored St. Lucia and ceded Tobago to France, receiving in return Grenada, St. Vincent, Dominica, Nevis, and Montserrat. In Africa England yielded Senegal and Goree, retaining Fort James and the river Gambia. In Iudia the French recovered Chanderna- gore, Pondicherry, Mahe, and the Comptoir of Surat. French pride was gratified by the abrogation of the articles in the treaty of Utrecht relative to the demolition of Dunkirk — a place which no outlay could have been rendered capable of receiving ships of the line. To Spain were ceded Minorca and both the Floridas, while king Charles guaranteed to England the right of cutting logwood within certain boundaries to be hereafter determined, and agreed to restore the Bahamas. Some months after, a treaty was also concluded with the Dutch on the basis of mutual restitution of conquests. Medal in commemoration of Lord Howe's victory over the French fleet, June 1,1794. O.JV. : EARL HOWE ADM l OV THE WH1TK K: G: Bust to right. BeloW, mdd.b . 1. : w : wvon . f : Rev. : FRENCH FLEET DEFEATED OFF USHANT VII SAIL OF THE LINE captured i June mdccxciv. Neptune, drawn by two sea-horses, to right. CHAPTER XXXII. GEORGE III. — CONTINUED. FROM THE PEACE OF VERSAILLES TO THE PEACE OF AMIENS. A.D. 1783-1802. 1. Coalition ministry. Fox's India Bill. Pitt prime minister. His India Bill. Financial Measures and Treaty of Commerce with France. § 2. Impeachment of Warren Hastings. Affairs of India till his governor-generalship. Vote of censure on lord Clive. His suicide. § 3. Administration of Warren Hastings. § 4. His extortions in Oude. Charges against him. Result of his impeachment. § 5. The king's illness. Outbreak of the French Revolution. § 6. Riots at Birming- ham. Attitude of Europe. State of feeling in England. The French declare war. § 7. Campaign in Flanders. Insurrection of Toulon, and siege of that city. § 8. Campaign of 1794. Holland overrun by the French. § 9. Naval successes. Lord Howe's victory. § 10. Sedition in England. Expedition to Quiberon. Dutch colonies taken. §11. Alliance between France and Spain. Lord Malmesbury's negotiations. Attempted invasions of England. Bank Restriction Act. § 12. Battle of Cape St. Vincent. Duncan's victory off Camperdown. § 13. Mutinies at Portsmouth and the Nore. Threatened invasion. § 14. Expedition to Ostend. The French in Egypt. Battle of the Nile. Its consequences. § 15. English and Russian expedition to Holland. The Helder taken. The duke f York capitulates. Siege of Acre and flight of Bonaparte from Egypt. § 16. Disturbances in Ireland. Irish Union. § 17. Pitt's opinions on Parliamentary Reform and Catholic Emancipation. Warlike operations. The armed neutrality. § 18. Pitt resigns. Addington prime minister. Expedition against Copen- hagen. Dissolution of the armed neutrality. § 19. Threatened invasion, and attack on Boulogne. The French in Egypt. Battle of Alexandria, and death of Abercromby. § 20. The French expelled from Egypt. Peace of Amiens. § 1. The war had added upwards of 100 millions to the national debt, and the country was so exhausted that it would have been a.d. 1783-1784. PITT PRIME MINISTER. 635 difficult to send 3000 men on any foreign expedition. These par- ticulars, however, were not generally known ; and when the condi- tions of the peace were communicated to the parliament, they were received by the opposition with a storm of disapprobation. The cession of Chandernagore and Pondicherry was especially the object of animadversion. The ministers having been twice left in minorities in the commons, lord Shelburne resigned. The state of parties rendered it difficult to form a new administration. Mr. Pitt declined the task, and for some weeks a sort of interregnum ensued. At length a coalition ministry was formed (April 5, 1783). The duke of Portland, a man of small abilities, became first lord of the treasury. The virtual ministers were lord North and Fox, the secretaries of state ; yet only a little previously Fox had publicly declared that, if ever he could be persuaded to act with lord North, he should consider himself worthy of eternal infamy ! Their power, however, was of no long duration. In November Fox brought in a bill to reform the government of India, which passed the commons, but was rejected by the lords. The ministers, having a large majority in the former house, did not think it necessary to resign ; but the king, who had always viewed the coalition with disgust, sent messages to lord North and Fox requiring them to deliver up the seals (December 18). Pitt, in his 25th year, as first lord of the treasury and chancellor of the ex- chequer, now became the head of a ministry, of which the principal members were lord Thurlow, lord chancellor ; earl Gower, president of the council ; the duke of Rutland, privy seal ; lord Carmarthen and lord Sydney, secretaries of state ; and lord Howe, first lord of the admiralty. Pitt, like his predecessors, was defeated in the commons, on a bill which he introduced to regulate the government of India ; but he resorted to a dissolution, and the elections, which took place in April, 1784, secured a large majority for the ministry. In August he suc- ceeded in carrying his India bill, the main feature of which was the creation of the Board of Control, consisting of six privy councillors nominated by the king, who, with the principal secretaries of state and the chancellor of the exchequer, were to be commissioners for India, with supreme control over the civil and military government and the affairs of the company. This double government lasted till 1858. Pitt also adopted important measures for remedying the disordered state of the finances. He lowered the customs duties and imposed various new taxes, amounting to nearly a million per annum. His financial reform was completed, in 1786, by the simplification of the indirect taxes, namely, the customs, excise, and stamps. At the same time, he negociated a treaty of commerce 636 GEORGE III. Chap, xxxii. with France, which had only been in operation long enough to indi- cate the benefits it would have conferred on both nations, when its first-fruits were blighted by the events of 1789, and the realization of Pitt's policy was postponed till 1860. He was likewise before his age in proposing (1785) a bill for a reform of parliament, which was supported by some of his opponents, and opposed by some of his supporters, but was finally lost by a majority of 74. George prince of "Wales, the king's eldest son, had attained his majority in 1783, when he had a separate establishment assigned him, with Carlton House as a residence. Like other heirs- apparent of this house, he had thrown himself into the ranks of the opposition, from which his friends were chiefly selected, as lord North, Fox, Burke, Sheridan, Windham, Erskine, and others. By improving his residence, by losses at the gaming-table and on the turf, as well as by the expenses incident to his station, and to a youthful prince of gay and voluptuous habits, he had contracted a large debt ; and such was his distress that, in 1786, an execution was put into his house for the sum of 600Z. The king, whose regular and moral habits led him to view the prince's course of life with high disapprobation, refused to assist him, especially as it was believed that, in violation of the Royal Marriage Act, he had contracted a private marriage with Mrs. Fitzherbert, a Roman catholic lady of great personal charms, correct conduct, and elegant manners. The prince was obliged to reduce his establishment, sell his horses, and suspend the works at Carlton House. At length the prince's embarrassments were forced upon the notice of Mr. Pitt by the opposition ; and, to avoid a threatened motion upon the subject, the king instructed the minister to propose, on the understanding^that the prince would reform his expenditure, an increase of 10,000Z. per annum to his income, together with the sum of 161,000?. for the discharge of his debts, and 20,000Z. for the works at Carlton House. § 2. In 1786 Burke brought forward his celebrated impeachment of Warren Hastings. To understand this subject it will be neces- sary briefly to resume the history of India from an earlier period.* Great disorder had prevailed during the absence of Clive. The government had fallen into the hands of Mr. Vansittart, who was by no means competent to conduct it. The native princes could no longer be kept in subjection ; the servants of the company were amassing great wealth by bribery and extortion, whilst the com- pany itself was on the verge of bankruptcy. In May, 1765, lord Clive again landed at Calcutta, having, after an arduous struggle, obtained the appointment of governor and commander-in-chief in Bengal. As yet there was no central government ; and the three * See p. 610. a.d. 1765-1786. AFFAIRS IN INDIA. 637 presidencies of Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay, were in a state of rivalry. Clive first applied himself to remedy the abuses in the company's service. He made the civil officers bind themselves in writing to accept no more presents from the native princes ; and he ordered the military to relinquish the double batta, or additional allowances, granted to them by Meer Jaffier after the battle of Plassy. This order produced a mutiny. Nearly 200 officers, and among them sir Robert Fletcher, the second in command, conspired to throw up their commissions on the same day. Clive immediately repaired to the camp at Monghir ; and, having assembled the officers, pointed out to them the guilt of their conduct, declared his resolu- tion to suppress the mutiny, and to supply the place of the mutineers by other officers from Madras, or even by the clerks and civil servants of the company. He then cashiered sir R. Fletcher, and caused the ringleaders to be arrested and sent to Calcutta for trial. The rest now entreated to be allowed to recal their resignations — a request which was in most instances granted, but only as an act of grace and favour, whilst the vacancies were supplied by a judicious promotion of subalterns. Clive also placed the jurisdiction of the company on a satisfactory footing ; and he procured from Shah Alum, emperor of Delhi, a deed conferring on them the sole administration of the provinces of Bengal, Orissa, and Behar. Clive returned to England in January, 1767. In his absence affairs again went wrong. In the Madras presi- dency, Hyder Ali, founder of the kingdom of Mysore, the most daring and skilful enemy the English bad ever encountered in India, finding his advances neglected by the company, joined the Mahratta chieftains, threatened the capital itself, and extorted an advantageous peace. The company's trade suffered to such an extent that, in the spring of 1769, India stock fell 60 per cent. In 1770 Bengal was afflicted by a famine, which is computed to have carried off one-third of the inhabitants. The disasters and misrule in India, and the declining state of the company's affairs, at length attracted the attention, of government, and committees of inquiry were appointed in 1772. In the spring of the following year lord North, by the act called the Regulating Act, made several reforms in the constitu- tion of the company, both with regard to the court at home and the management of affairs in India. The most remarkable feature of this act was, that the governor of Bengal was invested with authority over the other presidencies, and with the title of governor- general of India, but was himself subjected to the control of his council. Warren Hastings, who had been appointed to the govern- ment of Bengal in the previous year, was the first governor-general of India. 29 638 GEORGE III. Chap, xxxii. In the same year general, at that time colonel, Burgoyne, a soldier who had seen little service, moved a vote of censure on the man who had established our empire in the East. Olive's wealth, and his magnificent seat at Claremont, had attracted envy ; and there were questionable circumstances in his extraordinary career. He had, in his public capacity, fought deceit with its own weapons. He had sanctioned the forgery of admiral Watson's signature in order to deceive the traitor Omichund, who had threatened to reveal the conspiracy to dethrone Surajah Dowlah. But Clive derived no private advantage from the act. This and other matters were objected to him, whilst all his eminent services were forgotten or overlooked. Burgoyne carried the first part of his resolutions, affirming certain matters of fact that had been proved against Clive; the second part, censuring him for having abused his powers, was negatived; and, on the motion of Wedderburn, it was unanimously added to the resolutions carried, " that Bobert, lord Clive, did at the same time render great and meritorious services to his country." But the taunts to which he had been subjected had sunk deep into his mind ; he was accustomed to complain that he had been examined like a sheep-stealer ; and his melancholy temperament, which even in early youth had displayed itself in an attempt at suicide, now further aggravated by ill health and perhaps also by a life of inaction, led him to lay violent hands on himself (November 22, 1774), before he had attained his 50th year.* § 3. The administration of "Warren Hastings was able and vigorous. He reformed and improved the revenues of India; he transferred the government of Bengal to tht company, leaving only a phantom of power at Moorshedabad ; he resumed the possession of Allahabad and Corah, and discontinued the tribute to Shah Alum. But his measures for replenishing the company's treasury were not always scrupulous. The vizier of Oude being desirous of subjugating the neighbouring country of Rohilcund, Hastings did not hesitate to lend him some British bayonets for that purpose, in consideration, when the conquest was acomplished, of a payment of 40 lacs of rupees. The measures of Hastings were impeded and disconcerted by his council. In October, 1774, general Clavering, colonel Monson, and Mr. Philip Francis arrived in India, having been appointed members of the governor-general's council. These men were utterly ignorant of Indian affairs, yet they united in opposing every measure of Hastings. Francis was their leader, * His son was created an English baron l the family of Herbert. His descendants in 1794, and earl Powis in 1804, having assumed the name of Herbert instead of married the sister of the last earl of ' Clive. a.d. 1772-1785. ADMINISTRATION OF WARREN HASTINGS. 639 and he and his confederates formed the majority of the council, which consisted, besides them, only of Hastings himself and Mr. Barwell. Thus they were able to control all the steps of the governor, and to wrest from him his patronage ; nay, they even took steps to bring him to trial on a cbarge of corruption, but Hastings refused to submit to their jurisdiction. He afterwards prosecuted in the supreme court some of the natives who had been incited to accuse him ; and in August, 1775, one of them, the Rajah Nuncomar, was hanged. By this decisive step Hastings recovered the respect of the natives, of which the conduct of the council had deprived him. After the death of colonel Monson, in September, 1776, Hastings recovered his authority in the council, by virtue of his casting vote. Attempts were made both in India and at home to deprive him of the government, but without success ; and when the war with France broke out in 1778, it was felt, even by his enemies, that his great abilities could not be spared. It was under his auspices, and with the assistance of sir Hector Munro, that Chandernagore, Pondicherry, and the other French settlements in India, were captured. An expedition against the Mahratta chiefs proved not so fortunate. The British force, hemmed in at Wargaum, was obliged to capitulate, on condition of restoring all the conquests made from the Mahrattas since 1756. All India seemed now in a conspiracy against us. Hyder Ali availed himself of our entangle- ment with the Mahrattas to overrun the Madras presidency ; and a body of 3000 of our troops, under colonel Baillie, was surprised and cut to pieces. Munro, at the head of 5000 more, only saved himself by a precipitate flight. All the open country lay at Hyder's mercy ; and the smoke of the burning villages around struck alarm into the capital itself. At this juncture Hastings signally displayed his genius and presence of mind. He immediately abandoned his favourite scheme of the Mahratta war, and, conceding to the chiefs the main points at issue, tendered offers not only of peace but even of alliance. He then despatched every available soldier in Bengal, under the command of sir Eyre Coote, by whose military genius he was ably seconded, to the rescue of Madras. Coote defeated Hyder Ali in a great battle at Porto Novo (July 1, 1781), again at Pollalore (August 27), and a third time at Vellore (September 27). These victories led to the recovery of the open country, and saved the Carnatic. In 1782, after again defeating Hyder Ali at Arnee (June 2), Coote retired for a while to Calcutta. In December of that year Hyder died, and Coote, anxious to measure swords with his son and successor Tippoo, proceeded in 1783 to the Carnatic. The vessel in which he sailed was chased two days and nights by 640 GEORGE ITI. Chap, xxxii. some French men-of-war. Coote's anxiety kept him constantly on deck ; his feeble health received a fatal blow, and two days after landing at Madras he expired. § 4. The exertions for the relief of Madras had exhausted the resources of Bengal ; yet the India proprietors at home expected large remittances. In order to raise them, Hastings had recourse to t he feudatory rajahs, and above all to Chey te Sing, rajah of Benares, from whom he was accused of extorting an exorbitant fine of 500,000Z. for having delayed to pay 50,000£. He was said also to have received from this rajah two lacs of rupees for his private use, to have retained the money some time, and then placed it to the credit of the company. But it was his treatment of the Begums of Oude that was most loudly denounced by his enemies. The govern- ment had large claims on Asaph ul Dowlah, nabob vizier of Oude. To satisfy these claims Hastings compelled him to extort large sums from the Begums, his mother and grandmother, the mother and widow of Sujah ul Dowlah; although Asaph ul Dowlah, after wring- ing large sums of money from them, had signed a treaty, sanctioned by the council of Bengal, by which he pledged himself to make no further demands upon them. As this treaty, however, had been made contrary to the wishes of Hastings, and when bis authority was overruled by the council, he now disregarded it. To extort the money from the Begums, two aged eunuchs, their principal minis- ters, were thrown into prison and deprived of all food till they con- sented to reveal the place where the treasure of the princesses was concealed. Many other severities were continued through the year 1782, till upwards of a million sterling had been extorted. Hastings concluded a peace with Tippoo in the autumn of 1783, on the basis of mutual restitution, and then proceeded to Lucknow to tranquillize that district. Towards the close of 1784, he an- nounced his intention of retiring ; and when he sailed for England in the spring of 1785, peace prevailed throughout India. Mr. M'Pherson, senior member of the council, succeeded to the vacant government, till lord Cornwallis was appointed governor-general (February, 1786). Such were the chief transactions which, whether truly or falsely represented, gave rise to the impeachment of Warren Hastings by Burke, who brought forward 22 articles, comprehending a great variety of charges. The first, on the subject of the Bohilla war, was negatived by a considerable majority, and the whole impeach- ment seemed to be upset. But on May 13 Fox moved the charge respecting Cheyte Sing and the proceedings at Benares ; when Pitt, after a speech in which at first he appeared to exculpate Hastings, concluded by observing that he had acted in an arbitrary and A.D. 1783-1789. THE FEENCH REVOLUTION. 641 tyrannical manner, by imposing a fine so shamefully exorbitant. This conclusion took the house by surprise, and on a division the impeachment was voted. Nothing further was done in the matter till February, 1787, when Sheridan moved the Oude charge in a most brilliant harangue. This motion was also supported by Pitt, and an impeachment was voted. Other articles were subsequently carried, and Burke, accompanied by a great number of members, proceeded to the bar of the House of Lords, and impeached Hastings of high crimes and misdemeanours. Hastings was com- mitted to custody, but released on bail. His trial did not com- mence till the spring of 1788, and lasted seven years, when he was acquitted by a large majority on all the charges. Whatever may be thought of the acts which he committed for the interest of the East India Company, his personal disinterestedness was proved by the fact that he was indebted to the bounty of the directors for the means of passing the remainder of his days in a manner becoming his high station. § 5. In 1788 the king was seized with a violent illness. As the symptoms terminated in lunacy, it became necessary in October to subject him to medical treatment, and he was placed under the care of Dr. Willis, who was both a physician and a clergyman. In this seclusion of the crown, Fox insisted on the exclusive right of the prince of Wales to be appointed regent — a position which Pitt triumphantly refuted. Not, however, that he opposed the nomination of the prince ; he merely denied that he had any natural or legal right, without the authority of parliament. Committees were appointed in both houses to search for precedents ; but, whilst the bill for a regency was in progress, the king's convalescence was announced (February, 1789). (Supplement, Note XXVIII.) An event was now impending which was destined to shake Europe to its foundations. To outward appearance France seemed to be in a prosperous condition. She was at peace with all Europe; she had achieved a triumph over England, her ancient rival, by helping to emancipate her rebellious colonies ; yet she was herself on the brink of a terrible convulsion. To trace the causes, or to detail the events, of the French Revolution, falls not within the scope of this book. Our notice of it must be confined to those results which, from the vicinity of the two countries, and their constant intercourse, could not fail of affecting this country. The French had been regarded in England as the slaves of an absolute monarch, and the early efforts of the revolution were looked upon by many amongst us as the first steps towards a system of constitutional freedom. The storming of the Bastile was almost as much applauded in London as in Paris. But the burnings, the 642 GEORGE III. Chap, xxxrr. plundering, the murders, which ensued, and degraded what once had been considered the politest nation in the world into a horde of savages, soon alienated most English hearts. Party feeling was embittered in England ; the names of democrat and aristo- crat bade fair to supplant those of whig and tory ; and a stronger line of demarcation than ever was drawn between political sections. Friends who had long acted together now parted for ever; in particular, the separation of Burke from Fox and his party was conspicuous from the genius and eminence of the men. The con- gratulations addressed to the National Assembly of France by a club in London, called the Revolution Society, established to commemorate the Revolution of 1688, under the signature of earl Stanhope, tbeir chairman, incited Burke to publish his " Re- flections on the Revolution in France, and on the Proceedings of certain Societies in London." In the most eloquent and impressive language, he denounced the proceedings in France, and almost pro- phetically foretold the future destinies of that country (1790).* This publication called forth many attacks and answers, of which the most remarkable were Thomas Paine's " Rights of Man," and the Vindicise Oallicse of Sir James Macintosh. The former is written in a coarse but forcible style ; the latter in elegant language, palliating the excesses of the movement as the necessary concomitants of all revolutions. These three works produced a prodigious effect on public opinion in England. It was not, however, till May, 1791, in a debate concerning Canada, that Burke, in a powerful and affecting speech, wholly separated himself from Fox. § 6. The Unitarians were the most ardent admirers of the French revolution. Dr. Priestley, a leading member of the sect, proposed to celebrate at Birmingham the anniversary of the capture of the Bastile by a dinner, which was prepared on the appointed day (July 14, 1790) at an hotel in the town, in spite of the plainest symptoms of an intended riot. The party, consisting of upwards of 80 gentle- men, were received with hisses by the mob ; the windows of the hotel were smashed ; two meeting-houses were destroyed, as well as the dwelling of Dr. Priestley, together with his valuable library and philosophical instruments, and the manuscripts of works which had cost him years of labour. The decree of the Constituent Assembly (September 14, 1791), wresting Avignon and the Venaissin from the pope, showed that the French revolutionary power would not long respect the territorial * It is not so much as a history of the French Revolution that Burke's " Reflec- tions " are valuable, as for the profound philosophical insight the work affords into the principles of the English constitution, of politics in general, and the immutable laws on which they rest. a.d. 1790-1793. ATTITUDE OF EUROPE. 643 rights of others. The person and authority of Louis XVI. were no longer respected. His attempted flight, which was stopped at Varennes (June, 1791), and the outcries of the French emigrants, headed by the Comte d'Artois, filled Europe, and especially Germany, with alarm. The emperor Leopold II., and Frederick III. , king of Prussia, attended by many of their chief nobility, held a conference in August at Pilnitz, near Dresden. They signed a declaration that the interests of Europe were imperilled in the person of Louis. Hopes of succour were held out ; Eussia, Spain, and the principal states of Italy, subsequently declared their adherence to these views. England alone observed a strict neutrality. The war was begun by France. Leopold died in March, 1792, and Dumouriez, the Girondist minister for foreign affairs (for the Girondins were now in the ascen- dant), demanded from the emperor Francis II., as king of Hungary and Bohemia, an explanation of his views with regard to France. As his answers were considered evasive, war was declared (April 20). An army of Austrians and Prussians now took the field, under the command of the duke of Brunswick, who on July 25 published, against his own better judgment, that ill-considered manifesto which probably hastened the dethronement and murder of Louis XVI. The irritating and offensive language of the mani- festo was not supported by vigorous action. The deposition of the king, the massacres of September in Paris, the defeat of Valmy, and finally the retreat of the duke of Brunswick, followed in rapid succession. These events occasioned a great ferment in London. The militia was embodied, the Tower was fortified and guarded. A numerous meeting of merchants, bankers, and traders signed a loyal declara- tion, pledging themselves to uphold the constitution. The execu- tion of the French king (January 21, 1793) provoked a still deeper sensation throughout the country. The French ambassador was dismissed, and immediate hostilities were anticipated. The ancient jealousies and rivalries between the two nations still subsisted, in spite of the imitation of English fashions, and some ill-understood admiration of English literature, which had been introduced into France by the duke of Orleans, and obtained the name of Anglo- mania. The French had displayed their willingness to interfere in the domestic affairs of other countries, by the decree of November 19, 1792, declaring themselves ready to fraternize with all nations desirous of recovering their liberty. In England various meetings and societies had voted congratulatory addresses to the French on their proceedings. Monge, the French minister of marine, in a circular letter of December 31, 1792, distinctly avowed the notion of flying to the assistance of the English republicans against their 644 GEORGE III. Chap, xxxir. tyrannical government ; and on February 3, 1793, the French declared war against England and Holland. Till now Pitt had been sanguine of peace. He was busy in establishing his great project of a sinking fund for reducing the, national debt. He had supported the efforts of Wilberforce for the abolition of slavery ; and, like most of his countrymen, he contem- plated the further extension of the revolution with the strongest aversion. § 7. The whole of Europe was arrayed against the French, but the vigour of their measures enabled them to disconcert the ill-conceived and dilatory schemes of their enemies. In a short time they had no fewer than eight armies on foot ; but into the detail of military operations we cannot enter, even briefly, further than England is concerned. In the course of the spring (1793) 10,000 British troops under the duke of York landed at Ostend ; and, having joined the imperial army under the prince of Coburg, assisted to defeat the French at St. Amand. The success of the attack on the French camp at Famars (May 23) was chiefly owing to the British division, which turned the enemy's right. They were next employed in the siege of Valenciennes, which surrendered (July 25). The duke of York subsequently undertook the siege of Dunkirk, but without success ; he was obliged to retreat upon Fumes, and in November the armies went into winter quarters. In the East and West Indies the English arms were more success- ful. In the former, Chandernagore, Pondicherry, and one or two smaller French settlements, fell into our hands; in the latter, Tobago, as well as St. Pierre and Miquelon, near Newfoundland, were captured, but the attempts on Martinique and St. Domingo failed. In the same year the insurrection at Toulon was aided by the fleet cruising in the Mediterranean under the command of lord Hood, consisting of English, Spanish, and Neapolitan vessels. A French fleet of 18 sail of the line lay in Toulon harbour ; but, after a little show of resistance, Hood and the Spanish commander took possession of the place in the name of Louis XVII. General O'Hara arrived from Gibraltar with reinforcements, and assumed the com- mand. But even then the garrison was too small for the defence of Toulon against a besieging army of 30,000 men, especially as they had to struggle with jealousies and dissensions among themselves and treachery on the part of the inhabitants. It was on this scene that that extraordinary man first appeared, who was to sway for a brief period the destinies of Europe. Napoleon Bonaparte, then a chef de bataillon, was despatched to Toulon by the Committee of Public Safety as second in command of the artillery ; but the siege was in reality conducted by his advice. By degrees, the heights a.d. 1793-1794. PREPARATIONS FOE THE CAMPAIGN. 645 which surround the place were captured by the French; and when the eminence of Pharon fell into their hands, Toulon was no longer tenable. Before retiring it was determined to burn the fleet and arsenal ; a task which was intrusted to the Spanish, under admiral Langara, and a body of British under captain sir Sidney Smith : but, owing to the remissness of the former, the operation was badly conducted. Nevertheless three sail of the line and 12 frigates were carried to England, and nine sail of the line and some smaller vessels were burnt by Smith. The allies also carried off as many of the royalist inhabitants as possible, to save them from the vengeance of the republican army. § 8. In September Gamier des Saintes proposed and carried in the Convention a vote denouncing Pitt as an enemy of the human race. This patron of mankind wished to add to the resolution that anybody had a right to assassinate the English minister ; but the Convention was not quite prepared to adopt so abominable a doctrine. The manufactures of Great Britain were strictly pro- hibited in France ; and it was ordered that all British subjects in whatever part of the republic should be arrested, and their property confiscated. The preparations for the campaign of 1794 seemed to promise something of importance. The French had three armies on their northern frontier, those of the North, the Rhine, and the Moselle, amounting to 500,000 men. and mostly animated with an enthu- siastic spirit. Voltaire, one of the literary patriarchs of the revolu- tion, had laughed at the English shooting admiral Byng, " pour encourager les autres ; " but the French themselves had on this occasion provided a like stimulus for defective patriotism or valour. An ambulatory guillotine, under the superintendence of St. Just and Le Bas, accompanied the march of the French army, and in cases of failure it was put into operation. The forces of the allies were also large, but inferior to the French. The emperor com- manded in person 140,000 men, and had besides an army of 60,000 Austrians on the Rhine ; the Prussians amounted to 65,000 ; the duke of York was at the head of 40,000 British and Hanoverians; and there was also a body of 32,000 emigrants and others. But division reigned among the allies. Austria and Prussia were jealous of each other, and intent on objects of selfish aggrandisement, to which the affairs of France were quite subordinated. Prussia de- manded and received large subsidies from England, nor would Russia move an army without the same support. The plan of the campaign was to take Landrecies and advance upon Paris. The siege was assigned to three divisions of the allied army, under the duke of York, the prince of Coburg, and the herc- 29* 646 GEORGE III. Chap, xxxii. ditary prince of Orange. There was much manoeuvring along the whole line of frontier from Luxembourg to Nieuport, and several skirmishes and battles, attended with various success. The most remarkable of these was the battle of Turcoing. The object was to cut off the left wing of the French and drive them towards the sea, when they must have surrendered. The emperor superintended the attack in person, which was made with 90,000 men ; but the opera- tion proved a failure in consequence of the various divisions not arriving at the appointed time. On the following morning (May 18, 1794), the duke of York was surrounded at Turcoing by superior bodies of French, who took 1500 prisoners and 50 guns, but left 4000 men on the field. The duke himself escaped only through the fieetness of his horse. The British troops retrieved this disgrace a few days afterwards at Pont-a-chin ; whore Pichegru, the French general, with 100,000 men, made a general attack on the right wing of the allies. The battle had raged from 5 a.m. to 3 p.m., and the allies were beginning to give way, when the duke of York despatched to their support seven battalions of Austrians and the 2nd brigade of British infantry. The latter threw themselves into the centre of the French army, bayonet in hand, and completely routed them. Alarmed at the display of British valour on this and other occasions, the Convention passed a dastardly and ferocious decree, that no quarter should be given to British or Hanoverians. But the French generals refused to execute it. On June 26 the allies were totally defeated on the plains of Fleurus, and were compelled to retreat. This battle sealed the fate of Flanders, nearly all the towns of which fell into the hands of the French. Led by generals Moreau, Jourdan, and Pichegru, they were equally successful on the Bhine and wherever they were en- gaged. During this time the Beign of Terror was in full vigour in France ; but it was drawing towards its close, and on July 28 Bobespierre was executed. The prince of Orange and duke of York had been compelled to retire gradually before the overwhelming armies of the French. Towards winter they entered Amsterdam, and a little afterwards the duke resigned his command to general Walmoden and returned to England. The Dutch had determined to defend themselves by inundating the country ; but they were deprived of this resource by a severe frost. The French crossed the rivers and canals on the ice ; and then was beheld the singular spectacle of a fleet, frozen up at the entrance of the Zuyder Zee, captured by land forces and artillery. The Stadtholder and a great number of Dutch of the higher classes fled to England. The British troops, unable to maintain their position in the province of Utrecht, retreated towards Westphalia, a.d. 1794. LORD HOWE'S VICTORY. 647 enduring the most dreadful sufferings, both from the rigour of the season and the barbarity of their allies, who plundered, insulted, and sometimes murdered the sick and wounded. At length they reached Bremen, and embarked for England in March, 1795. A large portion of the Dutch nation were willing to fraternize with the French, and Holland submitted to them without resistance. § 9. As in the preceding year, the disasters of England on the continent were in a great degree compensated by her naval successes and her victories in other quarters. In the summer of 1794, Corsica was taken by admiral lord Hood and annexed to the British crown ; but in 1796 the French recovered it by a revolt of the inhabitants. In this expedition colonel Moore and captain Nelson highly dis- tinguished themselves. At the siege of Calvi, Nelson received a wound which destroyed the sight of his right eye. But the most brilliant victory of the year was that gained by lord Howe. The French had resolved to dispute the sovereignty of the seas, and had prepared at Brest a fleet of 26 ships of the line, commanded by Jean Bon St. Andre, once a calvinist minister. Howe fell in with them (May 28) with a larger number of ships ; but in weight of metal the French were much superior, having 1290 guns to 1012 of the English. A general engagement ensued on June 1, when, after an hour's hard fighting, Howe succeeded in breaking the French line. The French admiral then made for port, followed by all the ships capable of carrying sail. Seven ships were captured and one sunk during the action. For this victory lord Howe and the fleet received the thanks of parliament ; London was illuminated three nights ; and the king and queen, accompanied by some of the younger branches of the royal family, visited the fleet at Spithead, when the king presented Howe with a magnificent sword set in diamonds. Success also attended our arms in the West Indies, where admiral sir John Jervis and lieutenant-general sir Charles Grey captured Martinique, St. Lucie, and Les Saintes. But an attack upon the French portion of St. Domingo proved a failure. § 10. In England attempts were made this year by seditious admirers of the French revolution to excite disturbances ; but the great mass of the public remained unmoved. Several prosecutions were instituted by government, the most remarkable of which were those of Hardy, Home Tooke, and Thelwall ; but convictions were obtained only in two instances at Edinburgh, where one individual was hanged and another transported for life. The ill success of the continental campaigns had increased the peace party ; but Mr. Pitt warmly supported the war as just and necessary. In April, 1795, Prussia, though she had accepted a subsidy from England, made a separate treaty with France, and the emperor required a loan of 648 GEORGE III. Chap, xxxii. four or five millions to continue the war, which was granted. The western provinces of France were still in arms in favour of monarchy, and Pitt entertained their applications for assistance. A considerable body of French royalists, accompanied by a few English troops, landed at Quiberon in June ; but discord prevailed among the emigrants. They were opposed by the brave and skilful general Hoche, and were speedily obliged to surrender (July). After the flight of the Stadtholder to England, an embargo was laid on all Dutch shipping in English ports ; and, as the United Provinces had submitted to French domination, orders were issued for reprisals against them. In the West Indies, the Dutch colonies of Demerara, Berbice, and Essequibo, were captured ; in the East, the greater part of the island of Ceylon, Malacca, Cochioa, and the other Dutch settlements on the continent. About the same time the Cape of Good Hope was taken ; and the whole of a squadron sent out by the Dutch in the following year to recapture it fell into the hands of admiral Elphinstone. Against these successes must be set off the retaking of St. Lucie and St. Vincent's by the French. Towards the close of the year a great disaster occurred. To retrieve our losses in the West Indies, a large fleet was despatched under admiral Christian, with 15,000 troops commanded by sir Ealph Abercrombie. Scarcely had they passed the isle of Portland when they were caught in a violent gale from the west ; many transports were wrecked ; the Chesil beach was strewed with corpses ; and the fleet was so much damaged that the expedition was wholly discon- certed. In the following year, however, the remains of it were refitted and despatched under admiral Cornwallis, and St. Lucie and St. Vincent's were recovered. In England sedition was inflamed by a bad harvest and the high price of bread. The king, proceeding to open parliament (October 29), was assailed with groans and hootings, and a bullet, or marble, supposed to have been discharged from an air-gun, passed through his carriage-window. The same spirit was manifested on his return. Missiles of every kind were hurled at his coach ; and when he had alighted, the rabble followed it to the Mews, and broke it to pieces. During these outrages the king displayed the greatest composure, and delivered his speech with his usual firmness. § 11. A peace had been effected between France and Spain by Don Emanuel Godoy, afterwards styled the Prince of the Peace ; and in the spring of 1796 an offensive and defensive alliance, with regard to England only, was concluded between these powers at San Ildefonso. The design of this alliance was to injure British com- merce by coercing Portugal. A French army was to march through Spain upon Lisbon ; and the queen of Portugal, in her alarm, con- a.d. 1796-1797. ATTEMPTED INVASIONS OF ENGLAND. 649 sented to declare that city a free port. Spain, which soon after- wards declared war against Great Britain, was by this alliance placed as much at the disposal of France as by the Family Compact; but she only prepared the way for her own subsequent misfortunes. After their retreat from Holland, the English for a long time took no part in the struggle on the continent, and the war was confined to France and Austria by land, and France, Spain, and Great Britain at sea. This was the year of Bonaparte's splendid campaign in Italy (179G) ; but, in spite of their great successes in that quarter, the French met with reverses on the Rhine. The Directory seemed not disinclined for peace, and lord Malmesbury, who was despatched to make overtures, was received with acclama- tions by the Parisians. It was, however, soon evident, from the arrogant and insincere tone of the French minister, that peace was not really desired. Every opportunity was taken to insult and irritate lord Malmesbury. In December he received a rude message to quit Paris in 48 hours. The negociations had been protracted so long merely to prepare an expedition against Ireland ; and two days after lord Malmesbury's departure a French fleet sailed from Brest. It was, however, dispersed by a storm. Only a small portion of it succeeded in reaching Bantry Bay ; but the inhabitants proved hostile, and the attempt was frustrated. This attempt was con- nected with another scheme for the invasion of England. A body of about 1200 malefactors and galley-slaves were to have ascended the Avon and burnt Bristol ; but, having been landed at Fish- guard Bay in Pembrokeshire, they surrendered to about half their number of fencibles and militia collected by lord Cawdor. The two frigates which brought them were captured on their way home. The war had pressed heavily upon the resources of the country, and early in 1797 it was evident that the Bank of England, which had advanced 10^ millions for the public service, would be unable to meet its payments in specie. In February an order in council appeared, prohibiting the Bank from paying their notes in specie. At a meeting of the principal bankers and merchants in London, it was resolved to take Bank notes to any amount ; notes of 11. and 21. were issued, and in March Pitt brought in his Bank Restriction Bill, the main provisions of which were to indemnify the Bank for refusing cash payments, and to prohibit them from making such pay- ments except in sums under 20s. The bill was to continue in force till June 24. Afterwards the term was prolonged, and the Bank did not resume cash payments till some years after the war (in 1821). § 12. The French, to whom Spain and Holland were now sub- sidiary, determined upon an invasion of England on a grand scale, and large fleets, amounting to more than 70 sail, were got ready at 650 GEORGE III. Chap, xxxii. the Texel, Brest, and Cadiz. Commodore Nelson, whilst sailing with a convoy to Gibraltar, descried a Spanish fleet of 27 sail of the line off Cape St. Vincent, and hastened to notify it to admiral Jervis, who was cruising with 15 sail of the line. Nelson hoisted his pend- ant on board the Captain, of 74 guns ; and the hostile fleets came in sight at daybreak on February 14, 1797. The Spaniards were not only superior in number, but also in the size of their ships. Among them was the Santissima Trinidad, of 136 guns on four decks, sup- posed to be the largest man-of-war in the world. Jervis cut off nine of their ships before they could form their line of battle, eight of which immediately took to flight. Of their remaining ships, Nelson, sup- ported by captain Trowbridge in the Oidloden, engaged no fewer than six; namely, the Santissima Trinidad, the San Josef, and the Salvador del Mondo, each of 112 guns, and three seventy-fours. He was nobly supported by captain Frederick in the Blenheim, and captain Collingwood in the Excellent. When Nelson's ship was nearly disabled, and his ammunition almost expended, he found himself exposed to the fire from the San Josef. Boarding the San Nicolas, he next headed a party and took the San Josef, himself lead- ing the way, and exclaiming, " Westminster Abbey or victory ! " The Spanish admiral declined renewing the fight, though many of our ships were quite disabled, and at the close of the day he made his escape in the Santissima Trinidad. For this victory sir John Jervis was raised to the peerage by the title of earl St. Vincent, with a pension of 3000Z. a year. Nelson was included in a promo- tion of rear-admirals, and received the Order of the Bath. In July he made an unsuccessful attempt on the town of Santa Cruz in Teneriffe, with a small squadron, but, on the point of landing, his right arm was shattered by a shot, and he was obliged to have it amputated. § 13. Though our navy formed both the glory and the safeguard of the country, yet in this very year it threatened to be the source of our disgrace and ruin. Discontent was lurking among the seamen, who complained that they only received the wages fixed in the reign of Charles II., though the prices of articles had risen at least 30 per cent. ; — that their provisions were deficient in weight and measure ; — that they were not properly tended when sick ; — that their pay was stopped when they were wounded ; — and that when in port they were detained on board ship. On May 7 a mutiny broke out in the fleet at Spithead. Upon the signal being given to weigh, the crew of the Queen Charlotte, the flag-ship, instead of obeying, ran up the shrouds and gave three cheers, which were answered from the other ships. Two delegates from each then went on board the Queen Charlotte, where orders were framed for the government of a.d. 1797. MUTINY IN THE NAVY. 651 the fleet, and petitions were drawn up to the House of Commons and the lords of the Admiralty for a redress of grievances. This alarm- ing mutiny was at length suppressed hy judicious concessions, and by the personal influence of lord Howe, who was deservedly popular among the seamen, and who, at the king's request, proceeded on board the fleet. But no sooner was the mutiny at Spithead quelled, than another still more dangerous broke out among the ships in the Medway. One Kichard Parker, formerly a small shopkeeper in Scotland, was the ringleader. Though illiterate, he was a man of quick intellect and determined will, and assumed the style of rear- admiral Parker. The ships were withdrawn from Sheerness to the Nore, to be out of reach of the batteries ; the obnoxious officers were sent on shore and the red flag hoisted. The demands of the muti- neers were more peremptory and more extensive than those made at Portsmouth, and embraced important alterations in the Articles of War. Altogether 24 or 25 ships were included in the mutiny. The mutineers seized certain store-ships, fired on some frigates that were about to put to sea, and had even the audacity to blockade the mouth of the Thames. Gloom and depression pervaded the metro- polis, and the Funds fell to an unheard-of price. All attempts at conciliation having failed, it became necessary to resort to stringent measures. Pitt brought in a bill for the better prevention and punishment of attempts to seduce seamen ; and another forbidding all intercourse with the mutineers, on the penalty of felony. Several ships and numerous gunboats were armed ; batteries were erected on shore ; the mutineers were prevented from landing to obtain fresh water or provisions; and all the buoys and beacons were removed, so as to render egress from the Thames impossible. A great part of the crews had in their hearts continued loyal, and the proposal to carry the fleet into a French port was rejected with horror. One by one the ships engaged in the mutiny began to drop off, and at last the Sandwich, Parker's flag-ship, ran in under the batteries and deli vered up the ringleaders. Parker was hanged at the yard-arm (June 30). He behaved at his death with great modesty and firmness, expressing a hope that his fate would be considered as some atonement for his crimes, and save the lives of others. Notwithstanding the defeat of their Spanish auxiliaries at St. Vincent, the French did not abandon their project of an invasion, and during the summer a fleet of 15 sail of the line, with frigates, under admiral de Winter, was prepared in the Texel to convey 15,000 men to Ireland, then on the point of rebellion. Admiral Duncan, who was refitting in Yarmouth Eoads after the mutiny, hear- ing that De Winter had put to sea, joined his fleet in sight of the enemy, placed himself between them and a lee shore, off Camper- 652 GEORGE III. Chap. xxxii. down, and after a desperate engagement, which lasted four hours, captured eight sail of the line, two ships of 56 guns, and a frigate (October 11). For this victory he was made viscount Duncan* of Camperdown, with a pension of 3000?. Duncan's victory was an effectual bar to all projects of invasion ; nevertheless the French still continued their empty menaces. Bonaparte, who was now rapidly advancing towards supreme power, had conceived a deadly hatred of this country. After compelling the Austrians to the peace of Campo Formio (October 17), he had returned to Paris, where he was enthusiastically received; the Directory called him to their councils, and consulted him on every occasion. An army, called the Army of England, was marched towards the Channel. A proclamation was issued, in which it is difficult to say whether the abuse of England or the vaunting laud- ation of France was the more silly and extravagant. A loan of about four millions sterling was proposed to be raised on the security of the contemplated conquest, but without effect. The threatened invasion was only a mask, intended to conceal an expedition which Bonaparte was now meditating against Egypt. § 14. The English in their turn were not backward. In May, 1798, Havre was bombarded by sir Bichard Strahan ; and in the same month an expedition, under sir Home Popham, was undertaken against Ostend. General Coote landed with 1000 men, and destroyed the basin, gates, and sluices of the Bruges canal, in order to inter- rupt the navigation between France and Flanders. But as the surf prevented their return to the ships, and on the following morning they were surrounded by several columns of the enemy drawn from the adjacent garrisons, they were outnumbered, and obliged to surrender. At the same period, Bonaparte, accompanied by a body of savans, sailed from Toulon on his Egyptian expedition, with 13 ships of the line and transports, conveying 20,000 men (May 19). His object was a mere desire of spoliation and aggrandizement, for the French had not the shadow of a grievance to allege against the Porte. On the way, Malta, then governed by the Grand Master and Knights of St. John, was surprised and seized with as little pretence. At the beginning of July the French landed between 3000 and 4000 men near Alexandria, and captured that city after a slight resistance. They took Aboukir and Bosetta, and thus gained the command of one of the mouths of the Nile. Bonaparte issued a proclamation, in which he declared that the French were " true Mussulmans," and took credit for driving out the Christian Knights of Malta. He then crossed the desert, fought the battles of Chebreiss and the Pyramids, and seized Cairo, the capital of Egypt. * His son was created earl of Camperdown in 1831, A.D. 1798. BATTLE OF THE NILE. 653 Meanwhile Nelson had been vainly looking out for the French fleet, and it was not till August 1 that he descried their trans- ports in the harbour of Alexandria. Their men-of-war were anchored in the Bay of Aboukir, as close as possible to the shore. Nevertheless Nelson determined to get inside of them with some of his vessels, a manoeuvre for which they were not prepared ; and, though the Culloden grounded in the attempt, Nelson persevered. Thus a great part of the enemy's fleet was placed between two fires. The battle began at six in the evening. By eight o'clock four ships of the Trench van had struck, but the combat still raged in the centre. Between nine and ten o'clock, the French admiral's ship, I? Orient, having caught fire, blew up with a terrible explosion, followed by a deep silence of full ten minutes. The battle was then renewed, and continued through the night, with only an hour's respite. Separate engagements occurred throughout the following day, and at noon rear-admiral Villeneuve escaped with four ships. On the following morning the only French ships remaining un- captured or undestroyed were the Timoleon and the Tonnant, when the latter surrendered, and the former was set on fire and abandoned by the crew. Such was the victory known as the " Battle of the Nile." From the heights of Rosetta the French beheld with con- sternation and dismay the destruction of their fleet, which deprived them of the means of returning to their country. Soon afterwards the islands of Gozo and Minorca fell into the hands of the English. The news of Nelson's victory was received with the sincerest demonstrations of joy not only at home, but through a great part of Europe. He was created baron Nelson of the Nile ana of Burn- ham Thorpe in Norfolk ; the thanks of both houses of parliament were voted to him, and an annuity of 2000/. He received also magnificent presents from the Grand Seignor, the emperor of Russia, and the king of Sardinia. His return to the Bay of Naples ani- mated the king to undertake an expedition against Rome, which was recovered from the French. At the same time Nelson landed 6000 men and captured Leghorn. These enterprises, however, were rash and ill-considered. In a few days the French retook Rome and marched upon Naples itself, when the king took refuge on board Nelson's ship and proceeded to Sicily, which for some time became his home. Naples, deserted by the sovereign and the greater part of the nobility, was heroically defended by the lower classes and the lazzaroni ; but, as they had no artillery, they were forced to succumb, and the French established the Parthenopean Republic. In consequence of the battle of the Nile, an alliance was formed between England, Russia, and the Porte; and early in 1799 hostilities were recommenced between Austria and France. The Congress of 654 GEORGE III. Chap, xxxii. Rastadt, which had been some time sitting with the view of arrang- ing a general pacification, was dissolved, and the French, defeated by the archduke Charles at the battle of Stockach, near the Lake of Constance (March 25), were obliged to recross the Ehine. At the same time the Kussians under Suwarov, advancing into Italy, recovered with extraordinary rapidity all the conquests made by Bonaparte, with the exception of Genoa. Suwarov then invaded Switzerland, but all his successes were compromised by the want of cordial co-operation between him and the Austrians. § 15. After the alliance between England and Kussia, a joint expe- dition was agreed upon for the recovery of Holland, which was to be undertaken with 30,000 British troops under sir Balph Abercrombie and 17,000 Russians (1799). The first division of the British, under sir James Pulteney, general Moore, and general Coote, effected a landing, and after two severe encounters took the towns of the Helder and Huysduinen. The fleet entered the Texeh and the Dutch fleet of 13 ships of war, together with some, Indiamen and transports, surrendered by capitulation to admiral Mitchell (August 30). In the middle of September, by the arrival of some Russian divisions, and of the duke of York with three British brigades, the allied army amounted to 33,000 men, of which the duke was commander-in-chief. Several actions took place, attended with varying success and considerable losses on both sides. At length the duke, sensible of the advancing season, and finding that his army was reduced by 10,000 men, retired to a fortified position at the Zype, which he might have maintained by inundating the country ; but, as such an operation would have destroyed an im- mense amount of property and occasioned great misery to the Dutch, he preferred to capitulate. It was agreed that he should restore the Helder in the same state as before its capture, together with 8000 Dutch and French prisoners, and that the allied army should re- embark without molestation before the end of November. Thus ended an expedition which, though unfortunate, can hardly be called disgraceful. As a sort of compensation, the Dutch colony of Surinam was conquered this summer. Meanwhile the situation of the French in Egypt had become very critical. The army was seized with alarm and dejection ; many committed suicide ; but Bonaparte retained his presence of mind. Having despatched Desaix against the Mamelukes in Upper Egypt, he himself undertook an expedition into Palestine against Djezzar Pasha. El Arish, Graza, Jaffa, yielded to his arms. At Jaffa he massacred in cold blood between 3000 and 4000 prisoners. But at St. Jean d'Acre, the key of Syria, he was met by sir Sidney Smith, to whom the sultan had entrusted his fleet. Sir Sidney destroyed a.d. 1798. DISTURBANCES IN IRELAND. 655 the flotilla that was conveying the French battering-train ; never- theless they continued the siege with field-pieces. After a siege of two months, and several assaults, Bonaparte was compelled to retreat, though he had resorted to the treachery of ordering an assault after sending in a flag of truce. Returning to Egypt to- wards the end of August, he went on board a French man-of-war in the night, accompanied by some of his best generals, leaving the command of the army to Menou and Kleber. By hugging the African coast he escaped the English cruisers, and arrived safely at Frejus. Notwithstanding his ill success, his popularity had if possible increased in Paris. On the 18th of Brumaire (November 9), he turned out the two Legislative Assemblies at St. Cloud. The five Directors were compelled to resign, and a new executive, con- sisting of three consuls, Bonaparte, Sieyes, and Boger Ducos, took their places. § 16. A measure was now in agitation in England for con- solidating the power and integrity of the empire by a union with Ireland. That country had been for some years in a very disturbed state. The examples of America and France had inspired many with the idea of establishing an independent republic. About 1793 the society of United Irishmen, consisting mostly of Protestants, was formed. Its projector, a barrister named Theobald Wolfe Tone, having become secretary of the committee for managing the affairs of the Irish Roman catholics, effected an alliance between the two religious parties. The ramifications of this society extended throughout Ireland. Tone, having been detected in a treasonable correspondence with the French, was obliged to fly to America, whence he soon afterwards passed over to France, and employed himself in forwarding the projected invasions already mentioned in 1796 and 1797. Notwithstanding the frustration of these ex- peditions, the Irish malcontents did not abandon their plan of an insurrection. One of their principal leaders was lord Edward Fitzgerald, brother to the duke of Leinster. Fitzgerald was seconded by Arthur O'Connor, Napper Tandy, Thomas Addis Emmet, Oliver Bond, and others. But the conspiracy was divulged by one Thomas Reynolds, and some of the principal conspirators were arrested at a meeting held by them in Bond's house. (March 12, 1798). Fitzgerald happened not to be present, but he was discovered and seized about two months afterwards. He made a desperate resistance, wounding two of the officers sent to apprehend him, one of whom died of his injuries. He himself was shot with a bullet in the shoulder, the effects of which proved fatal. After this discovery martial law was proclaimed in Ireland, and many acts of violence and cruelty took place on both sides. Numerous 656 GEORGE III. Chap, xxxii. engagements occurred in various quarters, in which the rebels were almost invariably defeated, except in Wexford, where they were in greatest force, and where they sometimes made head against the king's troops. Their principal camp or station was at Vinegar Hill, near the town of Wexford, and here they were defeated (June 21) by general Lake, the commander-in-chief. Lord Cornwallis, the new viceroy, who arrived shortly afterwards, succeeded in reducing the country to comparative tranquillity. The union of England and Ireland had been discussed for many years as a speculative question, and these disturbances forced it upon the serious attention of the government. The king, in his speech on opening parliament (Jan. 22, 1800), alluded to the subject, and a few days afterwards Pitt brought forward a series of resolutions, which were carried after considerable debate. A bill embodying these resolutions passed both houses in the following July. By its main provisions, 100* Irish members were added to the English House of Commons, 32 Irish peers to the House of Lords — four spiritual and 28 temporal — whose seats were to be held for life. The measure passed both houses of the Irish parliament, and it was agreed that the Union should take effect on January 1, 1801. On that day, a council was held consisting of the most eminent dignitaries in church and state, including the royal princes. They issued proclamations for making the necessary changes in the king's title, the national arms, and the liturgy. The title of " King of France " was dropped and the fleurs de lys expunged from the royal arms; long since an empty pretension, which had proved inconvenient in recent negociations with France. § 17. When Pitt brought forward this measure, he publicly re- nounced the opinions which he had formerly held on the subject of parliamentary reform. England had now, he considered, ridden through the revolutionary storm, and the change of circumstances produced by the French revolution justified a change of views. During the debates on the Union the Irish catholics remained almost entirely neutral, and what little feeling they displayed was in its favour. This is attributable to their hatred of the Orange- men, the warmest opponents of union, as also to the expectation that their demands would be more favourably considered in a united parliament than by a separate Irish legislature. Pitt was not adverse to their claims, and held out to them hopes to that effect. This year the king was shot at in his box at Drury-lane theatre (May 15). When the assassin was apprehended, he was found to be a lunatic named James Hatfield, and the attempt was not in any way connected with politics. But the deficient harvest this year, and * Now 105. a.d. 1801. RESIGNATION OF PITT. 657 the consequent high, price of bread, occasioned much distress and discontent. Attacks on the property of farmers, millers, and corn- dealers, were frequent in the country and riots occurred in London. On December 25, 1799, Bonaparte addressed a letter personally to George III., containing overtures of peace ; but on receiving only an unfavourable reply, couched in official terms, and another of similar import from Austria, he crossed the Alps, and defeated the Austrians at Marengo (June 14, 1800). By this success he became master of northern Italy, while the battle of Hohenlinden, in Bavaria, gained by Moreau in December, by opening to the French the way to Vienna, enabled Bonaparte to dictate peace to the Aus- trians at Luneville (February 9, 1801). On the other hand, Malta surrendered to the British, after a blockade of two years (Sep- tember 5, 1800). Disputes had again occurred between England and the northern powers respecting the right of search, and they were artfully fomented by France. The emperor Paul was also offended by the rejection of his claims upon Malta, to which he thought himself entitled as Grand Master. In November, 1800, he proceeded to lay an embargo on British vessels and to sequester all British property in Russia. The masters and crews of about 300 ships were seized and carried in dispersed parties into the interior, where only a miserable pittance was assigned for their subsistence. Before the end of the year a league of armed neutrality was formed between Bussia and Sweden, and was soon after joined by Denmark. § 18. While new difficulties were thus gathering around Eng- land, the statesman who had hitherto so ably directed her course was about to retire from the helm. Previously to the Union, Pitt had expressed himself in favour of the catholic claims, and before the first parliament of Great Britain and Ireland assembled he addressed a letter to the king (January 31, 1801), in which he expressed the opinion of himself and his colleagues, that Roman catholics should be admitted to sit in parliament and to hold public offices. George III. entertained very strong scruples on this sub- ject. He regarded any relaxation of the catholic disabilities as a breach of his coronation oath, and in this opinion he was confirmed by lord Loughborough, the chancellor. In his reply the king entreated Pitt not to leave office, but he would make no concessions to his views, and Pitt determined to resign. The king then sent for Mr. Addington, the speaker, who after some delay succeeded in forming a ministry. Sir John Scott obtained the chancellorship, with the title of lord Eldon ; his predecessor, lord Loughborough, retiring with a pension and the higher title of earl of Rossi yn. The threatening nature of the northern league now demanded 658 GEORGE III. Chap, xxxii. serious attention. In March the king of Prussia had notified to the Hanoverian government his accession to the league, and the closing of the mouths of the Elbe, the Weser, and the Ems. He demanded and obtained immediate military possession of Hanover. A little previously Hamburg had been seized in the name of the king of Denmark by prince Charles of Hesse, at the head of 15,000 men, and an embargo laid on all British property. Remon- strances having failed, a fleet of 18 sail of the line, with frigates, gunboats, and bomb-vessels, was despatched to Denmark, under the command of sir Hyde Parker, with Nelson as second in com- mand. The Danish navy itself was considerably superior to the force despatched against it, and Nelson pressed the necessity of hasten- ing operations before the breaking up of the ice should enable the Russians to come to the assistance of the enemy. The passage of the Sound was preferred to that of the Belt, though more exposed to the guns of the enemy, and by keeping near the Swedish coast the fire of Kronburg castle was avoided. Between Copenhagen and the sand-bank which defends its approach, the Danes had moored floating batteries mounting 70 guns ; and 13 men-of-war were also posted before the town. Nelson led in with the greater part of the fleet, and anchored off Draco point, while sir Hyde Parker with the remainder menaced the Crown batteries. Two of Nelson's ships grounded in going in, so that he could not extend his line. The action was hot, and sir Hyde Parker hoisted the signal to desist ; but Nelson would not see it, and, hoisting his own for closer action, ordered it to be nailed to the mast. The Danes, encouraged by the presence of the crown-prince, fought with desperate valour ; but by half-past three the Danish ships had all struck, though it was im- possible to carry them off on account of the batteries. Nelson now sent a note ashore addressed " to the brothers of Englishmen, the Danes," in which he remarked that if he could effect a reconciliation between the two countries, he should consider it the greatest victory he ever had gained (April 2, 1801). Subsequently he had an audi- ence with Christian VII., and Denmark was detached from the league. The happy effects of this blow were seconded by an accident. Just at this time the emperor Paul was assassinated. His son and successor, Alexander I., immediately declared his intention of govern- ing on the principles of Catharine, and he ordered all British prisoners to be liberated and all sequestrated British property to be restored. When Nelson proceeded from Copenhagen to Cronstadt, he found that the pacific disposition of Alexander rendered all attack super- fluous, even had the strength of the place permitted it. Lord St. Helens negociated a treaty at St. Petersburg, to which the king of Sweden acceded. On June 17 a definitive treaty was signed by a.d. 1801. CAMPAIGN IN EGYPT. 659 Great Britain, Eussia, Denmark, and Sweden. By this treaty the rights of neutral navigation were placed on a satisfactory footing, the neutrality of the Elbe was re-established, the troops withdrawn from Hamburg and Lubeck, and the embargo on British property removed. On the other hand, England restored all captured vessels belonging to the northern powers, and the islands in the West Indies which she had taken from the Danes and Sweden. These results were due in great part to the unhesitating vigour of Nelson. § 19. Foiled in their northern projects, the French renewed the threat of invasion. Camps had been formed at Ostend, Dunkirk, Brest, and St. Malo ; but the main force was assembled at Boulogne. It was rumoured that immense rafts, to be impelled by mechanical power, and capable of conveying an army, were to be constructed. But, though so chimerical a project was never realized, precautions against it were adopted in England. Nelson, having taken the command of a squadron, commissioned to operate between Orford- ness and Beachy Head, sent a few vessels into Boulogne, which succeeded in destroying two floating batteries, two gunboats, and a gun-brig. An attempt to cut out the flotilla in that harbour with boats proved abortive, and the French triumphed in the result as if the memory of Copenhagen and the Nile had been obliterated (August 16). Ever since the accession of Mr. Addington to power, negociations had been attempted for a peace with France, but the haughty views of the first consul rendered them abortive. The eyes of the English ministry were still anxiously directed towards Egypt, from which, on account of our East Indian possessions, as well as for other reasons, it was highly desirable that the French should be expelled. Towards the close of 1800, an army of about 15,000 men, under the command of sir Balph Abercrombie, was despatched to Egypt. The French force there had been greatly underrated. In spite of our cruisers, they had managed to procure reinforcements. Their army numbered more than 32,000 men, with upwards of 1000 pieces of artillery and some excellent cavalry, whilst the English were very deficient in both. Early in March, 1801, the first British division, consisting of 5000 or 6000 men, landed in boats in Aboukir Bay, under a hot discharge of shot, shell, grape, and musketry from the castle, and from artillery planted on the sand-hills. In the midst of this fire the British troops formed on the beach as they landed, and without firing a shot drove the French from the position at the point of the bayonet. Their loss, however, was very considerable. On March 18, Aboukir castle surrendered. Early in the morning of the 21st, Menou, who bad succeeded Kleber as commander-in-chief, advancing from Cairo 660 GEOEGE III. Chap, xxxii. with a large force, attempted to surprise the English camp. The combat was sustained with great obstinacy, and, the ammunition of both parties being exhausted, was carried on with stones. At length, after a struggle of nearly seven hours and the loss of 4000 men, Menou retired. The English loss was only about 1500, but among them was Abercombie, who received a wound of which he expired in a week. § 20. General Hutchinson, on whom the command now devolved, being reinforced by the Turks, successively captured Eosetta, El Aft, and Cairo, which last surrendered on June 27, after a siege of 20 days. It was agreed that the garrison, consisting of about 13,000 French, should be conveyed to France at the expense of the allied powers. Menou still held out in Alexandria. General Hut- chinson, being again reinforced by 7000 or 8000 Sepoys from India as well as by British troops, laid siege to that city on August 3, and on the 22nd it surrendered in spite of Menou's boast of holding out to the last extremity. The French garrison of 11,500 men obtained the same terms as that of Cairo. Six ships of war in the harbour were divided between the English and Turks. The savatis were permitted to retain their private papers, but all manuscripts and collections of art and science made for the republic were surrendered.* The French now began to listen to proposals for peace, and the preliminaries were signed (October 1). England was to cede all the French, Spanish, and Dutch colonies acquired during the war, except Trinidad and Ceylon ; the Cape of Good Hope was to be open to both the contracting parties ; Minorca was finally given back to Spain; Malta to be restored to the Order of St. John, Egypt to the Porte ; the French were to evacuate Naples and the States of the Church, the English Porto Ferrajo in Elba. On these terms a definitive treaty was signed at Amiens between Great Britain, France, and Holland (March 27, 1802). It was joyfully received in London as well as in Paris ; yet even the ministers did not venture to call it great or glorious. It left France in a state of unjust aggrandizement, whilst we had acquired little or nothing by the expenditure of so much blood and treasure. France re- tained the Austrian Netherlands, Dutch Flanders, the course of the Scheldt, and part of Dutch Brabant, Maestricht, Venloo, and other fortresses of importance, the German territories on the left bank of the Bhirie, Avignon, Savoy, Geneva, Nice, etc. Yet Bonaparte's am- bition was not satisfied. Charles Emmanuel IV., king of Sardinia, ■ It was on this occasion that the ccle- George III., formed the foundation of the hrated Rosetta stone was acquired, to- collection of Egyptian antiquities in the gether with many statues, oriental MSS., British Museum.! etc. which, presented to the nation by ' a.d. 1802. PEACE OF AMIENS. 661 having abdicated his throne in favour of his brother, Victor Emmanuel I. (June 4), Bonaparte annexed Piedmont to France as the 27th military department, on the pretence that, this being the king's second abdication, his subjects were released from their allegiance. Soon after, on the death of the grand duke of Parma, his territories were also seized. In all the neighbouring countries the influence of France was paramount. Spain was her abject vassal ; her troops, under pretence of a Jacobin plot, still occupied Holland, contrary to the treaty of Amiens ; and in Switzerland, whose constitution had been overthrown by Bonaparte, he reigned supreme under the title of Mediator. France herself was rapidly passing from anarchy to despotism. On May 9, Bonaparte was elected consul for ten years, and in August for life. In his court at the Tuileries and St. Cloud he displayed as much magnificence as the ancient sovereigns of France. His power was supported by the establishment of the Legion of Honour, a sort of new nobility, consisting of 7000 men receiving honours and pensions, and dispersed throughout the republic. But amidst these selfish aims much was also effected for the public good by the establishment of the code, still in force as the " Code Napoleon," by the diffusion of public instruction, and by other measures of the like nature. The church and the authority of the pope were restored by a con- cordat, though the clergy were still held in an oppressed and degraded state. (Supplement, Note XXIX.) 30 Medal in commemoration of the Battle of Trafalgar. Obv. : HORATIO . VISCOUNT NELSON : K . B . DUKE OF BEONTE . &. Bust to left. CHAPTER XXXIII. GEORGE III. — CONTINUED. FROM THE PEACE OF AMIENS TO THE DEATH OF THE KING. A.D. 1802-1820. 1. Hostile feelings between France and England. Declaration of war. Hanover seized. § 2. Change of ministry. Pitt premier. War with Spain. Bonaparte proclaimed emperor, as NAPOLEON I. His violent measures. § 3. Impeachment of lord Melville. League between England, Russia, and Sweden. Napoleon enters Vienna. § 4. Nelson chases the French fleet to the West Indies. Sir Robert Calder's action. Battle of Trafalgar, and death of Nelson. § 5. Death of Pitt. The '' Talents " ministry. Fox vainly attempts a peace. § 6. Battle of Maida. War between France and Prussia. Berlin Decree. § 7. Death of Fox. Duke of Portland prime minister. Abolition of the slave- trade. § 8. Expeditions to Rio de la Plata, to Constantinople, and to Egypt- § 9. Peace of Tilsit. Expedition to Copenhagen and capture of the Danish fleet. § 10. Napoleon seizes Lisbon. Milan Decree. The throne of Spain seized for Joseph Bonaparte. Sir Arthur Wellesley proceeds to Portugal. § 11. Battle of Vimiera. Advance and retreat of sir John Moore. Battle of Corunna, and death of Moore. § 12. Colonel Wardle's charges against the duke of York. Sir A. Wellesley commander-in-chief in Portugal. Battle of Talavera. § 13. Napoleon conquers the Austrians. Expedition to Walcheren. Expedition to Calabria. Ionian islands captured. § 14 Change in the ministry. Mr. Perceval premier. Burdett riots. Massena advances into Portugal. Battle of Busaco. Wellington occupies the lines of Torres Vedras. § 15. George III.'s illness. The regency. Retreat of Massena. Battles of Barrosa, of Fuentes de Ofioro, and of Albuera. § 16. Perceval shot. Lord Liverpool prime minister. Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz taken. Battle of Salamanca. Wellington enters Madrid. § 17. War with the Americans. Napoleon's Russian expedition. Treaties with Sweden and Russia. § 18. Wellington advances into a.d. 1802-1803. IMPENDING HOSTILITIES. 663 Rev. : England expects evert man will do his duty. English and French fleet. engaged. Below, trafalgae oct . 21 . 1805. Spain. Battle of Vittoria. Retreat of the French, and battles of the Pyrenees. Wellington enters France. § 1 9. Coalition against Napo- leon. Battles of Orthez and Toulouse. Abdication of Napoleon. § 20. Congress of Chatillon. The allies enter Paris. Restoration of Louis XVIII., and peace of Paris. § 21. Progress of the American war. Peace of Ghent. § 22. Congress of Vienna. Escape of Napoleon. Battle of Waterloo. § 23. The allies enter Paris. Napoleon carried to St. Helena. Peace of Paris. § 24. Distress and discontent in England. Hampden clubs. Spa-fields riot. Algiers reduced. § 25. Hone's trial. Death of the princess Charlotte. Royal marriages. Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle. § 26. Peel's Act to repeal the Bank restriction. Manchester riots. Repressive measures. Death and character of George III. § 1. It was soon felt that the peace could not last. Bonaparte evidently designed to exclude England from all continental influence or even commerce. Libels and invectives appeared both in the French and English newspapers. The harbouring of French emi- grants in England, and allowing them to wear orders which had ' been abolished, furnished prominent topics of complaint. To re- move one cause of dissatisfaction, Peltier, the editor of a French paper published in London, called the Ambigu, was prosecuted and convicted of a libel on Bonaparte ; but before sentence was passed he escaped punishment, owing to the altered relations between the two countries. It was known that extensive preparations were making in the ports of France and Holland, designed, as it was pretended, for the French colonies ; but George III., in a message to parliament (March 8, 1803), adverted to the necessity of being prepared, and it was resolved to call out the militia and augment the naval 6G4 GEORGE III. Chap, xxxiii. force. This message excited the indignation of the first consul. In a crowded court at the Tuileries he addressed our ambassador, lord Whitworth, in an angry tone (March 13). He made bitter com- plaints of the delay in the evacuation of Malta, and displayed so much irritation that lord Whitworth refused to attend the court, without some assurance that such conduct should not be repeated. After some further negociations, and an ultimatum to which no satisfactory answer was returned, lord Whitworth quitted Paris (May 12), and at the same time general Andreossi, the French ambassador, was directed to leave London. Thus, after a short and anxious peace, or rather suspension of hostilities, the two nations were again plunged into war (May 18). Lord Whitworth's departure was protracted as long as possible by Talleyrand ; nevertheless there was time to seize about 200 Dutch and French vessels, valued at nearly three millions sterling. In retaliation, Bonaparte ordered all English residents or travellers in France, and in all places subject to the French, to be seized and detained. About 10,000 persons of every class and condition, and of all ages and sexes, were apprehended and conveyed to prison. Subse- quently a considerable portion of them were cantoned at Verdun and in other French towns. Immediately after the declaration of war, a French army, under marshal Mortier, marched into Hanover ; the duke of Cambridge, the viceroy, capitulated, and retired beyond the Elbe, and the French entered the capital (June 5). On the other hand, the French and Dutch colonies in the West Indies soon fell into our possession. The most enthusiastic patriotism was ex- hibited in England. No fewer than 300,000 men enrolled them- selves in different volunteer corps and associations. The French camp at Boulogne still held out an empty menace of invasion, and in July the " Army of England " was reviewed by Bonaparte ; but our cruisers swept the Channel, and occasionally bombarded the enemy's towns. § 2. Early in 1804 the king had a slight return of his former malady. Upon his convalescence, Addington, whose decreasing majorities rendered it impossible for him to carry on the ministry, retired from office, and Pitt again became premier (May 12). Pitt was very popular, especially in the city. After the peace of Amiens, a deputation of London merchants had waited upon him and informed him that 100,000Z. had been subscribed for his use, and that the names of the contributors would never be known ; but he declined this magnificent offer. The state of the king's health, as well as the alarming crisis of the country, induced Pitt to waive for the present the question of the catholic claims. The friendship of Spain was more than doubtful. A large arma- a.d. 1803-1804. WAR WITH FRANCE AND SPAIN. 665 merit was preparing in the port of Ferrol, and its destination could hardly be questionable. It was therefore determined to intercept four Spanish frigates, laden with treasure, on their return to Cadiz from Monte Video. Captain Graham Moore, with four English frigates, having in vain summoned them to surrender, an action ensued, in which three of the Spaniards were captured and the fourth blown up (October 5, 1804). The treasure taken on this occasion was valued at nearly a million sterling. The policy of the act, setting aside the question of justice, may, however, be questioned, as it alienated from us a large party in Spain that was hostile to the French. It was, of course, followed by a formal declaration of war on the part of Spain (December .12). Bonaparte had been proclaimed emperor, as Napoleon I. (May 18, 1804). Shortly before, on the groundless suspicion that the duke d'Enghien, a Bourbon prince who was residing at the castle of Ettenheim in the neutral territory of Baden, had been concerned in the conspiracy of Georges and Pichegru, Napoleon ordered him to be secretly seized in the night, and conveyed to the castle of Vin- cennes, where he was shot in the ditch. On October 24, sir George Rumbold, the English minister at Hamburg, was seized in like manner by a detachment of 250 French soldiers of the army occupying Hanover. He was conveyed to Paris and confined in the Temple, but was released at the intervention of Prussia. By means of an infamous spy named De la Touche, who received money at once both from the French and the English governments, Napoleon con- trived to expel our envoys from Munich and Stuttgart, on the charge of favouring a plot for his assassination. Though the accusa- tion was false, the dependent states of Europe, and even the court of Prussia, congratulated Napoleon on his happy escape. § 3. Pitt's ministry was not strong. Lord Grenville, having coalesced with Fox and the party called the " Talents," offered a formidable opposition. Towards the end of the year, by the sug- gestion of the king, a reconciliation was effected between Pitt and Addington : the latter was created viscount Sidmouth, and became president of the council, in place of the duke of Portland. Soon afterwards lord Melville (Dundas), first lord of the admiralty, was compelled to resign, as Mr. Whitbread had carried a charge (April 6) against him of conniving at the misapplication of the public money, and even of deriving benefit from it himself. Pitt, with a bitter pang, was compelled to advise the king to erase the name of his old friend and companion from the list of the privy council. Lord Melville acknowledged at the bar of the House of Commons that his paymaster, Mr. Trotter, might have used the public money for his own advantage ; and, as there were some cir- C66 GEORGE III. Chap, xxxiii. cumstances of suspicion against Melville himself, Mr. Whitbread, in the name of the commons of England, impeached him of high crimes and misdemeanours at the bar of the lords (June 26). The impeachment was not heard till the following year, when he was acquitted after a trial of 16 days (June 12, 1806). His culpability appears to have been owing rather to negligence than dishonesty. In April a treaty was concluded between England and Eussia, by which they bound themselves to resist the encroachments of Prance, and to secure the independence of Europe. The league was afterwards joined by Sweden and Austria ; but the king of Prussia kept aloof, intent on appropriating the Hanoverian do- minions of his relative and ally. The year 1805 was the period of Napoleon's most brilliant suc- cesses. In May he was crowned king of Italy in the cathedral of Milan with the iron crown of the Lombard kings ; and he appointed his stepson, Eugene Beauharnais, to be viceroy of that kingdom.* At the same time the republic of Genoa was united to France. Napoleon introduced the conscription into Italy, and an army of 40,000 Italians proved of great service to him in his subsequent wars with Austria. On his return from Italy, he again repaired to Boulogne ; but when the hostile disposition of Austria was ascertained, the " Army of England," consisting of 150,000 men, was declared to be the Army of Germany, and was rapidly marched towards the Ehine (August 28). The Austrians, who had postponed hostilities too long, afterwards precipitated them before the Eussians could come to their support ; and the power of Austria was com- pletely broken by the disgraceful capitulation of general Mack at Ulm (October 17). The road was now open to Vienna, which was occupied without a struggle (November 14). Meanwhile Massena had driven the archduke Charles out of Italy, and obtained possession of the Tyrol. Napoleon pushed on into Moravia, the emperor and the czar retreating before him. The court of Berlin, guided by the counsels of its minister Haugwitz, temporized, waiting the result of another battle. That battle was fought at Austerlitz (December 2), where the Eussians and Austrians were completely defeated. The former retired into their own country ; and Austria made a separate peace with France, by which she lost Trieste, her only port, and recognized the regal titles of Bavaria and Wiirtem- berg.f The Confederation of the Ehine was now formed, with Napoleon for its protector (July, 1806). * Josephine, the wife of Napoleon, was the widow of General Beauharnais, and had hy him a son Eugene, and a daughter Hortense, married to Louis Napoleon's brother, king of Holland. Hortense was mother of Napoleon III. f Francis II. resigned the old title of emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, and took rank as the first emperor of Austria, under the title of Francis I. a.d. 1805. BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR. 6G7 § 4. Thus the objects of the English and Eussian league seemed completely frustrated ; arid England appeared destined to be success- ful only when she acted by herself on her own peculiar domain, the ocean. Nelson had been in command of the Mediterranean fleet since 1803. The winter of 1804 was spent in watching the harbour of Toulon, where the French fleet was preparing to embark a large body of troops whose destination was unknown. To draw them out, Nelson sailed for Barcelona, and in his absence Villeneuve, the French admiral, put to sea with 10 sail of the line, besides several frigates and brigs (March, 1805). Nelson concluded that they were bound for Egypt, and made sail for Sicily; but he soon learned that they had passed the Straits of Gibraltar. At Cadiz they were rein- forced by six Spanish and two French line-of-battle ships, thus making their whole number 18 sail of the line. Nevertheless, as soon as the wind permitted, Nelson followed them to the West Indies with 10 sail of the line, but returned to Europe without having been fortunate enough to discover them. Being in a bad state of health, he struck his flag at Spithead, and retired to his seat at Merton. Sir Robert Calder was more fortunate. On July 22, he fell in with the enemy at some distance from Cape Finisterre, and, though much inferior in force, brought them to action. Two of the Spanish ships were taken. Calder, having neglected to renew the engage- ment on the following day, was brought to a court-martial and reprimanded. Villeneuve ultimately got into Cadiz, where he found his fleet now amounting to 35 sail of the line. Collingwood, who was watching that port, communicated the interesting intelli- gence to Nelson, who had led his friends to expect that he had finally retired from the service. But at this news his ardour could no longer be restrained. He immediately volunteered his services to the admiralty, which were gladly accepted, and on the 15th of September he was again on board the Victory, accompanied by the Ajax, the TJiunderer, and the Euryalus frigate. On the 29th, his birthday, he arrived off Cadiz, and joined Collingwood ; but his arrival was kept secret from the enemy, lest they should not venture out of port. No salute was fired, and Nelson kept well out at sea. On October 19, want of provisions obliged Villeneuve to leave Cadiz, and the English fleet immediately gave chase, the course being towards the Straits of Gibraltar. It was not till the 21st that Nelson fell in with them about seven miles east of Cape Trafalgar, there being a light breeze from the west. Nelson felt a sure pre- sentiment of victory, but at the same time of death. The enemy tacked, in order to be able, if necessary, to run back to Cadiz, when 668 GEORGE III. Chap, xxxiii. Nelson steered a little more to the north, in order to cut off their van. He now asked captain Blackwood of the Euryalus, who was on board the Victory, whether a signal was not wanted. The latter replied that he thought all knew what they were about ; but Nelson ran up to the mast-head his last signal — England expects that every man will do his duty — which was greeted with three cheers from every ship. Nelson led the weather-line in the Victory ; but the lee-line, under Collingwood, was the first to get into action. The British fleet comprised 27 sail of the line, 4 frigates, a schooner, and a cutter ; the combined French and Spanish fleets numbered 33 sail of the line, 5 frigates, and 2 brigs ; and they were vastly superior in weight of metal, having 2626 guns to 2148 of the English. The enemy's line had accidentally fallen into the shape of a cres- cent, which rendered the attack more difficult. It was a little after noon that Collingwood, in the Royal Sovereign, began the action. He was soon surrounded by five French and Spanish vessels ; but, finding that they damaged one another, they gradually drew off and left Collingwood in single combat with the Santa Anna. He had been engaged nearly a quarter of an hour before the other ships got into action. As the Victory bore down, she was made a mark by the enemy : her rigging was much damaged, her wheel shot away, and 50 officers and men killed or wounded before she had fired a shot. The foremost ships of the enemy, to the number of 19, closed round Nelson's column, leaving a gap of nearly a mile between it and the spot where Collingwood and his comrades were engaging the re- maining 14. Nelson, in the Victory, first engaged with Villeneuve's flag-ship, the Bucentaur, of 80 guns, and after disabling it he attacked the Eedoubtahle ; that ship and the Victory getting as it were locked together by their anchors. The tops of the Redoubt- able were filled with riflemen, and Nelson, on going into action, afforded a conspicuous mark. The action had lasted about half an hour, when he was struck by a musket-ball and fell on the quarter- deck. On his captain expressing a hope that he was not seriously wounded, Nelson replied, " They have done for me at last, Hardy — my backbone is shot through." He was carried to the cockpit, where it was found that the shot, having entered the left shoulder at the epaulette, had lodged in the spine, inflicting a mortal wound. While the hero lay there expiring, the battle still raged two hours, distressing him with the concussion of the firing, though ever and anon he was cheered by the huzzas of the crew as one after another the enemy's ships struck their colours. He had the satisfaction to hear from captain Hardy before his death that he had gained a complete victory. Almost his last words were to recommend to his country lady Hamilton, with whom he lived, and his daughter. a.d. 1805-1806. DEATH OF NELSON AND PITT. 669 Then exclaiming, " Thank God, I have done my duty ! " he expired, at the age of 47 (October 21), almost without a struggle, about three hours after receiving his wound. He had said, almost pro- phetically, when going into action, that he should be content with 20 ships ; 19 of the enemy's line actually struck at Trafalgar, and one blew up. The prisoners, including the troops on board, amounted to 12,000. Four ships that had taken little part in the action were subsequently captured by Sir Eichard Strachan (November 4). By this glorious victory the French navy was nearly annihilated, and England rescued from all chance of an invasion. Nelson was honoured with a magnificent public funeral. The body lay in state in Greenwich Hospital, and was attended to St. Paul's by a procession by land and water. His brother, a clergyman , was made an earl ; 100,000?. were voted him to buy an estate, with a pension of 6000?. a year ; and 10,000?. were given to each of his sisters (November 9). § 5. Pitt did not long survive England's greatest naval com- mander. The cares and anxieties of office, at a crisis so tremen- dously agitating, had undermined a constitution naturally feeble. He expired at the age of 46, January 23, 1806. Of his disin- terestedness no greater proof can be offered than that, in spite of his apparent opportunities of enriching himself, he died 40,000?. in debt. His debts were discharged by a vote of the Commons, and a funeral decreed for him, at the public expense, in Westminster Abbey : the latter was ungenerously opposed by Fox and his party. Pitt must be regarded as one of the greatest ministers this country ever saw. His councils chiefly enabled England to stem the overbearing in- solence and ambition of the French republic. To him the nation is indebted for the financial policy carried out by Peel and Gladstone. His measures for freedom of commerce with Ireland were rejected by the Irish parliament (1785), and his commercial treaty with France (1786) was nullified by the revolutionary movements in that country. He was, in fact, one of the very few statesmen who combined a thorough mastery of great principles, financial and legislative, with consummate practical tact and sagacity. Attempts were made to patch up the ministry, but failed, and the king was obliged to have recourse to lord Grenville and " All the Talents." This involved the readmission of Fox, who was now allied with that party, and the king was obliged to waive his per- sonal dislike of that statesman. Early in February a ministry was formed, with lord Grenville first lord of the treasury, Fox foreign secretary, lord Howick (afterwards earl Grey) first lord of the admiralty, and Erskine lord chancellor. 30* G70 GEORGE III. Chap, xxxiii. It was naturally expected that Fox, who had so long denounced the war both as iniquitous and impolitic, would exert himself to terminate it; and he did, indeed, open communications with the French government through lord Yarmouth, afterwards marquess of Hertford, one of the detenus at Yerdun. But he soon discovered that Napoleon would never agree to terms which this country could accept with honour. The financial measures of the new govern- ment were universally complained of, and especially the increase of the obnoxious property-tax to 10 per cent. § 6. Napoleon had now installed his brother Joseph as king of Naples, his brother Louis as king of Holland, and had bestowed 12 Italian duchies upon as many of his most favoured generals. Fer- dinand IV. of Naples had been driven to take refuge in Sicily, as already related. At the request of his consort, Caroline of Aus- tria, sister of the unfortunate Marie Antoinette, sir John Stuart, who commanded the British forces in that island, was induced to pass over into Calabria with a small army of less than 5000 men, and to try his fortune against the French general Regnier, who occupied that province. On July 6, an engagement took place at Maida, in which the French, though considerably the stronger, were entirely defeated. Regnier fled across the Apennines, and Stuart cleared the whole of Lower Calabria of the French ; but his force was too small to hold it, and he was obliged to return to Sicily. It was one of the mistakes of the government to fritter away the strength of the nation in small expeditions of this fruitless kind. At the same time sir Sidney Smith's squadron harassed the French on the coast of Italy, from the Tiber to the bay of Naples. During his negociations with the new ministry, Napoleon had offered to restore Hanover. The desire of possessing that country had induced the court of Prussia to desert the cause of Germany. They had likewise found other causes of complaint against France in the Confederation of the Rhine, and in the depreciatory tone in which the Moniteur spoke of Prussia and her pretensions. On October 1, Prussia required the French to evacuate Germany ; on the 14th the battle of Jena laid her at the feet of Napoleon, a fitting reward of her perfidy and selfishness. On the 25th the French entered Berlin, and Mortier was sent forward to occupy Hamburg and seize all British property. On November 20 appeared the celebrated Berlin Decree, forbidding all intercourse with Eng- land, and all use of her manufactures or colonial products. § 7. Fox did not live to see this event. He had been attacked with dropsy, and after July became too unwell to attend to busi- ness. On September 13, he expired, in his 59th year, at the duke of Devonshire's seat at Chiswick, whither he had proceeded on his ad 1606-1807. ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE TRADE. 671 way to his own house at St. Ann's Hill. He received a public funeral, and was buried in Westminister Abbey (October 10), by the side of his great rival Pitt. Posterity will be rather at a loss to discover in his character any transcendent merits as a statesman, or to point out any great benefits that he achieved for his country. His in- fluence during his lifetime seems to have been principally acquired by his powerful and fervid oratory, and by his engaging qualities, which attached to him a host of personal friends. His death did not break up the ministry ; lord Howick succeeded to the place of foreign secretary, and Mr. Thomas Grenville became first lord of the admiralty. Lord Grenville had made no compact with the sovereign on the subject of catholic emancipation, but early in March, 1807, lord Howick brought in a bill to enable Roman catholic officers to serve in the army and navy in England as well as in Ireland. In the latter country a Roman catholic officer could attain any rank, except commander-in-chief, master general of the ordnance, or general on the staff. The bill was opposed by Spencer Perceval and others ; and, as the king had a great repugnance to the measure, it was not difficult to persuade him to dismiss his ministers. Be- fore the end of the month a new administration was formed, with the duke of Portland as first lord of the treasury, George Canning foreign secretary, lord Castlereagh secretary at war and for the colonies, Spencer Perceval chancellor of the exchequer, and lord Eldon chancellor in place of Erskine. A " No Popery " cry was raised, in which the majority of the country joined ; the ministers took advantage of it to dissolve the parliament, though it had been returned only a few months, and the elections secured them a large majority. A little before the dismissal of lord Grenville, the abolition of the slave-trade had been carried. That question had now been 20 years in agitation. A society had been formed for its promotion, of which Mr. Granville Sharpe was chairman, and Wilberforce and Clarkson distinguished members. This inhuman traffic had been denounced by several writers, but it required all the zeal and enthusiasm of the evangelical party, which had sprung up of late years, in order to effect its abolition. The society adopted every means, by newspaper articles, pamphlets, speeches, and letters, to influence the public mind on the subject. Pitt approved the cause, and a board of the privy council had been formed to consider the state of the African trade ; but the commercial interests of the country offered a great impediment, and all that could be obtained at first was a mitigation of the horrors of the middle passage. § 8. The military plans arranged by lord Grenville's ministry 672 GEORGE III. Chap, xxxiii. turned out unfortunate in all quarters. Two expeditions had been despatched early in 1807 against Constantinople and Egypt. French intrigues, ably conducted by general Sebastiani, had in- duced the Turks to declare war against Kussia, and had thus diverted a great part of the force which might have been used against Napoleon. Sir John Duckworth was despatched with a squadron to bring the Turks to reason : he succeeded in passing the Dardanelles, and appeared before Constantinople in February. But the Turks amused him with negociations, till they had put the Dardanelles in a formidable posture of defence; and Duckworth made a disgraceful retreat, for which he was subsequently brought to a court-martial. At the same time the expedition to Egypt under major-general Frazer proved equally unfortunate ; the new ministry declined to support it ; and, in September, the remnant of the British force was obliged to return to Sicily. The only effect of these proceedings was that the Turks declared war against Great Britain, and confiscated all British property. § 9. Meanwhile Russia, exhausted by the well-contested fields of Eylau and Friedland, and receiving no assistance either in men or money from England, concluded with France the peace of Tilsit (July 7, 1807), to which Prussia afterwards acceded. Both countries agreed to shut their ports against the English ; and, indeed, the French were in possession of those of Prussia. When it was too late, Canning despatched lord Leveson-Gower to conciliate the emperor Alexander. He could not even obtain an audience, and returned with the conviction that Alexander, by a secret article of the treaty of Tilsit, had placed not only his own fleet, but also those of Sweden and Denmark, at the disposal of Napoleon. He had been drawn into this engagement by the fascination of the French emperor, who had dazzled the young czar with a vision of empire, in which Europe and Asia were to be partitioned into west and east under two great heads. For the accomplishing of this object the destruction of Great Britain was a necessary preliminary. There was no time for hesitation. Denmark commanded the entrance to the Baltic ; a large fleet was lying in her harbours ; the north of Germany was full of French troops ; and, however friendly might be the disposition of the Danes, it was evident that their move- ments would depend on the will of Napoleon. A powerful arma- ment, consisting of 17 sail of the line, 21 frigates and other small vessels, and 377 transports carrying 27,000 troops, was secretly and promptly fitted out, and sailed from Yarmouth Roads, under the command of admiral Gambier (July 26). Lord Cathcart was at the head of the land forces, and under him served sir Arthur Wellesley, an officer who had greatly distinguished himself in a.d. 1807- CAPTURE OF THE DANISH FLEET. 673 India. On August 9, the expedition was safely anchored in the roads of Elsinore, and the fleet was strengthened by the arrival of eight sail of the line and 19 frigates. Negociations were opened for the delivery of the Danish fleet, under the solemn promise that it should be restored on the conclusion of a peace with France. The proposal being indignantly rejected by the crown prince, preparations were made to enforce it. The fleet proceeded to Copenhagen, the troops were landed, and batteries constructed ; and on September 2 a bombardment commenced both by sea and land. On the evening of the 5th the Danish commander surrendered, and on the 8th Gambier took possession of Copenhagen. Our whole loss did not much exceed 200 men. By October 20 the whole of the Danish fleet was prepared for sea, to be carried off to England, together with an immense quantity of naval stores, and between 2000 and 3000 pieces of artillery. But of the 17 line-of-battle ships four only proved to be fit for service. The island of Heligoland was also captured (September 5), and served as a depot for English goods to be smuggled into the continent. The rage of Bonaparte at this intelligence was terrific. The entry of the French into Stralsund (September 1) showed the wisdom of our rapid and decisive move- ment. The Danes declared war against us, the consequence of which was the capture of the Danish West India islands of St. Thomas, St. John's, and Santa Croce, in December. § 10. The king of Portugal having refused to enforce the Berlin Decree against England, Napoleon determined to attack that country. For that purpose he entered into a treaty with Spain (October 27), which was to have a portion of Portugal ; and before the treaty was signed he despatched an army of 30,000 men under Junot across the Bidassoa, and proclaimed that the house of Bra- ganza had ceased to reign. Junot entered Lisbon (November 30). Don John, the regent, afterwards John VI., with many of his nobility and 18,000 of his subjects, had sailed the day previously for Brazil. Towards winter Napoleon visited Italy, and issued, in the capital of Lombardy (December 27), his celebrated Milan Decree, declaring all vessels, of whatsoever nation, that should submit to the British orders in council, lawful prizes. These orders had been issued in retaliation for the Berlin Decree. They de- clared the whole French coast in a state of blockade, thus render- ing neutral vessels with French goods on board liable to seizure, a proceeding which formed the principal ground of quarrel with the Americans. But, in fact, both the Berlin Decree and the orders in council were in great degree inoperative. (Sup. N. XXX.) No sooner was Bonaparte in possession of Portugal than, with the help of Godoy, the Prince of the Peace, the prime minister of 674 GEORGE III. Chap, xxxm. Spain and paramour of the queen, lie treacherously turned his arms against that country. Murat occupied Madrid with a French divi- sion. The imhecile Charles IV., and his son Ferdinand, who was not much better, together with Godoy and the queen, were decoyed to Bayonne, where a renunciation of the Spanish throne in favour of Napoleon was extorted from them, in consideration of the palace and domains of Navarre and a pension of 400,000 francs ! (May 8, 1808). It was declared that the Spanish Bourbons had ceased to reign. Joseph Bonaparte, much against his will, was compelled to exchange the crown of Naples for that of Spain, while the former was bestowed upon Napoleon's brother-in-law, Murat. King Joseph entered Madrid (July 20) ; but by this time the Spaniards, who had risen in insurrection, had established at Seville a "Supreme Junta of Spain and the Indies," and had declared Ferdinand king, with the title of Ferdinand VII., though he was now residing in Talleyrand's house at Valencay. In this struggle the Spaniards displayed the greatest animosity towards the French, and murdered all the stragglers they could lay hands on. These revolutions were destined again to bring the English into contact with the French on land as well as sea. General Castahos, who commanded the Spanish army of Andalusia, applied to sir Hew Dalrymple, commandant of Gibraltar, with a view to obtain the assistance of England. The merchants of that place supplied the junta of Seville with money ; Collingwood carried his fleet into Cadiz and lent the Spaniards what assistance he could in ammu- nition and stores; and the English government at length under- took to aid the Spanish. loyalists with troops. On July 10 sir Arthur Wellesley sailed from Cork for the Peninsula with about 10,000 men. Preceding the fleet in a fast vessel, he landed at Corunna in order to consult the junta of Galicia as to his proceed- ings. By their advice, with which his own views entirely coin- cided, he determined to land near Oporto. Portugal at this time, like Spain, was in full insurrection against the French. In the latter country, Joseph had been driven out of his new capital before he had been a fortnight in it. He had taken up his abode at Vittoria in order to be nearer the French frontier, and Madrid had been occupied by Castahos. The British army landed near the town of Figueira (August 1), and, being reinforced by some troops from Cadiz, numbered in all about 14,000 men. Junot had 17,000 or 18,000 men in Portugal ; but, as many of these were in garrison, his disposable force was not much larger than the British ; and the success of the loyalists in Spain had cut him off from all commu- nication with his countrymen in that kingdom. Such was the beginning of the Peninsular war. A.D. 1808. BATTLE OF VIMTERA. G75 § 11. Wellesley began his march upon Lisbon (August 9). In about a week he came upon a French division of 5000 men, under Delaborde, occupying a strong position at Rolica, which was carried after a struggle of two hours (August 17). On the 19th he reached Vimiera, where he was reinforced by two British brigades, under generals Anstruther and Acland, making his whole force about 17,000 men, besides 1600 Portuguese. On the 21st was fought the battle of Vimiera, where in two hours the French were com- pletely defeated, with the loss of 14 guns and many prisoners. But Wellesley was superseded the same day by sir Harry Burrard. The government had determined to raise the army in the Peninsula to 30,000, under sir Hew Dalrymple, with sir Harry Burrard as second in command, while sir Arthur Wellesley, sir John Moore, and others were to be generals of division. Sir H. Burrard by suspending the pursuit lost the fruits of the victory, and the French, to their own great astonishment, got safe to Torres Vedras. Next day sir Hew Dalrymple arrived, the command being thus twice changed in 24 hours. On August 30 a convention was signed, by which Junot agreed to evacuate Portugal.* The French were deprived of the spoils of the royal museum and library, church plate, and other plunder, which they were preparing to carry off. A Russian fleet blockaded in the Tagus was surrendered. Early in September the British army entered Lisbon. The three generals were recalled ; Sir H. Dalrymple was censured (December 22) ; but sir A. Wellesley was marked out for high command. Sir John Moore, who had remained with the army in Portugal, ■was reinforced; and, with 20,000 men, was directed to co-operate with the Spaniards in driving the French from the north of Spain. On November 11 he crossed the frontier into Leon, and advanced by Ciudad Rodrigo to Salamanca. Meanwhile Napoleon himself had entered Spain at the head of some chosen troops ; and, having replaced his brother at Madrid (December 4), he proceeded to seek sir John Moore. Moore had discovered that there was no Spanish force on which he could rely for support, and he had been contem- plating a retreat ; but in consequence of wrong intelligence received from Mr. Frere, formerly our minister at Madrid, he determined to advance, and, before Napoleon could come up, strike a blow at Soult, who was on the banks of the Carion with about 18,000 men. But Soult had withdrawn ; and Moore, apprehensive of being sur- * This treaty is often erroneously called the " Convention of Cintra," because sir H. Dalrymple's despatches announcing it were dated from that place : but in fact Cintra lies between Torres Vedras and Lisbon ; and consequently, had the con- vention been m:ide there, the British must have been already in possession of the former strong position, which, on the con- trary, fell into their hands through the convention. 676 GEORGE III. Chap, xxxiii. rounded, commenced a retreat. Napoleon was close at his heels. On January 1, 1809, he was at Astorga with 70,000 infantry, 10,000 cavalry, and 200 guns ; and from this place he could descry the British rear. But he was now called away by news from Austria, and left the pursuit to Soult. The weather was bad, the roads miserable, provisions scanty, and the British had often to face about and repulse the enemy. At last, on January 13, Moore reached Corunna ; but the transports did not arrive till the following day. Soult had got possession of the hills round the town, and it was necessary to fight a battle to cover the embarkation. This took place on the 16th. Moore had between 15,000 and 16,000 infantry in line, Soult about 20,000, — the ground was not good for cavalry. In de- fending the village of Elvina, against which the French were making a concentrated attack, Moore was struck in the breast by a spent cannon-ball, and was carried to Corunna in a blanket, often stopping to look back on the progress of the battle. The French were beaten off along the whole line, but night coming on prevented all pursuit ; and, as the remainder of Soult's forces might be expected every hour, it was determined to hasten the embarkation. Sir John Moore died that evening, and was buried at midnight on the ramparts " with his martial cloak around him." The embarkation, being covered by some line-of-battle ships, was completed in safety by the 18th. During the whole campaign Moore received no assistance from the Spaniards, who, on the contrary, were a positive hindrance to him by crossing his line of retreat at Astorga. § 12. The English ministry, however, were determined to pursue the war in the Peninsula, in which they were encouraged by the distraction caused to the French arms by the renewal of the war with Austria ; and Mr. Canning executed a treaty of alliance with the Spanish insurgents, or rather royalists (January 14). The English nation, in spite of the long struggle it had already main- tained, was so little crippled in its resources, that a loan of eleven millions was raised at a lower interest than had ever before been known. Many abuses were at this time discovered in the bestowal of military and naval patronage, in some of which the duke of York himself, the commander-in-chief, was implicated. It appeared, from some charges brought against him in the House of Commons by Mr. Wardle, a Welsh colonel of militia, that the duke, abandoning himself to the influence of Mrs. Clarke, had bestowed commissions in the army on several unworthy persons, such as Mrs. Clarke's brother, and even her footman. Before the termination of the proceedings the duke resigned his office, and the investigation was dropped. About the same time the commissioners of naval and those of military enquiry brought to light a great many A.D. 1809. BATTLE OF TALAVERA. 677 abuses and frauds in the method of conducting the business of those departments. The chief command in the Peninsula was now given to sir Arthur Wellesley, who advised that in the first instance our exertions should be confined to Portugal. On April 22 he arrived at Lisbon, where he found himself at the head of about 25,000 men, including a body of Portuguese under general Beresford. On the 9th of May he directed his march upon Oporto, now occupied by Soult, who, after the battle of Corunna, had invaded Portugal. In a few days the Douro was crossed by a daring manoeuvre, and the French were driven out in precipitate flight. "Wellesley now entered Spain, and formed a junction with the Spanish general Cuesta at Oropesa in Estremadura. Cuesta's army, however, amounting to about 30,000 men, was in very bad condition. On July 26, and the two fol- lowing days, marshals Victor and Sebastiani attacked the position of the allied armies before Talavera. The attack was mainly directed against the allied left, held by the British, and especially against a height occupied by general Rowland Hill: the Spaniards on ithe right were comparatively safe, from the nature of the ground. At one time the British centre was broken, the guards, after repulsing the French, having got into disorder by pursuing them too far ; but the advance of the enemy was arrested by the 48th regiment. On the evening of the 28th all firing ceased, both armies retaining their original position ; but in the night the French retreated over the Alberche. This was one of the most bloody and best contested battles in the Peninsular war. The French lost 7000 men killed and wounded ; the British upwards of 5000. This victory gained Wellesley the title of viscount Wellington of Talavera. The British, however, were not in a condition to penetrate further. The French, who had 200,000 men dispersed in Spain, were gathering round them from all sides, and early in August, besides Victor and Sebastiani, marshals Soult, Ney, Mortier, Kellermann, and king Joseph himself, were in Estremadura. The English general retired into Portugal by Truxillo and Badajoz ; and sir Robert Wilson, who at the head of a light corps of Spanish and Portuguese had pushed on as far as Madrid, also returned. Before the end of the year the French had virtually annihilated the Spanish forces, and lord Wellington now concentrated his attention on the defence of Portugal, fixing his head-quarters at Viseu, with advanced posts towards Ciudad Rodrigo. § 13. We have adverted before to Napoleon's sudden abandonment of the pursuit of sir John Moore, which was occasioned by a breach with Austria. In March, 1809, the emperor Francis declared war against him. But Napoleon, after inflicting a severe defeat upon the archduke Charles at Eckmuhl, marched rapidly to Vienna, which he 678 GEORGE III. Chap, xxxiii, entered with little resistance (May 13). He had still, however, to fight the battle of Aspern, near Vienna, in which he may be said to have been defeated. But the French army was allowed time to recover from the shock, and the bloody battle of Wagram followed, which laid Austria at Napoleon's feet (July 5). This was succeeded by the disgraceful peace of Schonbrunn (October 14), which sub- sequently led to the marriage of Napoleon with the arch-duchess Maria Louisa (April 2, 1810). In the same year Napoleon annexed the States of the Church to France, and, having been excom- municated by Pius VII., he caused that pontiff to be carried off to Savona. In order to support the Austrian struggle, the English ministry resolved to divert the French arms by an expedition to the Scheldt ; especially as Napoleon was attempting to convert Antwerp and Flushing into great naval depots. Before the end of July, 37 sail of the line and an army of 40,000 men were despatched, under a most incompetent leader — the earl of Chatham, Pitt's elder brother, assisted by rear-admiral sir Eichard Strachan. The opinion of the most experienced officers was for a coup-de-main on Antwerp ; instead of which, a fortnight was spent in reducing Flushing, during which time the Scheldt had been strongly fortified, and 40,000 men thrown into Antwerp. The enterprise was then abandoned as impracticable, and the expedition returned home, leaving about 16,000 men in possession of the isle of Walcheren. These, however, began rapidly to disappear, from the effects of the fever and ague common on that unhealthy coast, and in a short time half the force were in hospital. After the treaty of Schon- brunn, the occupation of Walcheren was deemed of no advantage and towards the middle of November it was evacuated, the harbour, arsenal, and magazines of Flushing having been destroyed as far as possible. Such was the end of an expedition said to have cost 20 millions. Another diversion was attempted- in Calabria, where the news of Napoleon's excommunication had excited a great sensation among the people. In June sir J. Stuart again crossed over from Sicily, with 15,000 men, while sir William Hoste's squadron and flotillas of gunboats and small armed vessels operated upon the coast. The French retired before sir J. Stuart, but little was effected besides the dismantling of the castles of Ischia and Procida. In the autumn five of the seven Ionian islands, then held by the French, were captured. Santa Maura held out till the following spring ; and Corfu, the most important of the whole, was not obtained till 1814, when it was ceded to the Ionian republic, under an English protectorate, by Louis XVIII. A.D. 1809-1810. MINISTERIAL CHANGES. G70 § 14. A feeling of jealousy had long existed between Mr. Canning and lord Castlereagh, which being heightened by mutual recrimina- tions after the failure of the Walcheren expedition, a duel ensued, in which Canning was wounded (September 21). Both had previously resigned ; and, the duke of Portland dying soon after, the ministry seemed tottering to its fall. Mr. Perceval, however, accepted the office of first lord of the treasury, retaining also the exchequer ; the marquess Wellesley, our representative with the Spanish junta, was sent for and became foreign secretary in place of Canning ; lord Liverpool was transferred from the home office to lord Castlereagh's place, with lord Palmerston as secretary at war ; the right honourable Richard Ryder took the home department. In the spring of 1810 serious riots occurred in London. John Gale Jones being brought to the bar of the House of Commons, charged with the publication of a placard reflecting on the proceed- ings of the house, was committed to Newgate (February 21). In defending Jones sir Francis Burdett contended that by his com- mittal the House of Commons had infringed the laws of the land. Defeated on this motion, sir Francis pursued the same argument in CobbeWs Register. For this violation of the privileges of the house (March 26), he was committed to the Tower. On his way thither the mob were very riotous ; the windows of several unpopular noble- men and gentlemen were broken, and some lives were lost. On the prorogation of parliament sir Francis was of course liberated ; but he disappointed the populace of an expected ovation by returning home by water. In the Peninsula the Spaniards had been beaten at every point, and the junta itself was obliged to take refuge in Cadiz, which in February, 1810, was invested by a French army. A British force of about 6000 men had been thrown into that place to assist in the defence, and the English fleet kept open the communication by sea ; but the blockade was not raised till August, 1812. After the peace with Austria, Napoleon was enabled to throw large reinforcements into Spain, including some of his best troops. The " Army of Portugal," comprising 90,000 men under Massena, was cantoned in Old Castile and Leon. Massena promised to drive the English out of Portugal in three months, for which purpose he advanced with a force of more than 60,000 men. Lord Wellington had 24,000 British troops, and more than double that number of Portu- guese, who made much better soldiers than the Spaniards; but part of his force was detached south of the Tagus, to watch Soult's Army of Andalusia. The French advanced by Ciudad Rodrigo and Almeida, which they took ; and Wellington fell back upon a strong position at the Sierra de Busaco, near Coimbra. The British line, ex- 680 GEORGE III. Chap, xxxiii. tending neai'ly eight miles, but with, considerable gaps, was attacked by the French with great vigour on the morning of September 27. They were repulsed, however, with the loss of 5000 men ; and Massena, instead of renewing the attempt, seized the pass of Boialva, thus opening the road to Coimbra by turning the British left. Wellington now retired upon the famous lines of Torres Vedras, nearly 30 miles north of Lisbon, a position which his eagle eye had marked out in the preceding year. These lines were three- fold : the first or outermost ran from Alhandra on the Tagus to the heights of Torres Vedras, and thence along the little river Zizambre to the sea ; the second began at Quintilla, lower down the Tagus, and ran, at a distance varying from six to ten miles from the former, by Bucellas and Montachique to the mouth of the little river San Lorenzo ; the third or innermost was merely intended, in case of need, to cover the embarkation of the army on board the fleet in the Tagus. The streams were dammed up and reservoirs formed, so that the ground could be inundated if necessary. The right of the lines was covered by the fleet and gunboats in the Tagus. The lines were fortified with breast- works, abattis, etc., and nearly 100 redoubts or forts, mounting upwards of 600 guns. Some of them were capable of holding several hundred men, and one required a garrison of 3000. Wellington entered these lines on October 10. Massena came up three days afterwards, and was filled with despair at the sight. After viewing them about a month, he retired in the middle of November into winter quarters, without having attempted anything. Our general operations this year were not unattended with success. An attempt of the French upon Sicily was repulsed with great loss. By the end of the year they had been deprived of all their possessions in both Indies. The Dutch had also lost most of their East Indian settlements, and in the following year the re- mainder were reduced. On the continent, however, the French empire was extended. Napoleon, having deposed his intractable brother Louis, annexed Holland to France ; and, the German coast up to Hamburg being afterwards added, the French empire might be said to reach from Naples to the frontiers of Denmark, embracing a population of 80 millions. Nearly all the rest of Europe were Napoleon's allies ; and Bernadotte, one of his marshals, had been elected crown prince of Sweden. Between him and Napoleon, how- ever, there was a great antipathy ; and when the former came next year to the Swedish crown, he adopted Swedish views, conciliated the friendship of England, and ultimately declared against his former patron. a.d. 1810-1811. OPERATIONS IN THE PENINSULA. 681 THE KEGENCY. § 15. At home the scene was clouded by a return of the king's malady, brought on perhaps by the death of his beloved daughter, the princess Amelia (November 2, 1810), at the age of 28. Mr. Perceval now proposed the prince of Wales as regent, under the same restrictions with regard to the creation of peers, and the granting of offices, as those laid down by Pitt in 1788. The arrangements were not finally completed till January, 1811. George III. never recovered, and the regency consequently lasted till his death in 1820. At first it was anticipated that there would be a change of ministry, and lords Grey and Grenville were actually employed to draw up answers to the addresses of parliament ; but, being disgusted by some alterations suggested by Sheridan, they declined any further interference, and the old ministry was re- tained. Shortly after, the duke of York was reinstated as com- mander-in-chief. Early in 1811, Soult invaded Portugal from Andalusia, in order to co-operate with Massena. He took Olivenza and Badajoz (March 10) ; but by this time Massena's army was in a state of sickness and disorganization, and he was obliged to commence a retreat, closely followed by the English. His march was first directed on Coimbra and Oporto ; but his attempt to pass the Mon- dego at the former place being repulsed, he retreated up the left bank of that river, much harassed by the British. The French committed the most horrible cruelties and devastations in their retreat. The absence of several general officers, who had returned to England on pretence of private business, was bitterly reflected on in the English newspapers, and occasioned no small concern to Wellington. The draughts made by Soult for Portugal having reduced the French army blockading Cadiz to 16,000 men, general Graham (afterwards lord Lynedoch), with about 4000 men, partly Portu- guese, proceeded by sea to Algeciras, in the bay of Gibraltar ; and, having been joined at Tarifa by 7000 Spaniards, marched by way of Medina Sidonia towards the French position, with the view of taking them in the rear. Graham had expected that the Spaniards would have held the heights of Barrosa ; but when he arrived there, he found them occupied by marshal Victor with 8000 men and a formidable artillery. With his small division Graham carried them at the point of the bayonet in little more than an hour, with great loss, indeed, though almost twice as great on the side of the French. But, failing of support from the Spaniards, he was unable to follow up his victory, and the whole enterprise led to no result (March 5, 1811). 682 GEORGE III. Chap, xxxih. Towards the end of April, Massena, who had received reinforce- ments which swelled his army to 40,000 foot and 5000 horse, re- entered Portugal with the view of relieving the fortress of Almeida. Wellington marched to oppose him with 32,000 foot and 1200 horse. They met at Fuentes de Ofioro, on the evening of May 3 : a fierce struggle ensued for the possession of the place, and ulti- mately the French were driven out. Early on the morning of the 5th, Massena vigorously renewed the attack, which was kept up till evening, when the French retired with great loss. A few days after they evacuated Almeida. Napoleon was so dissatisfied with Massena, that he superseded him in the command by general Mar- mont. Marmont, however, could do no better than his predecessor, and retired to Salamanca. On May 16, a memorable battle was fought at Albuera between marshal Beresford, who was besieging Badajoz, and Soult, who had marched to its relief. Soult had about 23,000 men and 50 guns ; Beresford had 27,000; but of these more than a third were Span- iards, who fled at the first attack, and left the centre, where the British were posted, exposed to all the fury of the French assault. The victory fell to Beresford after six hours of desperate fighting ; but of 6000 British who contended with the French columns for the ridge of Albuera, only about 1500 were left unwounded. The French lost 9000 men. As Beresford was reinforced a day or two after with 1500 English, Soult did not think fit to renew the attack, but retreated towards Seville. On the 19th, Wellington arrived with two fresh divisions, and the siege of Badajoz was resumed (May 25). But a large French force approaching, the siege was abandoned after two unsuccessful assaults, and Wellington fell back on Campo Mayor (June 10). A little after, the successes of general Hill obliged the French to evacuate the greater part of Estremadura. But in the eastern provinces of Spain they were everywhere triumphant. § 16. The beginning of 1812 was marked by ministerial changes. The marquess Wellesley resigned, objecting to serve under Mr. Perceval, and lord Castlereagh occupied his place as foreign secre- tary. Shortly afterwards Perceval was shot in the lobby of the House of Commons, about five o'clock in the afternoon of May 11, by one Bellingham, a Liverpool broker, whose petitions had been rejected. The assassin was convicted and hanged within a week. Upon this event all the ministers tendered their resignations. A fruitless attempt was made to construct a whig cabinet. Lord Liverpool now became premier, with Mr. Vansittart as chancellor of the exchequer. The financial measures of Perceval were adopted, and it was resolved to push the war with vigour. a.d. 1812. BATTLE OF SALAMANCA. 683 Wellington had opened the campaign in the Peninsula with the capture of Ciudad Eodrigo, after less than a fortnight's siege (January 19, 1812). The Spaniards now first began to appreciate his genius : the Cortes voted him their thanks, and the title of duke of Ciudad Eodrigo. The English parliament granted him an annuity of 2000Z., to be annexed to the earldom to which he was now raised. Shortly after Badajoz was again invested (March 16), and was carried (April 6) with a terrible slaughter. Soult, who was advancing to its relief, now again retreated towards Seville, pursued by the British, who overtook and routed his rear-guard at Villa Garcia. General Hill having by a masterly movement cut off the communication between Soult and Marmont, by seizing Almarez (May 19), which covered the passage of the Tagus, Wellington, no longer reduced to the defensive, prepared to advance into Spain. He had now 40,000 men, but one division consisted of Spaniards. Marmont had about 50,000, and was much superior in cavalry and artillery, yet he evacuated Salamanca when Wellington appeared before it (June 16). As an instance of the barbarous manner in which the French conducted the war in Spain, it may be mentioned that during their occupation of this celebrated university town they had destroyed 22 out of its 25 colleges. In July both armies were facing each other on the banks of the Guareha. On the 20th, Marmont, who had been reinforced, put his army in motion to regain the banks of the Tormes, and cut off Wellington's communi- cation with Salamanca. Wellington immediately started after him, the two armies moving in parallel columns within sight of each other, yet refraining from all hostilities, except the occasional exchange of a cannon-shot. It was a sort of race which should arrive first at the Tormes. The armies crossed that river, the British at the bridge of Salamanca, the French at the fords higher up ; and both took up positions on the south bank. On the 22nd, Marmont having too much extended and weakened his left, Wel- lington took advantage of the error and completely defeated him. Wellington in his despatch calculates the French loss at from 17,000 to 20,000 men, and says it was admitted that their whole army would have been in his hands had there been an hour more daylight. Marmont himself was wounded by a shell. The French, now under general Clausel, fled precipitately to Valladolid, which they abandoned on the approach of the British. Hearing that king Joseph, with 20,000 men, was threatening his flank and rear, Wel- lington, leaving a force on the Duero to watch Clausel, turned upon him, pursued him on the road to Madrid through San Ildefonso, and entered the Spanish capital (August 14), the French and their Spanish partisans hurrying from it in the greatest haste. On the 684 GEORGE III. Chap, xxxiu 14th the French garrison in the Retire- palace surrendered, when 180 guns, 20,000 stand of arms, and an immense quantity of warlike stores, were captured. One of the first results of the fall of the capital was that Soult abandoned the blockade of Cadiz and retired to Granada ; but Wel- lington soon found that it would be impossible with his small force to hold an open town like Madrid in the presence of the large and well-disciplined French armies both in the north and south of Spain, and he retired on Salamanca, and subsequently went into winter quarters at Ciudad Rodrigo. § 17. During our arduous struggle with the French, the Americans had displayed an unfriendly disposition towards this country. They were incensed at our exercise of the right of search, which had been forced upon us by the Berlin Decree, and they insisted on the doctrine that the neutral flag makes free goods. In 1811 Napoleon released the Americans from the observance of the Berlin and Milan decrees ; and in the same year the Americans passed against us a non-inter- course act, by which all British goods arriving in America were to be seized, unless we recalled the obnoxious orders in council before alluded to. These were revoked in favour of America in June, 1812, although we had been already subjected to many insults from the Americans, which we had disregarded. But the concession came too late : the Americans had declared war a few days previously. They had long been making preparations for a struggle which promised to be profitable to them ; and they immediately despatched to Canada a body of 2500 men under general Hull. Proclamations were issued inviting the Canadians to throw off the British yoke ; but they remained faithful, and the military measures adopted by general Brock were so judicious that in less than two months Hull was obliged to capitulate. A second attempt under general Wads- worth was repulsed with great loss. At sea the Americans succeeded in capturing some of our frigates, owing to their own being much more heavily armed. Meanwhile that breach between France and Russia had occurred, which ultimately proved one of the chief causes of Napoleon's down- fall. Both Russia and Sweden had declined to carry out the Berlin Decree ; and in March, 1812, a treaty was concluded between those powers, in consequence of which Napoleon made active preparations for war. Before entering on it, he was willing to patch up a peace with England, and was ready to make large concessions ; but, as he still demanded Spain for his brother Joseph, his proposals were not entertained. Napoleon then undertook his disastrous expedition into Russia. The burning of Moscow, which he entered on September 15, forced him to a retreat, during which the greater part of Ms vast A.D. 1813. BATTLE OF VITTOR1A. 685 host was annihilated either by the inclemency of the weather or the sword of the enemy. Napoleon, abandoning his army to its fate, travelled post-haste to Paris, wbere he arrived (December 18) thoroughly beaten and discomfited. During the summer a treaty was concluded between England and Sweden, and subsequently between England and Eussia ; and when the British parliament assembled in November, a grant of 200,000Z. was voted for the relief of the sufferers in Russia, in addition to a large amount raised by private subscription. The parliament also voted 100,000Z. to lord Wellington. § 18. The French reverses not only prevented Napoleon from sending reinforcements into Spain, but obliged him to recal marshal Soult and 20,000 men from that country, to oppose the advance of the Eussians. Thus a brighter prospect was opened to the British arms in the Peninsula. The Spanish provisional govern- ment, throwing aside its ridiculous pride, made Wellington commander-in-chief of the Spanish forces, which were little better than an undisciplined rabble. Their greatest service was in guerrilla warfare. The whole force on which Wellington could rely was under 70,000 British and Portuguese, of which about 6000 were cavalry. On May 6, 1813, he entered Spain in three divisions, the centre being led by himself, the right by sir Rowland Hill, the left by sir Thomas Graham. The advance was made by Valladolid, the French retreating before him, till they took up a strong position in front of Vittoria. Vittoria was attacked (June 21), and carried after an obstinate resistance, the French being driven through the town, and pursued till it grew dark. The whole of the French artillery, baggage, and ammunition, together with property valued at a million sterling, was captured on this occasion ; and king Joseph himself was nearly seized by a party of the 10th hussars. The French army fled in the greatest disorder to Pampluna ; but, as that place would evidently have to sustain a siege or blockade, the garrison would admit none of their countrymen except king Joseph. The remainder of the fugitives pursued their flight, and did not rally till they reached the Pyrenees. Pampluna and San Sebastian were soon invested by the allies, and the passes of the Pyrenees were occupied from Eoncesvalles to Irun, at the mouth of the Bidassoa. Napoleon now sent Soult, with the title of " lieutenant of the emperor," to reorganize the defeated army and defend the frontiers of France. The former commission he executed with great promp- titude and skill at St. Jean Pied de Port ; the latter was beyond his power, though he made desperate attempts, and even succeeded in regaining two of the mountain passes. These operations ex- 31 686 GEORGE 111. Chap, xxxih. tended from July 24 to August 2, the last six days of which were one continual combat. These engagements are known as the " Battles of the Pyrenees." Soult would have been fairly entangled and surrounded at San Estevan, but for the imprudence of three drunken English soldiers who were surprised near his quarters. His army suffered severe losses in that terrible pass. He now retired behind the Bidassoa, and Wellington halted to besiege San Sebastian. On August 31, San Sebastian was carried by assault, but with terri ble loss ; and the castle surrendered a few days after. Pamp- luna held out till October 31 ; but Wellington, leaving that fortress invested, crossed the Bidassoa early in that month with his left wing, and Soult retreated to the Nivelle. Before the middle of November all the allied army was on French ground. Wellington had issued a proclamation, containing the strictest injunctions not to molest the peaceable inhabitants, which the Spaniards could not be brought to obey, and at last he was obliged to send most of them back over the frontier. The peasants of the south of Prance, oppressed by the conscription, welcomed the English as deliverers. On November 10, the French position on the Nivelle was forced. Soult then retired to his entrenched camp at Bayonne, from which he attacked the English posts, but without success. The allies then went for a few weeks into winter quarters. § 19. The whole continent had now risen in arms against Napoleon. During his disastrous retreat from Bussia, the emperor Alexander had hung upon his rear ; and, as the forces of Russia approached the west, they were joined by the Poles, and then by the Prussians. A sentiment of revenge for national degradation had at length aroused the latter. The news of Wellington's glorious campaign in the Peninsula also stimulated the Germans to resist- ance. Frederick William III., king of Prussia, and the Czar con- tracted an alliance offensive and defensive (March 1, 1813), which was ratified at Kalisch. This coalition, being the sixth against France, was joined by Great Britain (June 14). Napoleon, how- ever, was still superior in force to the allies. By the most un- sparing conscription he had raised 300,000 men, half of whom were despatched into Germany ; but they were raw recruits, necessarily much inferior to those by whom he had won his early victories. He gained in May the battles of Lutzen and Bautzen ; but they were bloody, and led to little result. The French reoccupied Leipsic and Dresden, and an armistice was agreed upon, from June 4 to August 10, to give time for negociations mediated by Austria. Napoleon refused to give up his conquests beyond the Bhine ; and at the conclusion of the armistice Austria joined the ad. 1813. ABDICATION OF NAPOLEON. 687 coalition against him, although the emperor's daughter had been left regent of France. England supplied the Prussians, Hanoverians, and Swedes, with money and stores. Then followed the battles of Gross Beeren, Katzbach, Dresden, and Dennewitz, in all which the French were defeated, and finally the crowning battle of Leipsic (October 16-18), called by the Germans the Volkerschlacht, or battle of the nations, from the numbers engaged. Napoleon was completely overthrown, and compelled to a retreat as disastrous as that from Moscow, recrossing the Rhine with less than a quarter of the enormous army he had collected in Germany. He reached Paris (November 9), still self-confident and presumptuous, though beaten. On the 21st of December, 1813, the vanguard of the allied armies crossed the Rhine, and the war was carried into France. On February 21, 1814, Wellington again took the field, and Soult retired before him across the Gave d'Oleron. On the 27th, he was defeated at Orthez with great loss, and Wellington pushed on to the Adour, directing sir John Hope to invest Bayonne, and marshal Beresford to occupy Bordeaux. On his arrival the mayor and citizens proclaimed Louis XVIII. of their own accord, for Welling- ton studiously avoided all interference in favour of the Bourbons. Soult now retreated upon Toulouse ; and Wellington, who reached that city on March 27, found him posted on the right bank of the broad and rapid Garonne. It was the 9th of April before the British army could be conveyed to the other side, and on the 10th, Easter Sunday, was fought the bloody battle which takes its name from the town. The force of Wellington was a little superior, but Soult was much stronger in artillery. His position was carried, but with considerable loss, and on the night of the 11th he evacuated Toulouse and retreated towards Carcassone. In that night he marched 21 miles : yet some French writers have claimed the battle of Toulouse as one of their victories ! Wellington entered Toulouse on the 12th, and in the afternoon he received intelligence that Napoleon had abdicated at Fontainebleau six days before the battle. Soult at first refused to acknowledge the provisional government established in the name of Louis XVIII. ; but on his receiving further intelligence, a convention was signed on the 18th. On the 14th, general Thouvenot, though apprized of the state of affairs at Paris, wantonly made a night sally from Bayonne, in which a great number of men were killed and wounded on both sides. § 20. All February and March, 1814, Napoleon had obstinately contested with far inferior forces the advance of the allies from the Rhine, displaying all his great qualities as a general. During this campaign a congress of the ministers of the allied powers and of 688 GEORGE III. Chap, xxxiii. France was held at Chatillon-sur-Seine, England being represented by lord Castlereagh. They offered those boundaries which France pretended to claim as her natural limits — the Pyrenees, the Alps, and the Rhine ; but to these proposals Napoleon refused to accede till too late. Of this campaign it will suffice to say, that after several battles the emperor Alexander and the king of Prussia entered Paris (March .31). The allied sovereigns now refused to treat with Napoleon, who had retired to Fontainebleau. He was compelled to abdicate (April 4), and a provisional government was formed to effect the restoration of the Bourbons. At the instance of the emperor Alexander, Napoleon was allowed to retain his imperial title, the isle of Elba was assigned as his dominion, and he was to receive from France a pension of six million francs. England was no party to this treaty, but afterwards assented to it. Louis XVIII., who during his exile had resided in England, entered Paris in state (May 3), and on the 30th he signed with Great Britain, Austria, Russia, and Prussia, a treaty of peace and alliance, by which the French boundaries, with some additions, were deter- mined and secured as they existed in 1792. The possession of Malta and its dependencies was confirmed to England : the Cape of Good Hope had been secured by a previous treaty with Holland ; but all the Dutch East India colonies, except Ceylon, were restored. All the colonies possessed by France in 1792 were also restored, except Tobago, St. Lucie, and the Isle of France ; and several islands and colonies were likewise given back to Spain. Hanover was raised to the dignity of a kingdom, with the succession in the male line only. In June the allied armies evacuated Paris. The emperor Alexander, the king of Prussia, and many of their most distinguished generals and nobility, then visited England, when there was a solemn thanksgiving in St. Paul's, and a series of grand fetes and entertainments. Contemporaneously with the advance of the allies upon Paris, an English force under sir Thomas Graham, which was afterwards joined by Bernadotte and his Swedes, had been engaged in reducing Holland, and the English suffered severely in attempting to storm the formidable fortress of Bergen-op-Zoom (March 10). By the peace of Paris, Belgium was incorporated with Holland, and formed the kingdom of the Netherlands. Lord William Bentinck, with an Anglo-Sicilian force, assisted by a squadron under sir Edward Pellew, succeeded in reducing Genoa, which was annexed to the kingdom of Sardinia. Pius VII. was restored to the papal throne ; and Lombardy, with the addition of Venice and several other places, was made over to Austria, after the expulsion of the viceroy, Eugene Beanharnais. Bentinck appears to have exceeded his powers a.d. 1813-1815. THE WAR WITH AMERICA. 089 in proclaiming the independence of Genoa, and thus exciting hopes which could not he realized. Ferdinand VII. had already- been restored to the throne of Spain by Napoleon, without the exaction of any pledge. Soon after, the duke of Wellington, for such he had now been created, arrived at Madrid to mediate be- tween the contending parties ; and he advised Ferdinand to grant the Spaniards a constitution, and to rule with liberality and modera- tion. On his return home the duke received the thanks of both houses, and a sum of 500,000Z. was voted to him for an estate. § 21. Our war with America during this period presented features of little interest. Instructed by the events of 1812, the English government sent out a more powerful class of frigates, and henceforward the engagements terminated for the most part in favour of the British. One of the most remarkable was that be- tween the Shannon and Chesapeake, a British and an American frigate, of which the latter was considerably superior in weight of metal. Captain Broke of the Shannon sent a challenge to the Chesapeake in Boston harbour, and a battle was fought (June 1, 1813), when, after an action of fifteen minutes, captain Broke boarded the Chesapeake, and carried her off in sight of the dis- appointed Americans. (Supplement, Note XXXI.) In 1813 and 1814 the Americans renewed their attempts upon Canada, but without success, and it is calculated that their three invasions cost them 50,000 men. Meanwhile our squadrons ravaged the American coast, the lighter vessels penetrating up the rivers and inflicting considerable damage. In 1814 the British in America were reinforced with some of the veterans of the Peninsula. On August 24 general Boss, with only 1600 men, dispersed in half an hour about 8000 Americans posted on some heights near the river Potomac, entered Washington, the capital of the Union, and burnt the Senate-house, the House of Bepresentatives, the Capitol, the president's residence, the arsenal, dockyards, and other public buildings. Several other American towns were taken ; but an attack upon Baltimore was repulsed with great loss, including the death of general Ross (September 13) ; and an attempt upon New Orleans (January, 1815) was still more unfortunate. After the abdi- cation of Napoleon the Americans began to think of peace, and a treaty was signed at Ghent (December 24, 1814). Both parties agreed to use their endeavours to suppress the slave-trade. § 22. In January, 1815, a congress of eight of the principal Euro- pean powers assembled at Vienna to regulate the affairs of Europe ; but they had not proceeded far in their labours when they were astounded with the intelligence that Bonaparte had escaped from Elba. He landed at Cannes (March 1) with 1000 men, and the 690 GEORGE III. Chap. xxxm. troops sent against him joined his standard as he advanced. On the night of- March 19 Louis XVIII. fled to Lille, and on the following night Napoleon entered the palace of the Tuileries. The congress at Vienna declared him an outlaw and violator of the common peace, devoted him to public vengeance, and agreed to unite for the maintenance of the treaty of Paris. The duke of Wellington, who was present at the congress, was consulted as to the conduct of the war. The duke impressed upon the English ministry the necessity, even on the ground of economy, of making a grand effort to crush the enemy at once. Both the ministry and the parliament were impressed with the soundness of this advice. The budget of the year was raised to the enormous sum of ninety millions, a considerable part of which went to subsidize the con- tinental nations ; and the duke proceeded to Belgium to prepare for the expected campaign. Napoleon crossed the Belgian frontier (June 14) with about 100,000 infantry, 25,000 cavalry, and 350 pieces of artillery; and advanced by Charleroi. Wellington lay at Brussels with about 76,000 men, not half of whom were British, and some 84 guns ; Bliicher being at some distance on his left, with 80,000 Prussians and 200 guns ; and when Wellington had ascertained the real point of attack, he made the proper dispositions to meet it. On the 15th marshal Ney advanced beyond Charleroi on the road to Brussels, driving back from Quatre Bras an advanced brigade of the Army of the Netherlands under the prince of Weimar. The position was, however, recovered by the prince of Orange ; and on the next day, general Picton having arrived with the 5th division and some Germans under the duke of Brunswick, Ney was repulsed from Quatre Bras, though his force was nearly double that of the allies. Meanwhile, on the same day, Napoleon with his main body had attacked the Prussians at Ligny and St. Amand, in front of their head-quarters at Sombref, had driven Bliicher back with great loss, and compelled him to retreat to Wavre. But so little aware was he of his victory, that it was not till noon on the 17th that he despatched Grouchy, with a corps of 32,000 men, in pursuit of the Prussians. Bliicher's retrograde movement necessitated a similar one on the part of Wellington, In order to keep up the communication between the allied armies. On the 17th he made a leisurely retreat, undis- turbed except by a few cavalry skirmishes, to the position of Mont St. Jean, two miles in front of Waterloo, which he had previously selected for a battle-field. In the course of the same day Napoleon formed a junction with Ney, when their united forces amounted to about 78,000 men. The night was stormy, with thunder, rain, and wind; the following morning (Sunday, June 18) opened heavily, a.d. 1815. BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 691 but the rain had ceased. Wellington occupied a position extending from a ravine near Merke Braine on the right to the hamlet of Ter la Haye on the left ; on which side the communication was open with Blucher at Wavre, through Ohain. In front of his right centre was the chateau of Hougoumont, in front of his left centre the farm- house of La Haye Sainte, both occupied by our troops. In the rear of the British centre was the farmhouse of Mont St. Jean, and still further back the village of the same name. The French occu- pied some heights in front of Wellington's position, and about a mile distant ; their right being before the village of Planchenois, and occupying the farm of La Belle Alliance, whilst their left rested on the Genappe road. It was the first time that Napoleon had come into contact with British troops. He was full of confidence, and is said to have exclaimed, "Enfin je vais me mesurer avec ce Vilainton." About ten o'clock the French line was observed to be in motion, and soon a violent attack was made on Hougoumont, defended by a brigade of the guards, who held it throughout the day. The French succeeded better at La Haye Sainte, though it was bravely defended by some of the German Legion, who were all slain ; but the post was afterwards recovered. In other parts of the line repeated attacks were made by heavy columns of French infantry, but without success, and Napoleon then had recourse to some despe- rate charges of cavalry, which were repulsed by the British infantry formed in squares. To put an eud to this, Wellington ordered an advance of the brigade of heavy cavalry under lord Edward Somerset, consisting of the life guards, horse guards, and 1st dragoon guards, who completely rode down and dispersed the French cuirassiers, 2000 of them being made prisoners in this charge. At seven o'clock in the evening the British line retained its original position ; when Bulow's corps of Prussians, which had arrived at Planchenois and La Belle Alliance, began to engage the French right. Napoleon's chances were now growing desperate, and as a last effort he ordered the advance of his magnificent Old Guard against the British position. He led the advance some way himself, and then took shelter behind some rising ground, leaving Ney, " the bravest of the brave," to head the charge. The guard advanced up the gently sloping ridge in two dark and threatening columns, galled by a flank fire from the British light division. At the top ot that ridge the British guards were lying down to avoid the fire of the French artillery ; but, as the French columns approached, they sprang up and, at the distance of about 50 yards, delivered a terrible volley into the French ranks, as they were attempting to deploy into line. Their columns shook and wavered, a charge was ordered, and the Old Guard was hurled down the hill in one mingled mass with 692 GEORGE HI. Chap, xxxiii. their conquerors. The sight of this repulse threw the whole French line into confusion and dismay : Napoleon gallopped to the rear, and Wellington, availing himself of the auspicious moment, ordered a general advance. The French army was now in complete rout ; Wellington and Bliicher met at a house called La Maison Eouge, not far from La Belle Alliance ; and the pursuit of the enemy was left to the Prussians, who were comparatively fresh. Many pri- soners were made, and 150 guns fell into the hands of the allies. Napoleon himself narrowly escaped capture. It was computed that in the three days' engagements and in the retreat the French lost 30,000 men; and when the remaining fugitives reached the French frontier, the greater part dispersed, never to meet again. But the loss of the allies was also enormous. It is estimated that nearly half the men actually engaged were either killed or wounded. Among the killed were general Picton and general sir William Ponsonhy ; among the wounded, the earl of Uxhridge (afterwards marquess of Anglesey), general Cooke, general Halkett, colonel Fitzroy Somerset (afterwards Lord Raglan), and others. The prince of Orange was also wounded. The duke of Brunswick had fallen at Quatre Bras, at the head of his black hussars. § 23. The allies now advanced upon Paris, which the remains of the grand army evacuated (July 6), and the allies took possession. Bliicher wished to pull down the column in the Place Vendome, blow up the bridge of Jena, and levy 100 million francs on the city; but on all these points he ultimately yielded to the more moderate counsels of Wellington. Napoleon had abdicated (June 22) in favour of his young son, Napoleon II. ; but the allies would be content with nothing less than the restoration of the Bourbons, and Louis XVIIL, who had re-entered Paris with the allies, quietly resumed the government. Meanwhile Napoleon, distracted by uncertainty, now thinking of joining the remains of his army beyond the Loire, and now of flying to America, arrived at Rochefort (July 3). But finding all hope of escape cut off by the numerous British cruisers, he surrendered himself to captain Maitland, on board the Bellerophon, an English ship of the line, which happened to be in the roads. He had previously written to the piince regent, claiming the protection of the British people, and comparing himself to Themistocles when he sought the hospitality of Admetus. Captain Maitland gave him to understand that he could make no promises as to his recep- tion, and could only undertake to convey him safely to England. Maitland was ordered to proceed to Plymouth Sound, and allow no communication with the shore. The resolution of the allies was communicated to Napoleon (July 31), and on August 7 a.d. 1815-1816. DISTRESS AND DISCONTENT. 693 he was put on board the Northumberland, the flag-ship of admiral sir G. Cockburn, and conveyed to the island of St. Helena. Here he lingered till his death (May 5, 1821). He was incontestably the greatest general of modern times, and had taken every capital of importance in Europe, except London : yet he was deficient in the qualities which make a great man, and especially in dignity and fortitude in the endurance of misfortune. The second peace of Paris, or definitive treaty between France and the allied powers, was signed in that capital on November 20. The settlement of Europe was arranged by the congress at Vienna. The emperor of Kussia, the emperor of Austria, and the king of Prussia had also signed what they called the " Holy Alliance " — an agreement to govern on Christian principles ; which the duke of Wellington wisely declined to sign, on the ground that it was too vague (September 26). At the commencement of the war with France in 1793, the English funded debt had been a little under 240 millions. In February, 1816, the unredeemed debt, funded and unfunded, amounted to nearly 900 millions, entailing an annual charge of more than 28 millions. The last three years of the war alone had cost the country very nearly 200 millions. § 24. The triumph of the nation was succeeded by a reaction of internal distress and discontent. During the war, the excitement of national feeling and the natural exultation of victory had prevented the people from complaining, and it was not till the struggle was over that they began to feel the burthens occasioned by it. Trade languished from the exhaustion of the continental nations, and their consequent inability to purchase our goods ; while through unfavourable seasons the price of wheat rose before the end of 1816 from 52s. to upwards of 100s. a quarter ; and the distress was augmented by the corn-law of 1815, which closed the ports to the importation of foreign grain till the price of wheat reached 80s. A multitude of persons were thrown out of employ- ment through the depressed state of trade, and their numbers were swelled by the soldiers and sailors discharged at the termination of the war. Thus seditions and tumults arose, marked in the agri- cultural districts by incendiary fires, in the manufacturing towns by the breaking of those ingenious machines by which human labour has been to a great extent superseded. The subject of parliamentary reform, previously little more than a speculative question, now began to be agitated among the great mass of the I eople. A ramification of clubs, called Hampden clubs, was estab- lished throughout the country, that of London being presided over by sir Francis Burdett. Other leading members were major Cart- 31* 694 GEORGE III. Chap, xxxiii. wright and the demagogue orator Henry Hunt. Their demand for reform embraced aonual parliaments and universal suffrage ; and a report of a secret committee of the House of Commons in February, 1817, represented these clubs as meditating nothing short of a revolution. In the preceding December dangerous riots had taken place in Spa Fields, which were with difficulty put down through the firmness and courage of sir James Shaw and of the lord mayor. One result of the peace was the suppression of the Algerine pirates. During the war these nests of robbers had been connived at ; but in 1816 sir Edward Pellew (lord Exmouth) proceeded to Algiers with 25 men-of-war, besides gunboats. Being joined by a small Dutch squadron under admiral Van Capellan, he almost com- pletely destroyed, after a few hours' bombardment, the formidable fortifications of Algiers (August 27), together with nine Algerine frigates. A loss, however, of 818 officers and men was sustained by the British. The dey of Algiers now accepted the terms dictated, and 1083 Christian slaves, principally Italians, were liberated. § 25. The general feeling of discontent among the lower classes, and an outrage committed upon the prince regent, the windows of whose carriage were broken as he was returning from opening the parliament (January 28, 1817), led to the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act (February 28). At the same time the execution of the law of libel was severely pressed, and numerous ex officio informa- tions were filed against political writers. One of the most remark- able of these prosecutions was that against William Hone, a bookseller in the Old Bailey, for a profane libel, consisting of parodies on the Catechism,>he Lord's Prayer, and the Creed. Hone conducted his own defence with considerable ability, and was acquitted by the jury, who seem to have felt that it was the political rather than the profane character of the libels that had excited the indignation of the government (December 18). The princess Charlotte, only child of the regent, died in child- birth this year (November 6). The infant was still-born. She had espoused (May 16, 1816) prince Leopold of Saxe Coburg, the late king of the Belgians. In 18 1 8 the prospects of the country seemed improving. Trade was more active, employment more constant, and sedition conse- quently less rampant. In September a congress of the allies was held at Aix-la-Chapelle in order to settle the withdrawal of the army of occupation from France, of which the duke of Wellington was generalissimo. The duke took leave of the troops by an order of the day dated at Cambray, November 7. On his return to England he was appointed master-general of the ordnance, with a seat in the cabinet. \.v. 1816-1820 HIS DEATH. 695 § 26. In 1819 was passed the act, commonly known as Mr. Peel's Act, to remove the Bank restriction passed in 1797, and to provide for the gradual resumption of cash payments. May 1, 1823, was assigned as the period for the payment of all notes on demand in the current gold coin of the realm ; but the Bank anticipated this period by two years, and began to pay in specie on May 1, 1821. In August, 1819, Henry Hunt, the demagogue, collected a great meeting in St. Peter's Fields, Manchester, on the subject of parlia- mentary reform. The attempt to apprehend him produced a dis- turbance, in which about half a dozen persons were killed and a score or two wounded. This affair obtained among the " Radicals," as the extreme reform party were now called, the name of the Manchester Massacre, or " Peterloo." Hunt and eight or ten of his friends were captured, and, being tried and convicted of a mis- demeanour in the following spring, were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment. Such was the alarm occasioned in the public mind by these disturbances, that parliament was opened in November, when the ministers brought in and passed six acts : namely, for the more speedy execution of justice in cases of mis- demeanour ; to prevent military training ; to prevent and punish blasphemous and seditious libels; an act for seizing arms; a stamp act, with the view of repressing libels ; and an act to prevent seditious meetings and assemblies. But more effectual means of repression were found in the amendment of the criminal law, the extension of education, the establishment of savings banks, and other measures of a similar philanthropic character. On January 23, 1820, died the duke of Kent, aged 52, leaving an only daughter, her present majesty, born May 24, 1819. In less than a week afterwards, George III. expired (January 29), at the age of 82, and in the 60th year of his reign, a longer period than any king had ever sat on the English throne. His private conduct had been always unexceptionable ; and his plain and unostentatious manner, his warmth of feeling, and his attachment to rural pursuits, had endeared him to a large portion of his subjects. As a sovereign he undoubtedly had the honour and welfare of the nation at heart. Though occasionally somewhat narrow and contracted in his views, these defects are rather to be attributed to his early training than to any want of natural good sense. To the opinions be had once adopted he was apt to cling with a firmness nothing could shake. Unpopular at the outset of his reign, and surrounded by those who either were unable to advise, or unwilling to conciliate, he succeeded, long before his death, in gaining the affection and esteem of his subjects. Queen Chnrlotte had died in November, 1818. CHAPTER XXXIV. GEORGE IV., AND WILLIAM IV. A.D. 1820-1837. § 1. Accession of George IV. Cato-street conspiracy. Prosecution and death of queen Caroline. § 2. Ministerial changes. Commercial panic. § 3. The catholic question. O'Connell and the Catholic Association. Canning's ministry and death. § 4. Battle of Navarino. Kingdom of Greece. The duke of Wellington premier. Repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts. § 5. Catholic emancipation. § 6. Death and cha- racter of George IV. § 7. Accession of WiLLTAM IV. Earl Grey premier. § 8. Parliamentary Reform Bill. Rejected by the lords. Riots at Bristol, etc. § 9. Proposed creation of peers. Reform Bill carried. Irish Coercion Bill. § 10. Abolition of slavery. Lord Mel- bourne prime minister. Sir Robert Peel prime minister. Lord Mel- bourne's second administration. § 11. Municipal Reform Bill. Death of William IV. GEORGE IV., I. 1762; r. 1820-1830. § 1. George, prince of Wales, now ascended the throne, with the title of George IV., at the age of 58. As he had been regent during the last ten years, while his father was in seclusion, his accession produced little or no change in the state of affairs. The excitement of " Peterloo " was followed by the Cato-street conspiracy, so called because the conspirators were captured in a room over a stable in Cato-street, Edgeware-road (February 23). They consisted of some twenty or thirty persons, headed by one Thistlewood, a man of desperate character ; and their design was to murder all the cabinet ministers when they should be assembled at dinner at lord Harrowby's. But they were betrayed by one of their own gang : nine of them were captured, and Thistlewood and four more of the ringleaders were executed (May 1). One of the first steps of George IV. after his accession was to attempt to procure a divorce from his consort, Caroline of Brunswick. The marriage had never been a happy one. It had been in a manner forced upon the prince as a condition of having his debts paid. The princess's person and manners were distasteful to him, and she soon became the object of his aversion. Though she bore him a daughter, they separated shortly after their marriage ; and Caroline went to live abroad in 1814. Her conduct in England had already excited some scandal, and in 1818 a commission was ap- pointed to watch her conduct and collect evidence. Our ambassa- dors abroad were instructed not to recognize her; and when the king came to the throne her name was omitted from the liturgy. a.d. 1820-1822. PROSECUTION OF QUEEN CAROLINE. 697 She determined on returning to England, and arrived (June 6, 1820) the very day on which lord Liverpool had opened an inquiry into her conduct in the House of Lords. In July a bill of pains and penalties was brought in, to deprive her of her rights and privileges as queen, and to dissolve the marriage. In the trial which ensued Mr. Brougham and Mr. Denman acted as her attorney and solicitor general. She was charged in particular with adultery with one Bergami, a menial servant. Several Italian witnesses were examined, and it cannot be doubted that her conduct in Italy had gone far beyond the bounds of discretion ; but the witnesses were of a low class, and frequently equivocated : and there was naturally a popu- lar feeling in favour of a woman whose case assumed somewhat the aspect of persecution. At the third reading of the bill, the majority in its favour in the House of Lords had fallen to nine ; and, as the bill had still to pass the commons, the ministers determined to abandon it. The popular feeling was expressed by a general illumi- nation. In the following session the commons voted the queen an annuity of 50,000?. The king's coronation having been fixed for July 19, 1821, queen Caroline insisted on being crowned with him, and on having her name inserted in the liturgy. This was refused; and when she repaired to the abbey to view the coronation as a spectator, she was turned back from the door. This disappointment, added to the excitement she had already undergone, was her deathblow. She expired of internal inflammation (August 7), at the age of 52. Her funeral was attended with riots. The mob compelled the pro- cession to pass through the city, and two persons were shot by the military. Her remains were then taken to Harwich to be conveyed to Brunswick. § 2. In 1822 lord Sidmouth retired from the home office, and was succeeded by Mr. Peel. In August the suicide of lord Londonderry (formerly lord Castlereagh) created another vacancy in the ministry. Mr. Canning was now the leading man in the House of Commons, but he had incurred the king's displeasure by refusing to take any part in the proceedings against queen Caroline, and had therefore been passed over on the preceding occasion. His great talents, however, could not be entirely overlooked, and the East India Com- pany had offered him the governor-generalship of India, for which he was preparing to depart. But, as his services in England were indispensable, the king was forced to waive his antipathy, and Canning became foreign secretary and leader of the House of Com- mons. His discharge of that office was marked by a more liberal policy than had prevailed under his predecessor. As the disciple of Pitt Canning followed Pitt's principles of 698 GEORGE IV. Chap, xxxiv. commercial freedom and financial reform. These were adopted in practice by Huskisson, who became president of the Board of Trade in 1823, and taxation was rapidly reduced. The prosperity of the country went on increasing ; but towards the end of 1825 the reck- less spirit of speculation produced a panic, which was followed by much distress and alarm. Upwards of 60 banks stopped payment in December, 1825, and the following month. The evil was attri- buted in a great degree to the over-issue of paper money, and measures were taken to restrict the issue of small notes by country bankers, as well as by the Bank of England ; and branches of the latter were established in several of the larger trading towns. Joint stock banks were legalized the next year. An extensive system of emigration was adopted to relieve the distress of the nation, and its superintendence was intrusted to the colonial office. § 3. About this time Daniel O'Connell began to make himself conspicuous as the advocate of the claims of the Irish Boman catho- lics. George III. had declared that he would never consent to the admission of catholics to parliament, and his illness has been attri- buted to the subject having been forced upon his attention by Mr. Bitt. During the life of that sovereign, therefore, the catholics had abandoned all hope of relief; but the case was different on the accession of George IV. After the death of Mr. Berceval, in 1812, the catholic question became an open one in the cabinet. Canning distinguished himself as an advocate of relief, and the subject was frequently debated in parliament, but nothing was done. In this state of things O'Connell, supported by a rent levied in Ireland, organized the Catholic Association in the beginning of 1824. In 1825 a relief bill, introduced by sir Francis Burdett, passed the commons ; upon which the duke of York went down to the House of Lords, and took a solemn oath that in case he should succeed to the crown he would permit no change. The bill was rejected by the lords ; but the duke died soon afterwards (January 5, 1827). In February, 1 827, lord Liverpool was seized with paralysis ; and, as it was evident that he would never again be able to attend to business, the king was reluctantly compelled to send for Mr. Canning (April 11), who became first lord of the treasury and chancellor of the exchequer. The duke of Wellington, Mr. Beel, lord Eldon. and some others resigned ; and sir John Copley, now created lord Lyndhurst, became lord chancellor. Nothing of im- portance, however, was done in Mr. Canning's short administration. By many of the aristocracy he was regarded as an adventurer. He had to endure various personal attacks ; and anxiety and vexation of mind, added to a violent illness contracted at the duke of York's funeral, brought him to the grave (August 8). He was privately a.d. 1827-1828. MINISTERIAL CHANGES. 699 buried in Westminster Abbey, and a peerage was conferred by the king on his widow. Viscount Goderich* (Mr. Robinson) succeeded Canning as premier. § 4. The new administration, like the preceding, lasted only a few months, and the sole important event that occurred while it held office was the battle of Navarino, followed by the establishment of Greek independence. The cause of Greece was supported, from different motives, by Russia, France, and England. These powers had their squadrons in the Levant, the English being under the com- mand of sir Edward Codrington. War had not yet been declared : the Turkish and Egyptian fleet, under Ibrahim Pasha, lay in the bay of Navarino ; and there was an understanding that it should remain there till the affairs of Greece were arranged. As the Turks at- tempted to violate this agreement, a general engagement ensued, and the Turkish and Egyptian fleets were completely destroyed in the course of a few hours (October 20, 1827). By this impolitic act England and Prance played into the hands of Russia, who was anxious to weaken the power of Turkey ; and thus they gave some help towards the long-cherished object of her ambition — the possession of Constantinople. Next year a Russian army marched into Turkey and dictated peace at Adriauople. By this treaty the freedom of Greece was recognized by the sultan (September 14 1829). The three powers decided that Greece should be erected into a separate kingdom ; and the crown, after having been declined by prince John of Saxony and prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, was eventually conferred, in 1832, on prince Otho, a younger son of the king of Bavaria. Otho was deposed in 1862 ; the people soon after elected a Danish prince, brother of the princess of Wales, as " George I. king of the Hellenes ; " and England gave up the Ionian islands to Greece (June, 1864). In January, 1828, another change of ministry occurred. Lord Goderich having resigned, the duke of Wellington became premier ; when Mr. Goulburn was made chancellor of the exchequer, Mr. Peel home secretary, and lord Palmerston secretary at war. Most of the other ministers retained their offices. In this session was passed the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts established in the reign of Charles II. It was moved by lord John Russell, and opposed at first by Mr. Peel ; but the ministers, having been left in a minority, subsequently withdrew their opposition. For the sacra- mental test there was now substituted a declaration, if required by the crown, by which the person entering upon any office pledged himself not to use its influence as a means for subverting the estab- lished church. On the motion of the bishop of Llandaff the words * He was created earl of Ripon in 1833; his son was made marquess of Pipon in 1871. 700 GEORGE IV. Chaf. xxxiv. " on the true faith of a Christian" were inserted in the declaration : a clause which, though not so designed, had the effect of excluding the Jews from parliament till the year 1858. This measure was naturally regarded as the forerunner of catholic emancipation. § 5. It was evident that the duke of Wellington was prepared, with characteristic good sense, to yield to public opinion. He had, indeed, announced his intention at the same time of opposing the catholic claims, but with the qualification, unless he saw some great change ; and this contingency soon afterwards occurred. In the course of the year Mr. Huskisson resigned office in con- sequence of being opposed to his colleagues on an election question. He was followed by lord Palmerston, lord Dudley, Mr. Lamb, and Mr. Grant, the "Canning" portion of the cabinet. Mr. Vezey Fitzgerald, who sat for the county of Clare, having become one of the new ministers, was now of course obliged to vacate his seat and appear again before his constituents, and, being an advocate of catholic emancipation, he considered his re-election sure. But O'Connell presented himself, and was returned, affirming that he should be able to take his seat, which, however, he did not attempt to do during the remainder of the session. This event brought matters to a crisis. The ministers perceived that it would be impos- sible any longer to withhold emancipation, without creating great disturbances, and in the king's speech on opening the session of 1829 a measure of relief was announced. The Catholic Association was first of all to be dissolved ; but while a bill for that purpose was in progress the association dissolved itself. Mr. Peel had for many years been the ablest opponent of the admission of catholics to parliament. Session after session, he had distinguished himself by his eloquent speeches against the measure, and had gained the affection and confidence of the high church and tory party. Great was their indignation on finding that their favourite leader was now prepared suddenly to desert them, and to propose in the commons the very measure which he had so frequently denounced as fraught with ruin to the best interests of the empire. Having felt himself bound in honour to vacate his seat for the University of Oxford, upon again presenting himself as a candidate, he was beaten by sir Robert Inglis. He was, however, returned for Westbury, and intro- duced the Catholic Belief Bill. By this measure a different form of oath was substituted for the oath of supremacy, and there were no offices from which Roman catholics were now excluded except those of regent, of .lord chancellor of England and of Ireland, and of viceroy of Ireland.* By way of security the franchise in * The special oath for catholics was superseded by a general oath of allegiance in 1858, which was further simplified in 1868. ad. 1828-1830. CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION. 701 Ireland was raised from 40s. to 101., and certain regulations were made respecting the exercise of the Koman catholic religion. The bill was finally carried in the House of Lords (April 10), having passed through both houses with considerable majorities. This measure produced a schism in the tory party, the effects of which lasted for some years. One of its consequences was a duel between the duke of Wellington and the earl of Winchelsea, but without injury to either party. The Catholic Eelief Bill was not, however, attended with all the beneficial consequences anticipated by its supporters. It averted the immediate danger of a civil war in Ireland, but it failed to convert the Irish catholics into peaceable subjects, and they soon proceeded to use the new political power which they had obtained more for the interests of their own religion than for the good of the empire. § 6. The Eoman Catholic Eelief Bill was the last act of George IV. He had been for some time in a declining state of health, and had become so nervous and irritable that he almost entirely secluded himself from public view. There had been considerable difficulty in obtaining his consent to the bill, and after he had given it he was filled with alarm for the consequences. He died on June 26, 1830, in the 68th year of his age and the 11th year of his reign. Though his manners were elegant and his taste refined, he had not the qualities calculated to win popularity. With George IV. expired the habits and prejudices of the preceding century, and a new era now set in of rapid popular improvement. Eailways had come into use at Stockton and Darlington in 1825 ; but their effectiveness for locomotion was not fully recognized until the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester line in 1830. WILLIAM IV., b. 1765 ; r. 1830-1837. § 7. On the death of George IV., the duke of Clarence, his next surviving brother, then in his 65th year, was proclaimed king, by the title of William IV. His political opinions were supposed to be more liberal than those of his predecessor, but no change was made in the ministry. The march of events, however, the repeal of the Test Act, the carrying of catholic emancipation by a tory ministry, and in this summer the revolution which occurred in France — by which Charles X. was hurled from his throne in consequence of his attempts on the constitution and on the liberty of the press, and Louis Philippe became king of the French — prepared the minds of men for further progress, and especially for some measure of parliamentary reform, a subject that had long occupied the attention and excited the passions of the 702 WILLIAM IV. Chap, xxxiv. nation. The result of these feelings was manifested in the new parliament, which contained a great proportion of liberal members. But the state of disturbance which prevailed, both on the continent and at home, where there had been many incendiary fires in the rural districts, instead of inclining the duke and his ministry to concession, had determined them not to yield anything to popular clamour. The king's opening speech was firm and uncompromising, and in the debates which ensued the duke of Wellington expressed his determination to oppose any measure of parliamentary reform (November 2, 1830). The unpopularity excited by this declaration was increased by the ministers advising the king to decline an invitation to dine with the lord mayor on November 9. This step was taken in consequence of a communication from alderman Key, the lord mayor elect, who had warned the duke to come with a strong escort. London was in consequence struck with a panic ; the country was thought to be on the eve of a revolution ; and the Funds fell three per cent. The ministers, however, were soon released from responsibility. Sir H. Parnell having, in the debate on the civil list, carried a motion for a committee of enquiry (November 15), the ministers resigned the following morning. The king now sent for earl Grey, the leader of the whig party, under whose auspices as prime minister a new ministry was formed, on the avowed principle of parliamentary reform. It comprehended lord Brougham, now raised to the peerage, as lord chancellor, lord Althorp chancellor of the exchequer, lord Lansdowne president of the council, lord Palmerston foreign secretary, lord Melbourne home secretary, lord Groderich colonial secretary, and, among others, lord John Kussell as pay- master of the forces, and Mr. Stanley, grandson of the earl of Derby, as secretary for Ireland. § 8. On March 1, 1831, a bill for parliamentary reform was introduced into the House of Commons by lord John Kussell. The alterations proposed were much more extensive than had been an- ticipated, and were received by the house with shouts of derision. The second reading was carried by a majority of one ; but ministers, having been twice defeated in committee, resolved on summoning a new parliament, though the present one had existed only a few months. The elections were attended with great excitement. The tories were denounced as enemies of both king and people. In some places, especially in Scotland, serious riots occurred, and lives were even lost ; and in most of the considerable towns only those candidates dared to show themselves who would engage to vote for " the bill, the whole bill, and nothing but the bill." The populace had been led by demagogues to regard the measure as an immediate panacea for all their ills ; and thus a great and neces- A.D. 1830-1832. REFORM BILL. 703 sary constitutional reform was carried by popular heat and clamour, and with the excitement of expectations that could never be realized. The House of Commons, which assembled June 14, con- tained a large majority of reformers. The bill was again intro- duced by lord John Eussell (June 24), and was carried by decisive majorities. It was still, however, violently opposed by a powerful party, who regarded it as an attack upon property ; for it was notorious that estates commanding the nomination of a member of parliament fetched a price very far above their intrinsic value. When the bill was brought up to the House of Lords, it was re- jected, after five nights' debate, by a majority of 41 (October 7). This step was followed by disgraceful riots. In London the popu- lace, controlled by the admirable organization of the new police, established by sir Eobert Peel, contented themselves with breaking the windows of obnoxious anti-reformers ;' but in several of the provincial towns fearful disturbances ensued. At Nottingham the ancient castle, the residence of the duke of Newcastle, was burnt ; at Derby the jail was forced and the prisoners liberated ; at Bristol, where the riots lasted several days, many of the public buildings and a great part of Queen's-square were destroyed, and about 100 persons were killed or wounded. Ireland also was in a most dis- turbed state. After the emancipation of the catholics, O'Connell had raised the cry for the repeal of the Union, and the most frightful nocturnal disorders, and even mid-day murders, became frequent. To add to the misery and confusion, England was visited this autumn for the first time by the Asiatic cholera. § 9. The parliament, after its prorogation (October 20), reassem- bled in December, and in March, 1832, the Keform Bill, introduced by lord John Eussell, again passed the commons. The peers now displayed more disposition to yield ; but, as it was evident that the bill would be mutilated in committee, lord Grey proposed to the king the creation of a sufficient number of peers to insure its success. As the king demurred, the ministers resigned ; but, the duke of Wellington and lord Lyndhurst having failed to construct a tory administration, the king was obliged to yield at discretion, and recal his former ministers. The extreme measure of a large creation was avoided by the good sense of the peers. The duke of Wellington, and about 100 others, agreed to absent themselves; whereupon the bill was carried and received the royal assent (June 1, 1832). It was the main principle of the Reform Bill, that boroughs having a less population than 2000 should cease to return members, and that those having a less population than 4000 should not return more than one member. By this arrangement 56 boroughs 704 WILLIAM IV. Chap, xxxiv. were totally disfranchised, and 31 more lost one of their members. Thus, 143 seats were transferred to several large towns, such as Birmingham, Manchester, and Leeds, which had grown into im- portance during the last century. Between 40 and 50 new boroughs were created, including the four metropolitan boroughs of Maryle- bone, Finsbury, the Tower Hamlets, and Lambeth ; each of the last returning two members. An aristocratic counterpoise seemed in some degree to be established by the additions to the county mem- bers. The larger counties were divided into districts ; and while pre- viously there had been 52 constituencies, returning 94 members, there were now 82 constituencies, returning 159 members. On the other hand, both the county and borough franchises were extended. In the counties the old 40s. freeholders were retained, and three new classes of voters were introduced : — 1. copyholders of 101. per annum ; 2. leaseholders of the annual value of 101. for a term of 60 years, or of the annual value of 501. for a term of 20 years; and 3. occupying tenants paying an annual rental of 501. In boroughs the franchise was given to all 101. resident householders, subject to certain conditions. Such were the main features of the bill, which undoubtedly involved the greatest revolution the country had experienced since 1688. There were also important provisions for regulating and shorten- ing elections, and for the registration of voters. Similar bills were passed for Scotland and Ireland, but with some difference in their details, especially as to the amount of the Irish franchise. The parliamentary constitution thus created lasted 36 years, till the new Reform Acts of 1867 and 1 868 (see p. 726). The chief alterations meanwhile were the extension of the Irish franchise, and the aboli- tion of the " property qualification " for members. The two boroughs of Sudbury and St. Albans were disfranchised for corrup- tion ; and their four seats were given, in 1861, one to Birkenhead, one to South Lancashire, and two to the southern division of the West Riding of Yorkshire, making the composition of the last reformed parliament, that elected in 1865, as follows : — England. Wales. Ireland. Scotland. Counties 147 15 64 30 Universities 4 2 Cities and Boroughs 320 14 39 23 Totals ... 471 29 105 53 The disturbances in Ireland had now reached a frightful pitch. It had become impossible to collect tithe : the collectors were mur- dered or mutilated ; there were regular engagements between the A.D. 1832-1834. ABOLITION OF SLAVERY. 705 police and the peasantry ; and the protestant clergy were reduced to starvation. To put a stop to this state of things the government carried a Coercion Bill (April 2), which, while it provided a remedy for many of the grievances complained of, enabled the lord-lieu- tenant to prevent all public meetings of a dangerous character, and to place disturbed districts under martial law. § 10. Parliament was dissolved on December 3, and the first reformed House of Commons assembled on February 5, 1833. The reformers had an overwhelming majority, and fears began to be entertained that the church, the aristocracy, and all the older institutions would be swept away. But a strong conservative spirit still existed in the nation. Sir Bobert Peel, whom the tories had now forgiven, and again treated as their leader, revived their desponding spirits. He introduced an admirable organization into the party, and pointed out that a return to political power was still far from impossible. Dropping the name of Tory, they now called them- selves Conservatives. The abolition of slavery and the amendment of the poor-law were two of the principal questions which occupied the attention of par- liament. While the question of negro freedom was agitated in public meetings in England a dangerous insurrection had broken out among the slaves in Jamaica, which was with difficulty suppressed. A rising had also occurred in the Mauritius. Under these circumstances, ministers brought in and carried a bill fur the total abolition of slavery, which had been so long advocated by Wilberforce, Fowell Buxton, and their party. The sum of 20,000,000?. was voted as compensation to the slave-owners. But as a great part of this sum was in reality never applied, and the rate of compensation was in some islands about 2.QI. per negro — not a quarter of what they had cost the proprietor — the owner of an estate with 100 negroes received about 2000Z., but found his property utterly ruined from the unwillingness of the emancipated negro to work. In this session (1833) an act was passed for re- distributing the property of the Irish church, and reducing the number of its bishops from 22 to 12. The charter of the Bank of England was renewed, as was also that of the East India Company, on condition of its giving up its commercial monopoly, and the trade with China was consequently thrown open. The poor-law question was reserved for another administration. As a considerable portion of his cabinet had resigned, principally on account of a proposed extension of the Irish Coercion Bill, lord Grey was obliged to retire (July 9, 1834). Lord Melbourne now became prime minister, and lord Althorp resumed his former post of chancellor of the exchequer. A new poor-law was passed, the 706 WILLIAM IV. Chap, xxxiv. main feature of which was to abolish local boards and to establish a central board of commissioners. Poor-law unions were formed, and the system of outdoor relief was diminished in a considerable degree. § 11. The conservative reaction had, within the last two years, become so marked, that the king, in the autumn of 1834, availed himself of the death of earl Spencer and the consequent elevation to the House of Lords of his son lord Althorp, the chancellor of the exchequer, to dismiss lord Melbourne and his colleagues, and intrusted sir Robert Peel with the formation of a conservative administration (November 14). But the country was not yet ripe for the change. Upon the dissolution of parliament, the conservatives obtained a great accession to their numbers in the House of Commons, but they were still left in a minority. Accordingly, sir Robert Peel, after holding office for a few months, was obliged to retire, and the Mel- bourne administration resumed office in April, 1835, with a few changes, the most remarkable being that lord Brougham was passed over and the great seal placed in commission, till lord Cottenham (Pepys) was made chancellor. The new ministers were dependent on the support of O'Connell, with whom they had now allied themselves. The chief measure which they carried this session was the reform of municipal corporations on the principle of popular election. In the next year (1836) they passed a bill to allow dissenters to marry in their own chapels, and another for a "general registration of births, deaths, and marriages." In this year also the Tithe Commutation Act was passed, and also an act incorporating the ecclesiastical commission issued the year before, for the management of episcopal and cathedral revenues. It made an arrangement by which two old sees were consolidated into one, Gloucester being united with Bristol, and two new ones were created — Ripon (1830) and Manchester (1847).* In May, 1837, the king was seized with a dangerous illness, and expired on June 20. * The episcopate has been further in- creased by acts of the reign of Victoria. New sees have been founded at St. Albans (1876) and Truro (1877), and an act of 1878 authorizes the endowment of four new bishoprics at Liverpool, New- castle, Wakefield, and Southwell. But under all these extensions no increase is made to the number of bishops in the House of Lords ; the junior bishops (ex- cept of London, Winchester, and Durham) having to wait for vacancies in rotation. The office of suffragan bishop has also been revived. CHAPTER XXXV. QUEEN VICTORIA, b. 1819. A.D. 1837-1878. § 1. Accession of queen Victoria. Insurrection in Canada. Chartists. Anti-Corn-Law League. § 2. The queen's marriage. Sir Robert Peel prime minister. Graduated corn-law. Agitation in Ireland. Conviction and fall of O'Connell. § 3. Irish famine, and abolition of the corn-laws. Fall of the ministry. Lord John Russell premier. § 4. O'Brien's re- bellion. French revolution. Death of sir R. Peel. § 5. Fall of lord John Russell's ministry. Lord Derby premier. Death of the duke of Wellington. Napoleon III. emperor of the French. Lord Aberdeen's ministry. § 6. War with Russia. Campaign in the Crimea, and siege of Sevastopol. § 7. Lord Palmerston prime minister. Sevastopol taken. Peace of Paris. § 8. War with China. New parliament. Review of Indian history from the time of Warren Hastings. The first Afghan war. § 9. Occupation of Scinde. Annexation of Oude. Mutiny of the Bengal army. § 10. Fall of lord Palmerston's ministry. Lord Derby prime minister a second time. Transfer of India to the crown. §11. Jewish emancipation. Fall of lord Derby's second ministry. War be- tween France, Italy, and Austria. Establishment of the new kingdom of Italy. § 12. Lord Palmerston's second ministry. End of the Chinese war. Capture of Pekin. § 13. Death of the prince consort. § 14. Civil war in America. § 15. Affairs in Italy. Danish war about Schleswig- Holstein. § 16. Death of lord Palmerston. Review of his second administration. § 17. Second ministry of earl Russell. The Reform Bill. Third premiership of lord Derby. § 18. War between Austria and Prussia. Battle of Sadowa. § 19. Second Reform Acts. Abyssinian expedition. The Irish Fenians. § 20. Resignation of lord Derby and first premiership of Mr. Disraeli. Ministry of Mr. Gladstone. Dis- establishment of the Irish church. Irish Land Act. § 21. War between France and Germany. Deposition of Napoleon III. The " Alabama " arbitration. § 22. The ballot. Judicature Act. Ashantee war. § 23. Second premiership of Mr. Disraeli (lord Beaconsfield.) § 24. The prince of Wales visits India. The queen proclaimed Empress of India. § 25. War between Turkey and Russia. Treaty of Berlin. Anglo-Turkish treaty. Occupation of Cyprus. Second Afghan war. § 26. Review of the period from the Revolution. Progress of the con- stitution. Growth of England as a European power. Colonial and Indian empire. § 27. Progress of English manufactures, trade, population, etc. National debt. § 28. View of the moral condition of the people. Religion and missions. § 29. Criminal law, education, etc. § 30. Literature and art. § 1. Upon the death of her uncle William IV., our present gracious sovereign, queen Victoria, the only child of the duke of Kent, succeeded to the throne. She had just completed her eighteenth year, which had been fixed as her legal majority. As the succession to the crown of Hanover had been settled only in the male line, that country was now separated from the crown of 708 VICTOEIA. Chap, xxxv Great Britain, and became the inheritance of Ernest, duke of Cumberland, the eldest surviving son of George III. The first year of queen Victoria's reign was marked by insurrec- tions in Canada, which, though assisted by bodies of adventurers from the United States, were put down without much trouble. This led to the union of Upper and Lower Canada (1840). At a later period the British provinces in North America, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, were united, as " The Dominion of Canada," under a viceroy and a free parliament (1867). As the harvests of 1837 and 1838 proved unfavourable, much distress occurred among the lower classes, and the opportunity was seized by the seditious to excite riots and disorders. There had now arisen a considerable body, who called themselves Chartists ; that is, they demanded what they called a new charter, or thorough reorganization of the lower house of parliament on the following five principles, styled the five points of " the people's charter," — namely, universal suf- frage, vote by ballot, annual parliaments, the remuneration of mem- bers, and the abolition of the property qualification. In the autumn of 1838 many large meetings of chartists were held in the northern counties, and as winter approached they assembled by torchlight. At one of these, held at Kersal Moor, near Manchester, it was com- puted that 200,000 persons were present. In 1839 a National Convention was formed in London of delegates from the working classes, and a petition, as large in diameter as a coach-wheel, had to be rolled into the House of Commons. A motion for a committee to consider it having been lost by a large majority, chartist riots ensued in several of the principal provincial towns, and especially at Newport, Monmouthshire, where one Frost, a magistrate of the borough, played a principal part. The disturb- ance was put down, with the loss of about twenty lives, by the energetic proceedings of sir Thomas Phillipps, and Frost, Jones, and Williams, the ringleaders, were convicted and transported. At the same time a more orderly and intelligent agitation was proceeding to remove the chief cause of these disturbances. This was the Anti- Corn-Law League, formed at Manchester in September, 1838, to procure the abolition of the corn-laws, and for the promotion of free- trade principles. The most distinguished advocate of the league was Mr. Bichard Cobden, who rapidly acqiiired great influence in the country. § 2. On February 10, 1840, her majesty was united in marriage to her cousin Albert, prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, who was about three months her junior. The parliament voted the prince (afterwards, in 1857, styled prince consort) an annuity of 30,000Z. for life, and passed a bill for his naturalization. a.d. 1841-1844. MINISTRY OF SIR ROBERT PEEL. 709 The commencement of the queen's reign was distinguished by measures of signal importance ; among others, a committee of the privy council was appointed to superintend the education of the country, and the penny postage was brought into operation. The Melbourne ministry had never been very strong, and their close alliance with O'Gonnell and his " tail," as his score or two of adherents in parliament were called, had degraded them in the eyes of the nation. They had also failed in their financial measures, having every year a deficient revenue. In the spring of 1841 sir Robert Peel carried against them a vote of want of confidence, upon which they dissolved parliament. The ministry intimated their intention of proposing a repeal of the corn-laws, and substituting a fixed duty of 8s. a quarter upon corn ; but they did not meet with a popular response. The landed interest strained every nerve to defeat their candidates, and when the new parliament met the con- servative majority was estimated at nearly 80. An amendment was carried on the address ; ministers resigned, and sir Robert Peel be- came premier fur the second time. The other principal members of the government were lord Lyndhurst chancellor, Mr. Groulburn chan- cellor of the exchequer ; sir James Graham held the home office, lord Aberdeen the foreign, lord Stanley war and the colonies, lord Ellen- borough the board of control. The duke of Wellington accepted a seat in the cabinet without office. In the session of 1842 sir Robert Peel introduced and carried a new corn-law on the principle of a graduated scale ; and, in order at once to supply the constantly deficient revenue and to effect great fiscal reforms, a property and income tax of sevenpence in the pound was imposed on all incomes above 150Z. A customs act was passed, either repealing, or con- siderably reducing, such duties as pressed most heavily on manu- facturing industry ; thus approximating to free trade, and adopting Pitt's policy. The influence of O'Connell was now at its height in Ireland. Weekly meetings were held in a building called Conciliation Hall, and large sums were collected for the "agitator." Other expedients of sedition were the " monster meetings " held at Tara and other places ; but tkat at Clontarf proved a trap for the agitator himself. In consequence of the regulations issued for the meeting, as well as some seditious expressions used at an assembling of the Repeal Asso- ciation, O'Connell was arrested (October 14, 1843), and condemned, together with some of his coadjutors, to imprisonment for conspiracy and sedition, by the Court of Queen's Bench in Dublin (February 12, 1844). The judgment was afterwards reversed by the House of Lords (September 4). Peel, in the mean time, had attempted to con- ciliate the Irish by endowing their college at Maynooth, and estab- 32 710 VICTOBIA. Chap. xxxv. lishing the Queen's Colleges at Belfast, Cork, and Galway (1845). But the blow was irrecoverable ; and O'Connell never regained his former influence. His health began visibly to decline, and he died at Genoa (May 15, 1847), on his way to Eome with the double object of benefiting his health and asking the pope's blessing. § 3. The question which now principally occupied the attention of the public was that of the corn-laws ; and this was now approach- ing its solution through an unexpected dispensation of Providence The summer of 1845 was wet and cold ; it was plain that the harvest would be deficient not only in England but throughout Europe. In addition to this calamity another appeared, hitherto unknown. Disease had invaded the potato-crops, and the root became unfit to eat. A famine in Ireland, where the potato formed the staple food, was now imminent. The Anti-Corn-Law League redoubled its agitation, and vast sums were subscribed in all quarters in aid of its objects. Lord Morpeth joined it ; lord John Ilussell addressed a letter to his constituents in London, in which, amid taunts directed against sir Robert Peel, he abandoned his scheme of a fixed duty on corn, and declared himself the advocate of free trade. Peel himself, however, had come to the conclusion that a duty on corn could no longer be upheld, and he had brought over the majority of the cabinet to the same opinion ; but he felt that he and his colleagues were not the persons to carry a measure which they had always opposed. On December 11 the ministers resigned ; and Peel announced to the queen his intention to support, in his private capacity, any minister she might appoint who should propose to repeal the corn- laws. Lord John Russell was now sent for by the queen ; but he failed in forming a ministry, a. id the previous one was restored. In January, 1846, Peel brought iu a bill by which the duty on wheat was entirely abolished at the end of three years, while in the interval it was reduced to 4s. per quarter when the price was at and above 53s., and buck- wheat and Indian corn were immediately admitted duty free. By another bill the customs duties on silk, cotton manufactures, foreign spirits, and other articles, were reduced, and those on animal food, live animals, vegetables, and the like, were abolished. JThe measures were carried through both houses by considerable majorities. The repeal of the corn-laws broke up the powerful conservative party. A large section not only refused to follow sir Robert Peel in his recent change of opinion, but regarded him as an apostate and a traitor. Sir Robert Peel had changed his opinions from honest conviction ; but it was unfortunate for his reputation that a second time in his political career his sense of duty compelled him to desert the party which had raised him to power. This party, which was a.d. 1846-1850. MINISTRY OF LORD JOHN RUSSELL. 711 now known by the name of " protectionists," looked up to lord Stanley as their leader — the only distinguished member of sir Eobert Peel's administration who had opposed the repeal of the corn-laws ; and Mr. Disraeli was its chief champion in the commons. As Ireland was still in a very disturbed state, sir Robert Peel brought in a bill for the better protection of life in that country, whereupon the protectionists joined the whigs in defeating it. The ministry resigned, and lord John Russell became premier (July 6, 1846). § 4. The year 1847 was also marked by great distress both in England and Ireland. The potato-crop again failed ; there was a famine in Ireland ; and, though the British parliament voted several millions to buy food for the starving Irish, they nevertheless rose in rebellion. O'Connell had now vanished from the scene ; and Mr. Smith O'Brien had not the requisite qualities for leading the "young Ireland" party, which aimed at a revolution by open force. His attempt to excite a rebellion in 1848 proved a ridiculous failure : he was captured in a cabbage-garden, convicted of high treason, and sentenced to death, but transported. The Irish, being deprived of their principal agitators, by degrees settled down into a more tranquil state. Copious emigration, the introduction of a more extended corn cultivation, the sale of encumbered estates, and the investment of a large amount of English capital, have since then much improved the condition of the country ; and thus the potato- rot, which at first appeared a curse upon Ireland, eventually turned out a blessing. The revolution by which Louis Philippe was expelled from the French throne, in February, 1848, was felt throughout Europe. It had fostered rebellion in Ireland. It had also produced a slight effect in England, where, however, the materials of sedition were happily not very formidable. The London chartists took occasion to display their force by a procession (April 10), and mustered on Kennington Common to the number of about 20,000 ; but no fewer than 150,000 citizens had enrolled themselves as special constables, the duke of Wellington had taken the necessary military precautions, and this ridiculous display ended without any breach of the peace. In 1849 a further advance was made in the principles of free trade, by the partial repeal of the navigation laws.* The prosperity of the country went on rapidly increasing ; and sir Robert Peel was gratified with beholding the success of his measures, when his life was suddenly terminated by a fall from his horse (1850). Thus prematurely perished a great minister who understood the commercial interests of this country better than any man who had ever governed * See Notes and Illustrations (C). 712 VICTORIA. Chai\ xxxv. it. If he lacked something of that original and commanding genius which forestals events and anticipates futurity, he was nevertheless well qualified to discern and provide for the exigencies of the time. His career throughout was noble and disinterested, no less honour- able to himself than beneficial to his country. Since the repeal of the catholic disabilities in 1829, the papal party had pursued an aggressive policy in this country, and the pope now ventured to divide the whole of England into Koman catholic sees, nominating cardinal Wiseman archbishop of Westminster, and designating other Roman catholic prelates by similar territorial titles (1850). To put a stop to these proceedings the ministers in- troduced the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill, which was carried with some difficulty, was never enforced, and was afterwards repealed (1871). § 5. The beginning of a new half-century, amidst renewed pro- sperity, was marked by the Great Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations in the " Crystal Palace" in Hyde Park, which was zealously promoted by prince Albert, and was opened by the queen (May 1, 1851).* Enthusiastic believers in social progress were hailing the pledge of peace secured by commerce, when another change in France prepared a new series of troubles and wars. The republic proved a failure, and the popular veneration for Napoleon's memory secured the election as president of his reputed nephew, Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, son of Hortense, the wife of Louis, king of Holland. By a sudden act of violence {coup d'etat), he overthrew the constitution (December 2, 1851), and was elected by universal suffrage as president for 10 years. Lord Palmerston, having recognized the change, without the consent of his col- leagues or the authority of the queen, was dismissed from the office of foreign secretary ; but he soon avenged the affront by defeating the government on the Militia Bill (March, 1852). Lord John Russell resigned, and was succeeded by the earl of Derby (formerly lord Stanley) as premier, with Mr. Disraeli as chancellor of the exchequer. In September the duke of Welling- ton expired somewhat suddenly at Walmer Castle, in his 84th y ear — a ma n who had filled a larger space in the history of his country than has perhaps been allotted to any subject. A magnificent funeral was conferred upon him at the public expense. On November 18, 1852, his mortal remains were carried to their resting-place in St. Paul's Cathedral, accompanied with military pomp, passing slowly through the streets, which were lined with myriads of his admiring and sorrowing countrymen. As if his departure had given the signal for restoring the Bonaparte dynasty in France, Louis Napoleon, elected emperor by universal suffrage, * The site is marked by the memorial to prince Albert. a.d. 1853-1854. MINISTRY OF LORD ABERDEEN. 713 was proclaimed as Napoleon III., on the anniversary of Austerlitz and of his uncle's coronation (December 2, 1852), The same month saw the fall of the new ministry in England. Though lord 'Derby had dissolved parliament, and sacrificed the principles of protection, he was left in a minority in the new House of Commons ; and before the end of the year was com- pelled to resign. He was succeeded by a coalition ministry under lord Aberdeen, consisting of the more distinguished friends of sir Robert Peel, the great leaders of the whig party, and a few radicals. In the session of 1853 Mr. Gladstone, as chancellor of the exchequer, produced his memorable budget, on the principles of sir Robert Peel ; establishing a duty on the succession to real as well as personal property, and making large reductions of tax- ation ; but the pleasing prospect of the cessation of the income- tax in 1860, and of the gradual conversion of the national debt into a 2 J per cent, stock, was overclouded by a series of new wars in every quarter of the world. The Russian czars had long looked with a covetous eye on Constantinople, and had long waited for a favourable opportunity to seize it. Religion, so often the pretext of secular ambition, was made the ground of strife ; and an obscure quarrel of some Greek and Latin monks about the holy places of Palestine, with which the Turks had not meddled, served to excuse the attempt to appropriate an empire. The emperor Nicholas demanded on this ground the control over all members of the Greek church residing in the Turkish dominions — a de- mand that was naturally rejected by the Porte. In consequence of this refusal, Russian troops crossed the Pruth in July, and took possession of the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia, but were defeated by Omar Pasha at the battle of Oltenitza ; whilst in November, 1853, their fleet, sallying from Sevastopol, utterly destroyed the Turkish navy at Sinope. § 6. War was now fairly kindled between Russia and the Porte. For the success of his plans the emperor Nicholas calculated on the subservience of Germany, the disturbed state of France, and the connivance of England, to which he offered Egypt as her share of " the sick man's " inheritance. But England was not ambitious of further acquisitions, and least of all by such means ; Turkey claimed her assistance on the faith of treaties ; and Napoleon III. hoped to establish his new throne by cordially uniting with Great Britain to repress the ambition of Russia. Austria and Prussia stood aloof, but a combined English and French fleet proceeded to the Black Sea, and shut up the Russians in the harbour of Sevastopol. As negociations with Russia during the winter proved ineffectual, war was declared against her by England and France in the spring 714 VICTORIA. Chap. xxxv. (1854). A French army under marshal St. Arnaud, and an Eng- lish one under lord Raglan (Fitzroy Somerset), assemhled at Varna in Turkey, whilst an English fleet under sir Charles Napier was despatched to the Baltic. This force kept the ' Eussian fleet shut up behind the guns of Kronstadt, and, being reinforced by a French squadron, captured the fortress of Bomarsund. The English and French, who had been so often arrayed against each other, were now seen fighting side by side against a common enemy. The gallant defence of the Turks on the banks of the Danube having dissipated all alarm in that quarter, it was determined, towards the end of summer, to transport the allied army from Varna to the Crimea, and to attack Sevastopol. They landed without opposition (September 14) at Eupatoria, on the west coast of the Crimea. Prince Menschikoff, the commandant of Sevastopol, had taken post with a force of about 60,000 men on the heights which crown the left bank of the little river Alma, in order to oppose their advance on that fortress. As he had fortified this naturally strong position with great care, he confidently reckoned on holding it at least three weeks ; but it was carried after a few hours' fighting by the allied armies, though with considerable loss (September 20). The Russians flung away their arms and fled ; many of their guns were captured, together with Menschikoff's carriage and despatches ; and nothing saved their army from anni- hilation but the want of cavalry to pursue it. Had the allies been in a condition to move forward immediately, it is probable that they might have entered Sevastopol along with the flying enemy ; but the care of the wounded and the interment of the dead occasioned delay. The march was then directed towards the harbour of Bala- klava, the ancient Portus Symbolon, to the south of Sevastopol, which enabled the army to derive its supplies from the sea. The heights south of Sevastopol were occupied, and preparations were made for commencing a siege. This was rendered difficult by the rocky nature of the soil, and it was not till October 17 that the allies were able to open their fire upon the place. The Russians had availed themselves of the interval to fortify it with great skill, and the large fleet shut up in the harbour assisted them with the means of defence. This siege lasted nearly a twelvemonth, and became one of the most memorable in history. Soon after its commencement, a Rus- sian army of 30,000 men, under Liprandi, endeavoured to raise it by an attack upon our position at Balaklava (October 25), but after a severe struggle they were repulsed. This battle is chiefly memo- rable for the charge of the light cavalry brigade under the earl of Cardigan, when, by some confusion in the orders, a body of 600 or A.l>. 1854-1855. SIEGE OF SEVASTOPOL. 715 700 men charged the whole Eussian army, got possession for a little while of their artillery, and cut their way back through a body of 5000 horse, leaving however more than two-thirds of their number dead upon the field ! On November 5 the Russians, having been reinforced, again atterhpted our position at Inkermann. Advancing early in the morning under cover of a fog, they took our men somewhat by surprise ; but, though outnumbered by ten to one, the British troopr held their ground with unflinching heroism, till general Canrobert, who had succeeded to the command of the French army after the death of general St. Arnaud, sent a division to their assistance. The Russians were now hurled down the heights, while the artillery made terrible havoc in their serried ranks. Their loss is said to have been as many as the whole number of allies with whom they were engaged. General Pennefather's division, and the brigade of guards under the duke of Cambridge, were the troops principally engaged upon this occasion. After this terrible lesson the Russians were cautious of venturing on another battle; but the defence of the town was carried on with skill and obstinacy, and many desperate sorties took place. Attempts were made by the fleet under admirals Dundas and Lyons upon the seaward batteries, but they were found to be impregnable. During the winter the army suffered more from excessive fatigue and the weather on those exposed and stormy heights, than from the enemy ; and their sufferings were increased by the defective and disorganized state of the commissariat department. An English lady, named Florence Nightingale, devoted herself, during the siege, to the alleviation of these sufferings ; and, proceeding with a staff of nurses to the army hospitals at Scutari, undertook the most repulsive offices in tending the sick and wounded. § 7. The ministry had become unpopular in consequence of the sufferings of the army, and a motion carried in the commons for an inquiry into their management of the war (January, 1855) caused the resignation of lord Aberdeen, who was succeeded by lord Palmerston. The remaining " Peelites," Mr. Gladstone, sir James Graham, and Mr. Sidney Herbert, soon left the ministry. It was expected that the death of the emperor Nicholas, which took place suddenly (March 2), would have led to the re-establishment of peace ; but the war was continued under his son and successor Alexander II. Its interest was principally concentrated on Sevas- topol. In the Baltic, admiral Dundas was able to do little more than his predecessor, but the Black Sea fleet was more successful. A squadron under sir Edmund Lyons proceeded into the Sea of Azov, captured Kertch, Yenikale, and other towns, destroying vast 716 VICTORIA. Chap. xxxv. granaries whence the Russians chiefly derived their supplies, and thus hastened the fall of Sevastopol. While Prussia stood selfishly aloof, Austria joined the allies, but took little part in the war. Her occupation of the principalities, however, set free the Turkish army to act in the Crimea. The Sardinians, with British aid, despatched to the scene of action a well-equipped little army, under general de la Marmora, which proved of considerable service. In June lord Raglan was carried off by cholera, and was succeeded in the command by general Simpson. Marshal St. Arnaud had died some time before, and now the French commander, general Canrobert, was superseded by general Pelissier. Soon after the arrival of the latter, the French took an outwork called the Mamelon ; and on the 5th September the general and final bombardment took place. On the 8th an assault was deemed practicable, and the French effected a lodg- ment in the fort or tower called the Malakoff. The English storming party also succeeded in gaining possession of the fort called the Eedan ; but were obliged ultimately to retire, from want of proper support. The possession of the Malakoff, however, which commanded the town, decided its fate, and in the course of the night the Russians evacuated the town, and retired to the forts on the north side of the harbour (September 10). After the fall of Sevastopol the war was virtually at an end ; but the heroic defence of Kars, in Asiatic Turkey, by general Williams, who commanded the Turkish garrison, deserves to be noticed. Time after time the Russians, who rushed to the assault with vastly superior numbers, were driven back with terrible loss ; and when at length a capitulation became necessary, the conqueror, Mouraviev, dismissed general Williams with all the honours of war, and expressions of the highest admiration for his bravery (November 28, 1855). The allied armies established their winter quarters amidst the ruins of Sevastopol, and, had the war continued, there can be little question that the whole of the Crimea would have fallen into their hands ; but negociations for peace, begun under the mediation of Austria, were brought to a successful but somewhat premature conclusion in January, 1856. The Russian protectorate in the Danubian principalities was abolished, the freedom of the Danube and its mouths was established, both Russian and Turkish ships of war were banished from the Black Sea,* except a few small vessels necessary as a maritime police, and the Christian subjects of the Porte were placed under the protection of the contracting powers. * This stipulation was annulled in I Eastern question was made by the Treaty 1871 ; and a new settlement of the whole | of Berlin in 1878 (see page 735). A.D. 1792-1803. REVIEW OF AFFAIRS IN INDIA. 717 On these bases a definitive treaty of peace was signed at Paris by England, France, Austria, Prussia, Eussia, Sardinia, and Turkey (March 30, 1856). A separate treaty was made between England, France, and Austria, for the defence of the independence and integrity of the Turkish empire. The congress did not separate without coming to an agreement on the long-disputed questions of maritime warfare, by which the rights of neutrals were enlarged and privateering was henceforth to be abolished ; but America refused to accede to this arrangement. An omen of the next European question to be brought to the arbitrament of war was given by the presence of count Cavour as plenipotentiary for Sardinia at the congress of Paris. § 8. Meanwhile commercial relations had been established with Japan ; and now a new war with China gave occasion for the defeat of lord Palmerston by the combined vote of the old whigs, under lord John Russell, the Peelites, and the " peace party," with the con- servatives (1857). An appeal to the country returned a new par- liament devoted to lord Palmerston, whose name became henceforth the watchword of the moderate liberals. Amidst the enthusiasm of foreign and political victory, the blessings of peace and a glorious summer, it was remembered that our Indian empire had reached its hundredth year ; and a proposal had been made to celebrate the centenary of Plassey, when the news came of a mutiny of the sepoys, threatening our expulsion from the peninsula. "We followed the history of our Indian empire to the governor- generalship of lord Cornwallis (p. 641), who reduced Tippoo Sahib, sultan of Mysore, to obedience (1792). Under the weak govern- ment of his successor, sir John Shore, Tippoo again rose and endea- voured to form an alliance against us with the French. The attempt was put down under the vigorous administration of lord Mornington (marquess Wellesley), when, under the conduct of general Harris, Tippoo's capital, Seringapatam, was captured by general Baird, and Tippoo was slain (May, 1799). Soon after- wards Arthur Wellesley, brother of the governor-general, began to distinguish himself in India. Three Mahratta chieftains — Holkar, Scindiah, and the rajah of Berar— encouraged by French intrigues, having combined against their sovereign the Peishwah, residing at Poonah, in the Deccan, the governor-general despatched two armies against them, one commanded by his brother, the other by general Lake. The former invaded the territories of the rajah of Berar, took Ahmednuggur, and defeated the rajah and Scindiah at Assaye, although they had 30,000 men and a numerous artillery, commanded by French officers, whilst Wellesley's force was not above a sixth of that number (September 23, 1803). The Mahratta 32* 718 VICTORIA. Chap. xxxv. chiefs were again defeated at Argaum (November 29), and compelled to sue for peace and to cede large tracts of valuable territory. Lake was equally successful in northern India. He defeated a large native force under the French general Perron, stormed and took Alighur, and then advanced against Delhi, where the cause of Scindiah was supported by another French officer named Bourguien. After his defeat on the banks of the Jumna, Delhi, the capital of Hindostan, and the residence of Shah Alum, the last Mogul emperor, easily fell into Lake's hands. Soon afterwards the capture of Agra, and the final defeat of the remnant of Scindiah's forces at Laswari, annihilated his power in that district. By these victories French influence in India was abolished, and a great accession of power and territory accrued to the company. In 1805 the marquess Wellesley returned home, and lord Corn- wallis again assumed the government. He was soon succeeded by lord Minto, but neither of them effected much for our Indian domi- nion. In 18 13 lord Moira (afterwards marquess of Hastings) became governor-general ; and under his auspices, and chiefly by the courage and abilities of sir John Malcolm, the Mahrattas, and their allies the Pindarees, were reduced to obedience. Hastings held the government till 1822, and was succeeded by lord William Bentinck. A war with the Burmese, who had annoyed Bengal, ended in their cession of Arracan (1826). In January of that year lord Combermere reduced Bhurtpore, which had resisted the arms of Lake, and was esteemed the strongest fortress in India. During the administration of lord Auckland, Soojah, the expelled usurper of Cabul, was replaced on the throne by the English arms, led by sir John Keane (1839) ; but in November, 1841, the Afghan insurrection broke out in that 'city, and the English were obliged to evacuate the country. They endured the most dreadful sufferings in their winter retreat, both from the inclemency of the weather and the attacks of the Afghans. In the Kurd Cabul Pass alone, no fewer than 3000 men are said to have fallen ; and ultimately, of the whole retreating army of 4500 men (with no less than 12,000 camp-followers), a few only survived. It was the greatest disaster that the English arms had ever ex- perienced in India. Lord Auckland was superseded in 1841 by lord Ellenborough, who took vigorous measures to avenge the disaster. General Sale was still holding out at Jellalabad. He was relieved by general Pollock, who then, in conjunction with general Nott, advanced against Cabul, and recovered that city (September, 1842). Cabul was again evacuated, after this signal proof that it was not done as a matter of necessity. § 9. This first Afghan war was followed by the occupation of Scinde, the region on the lower Indus, where our disasters at Cabul A.D. 1857. THE INDIAN MUTINY - . • 719 had encouraged a confederacy of the Ameers, or princes, against us. The conquest was effected by sir Charles Napier, a Peninsular veteran, who in this war displayed feats of the most daring bold- ness. In the battle of Meeanee (February 17, 1843) he defeated between 30,000 and 40,000 men with a force of only about 2000. He next took Hyderabad, the capital of Scinde ; and by another victory near that town reduced the whole country, which was annexed by lord Ellenborough to the company's dominions. In the same year the district of Gwalior was reduced by generals Gough and Grey. In 1844 lord Ellenborough was succeeded by sir Henry Hardinge. In December, 1845, the Sikhs of the Punjab, or Lahore territory, declared war upon us, and, crossing the Sutlej, advanced on Feroze- pore. They were the most warlike enemies we had yet encountered in India. The governor-general himself, an experienced officer, and sir Hugh Gough, the commander-in-chief, advanced against them. Several obstinate engagements followed, till at length the victories of Aliwal and Sobraon (1846) put an end to the campaign, and secured our influence in that country. In 1848, however, the city of Mooltan rose in revolt ; and, though the courage of lieutenant Edwardes prevented any serious consequences, it held out for some months. Thus encouraged, other Sikh princes made a stand against lord Gough at Chillianwallah, inflicting upon us great loss (January 13, 1849); but in the following month they were defeated and subdued at Goojerat, when lord Dalhousie, now g'overnor-general, annexed the Punjab to the British possessions. The whole of the Indian peninsula was now subject to our. empire, from Cape Comorin to the Himalaya mountains and the Indus. Not indeed that all the states were annexed, yet even those that remained under their native princes owed us allegiance, and were subject to our superintendence. The last great acquisi- tion was made by the annexation of Oude in 1856. Our empire seemed too firmly established to be shaken, yet already for some years the elements of mutiny had been fermenting in the Bengal army. Symptoms of discontent had been observed as early as 1824, and many other instances subsequently occurred, which were treated with too much leniency and forbearance. At length the intro- duction of the Enfield rifle necessitated the use of greased car- tridges. The grease was mutton fat and wax, but it was whispered among the discontented that it consisted of the fat of swine and cows, abominations both to the Hindoo and the Mahomedan ; and it was asserted that the intention was to deprive the Brahmin sepoys of their caste. Symptoms of insubordination and violence began to appear early in 1857. In May many regiments of the 720 VICTORIA. Chap. xxxv. Bengal army were in open mutiny. In that month Delhi, the ancient capital of India, and still the residence of the representa- tive of the Moguls, was seized by the insurgents, with all its immense military stores. Although it was the great arsenal of our artillery, it had been left without the protection of a British force : such was the blind confidence reposed in the sepoys. The capture of Delhi was followed by the revolt of the remaining Bengal regiments. Fortunately the Madras and Bombay armies, with a few exceptions, remained faithful ; but almost the whole of Bengal was lost for a time, and many, both in this country and on the continent of Europe, believed that the English would be driven entirely out of India. Into the horrors of this rebellion, and the determined energy and courage with which it was met, our space will not permit us to enter. It served to bring out British valour in high relief, and the names of Lawrence, of Havelock, and the other numerous officers who distinguished themselves at this trying and difficult conjunc- ture, will not soon be effaced from the memory of their countrymen. The rebellion received a decisive blow by the re-capture of Delhi by general Wilson on September 21, 1857 ; and the subsequent victories of sir Colin Campbell, afterwards lord Clyde, who went out to India as commander-in-chief, brought the contest to a close. § 10. The mutiny of the Bengal army proved the death-blow of the East India Company. This celebrated company, originally an association of merchants for the purpose of trading to the East, had been deprived of its exclusive commercial privileges upon the renewal of its charter in 1833 ; but the Court of Directors, elected by the proprietors of East India Stock, still continued to' govern India, under the superintendence of the Board of Control, originally instituted by Mr. Pitt. Upon the meeting of parlia- ment at the beginning of 1858, the prime minister, lord Palmerston, introduced a bill for placing the government of India in the hands of the crown, and dissolving the East India Company. But before this bill passed into a law, the Palmerston ministry was overthrown. While count Cavour, who had become foreign minister of Sardinia on January 11, 1855, was maturing his schemes for Italian unity the conspiracy of Orsini to assassinate the emperor of the French led to unexpected results (January 14, 1858). The menaces of certain French officers against England, as the asylum of con- spirators, were answered by the revival of the volunteer movement of 1804 ; and a permanent reserve was thus added to our military forces. To assure France that this meant "not defiance but defence," lord Palmerston proposed to raise the crime of conspiring m England against the life of a foreign sovereign from a mis- a.d. 1859. LORD DERBY'S SECOND MINISTRY. 721 demeanour to a felony. But the national jealousy for Britain as the sanctuary of political exiles took alarm, and the bill was rejected. Lord Palmerston thereupon resigned office, and lord Derby became prime minister a second time, with Mr. Dis- raeli as leader in the commons (February 20). The new ministry introduced another India bill, which passed through both houses of parliament and received the assent of the crown , and on September 1, 1858, the East India Company, which had founded and governed a mighty empire with pre-eminent ability and success, ceased to rule India, and the company itself was dissolved on January 1, 1874. The queen was proclaimed in India on November 1, 1858, and the governor-general, lord Canning, became the first viceroy. India is now governed by a secretary of state,* assisted by a council of 14 members ; and the millions of that vast country acknowledge queen Victoria as their only sovereign and empress (see p. 732). § 11. The only other legislative measure of this session which requires notice is the admission of the Jews to parliament. In the following session a single oath was substituted for the oaths of allegiance, supremacy, and abjuration, required of members of parliament (April 8, 1859) ; and this form has since been further amended by the omission of the words objected to by Soman catholics, who are no longer required to take a separate oath (April 30, 1866). But the attempt of the government to settle the question of further reform in parliament, which had been agitated for several years, ended in their defeat by 330 votes against 291 (March 31, 1859), and was followed by a dissolution (April 19). The sixth parliament of queen Victoria was opened on the 31st of May ; and, in reply to the speech from the throne, a vote of want of confidence was carried against the ministry by 323 to 310. Lord Derby resigned office, and lord Palmerston became prime minister a second time (June 18, 1859). The fall of lord Derby's second government was hastened by his supposed want of sympathy with the cause of Italy. A scheme for the liberation of Italy from the Austrian dominion in the north, and Austrian influence throughout the peninsula, had been con- certed between Napoleon III. and count Cavour, who secretly promised the cession of Savoy and Nice to France. An ominous speech of the emperor to the Austrian ambassador, at the usual diplomatic reception on New Year's Day, 1859, sounded the alarm * There are now five secretaries of state : one for home affairs, a second for foreign affairs, a third for the colonies, a fourth for war, and a fifth for India. Previously there had been only three secretaries : one for home, a second for foreign affairs, and a third for war and the colonies. The last office was divided at the time of the Crimean war, when the subordinate office of secretary at war was merged in the secretaryship for war. 722 VICTORIA. Chap. xxxv. through Europe; and, after fruitless negociations, the signal for war was given by a summons from Austria to Sardinia to disarm (April 19), whereupon the French armies entered Italy. On the 29th of April the Austrians crossed the Ticino, but their defeats at Montebello (May 20) and Magenta (June 4) were followed on the 24th by the decisive victory of the French at Solferino ; and, at a personal interview at Villafranca (July 11), Napoleon and Francis Joseph agreed on the terms afterwards embodied in the treaty concluded at Zurich (November 11). Lom- bardy was ceded to France, in order to be handed over to Sardinia. The other arrangements were scattered to the winds by the action of the people, who, in Tuscany, Modena ; Parma, and the Roman Legations of Ferrara and Bologna (otherwise called the Romagna), annexed themselves by public votes to the kingdom of Sardinia, which thus included all the ancient territory of Cisalpine Gaul, excepting Venetia, but with Tuscany added. Nor did the move- ment stop here. Giuseppe Garibaldi — who, with Mazzini and Safri, had governed Rome and defended it against the French in 1849 — landed with a body of volunteers at Marsala in Sicily (May 11, 1860), and won the island, except the citadel of Messina. Crossing the straits, Garibaldi entered Naples amidst the cheers both of soldiers and civilians (September 8). Francis II. had fled the day before to Gaeta, the defence of which was protracted, chiefly by the heroism of queen Caroline, to the 13th of February, 1861. The capitulation of Messina on that day month finished the re- duction of the kingdom of the two Sicilies, the people of which had meanwhile voted their union to the other liberated states. On the following day (March 14), Victor Emmanuel accepted the title of King of Italy, which was recognized by England, in spite of the protest of pope Pius IX., who was still maintained in Rome and in the patrimony of St. Peter by the French army of occupation. § 12. Meanwhile, at home, lord Palmerston's second ministry, strengthened by a reconciliation with the Peelites and with lord John Russell, who accepted the office of foreign secretary, had a prosperous beginning. In the year 1860, about 2,000,000Z, were struck off the annual charge of the national debt by the falling in of the " long annuities ; " and now the recovery from the financial pressure of seven troubled years, and the vast expansion of our commerce in consequence of free trade and of the gold discoveries in California, Australia, and Columbia, enabled Mr. Gladstone to complete the work begun by sir Robert Peel. Richard Cobden, the advocate of free trade, fitly shared the work by negooiating a treaty of commerce with the emperor Napoleon. By this treaty the wines and other productions of France were admitted in exchange for our a.d. 1862. DEATH OF THE PRINCE CONSORT. 723 manufactures, at the apparent cost of a mutual sacrifice of imposts. The year was further marked by the close of the wars with China, which had occurred at intervals during twenty years. The allied armies of England and France stormed Pekin (October 12, 1860), and lord Elgin negociated a treaty with a minister who seemed at length to have discovered some of the advantages of foreign commerce. § 13. The second decennial Exhibition of Industry opened in London on May 1, 1862, but was deprived of .the presence of prince Albert, who has been carried off by fever at Windsor (Saturday, December 14, 1861). He had evinced great interest in all schemes for social improvement. His speeches on such occasions have been collected into a volume by her Majesty's command, and memorials of his life have been composed and published under her direction. § 14. Among the most momentous events of the period was the civil war which raged in North America, from 1861 to 1865, between the Northern and Southern States of the Union, ending in the victory of the Northern States. The threatened paralysis of our most extensive branch of industry, through the dearth of cotton, produced great sufferings in the manufacturing districts, which were alleviated not less by the patient endurance of the sufferers themselves, than by the liberality of the rich. (Sup. N. XXXII.) § 15. While the federal principle was subjected to so rude a test in the New World, the Old seemed to be mustering its forces for a contest not less great, upon the principle of " nationalities." The people of Germany awaited the revival of the hopes that had been crushed in 1849 ; while Italy avowedly held the attitude of an armed truce towards Austria till Venetia should be hers, and refused to gratify Napoleon by resigning her claims on Rome. The emperor generously chose the moment of count Cavour's death to recognize the new kingdom (June, 1861). The impatient enterprise of Garibaldi for the recovery of Rome was put down by the troops of Victor Emmanuel at Aspromonte, in Calabria (August 29, 1862). Two years later (September 15, 1864) a convention was made between Napoleon III. and the king of Italy, for the evacuation of Rome by the French trooops before the end of 1866. The capital of Italy was, by this treaty, transferred to Florence, and the further progress of Italian liberation was apparently suspended for two years. It could scarcely have been supposed that the peace concluded about the same time by Denmark with Austria and Prussia would be the prelude to another act of the same drama. Holstein was a purely German state, a member of the Germanic Confederation, and governed by the king of Denmark only as its duke. Schleswig had only a personal union with the kingdom ; 724 VICTORIA. Chap. xxxt. but its population contained a large Danish element, and it did not belong to the Germanic Confederation. To avoid the dismemberment of the Danish monarchy, the great powers framed an agreement, securing the succession both of Denmark and the duchies to prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Gliicksberg-Sonderburg (May 8, 1852). But a fresh crisis was prepared when Frederick VII., shortly before his death, promulgated a new constitution, which virtually incorporated Schleswig with the kingdom of Denmark (March 30, 1863). When Frederick VII. died, and was succeeded by Christian IX. as king of Denmark (November 15, 1863), the estates of Holstein at once refused to take the oath of allegiance ; and prince Frederick, son of the duke of Augustenburg, asserted his right to the duchies, in spite of his father's renunciation. His claim was allowed by the diet at Frankfort, and the troops of Saxony and Hanover marched into Altona to carry out the federal execution threatened against the late king (December 24). But when the diet rejected the joint proposal of Austria and Prussia to confine the federal occupation to Holstein, these two powers came forward as parties to the treaty of 1852, demanded of Denmark the revocation of the constitution of March 30, and followed up the demand by war (January 21, 1864). The gallant resistance of the Danes was of no avail against overwhelming force ; and a conference of the great powers at London having proved fruitless, Denmark yielded, and the duchies of Schleswig, Holstein, and Lauenburg, were ceded to Austria and Prussia (October 30, 1864). The victors made a provisional arrangement by the convention of Gastein for the occupation of Holstein by Austria, and of Schleswig by Prussia, the latter power receiving Lauenburg as her own, or rather (as Count Bismarck declared) as the king's domain (August 14, 1865). But it was now evident that the position of the two powers in the duchies, and their relations to the Frankfort diet, would bring to a crisis their long-suspended rivalry for supremacy in Germany. § 16. It was during the brief period of suspense, that the English statesman, whose untiring devotion to foreign politics, from a time before the congress of Vienna, had made his name the admiration or terror of all Europe, closed his public career of threescore years. Henry Temple, viscount Palmerston in the Irish peerage, died at Brocket Hall, in Hertfordshire, at the age of 81, on the 18th of October, 1865, and was laid beside Pitt and Fox in Westminster Abbey on the 27th. Since his return to power in 1859, he had ruled in the character of a mediator between the two great parties of the state ; the whigs accepted him as their head, and the tories trusted his coneervatism. Amidst the changes in Italy, the French A.D. 1866. LORD DERBY'S THIRD MINISTRY. 725 commercial treaty, and Mr. Gladstone's financial measures, the war with China, and a resolution to fortify our shores afresh, the House of Commons had turned a deaf ear to proposals for organic change. The new Keform Bill introduced hy lord John Eussell, in accord- ance with a vote hy which the late government fell, having heen encountered by repeated postponements and amendments, was with- drawn on the anniversary of lord Derby's resignation (June 11, 1860). Next year, lord John was called to the House of Peers by the title of earl Eussell, still retaining the foreign secretaryship (July 30, 1861). The session of 1861 was not marked by any party struggles. The queen's bereavement, the sufferings of our industrial classes, the constant danger to peace from the great American war, followed by the troubles in Poland and Denmark, created a dislike for any change of administration. The prosperity of the country enabled Mr. Gladstone to carry out his financial policy by large remissions of taxation in the years 1861 to 1865. Meanwhile tlie government was personally weakened by the suc- cessive deaths of Mr. Sidney Herbert, shortly after his elevation to the peerage as lord Herbert of Lea (August 2, 1861), of sir George Cornewall Lewis (April 13, 1863), and of the duke of Newcastle (April 25, 1864) ; while the earl of Elgin, like his predecessors, the marquess of Dalhousie and earl Canning, only returned from his government of India to die (November 20, 1863). The parliament elected in 1859 was dissolved at the end of the session of 1865. in anticipation of its natural decease under the Septennial Act, which would have taken place in the middle of the ensuing session Besides the praise due to its commercial legislation, it had sanctioned works of public improvement, eminently conductive to public health and comfort. Chief among these were the drainage of London and the embanking of the Thames. § 17. On the death of lord Palmerston, the premiership was intrusted, for the second time, to earl Russell, with Mr. Gladstone as leader in the House of Commons. The queen opened her seventh parliament (February 6, 1866) in person, for the first time since the prince consort's death. On Monday, the 12th of March, Mr. Gladstone brought forward the government scheme of reform, pro- posing to extend the franchise to occupiers of houses and land to the annual value of 14?. in counties, and 11. in boroughs. But the opposition of the moderate liberals proved fatal ; and, after a defeat in committee (Monday, June 18), the government of earl Russell resigned, and lord Derby became premier for the third time.* § 18. At the same moment the questions of Schleswig-Holstein and of the supremacy in Germany were settled by the vigorous * Earl Russell died May 28, 1878, aged 86. 726 VICTOEIA. Chap, xxxv policy of count Bismarck. Italy, seizing her opportunity, formed a secret alliance with Prussia against Austria. A campaign of a few weeks' duration ended in the decisive defeat of the Austrians by the Prussians at Sadowa (July 3, 1866). Its result, settled in the Treaty of Prague, was the exclusion of Austria from the German Confederation, the league of Northern Germany under Prussia (which annexed Schleswig-Holstein, Hanover, Nassau, Hesse-Cassel, and the city of Frankfort) ; besides the union of Venetia to the Italian kingdom, in the autumn of 1866. § 19. The parliamentary session of 1867 opened with a decla- ration by the government of the necessity for a measure of reform, which ultimately took the shape of household suffrage in towns, conditional upon the payment of rates. Votes were also given to lodgers, and the county franchise was reduced to 12?.* The measures of reform were completed for the present, in the next session (1868), by the passing of Reform Bills for Scotland and Ireland, and an act for the better trial of controverted elections. At the close of 1867 an expedition was sent to Abyssinia to obtain the release of British and other captives detained by the tyrant Theodore. After storming the hill fortress of Magdala, where Theodore fell by his own hands (April 13, 1868), our troops retired without the loss of a single man in battle, and their commander, sir Robert Napier, was created lord Napier of Magdala. For some years past, Ireland had been subject to renewed agita- tion. A more determined opposition was shown to the connection with Great Britain by a party who assumed the name of Fenians. It found desperate leaders in men who had been engaged in the American civil war, and who held out hopes of aid from the Trans- atlantic republic. Their violence induced earl Russell to propose a bill for suspending the Habeas Corpus Act, which was passed through all its stages in one day (February 17, 1866). Various arrests ensued. In Manchester a police officer was shot. In London, to effect the escape of a Fenian prisoner, the wall of Clerkenwell prison was blown down by a barrel of powder in open day, with the destruction of many neighbouring houses and several lives (December 13, 1867). The execution of the one man convicted of this offence is memorable as the last public execution, an act having received the royal assent for carrying out capital sentences within the prison walls (May 29, 1868). § 20. Scarcely had parliament reassembled in 1868, when the earl of Derby retired through ill health,f and was succeeded in the premiership by Mr. Disraeli. Meanwhile lord Stanley, the foreign secretary, had declared that *See Notes and Illustrations (E). f The 24th earl of Derby died in October, 1869. a.d. 1868-1870. MINISTRY OF MR. GLADSTONE. 727 " Ireland was the question of the day ; " and the government announced to parliament a policy based on what was familiarly called the principle of " levelling up," that is, raising the Koman catholics and protestant dissenters, by educational (and perhaps religious) endowments, to something of the same position as that of the established church. In opposition to this policy, Mr. Glad- stone proclaimed that the time was come for the disestablishment and disendowment of the Irish church, and carried a series of resolutions to that effect in the commons (April 30, 1868). The elections in November, under the new Eeform Act, were virtually an appeal to the people on this question ; and the result was so decisive, that Mr. Disraeli resigned without waiting for the meeting of parliament (December 2), and Mr. Gladstone became prime minister (December 9). In the eighth parliament of queen Victoria (the 20th of the United Kingdom), which met next day, the ministry had a majority of more than 100. In July, 1869, an act was passed, dissolving the connection between the churches of England and Ireland from January 1, 1871. The latter was disestablished and disendowed, its temporalities being vested in three commissioners, with reservation of existing interests. A large sum was granted to the Eoman catholic college of Maynooth, and to such of the protestant dis- senters as were recipients of the regium donum. Any surplus was to be applied to education, and a part of the funds was thus appropriated under the Irish Education Act of 1877. In the same session of 1869, imprisonment for debt (except as a means of enforcing the judgments of county courts) was abolished in the United Kingdom ; and three years later in Ireland. In 1870 Mr. Gladstone took the second step in his Irish policy by the Land Act, which provided for the compensation of outgoing- tenants, and for loans both to landlords for improvements and to tenants desiring to purchase their holdings. Courts of arbitration were established for the settlement of all claims ; and the freedom of contract between landlord and tenant was so far limited as to nullify all agreements in contravention of the purpose of the act. The same session is memorable for the establishment of a system of national education, by means of elective school boards. In these schools all religious creeds were forbidden. A similar measure was passed for Scotland in 1872. In 1871 T all religious tests for degrees and offices (except those of an ecclesiastical nature) in the English universities were abolished. (Supplement, Note XXXIII.) § 21. On July 19, 1870, the emperor Napoleon declared war against Prussia, and joined his army at Metz on the 28th. All Germany took part in the war on the side of Prussia. The young prince 728 VICTORIA. Chap. xxxv. imperial was present at the first action at Saar'bruck on August 2 ;* and on the 18th, after the hattle of Gravelotte, the French Army of the Ehine, under marshal Bazaine, was shut up in Metz. The Army of Chalons, advancing to its relief along the Belgium frontier, under marshal MacMahon, was utterly defeated at Sedan (September 1), and 100,000 men became prisoners of war, with the emperor Napoleon himself (September 2). The immediate result was a revolution at Paris, in which the Second Empire was overthrown, and a provisional government was formed (September 4). On the 20th of the month the German armies invested Paris ; Strassburg surrendered on the 28th, the anniversary of its treacherous seizure by Louis XIV. in 1681 ; and Bazaine capitulated at Metz, with 173,000 men, including 3 marshals of France, 50 generals, and 6000 officers (October 28). At length a Government of National Defence was established in Paris, and, after a gallant resistance, an armistice was concluded (January 25, 1871), and a National Assembly was elected, which met at Versailles (February 13), in order to conclude a peace. On the last day of February, M. Thiers, the new " head of the executive power," signed the Peace of Versailles with king William, who had been elected German Emperor f by all the German states, and was inaugurated as the emperor Wlliiam I. in the hall of Louis XIV. at Versailles, on January 18, the anniversary of the day S ^ § O 1 ^ _ o . |'i -isi'f- "■g w _•<- HhJ rl 5 I "SS5 On . .-■3 5 = 1| K c s ^^ on SSI! PJ < o S CJ= pro j! wlod' 3 St: = GENEALOGICAL TABLES. 759 © W w w H Ph o w pq H Hi ... . a • c£ -* .— ft- oo S ^ ^ ^ ^ a £ =■ a 3 -a ■- . g 3 j is 53 § "§ s^^Sw §-;<* e Ci. Si S2-3- i M-SsS-c <- rf £0* oh o .j =^S." ■^ *S S 4-Spq 2 1 Thnma duke o b. 1355 d. 1397. 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When Columbus, disappointed, was about to leave Portugal for Spain, he sent his brother Bartholomew to ask assistance of the British monarch, Henry VII. The applica- tion was not made until several years had elapsed ; and when Henry sent Bartholomew to invite his brother to England, Chris- topher had returned from his brilliant first voyage of discovery. King Henry, early in 1498, gave Sebastian Cabot, one of his sub- jects, a commission to go on a voyage of discovery, and furnish- ed two small vessels for the purpose. Cabot first saw the North American continent at Labrador in June, 1498. Columbus dis- covered the South American continent a few weeks later. To England belongs the honour of furnishing the first discoverer of the North American continent. .Note II., page 316. Some Huguenots, returning to France from the coast of South Carolina in a small brigantine, were rescued from their capsized vessel floating near the English shores. They were nearly starved. Taken before queen Elizabeth, they gave such an account of the beautiful country they had left that an intense desire was created among the English to colonize that region. In 1584, the queen gave Walter Raleigh a commission to send an expedition to America. Two ships, fitted out by him, sailed for the pleasant region described by the wrecked Huguenots. They touched land a little farther north, on the coast of North Carolina. The com- manders of the two vessels, on returning to England, gave glow- ing accounts of the beauty of the region they had visited. Ra- leigh afterwards attempted to colonize the country, which was SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. 767 called Virginia. He never saw North America himself. This was the first attempt at English colonization in America. Note III., page 354. It was on the banks of the river Powhatan, in Virginia, where the English adventurers planted a settlement in the spring of 1607, and not "in the bay of Chesapeake," as mentioned in the text. They named the river James, in honour of the king of England, and their settlement they named James Town. This was the first permanent English settlement made in America. It was more than 50 miles from the entrance to Chesapeake Bay. No vestige of that first capital of Virginia now remains, excepting the ruins of the tower of the first substantial church built there. In 1613, a bond of friendship between the Indian emperor Powhatan and the English settlement at James Town was made by the marriage of the dusky ruler's daughter Poca- hontas to John Rolfe, one of the settlers. They became the an- cestors of some families distinguished in Virginia society. It was at James Town, twelve years after the settlement was planted, that the first rejjresentative government in America was established. Note IV., page 356. An important event in English history occurred in America in 1620. A congregation of nonconformists, who had fled to Hol- land from persecution in England, had been formed at Leyden under the pastoral care of Rev. John Robinson. They were loyal Englishmen, and desired to live under English rule if they could have freedom in their method of divine worship. They made arrangements with the Plymouth Company, to whom king- James had granted a large domain in America, to make a set- tlement there. In the fall of 1620, a company of 101 persons sailed from England for America under the charge of elder William Brewster, a coadjutor of Robinson in Holland. They came in the Mayflower, and late in December landed near Cape Cod, and there began a settlement, to which they gave the name of New Plymouth. Before landing, a compact for the estab- lishment of a civil government was drawn up, and on the lid of the chest of elder Brewster, in the cabin of the Mayflower, it was signed by the men of the little company of " Pilgrims," as they called themselves. They chose John Carver to be their governor, and thus they laid the foundations of a state in the region which captain Smith, the real founder of Virginia, had explored and named New England. 768 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES, Note V., page 371. Another important event in English history occurred in Amer- ica 12 or 15 years after the "Pilgrim" immigration. King James persecuted the Roman Catholics as well as the non-con- formists in England. George Calvert, a Roman Catholic, a crown officer, and a court favourite, desirous to have an asylum for his coreligionists, sought a grant of a domain in America from Charles I., the son and heir of James. Calvert had been cre- ated lord Baltimore by James. He died before a charter was obtained ; but Charles gave one to his son and successor, Cecil Calvert. The domain was in the region of Chesapeake Bay, and was named Maryland, in honour of Charles's queen, Henrietta Mary. Late in 1633, lord Baltimore sent his brother, Leonard Calvert, with about 300 persons, to make a settlement in Mary- land. They arrived in the spring of 1634 ; and, at a place which they named St. Mary, they began a settlement, and found- ed the colony of Maryland. Although a larger proportion of immigrants were Protestants, it was essentially a Roman Cath- olic colony, the first that ever came to America from England. The ruling class, from governor down, were Roman Catholics. The colony was composed, lord Baltimore wrote to Wentworth, of " veiy near 20 gentlemen of very good fashion, and 300 la- bouring men," who had taken the oath of supremacy before leaving England, and were, of course, Protestants. Note VI., page 451. Governor Berkeley of Virginia was a staunch loyalist, and ruled the colony under a commission sent to him from prince Charles, the decapitated king's heir, who was an exile from England in Breda. The Republican parliament of England was offended by this persistent attachment of Virginia to royalty, and, early in the spring of 1652, sent sir George Ayscue with a powerful fleet to reduce the Virginians to submission. Mean- while Berkeley and the Cavalier, or Royalist, party in Virginia, had resolved not to submit, and had sent a messenger to Breda to invite prince Charles to come over and be their king. He was preparing to come, when affairs took a turn in England which foreshadowed a speedy restoration of monarchy there. When the prince ascended the throne as Charles II., he did not forget the loyalty of the Virginians. He caused the arms of that province to be quartered with those of England, Scotland, and Ireland, as an independent member of the empire. From this SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. 7(59 circumstance, Virginia acquired the title of " The Old Dominion." Coins with these quarterings were struck as late as 1773. Note VII., page 459. England claimed the territory in America occupied by the Dutch, and named by them New Netherland, as a part of her domain, the right to which the Hollanders disputed, because the river upon which a larger portion of the territory lay was dis- covered by Henry Hudson when in the service of the Dutch. The latter had built a flourishing commercial station at the mouth of the stream, which was named Hudson's River, in honour of its discoverer. In 1664, king Charles gave the domain of New Netherland to his brother James, duke of York, and the same year a land and naval force captured New Amsterdam, the name of the commercial village at the mouth of the river. The commander of the expedition took possession of the town and the whole territory, and the name of each was changed to New York. After a brief season of repossession by the Dutch, New Netherland passed into the permanent control of the English, and has ever since been called New York, in honour of the duke. Note VIII., page 487 Late in the seventeenth century, William Penn, a son of ad- miral Penn, a favourite of king Charles II., procured from that monarch a charter for a province in America. This son had be- come a member of the despised and persecuted sect called Quak- ers, but the friendship which Charles felt for the father was ex- tended to William, and he gave him a charter for a province, ly- ing mostly on the Delaware River. The consideration was the relinquishment of claims to a debt of $80,000, due from the crown to Penn's father. The charter was given in 1681. Penn proposed to call the domain " New Wales." The king's Welsh secretary objected. Then he suggested "Sylvania" — wooded country. Against the wishes of Penn, the king caused his name to be pre- fixed to the last title suggested by the proprietary, and it was named in the charter Pennsylvania. Penn came to America in 1782, and laid out the city of Philadelphia. The colony pros- pered from the beginning, for it was founded upon justice. Note IX., page 516. The revolution in England (1688-89) had a powerful and sal- utary effect upon the English-American colonies. While in Eng- land the religious aspect of the movement in the change of dynas- 770 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. ties was conspicuous, in the American provinces the change was marked by a rapid development of democratic ideas and prin- ciples. Connecticut resumed its ancient charter, of which it had been deprived, and Andros, who was arbitrary governor of all New England, was driven from Boston, when local self-govern- ment was established in Massachusetts. In New York the dem- ocratic element, in the absence of a royal governor, became po- litically dominant for a while. When a governor appointed by the king came, Jacob Leisler, who had been chosen ruler by the people, was hanged, and his estates were confiscated ; but democ- racy had taken too firm root to be eradicated. From that mo- ment it grew, and bore abundant fruit. The spirit of liberty, fostered by the results of the revolution in England in 1688, ruled the colonies until 1776, when they declared their indepen- dence of the British crown. Their triumph was made complete by the terms of peace in 1783, which decreed the dismemberment of the British empire. Note X., page 528. In the revolution in England in 1688, king James II. was driven from the throne, and took refuge with his kinsman and coreligionist, Louis XIV. of France. The latter espoused his cause, and war ensued between the two countries. William of Holland, husband of James's daughter Mary, then reigned in England jointly with his wife. In this war the English and French colonists in America became involved, and the opera- tions were important events in English history. It is known in American history as " King William's War." The French were usually joined by their Indian allies in expeditions against the English frontiers. In 1690, French and Indians penetrated New York almost to Albany, destroying Schenectady by fire, and mas- sacring many of its inhabitants. They desolated the New Eng- land frontiers. The people of that region and of New York joined in a land and naval expedition against Canada, but failed. The English colonies suffered much during that war, which was ended by the treaty of Ryswick, in 1697. Note XL, page 541. King William and queen Mary being both dead, the princess Anne 1 , Mary's sister, by the Act of Settlement became queen in 1702. The dethroned James died the previous year. The king of France having acknowledged James's son as rightful king of England, war was renewed between the two countries, and SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. 771 their respective colonies in America were involved in it. That conflict was known in America as " Queen Anne's War." In this war New England suffered dreadfully from the incursions of French and Indians along its frontiers. An expedition sailed from Boston in 1710, and, assisted by a fleet from England, cap- tured a portion of Nova Scotia. In the following year 7000 land troops and a powerful English fleet started for Quebec ; but disaster in a storm near the mouth of the St. Lawrence caused the loss of eight ships and 1000 men, and the expedition was abandoned. Peace was secured by a treaty at Utrecht in 1713. For 30 years afterwards the New England colonies en- joyed quiet. Note XII., page 588. In the war between England and France in 1744, the Amer- ican colonies of the two countries again became involved. This conflict is known in American history as " King George's "War," George II. then being on the throne of England. The French had a strong fort at Louisburg, on the island of Cape Breton, east- ward of Nova Scotia. In the spring of 1745, a provincial army sailed from Boston, and were joined by an English fleet, under admiral Warren, from the West Indies. They besieged the for- tress and town of Louisburg, both of which surrendered to the English a month after the first attack. The following year a powerful French fleet, commanded by the duke d'Anville, was sent to recapture Louisburg. The fleet bore a large land force. Storms wrecked many of the vessels, and disease swept away many of the soldiers and sailors. The expedition was a failure. Peace ensued in 1748, by a treaty at Aix-la-Chapelle. By that treaty Louisburg was restored to the French. Note XIII., page 597. After the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, circumstances, made the English colonies in America anxious to form a general political union. It had been attempted by the New England colonies. The principal causes which produced this desire now were the encroachments of the British government upon the liberties of the colonies in the form of navigation acts and other restrictive measures, and the increasing rapacity of the royal governors. In the wars they had lately passed through, the colonists had dis- covered their strength. In 1754, a colonial convention of dele- gates was held at Albany, at which Dr. Franklin submitted a plan for union, similar in its general features to our national 772 .SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. Constitution. It was adopted by the conyenti6n and submitted to the colonial assemblies and the British cabinet. It was reject- ed. The former thought there was too much prerogative in it ; and the latter discovered too much democracy in it. Note XIV., page 598. Hostilities between the English and French colonists in Amer- ica began about boundaries in 1754. The French traded with the Indians in the country west of the Alleghany Mountains, from Lake Erie to the Mississippi and New Orleans. They built forts in these regions, and the English became jealous of them, be- cause, through the Jesuit priests and the more intimate social relations with the Indians, the French had almost unbounded in- fluence over the barbarians. The English and French claimed the right to the country around the head-waters of the Ohio River, and far down its valley. From disputes they proceeded to blows. The two home governments soon perceived that the struggle must be a strife for power and dominion in America; and in 1756, after actual war had been going on between the rival colonists for nearly a year, England declared war against France. It was a severe struggle for full seven years, and ended by a treaty in 1763. By this war France was stripped of nearly all its domain in America. Chiefly through the prowess of the colonial troops, Canada was conquered, and with it fell French power from the mouth of the St. Lawrence, along the Great Lakes, and in the valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers; also in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Cape Breton, and St. John. This conflict is called in American history the " French and Indian War ;" in Europe, the " Seven Years' War." Note XV., page 612. The statement that Dr. Franklin " expected little else than ac- quiescence from his countrymen " is an error, originating, doubt- less, in a statement made in a pamphlet written by dean Tucker at that time. Franklin was then in England, acting as a colo- nial agent. He opposed the Stamp Act from its first inception. When it was made a law, he wrote to Charles Thomson, from London, July 11, 1765, " Depend upon it, my good neighbour, I took every step in my power to prevent the passage of the Stamp Act. . . . The sun of liberty is set ; the Americans must light the lamps of industry and economy." When asked by a committee of parliament whether the Americans would pay the stamp-duty, he said, emphatically, "No, never, unless compelled by force of arms." SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. 773 Note XVI., page 614. William Pitt (earl of Chatham) was the chief author of the bill for the repeal of the Stamp Act. It was accompanied in its passage by another bill, introduced by Mr. Pitt, which was call- ed the Declaratory Act, for it declared that parliament had the right "to bind the colonies in all cases whatsoever" — the vital point at issue between Great Britain and her American provinces. The Americans, jubilant because of the repeal, overlooked, for the moment, the significance of the Declaratory Act. In their ef- fusion of gratitude, an equestrian statue of the king and a statue of Pitt were voted by New-Yorkers. A statue of Pitt was also erected at Charleston. But there were sagacious men, like Chris- topher Gadsden of South Carolina, who shook their heads in doubt about the blessing. Gadsden, at a meeting of some of his political friends, warned them not to be deceived by this show of justice. "The fangs of the dragon of oppression," said he, " by Pitt's Declaratory Act, have been left untouched." The fact was soon made manifest by new obnoxious acts of parliament. Note XVII., page 616. The statement in the middle paragraph on this page, that " it became customary to strip those who refused to enter into these [non-importation] agreements, and to cover them with tar and feathers," is a repetition of false statements made by the crown officers in the colonies at that time. There are very few well- attested cases of that mode of treatment being practised during the struggles here alluded to, and these were inflicted upon per- sons guilty of the most flagrant offences. The writer has never met with any account of this punishment being inflicted upon persons because of mere difference of opinion, as in the case of non-importation agreements. In these cases there was social os- tracism, nothing more. Note XVIII. , page 618. In the account given on this page of the transmission of Hut- chinson's letters to Boston, the impression is left on the mind of the reader that Dr. Franklin was guilty of a violation of his solemn promise. • In the publication of the letters, Franklin had no part. When he sent the letters to Mr. Gushing, chairman of the Committee of Correspondence of the Massachusetts Assembly, he wrote to that gentleman : " I am not at liberty to make the letters public ; I can only allow them to be seen by yourself, by 774 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. the other gentlemen of the Committee of Correspondence, by Messrs. Bowdoin and Pitts of the council, and Drs. Chauncey, Cooper, and Winthrop, with a few such other gentlemen as you may think fit to show them to. After being some months in your possession, you are requested to return them to me." When, afterwards, the committee urged the necessity of being al- lowed to retain copies, Dr. Franklin replied, " I have permission to let the originals remain with you as long as you may think it of any use. I am allowed to say that they may be shown and read to whom and as many as you think proper." But copying of them was positively forbidden. Not long afterwards the letters were read to the Massachusetts Assembly in secret session. This reading was soon followed by printed copies of the letters in pamphlet form, purporting to be "from copies recently received from England." By whom they were copied is not known. Dr. Franklin had no hand in it. And when the publication appeared in England, and innocent persons were suffering for being accused of sending the letters to America, Franklin at once published a card, in which he said, " I alone am the person who obtained and transmitted to Boston the letters in question." He was promptly dismissed from the office of colonial postmaster-general. Note XIX., page 618. It was in this congress that the colonies, through their repre- sentatives, first announced their determination to stand by each other in the coming struggle in the following resolution, adopt- ed on the 8th of October, 1774 : "Besolved, That this Congress approve the opposition of the inhabitants of the Massachusetts Bay to the execution of the late acts of parliament ; and if the same shall be attempted to be carried into execution by force, in such case all America ought to support them in their opposition." That resolution sounded the key-note of the war that followed. It was the first planting of the seed of our Union. Note XX., page 619. The expression " militiamen, part of their main army," gives an erroneous impression of the military situation. The only " main army " then existing was the great mass of the masculine citizens capable of bearing arms, who, for months, had been train- ing throughout New England, in every neighbourhood, to be ready to seize their muskets at a minute's warning. These were SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. 775 the famous " minute men" of the Revolution. Those on Lexing- ton Green on the morning of April 19, 1775, were the minute men of the neighbourhood. The men who seized the forts at Ticonderoga were from Con- necticut, Western Massachusetts, and the New Hampshire Grants, afterwards Vermont, the whole led by Ethan Allen of the latter region. The "force of 20,000 men" was not raised in New England; it was the spontaneous gathering there, within three days, of the patriotic people from the hills and valleys of New England when they heard of the affair at Lexington and Concord. Note XXL, page 620. The British troops sailed from Boston in March, but did not proceed to Staten Island, at the entrance to the harbour of New York, until the following July. Note XXII. , page 621. , The Declaration of Independence was signed on the day it was adopted by every member who voted for it. The voting in the congress was by colonies, and majorities were not of in- dividuals, but colonies. There was a division among the indi- vidual members of two of the colonies; but a majority of the delegates of each of those colonies gave their votes for inde- pendence. So it was that the vote was unanimous, every colony voting for independence. The members were required to sign the Declaration as an evidence of their concurrence. This was done on ordinary paper. It was afterwards engrossed on parch- ment, and was again signed by all the members present. This was done, by 54, on the 2d of August, 1776. Two others, not then present, signed it afterwards. The statement at the bottom of the preceding page (620) con- cerning independence needs some transpositions. The delay in the colonies in accepting the issue concerning independence mostly preceded the action in congress in favour of the measure. Paine's "Common Sense" appeared at about the beginning of the year 1776. A motion was made in June declaring the colo- nies free and independent states, when a committee was ap- pointed to draft a preamble to the resolution, in which the rea- sons for the act were declared. The resolution was passed on July 2, and the declaration on July 4. Note XXIII. , page 621. Howe landed his troops on the western end of Long Island, 776 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. several miles from Brooklyn. The battle was fought near that little village. The Americans evacuated Long Island, and retired to the northern end of Manhattan Island, on which the city of New York stands. Howe's army crossed over to that island, several miles north of the city. The American army retired into New Jersey, after fighting the British at White Plains, and losing Fort "Washington on Manhattan (or York) Island. They were pur- sued by Cornwallis to the banks of the Delaware. Soon after- wards the battles of Trenton and Princeton occurred. The Brit- ish were expelled from New Jersey, excepting at one or two points, and the American army went into winter-quarters at Mor- ristown, in East Jersey. Note XXIV., page 622. Burgoyne and his army were on the east side of the Hudson River, when a detachment was sent to Bennington, 35 miles eastward of that stream. None of Burgoyne's army had yet crossed the Hudson. General Gates was in chief command of the American army opposed to Burgoyne from the middle of August, and he be- haved so timidly that at the second battle (October 7) the im- patient Arnold, although deprived of all command by Gates, who was jealous of him, put himself at the head of his old troops, and by his skill and prowess saved the Americans from defeat. But for Arnold, no doubt the British army would have so scat- tered the American forces in the battle on the 19th of September that Burgoyne would have easily reached Albany a victor. On that occasion, Gates would give no order, and seemed disinclined to fight at first. The chief credit of the defeat of Burgoyne prob- ably belongs to Arnold. Note XXV., page 625. John Paul Jones entered the Firth of Forth "before the action with the Serapis. In that battle his own ship, the Bonhomme Richard, was so shattered that it sank soon after the contest ceased, and Jones, in another vessel, sailed for Holland with his prizes. -Note XXVI. , pages 628, 629. The British occupied the island of Rhode Island, and, in the summer of 1778, general Sullivan led a considerable force to ex- pel them. A French fleet, under admiral D'Estaing, went into Narraganset Bay to assist the Americans. A British fleet appear- ed off Newport, and D'Estaing went out to attack it. A furious SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. 777 storm dispersed and greatly damaged both fleets, when D'Estaing, instead of returning to help Sullivan, went to Boston to have his vessels repaired. The French were not " blockaded in New- port harbour" at all. Sullivan, for lack of co-operation on the part of the fleet, was compelled to withdraw from Rhode Island. The battle of Eutaw Springs was not the " last action" of the Revolution ; the siege of York Town and the capture of Corn- wallis occurred afterwards. The chief commander of the French allies of the Americans in the siege of York Town was lieutenant-general count de Ro- chambeau, who had arrived in America with a French army the previous year. St. Simon was a gallant French officer who came with troops from the West Indies in the vessels of De Grasse. La Fayette was an officer of the American army under the imme- diate command of Washington. Note XXVII., pages 632, 633. A preliminary treaty of peace was signed on November 30, 1782 ; the definitive treaty of peace was not signed until Sep- tember 3, 1783, by David Hartley on the part of Great Brit- ain, and by Dr. Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay on the part of the United States. In the latter treaty the articles al- luded to in the text were incorporated. Although Mr. Adams was treated kindly by the king, his ministers treated him with so much indifference as an American ambassador that he finally left England in disgust. It was believed in Great Britain (and with reason) that the feeble league of states under the Articles of Confederation would soon dissolve and be suppliants for re- admission to membership in the British empire. The British government scornfully refused to enter into any reciprocal com- mercial relations with the United States, or to send a resident minister to the seat of our general government. We were not a nation ; only a league of independent states, bound by a tie as impotent as a rope of sand. Note XXVIII. , page 641. The year 1789 was a memorable one in the annals of England, for in America was then established a power that was destined to become her rival for the mastery of the seas and the advan- tages of the world's commerce. The league of states had been superseded by a consolidated national government under an ad* mirable constitution, which gave it wonderful vitality. It was at once perceived that a real nation was born, and that it was the 778 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. child of the will of the people. England hastened to send a res- ident minister to the seat of our national government, over which Washington had been called to preside. The constitution had been ratified by the people of the States in 1788. In March, 1789, Congress first met under it, and on the 30th of April Washington was inaugurated President. Other European powers sent am- bassadors, and the United States took a conspicuous place in the family of nations. Note XXIX., page 661. Napoleon Bonaparte, then first consul of France, struck a severe blow at England's supremacy as a maritime power by the sale of Louisiana to the United States in 1803. It added 900,000 square miles to our territory. When the bargain was closed by an Amer- ican minister (Robert E. Livingston), Bonaparte said to him, pro- phetically, " This accession of territory strengthens for ever the power of the United States ; and I have just given to England a maritime rival that will, sooner or later, humble her pride." Note XXX., page 673. The British, by " Orders in Council," and the French, by "De- crees," concerning blockades of ports, etc., played a desperate game with the world's commerce at the beginning of the pres- ent century, violated the rights of neutral nations, and so impu- dently defied the power of the Americans that hostilities were begun by the United States against the French, chiefly on the ocean. The conduct of British cruisers led to a war between the United States and Great Britain in 1812-15. To depredation on American commerce the British added the obnoxious practice of reclaiming deserters from the royal navy by entering American vessels, searching them, and carrying away deserters found in them, in defiance of remonstrances. This claimed right of search and impressment, and its practical operation, produced great irritation in America. Countervailing measures were adopted, such as embargoes and non-intercourse. Because of these various offences, the United States declared war against Great Britain in June,- 1812. Note XXXI. , page 689. It is an error to say that after 1812, in the second war for in- dependence, naval engagements terminated, for the most part, in favour of the English. The statement concerning the battle of Bladensburgh, that preceded the sacking of the capital, is quite erroneous. The Americans were 7000 strong, of whom 900 were raw recruits. Ross had a much larger force of veteran soldiers. SUPPLExMENTART NOTES. 779 It was overwhelming numbers that caused the defeat of the Americans, who lost only 26 killed and 50 wounded, while the loss of the British was about 500 killed and wounded. The Brit- ish were not on " heights near the Potomac," but at Bladensburgh, on the Anacosta, five miles from the Potomac. The " Senate House" and the "House of Representatives " composed the Cap- itol. The dock-yards were burnt by the Americans themselves to prevent them and their contents falling into the hands of the British. No other "American towns were taken" after the de- struction of Buffalo, excepting the little village of Hampden, Maine, which the British held a few hours. Note XXXII., page 723. The statement that war raged " between the Northern and Southern States of the Union, ending in the victory of the North- ern States," is a misrepresentation, proceeding, undoubtedly, from a misapprehension of the character of our Civil War. It was not a war between the States, but a war of the government of the United States for the defence of the life of the republic against its enemies in armed insurrection in the slave-labour states. In that war the inhabitants of the free-labour states were mostly loyal to the Union, and volunteered, by hundreds of thousands, to assist the government in its efforts to save the nation from destruction. In that struggle, the unfriendly spirit of the British govern- ment and the ruling classes in Great Britain exhibited towards the government of the United States was conspicuous. At the instance of her ministers, the British queen, before an American minister could reach England, issued a proclamation, declaring the insurgents entitled to belligerent rights; and the British ministry, by secret circulars, sought to form a combination of European powers against the Republic of the "West. They allow- ed the insurgents to have ships built, armed, manned, and victual- led in English ports to depredate upon American commerce; and swarms of fleet steamers came from British ports with sup- plies of arms, ammunition, and clothing for the insurgents, and so prolonged the war. These steamers ran the blockade of Southern ports. One of the piratical vessels, built and fitted out in England, was the Alabama, which plundered and destroyed a large number of American merchant vessels. The United States government held the British responsible for her injuries to Amer- ican property, and arbitrators decided that the British govern- ment should pay for such damages $15,500,000 in gold. 780 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. Note XXXIII. , page 727. In the year 1870 the claims of the government of the United States upon that of Great Britain for damages inflicted upon the American shipping interest by the depredations of the English- Confederate privateer Alabama, and other vessels built in Eng- land for the insurgents, caused much diplomatic correspondence between the two governments. A Joint High Commission, com- posed of persons chosen by the respective governments, met in Washington city in February, 1871, and on the 8th of May fol- lowing they concluded and signed a treaty, by which it was agreed to leave the decision of the matter in dispute to arbitra- tors. These were chosen by the respective governments. They met at Geneva, Switzerland; and at a final meeting, in Sep- tember, 1872, this tribunal decided that the British government should pay to the government of the United States the sum mentioned in Note XXXII., to be given to its citizens for losses incurred by the depredations of English-Confederate cruisers. INDEX. Abdul Aziz. A. Abdul Aziz, deposed, com- mits suicide, 732. Abercrombie, sir Ralph, ex- pedition to Holland, 654. To Egypt, 659. Killed, 660. Aberdeen, lord, foreign secre- tary, 709. Premier, 713, 715. Abhorrers, 487. Abingdon, convent, 51. Abingdon, earl of, supports prince of Orange, 507. Aboukir, battle, 659. Abyssinia, expedition to, 726. Acre, taken by Richard I., 121. Defended by sir S. Smith, 654. Adams, Mr., interview with Ueorge III., 633. Adda, F. d', nuncio, 506. Addington, Mr., prime min- ister, 657, 664. Viscount Sidmouth (see Sidmouth). Addison, secretary, 573. Addressors, 487. Adela, daughter of AVilliam the Conqueror, 103. Adelais of Louvain, consort of Henry I., 102, 104. Adelfuis, bishop, 15. Adjutators, 415. Adrian IV., pope, 116. VI., pope. 247. Adrianople, 734. TEglesford, battle, 25. iEsc, son of Hengest, 25. .listings, or Ashings, 26. jEthelbald^ing of Mercia,36. , king of Kent, 42. JLthelingaeigg (Athelney), 44. jEthelred, king of Northum- bria, 35. , king of Wessex, 43. II., the Unready, 53, 55. .Ethelstan, king of Essex, etc., under iEthelwulf, 42. , king of England, 49. /Ethelwald, son of ^Ethelred, 48. jEthelward, son of Alfred, 48. yEthelwulf, king, 42. Aetius, 13. Afghan war, the first, 718. The second, 737. African Company, 459. Aghrim, battle, 529. Agincourt, battle, 198. Agra, 718. Agreement qf the People, scheme so called, 422. Agricola in Britain, 10. Agriculture in Britain, 13. Ahmednuggur taken, 717. Aids (feudal), 128, 137. Aislabie, chancellor of ex- chequer, accepts bribes, 576. Aix-la-Chapelle, treaty of, 466. Another, 596. Con- gress of, 694. Alabama claims, 729. Alban, St., martyrdom, 15. Albans, St., battles, 209, 211. Albany, duke of, machina- tions against Robert III., 195. , regent of Scotland 247. iEthelberht, king of Kent, Albemarle, duke of (Monk), 27. BreUvalda, 31. Con- version, 32. Laws, 33. , king of the East Angles, murdered by Offa, 37. II., king, 43. ■ , son of /Ethelred, 48. yEthelburga, 31. TEthelfled, 48. vEthel frith or yEdelfrid, king of Net thumbria, 28, 133. 35 engages the Dutch fleet, 462 (see Monk). Alberoni, cardinal, 573. Albert, legate, 115. , prince, marries queen Victoria, 708. Death, 723. Edward, prince of Wales, illness, 729. Visits India, 731. Amherst. Albion, 2. Albuera, battle, 682. Alcuin, 37. Aldred, archbishop of York 82, 85. Alencon, duke of, suitor of Elizabeth, 311, 313. Duke of Anjou, ib. Alexander II., pope, assists William the Conqueror, 87. III., pope, canonizes Becket, 115. I., czar, makes peace with England, 658. Alli- ance with Napoleon, 672. II., czar, 715. Alfieri, elopes with Preten- der's wife, 596. Alfonso, king of Aragon, 15 civil war, 723. Amherst, lord, 601, 602. 782 Amiens. Amiens, congress at, 147 Treaty of, 660. Ancalites, 7. Anderida, or Andredes ceaster, taken, 26. Andre, St., Jean Bon, 647. Angeln, 22. Angevins, 108. Angles (Engle), 21. Site of the, 22. Dialect, 76. Anglesey, marquess of, 692. Anglia, East, 22, 28. Anglo-mania, French, 643. Anglo-Norman constitution, 124. Legislation, 127. Anglo-Saxon institutions, 70 sq. Language, 76. Literature, 77. Nobles, 84. Nobles and prelates depressed by William I., 86. Anjou, duke of, proposed marriage with Elizabeth, 308. Becomes Henry III. of France, 311. ■ , duke of (Alencon), governor of the Nether- lands, 314. Annan, battle, 169. Annates, act against, 256 Anne of Bohemia, consort of Richard II., 187. , wife of Richard III., 223. Boleyn (see Boleyn). of Cleves, marries Henry VIII., 265, 266. of Brittany, 233. Anne, princess, daughter of James II., 512, 531, 534. Queen, 549. Reign of, 549-565. Annesley, president of the council, 451. Anselm, primate, 97, 99, 100. Anson, commodore, 584, 595, 601. Antoninus, wall of, 11. Archangel, passage to, dis- covered, 290. Argaum, battle, 717. Argyle, earl of, heads the Covenanters, 377, 421, 428, 432, 435, 456. , earl of, condemned of treason, 492. Incites Mon- mouth'sinvasion,500. De- feated and executed, ib. , duke of, commander in chief in Scotland, 567, 569. Arkwright, 739. Aries, council of, 15. Arlington, lord, 465. Im- peached, 471. Armada, invincible, 326. De- feated, 328. Armagnacs, 199. Arminianism, 370. INDEX. Armorica, legend of British colony in, 12, 30. Called Bretagne, 30. Army, parliamentary, 410, 415,416. , standing, origin, 445, 517. , reorganized, 729. Arnaud, St., marshal, 714, 716. Arnee, battle, 609. Arran, earl of, regent of Scotland, 268, 269. Artevelde, Van, 170. Arthur, king, 27. , duke of Brittany, 132, 133. , prince, son of Henry VII., 237. Articles, forty-two, 279. Thirty-nine, 298. Altered, 409. Artillery, first used, 173. Arts, fine, 519. British school of, 744. Arundel, earl of, executed by Richard II., 188. , earl of, commands against the Covenanters, 378. , earl of, impeached, 480. Privy seal, 504. Asaph ul Dowlah, 640. Ascalon taken, 121. Ascham, Roger, 283. Ashantee war, 730. Ashley, lord,465 (see Shaftes- bury). Asiento, treaty, 575. Aske of Doncaster, rebellion of, 262 sq. , moves that Cromwell takes the crown, 444. Askew, Anne, burnt, 270. Assaye, battle, 717. Assizes, 128. Association to defend queen Elizabeth, 314. To defend William III., 536. Astley, Sir Jacob, 399. Aston, sir Arthur, 399. Athelings, 71. Athelstane (see jEthelstan). Atherton Moor, battle, 402. Attainder, what, 384, note. Attaint, writ of, 475. Atterbury, bishop, 576. Aubigne, William d', 139. Auckland, lord, governor- general of India, 718. Audley, sir Thomas, chan- cellor, 256. Augustine, St., preaches in England, 32. Archbishop of Canterbury, ib. Augustus, 7. Title of, 70. Aula Regis, 127. Aulus Plautius, 8. Aurungzebe, 608. Austerlitz, battle, 666. Bavaria. Austrian succession, war of. 585. Auverquerque, earl of Grant- ham, 523. Axtel, executed, 455. Ayscue, sir George, engages De Ruyter, 436. B. Babington, conspiracy, 318., Bacon, sir Nicholas, lord keeper, 292, 304. , Francis, pleads against lord Essex. 335, 336. Viscount St. Albans and chancellor, 356. Im- peached, ib. Badajoz, taken, 683. Badon, Mt., battle, 27. Baird, general, 717. Baker, major, defends Lon- donderry, 526. Balaklava, occupied, 714. • Battle of, ib. Ball, John, 184. Ballard, conspiracy of, 317. Balliol, John, 156-158. , Edward, seizes the Scottish crown, 169, 170. Balmerino, lord, executed, 594. Baltimore, congress at, 621. Ban Gor, what, 15. Banbury, taken by Charles I., 399. Bank Restriction Act, 649. Repealed, 695. Bannockburn, battle, 164. Bantry Bay, French expedi- tion to, 649. Barbarossa, Frederick, 119. Barclay, sir George, 535. Bards, 5. Barebone, Praise-God, 439. Barfleur, shipwreck at, 101. Barnet, battle, 217. Baronetcy, institution of, 352. Barons, council of, 98, 123. Greater and lesser, 126. Oppose king John, 136. Council of, under Magna Carta, 138. Conspire against Henry III., 145 sq. Barrington, lord, chancellor of exchequer, 605. Barrosa, battle, 681. Bartholomew, St., massacre, 310. Barton, Elizabeth, the Holy Maid of Kent, 259. Basileus, title of, 71. Basililcon Doron, 346. Bastvvick released, 382. Bath, earl of (see Pulteney"). Bath, order of, revived, 577. Battle Abbey, 83. Bavaria, elector of, claims Baxter. Austria, 585. Kingdom, 666. Baxter, 454, 458. Bayeux tapestry, 69. Baynard's Castle, 221. Beacby Head, battle off, 528. Beaton, cardinal, 268, 269, 2 5. Beaufort, bishop of Win- chester, and cardinal, 201, 204, 205. , duke of, French ad- miral, 462. Beauge, battle, 200. Beauharnais, Eugene, vice- roy of Italy, 666. Beaulieu, sanctuary at, 236. Becket, Thomas a, rise, Chancellor, 109. Arch- bishop of Canterbury, 109 sq. Murder, 114. Character, 115. Henry's penance at his tomb, 118. Bede, the Venerable, 35. Bedford, duke of, regent of France, 201, 202, 204. Death, 205. , earl of, parliamentary leader, 399. Bedloe, 480. Begums of Oude, 640. Belasyse, lord, impeached, 480. Belerium (Land's End), 2. Bellasis, colonel, 405. Belleisle, battle off, 595. Taken, 606. Bellingham, shoots Mr. Per- ceval, 682. Benbow, admiral, 550. Benedictines, 51, 52. Beneficia, 124 (see Fiefs). Benevolences, law of Ri- chard III. against, 223. Levied by Henry VII., 233, 339. Bengal army, mutiny, 719. Bennington, battle, 622. Bentinck, earl of Portland, 522 (see Portland). , lord William, 688. Go- vernor-general of India, 718. Beornred, king of Mercia, 36. B:orn\vulf, king of Mercia, 37. Berar, rajah of, 717. Berengaria, consort of Ri- chard I., 121. Beresford, lord, 677, 682. Bergen-op-Zoom, storm of, 688. erica*, British chi f, 8. Berkeley castle, Edwaid II. murdered at, 166. Berkeley, sir M., seizes \Vy att, 285 , earl of. expedition to Brest, 533. INDEX. Berlin Decree, 670. , treaty of, 735. Bernadotte, crown-prince (aft. king) of Sweden, 680. Bernicia (Berneich or Beor- narice), 28. Bertha, wife of /Ethelbert, 31. Berwick, ceded to England, 118. Sold by Richard I., 121. Ceded to England by Edward Balliol, 170. Pacification of, 378. Berwick, duke of, 526, 553, 554, 556. Beymus's Heights, battle, 622. Bhurtpore taken, 718. Bible, English, 265. Bibroci, 7. Bigod, Roger, earl of Nor- folk, 159. Bills, parliamentary, 228. Birmingham, riots at, 642. Bishoprics, new, erected by Henry VIII., 264. New arrangement of, 706. Bishops, new regulations respecting, 257. Protest, 389. Impeached and com- mitted, ib. Restored to parliament, 456. Petition against declaration of in- dulgence, 507. Seven, com- mitted to Tower, 508. Acquitted, ib. Bismarck, prince, 725, 729. Black Hole of Calcutta, 609. Black Prince, 174, 177, 178, 179, 181. Blackwater, battle, 333. Blackwood, captain, 668. Blake, admiral, 434, 436, 437, 443. Blakeney, general, 598. Blenheim, battle, 552. palace, 553. Bligh, general, 601. Blithwallon, king of North Wales, 86. Blood, colonel, 467, 468. Blucher, marshal, 690 sq. Boadicea, 9. Board of Control, 635. Boc-land, 72. Bocher, Joan, burnt, 276. Bohemia, king of, death at Crecy, 174. Bohun, Humphrey, earl of, 159, 163. Boleyn, Anne, 251 sq.. 254. Married to Henry VIII., 257. Execution, 262. Bolingbroke, birthplace of Henry IV., 192. , St. John, viscount, 558, 559, 560, 561, 565. Pro- cures the dismissal of Oxford, 565. Flight, 568. Enters Pretender's service, 783 Bristol. ib. Attainted, ib. Par? doned, 576. His "Patriot King," 582. Bomarsund taken, 714. Bombay, dowry of Catharine of Braganza, 457. Ceded to East India Company, 608. Bonaparte, Napoleon (see Napoleon). , Louis, king of Holland, 670, 680. , Joseph, king of Naples, 670. Of Spain, 674, 685. Boniface VIII., pope, 160. Bonner, bishop, 284, 287, 289. Booth, sir George, 449. JRorh (surety), 74. Boroughs, creation of, 340. Small, disfranchised by Cromwell, 441. Disfran- chised by the Reform Act, 703. Boscawen, admiral, 597, 601. Bosnia, 736. Boston (America), riots at, 616, 618. Bosworth, battle, 224. Bothwell, earl of, favourite of Mary queen of Scots, 301, 302. Bothwell Bridge, battle. 486. Boulogne, taken by Henry VIII., 269. Restored, 279. Army of invasion at, 659, 664. Bourbon, Charles duke of, 248. Killed in storming Rome, 250. Bourchier, cardinal, arch- bishop of Canterbury, 231. Bourne, captain, 436. Bouvines, battle, 136. Boyle, secretary, 559. Boyne, battle of the, 528. Bradshaw. president of High Court ot Justice, 423. Brakenbury, sir Robert, 221. Braniham, battle, 194. Brandyvvine, battle, 622. Breakspear (see Adrian IV.). Breda, declaration of, 452. Peace of, 464. Brentford, battle, 400 Bivtigny, peace of, 179. Brrton, Cape, taken, 601. Bretwaldas, 31. Bridges, first stone, in Eng- land, 140. Bridgman, sir Orlando, 464. Brigantes, 9. Brintric, king of Wessex, poisoned, 36. Brihuega, battle, 558. Bristol, taken by Rupert, 401. Surrenderi d by him, 412. Riots at, 703. Bristol, earl of, ambassador to Philip IV., 359, 365. 784 Britain. Britain, earliest accounts of, 2. Trade with Greeks, ib. Invaded by Cresar, 7. Re- duced by Claudius, 8. Abandoned by Romans, 13. Condition under the, 14. Roads, ib. Christian- ity in, 15. Government and divisions under the Romans, 18. Brito, Richard, 113. Britons, origin, 3. Religion, ib. Manners, 6. Tribes, ib. sq. Civilization, 8. Coins, ib. Repulse the barbarians, 12. Groans, 13. In Armorica, 30. Whether exterminated from England, ib. Brittany, disputed succes- sion, 172. Annexed to French crown, 233. Broke, heads the Bye plot, 347. Executed, ib. Bromley, sir Thomas, com- mitted, 330. Brougham, lord, 697. Chan- cellor, 702, 743. Bruce, Robert, descent, 156. (grandson), aspires to the crown, 161. Crowned at Scone, ib. Defeats the English, 164. Death, 169. , David, 169, 175. Brudenel, lord, committed, 480. Brunswick, duke of, pub- lishes manifesto, 643. , duke of, 690, 692. Brut, the Trojan, 2. Bubble companies, 575. Buchanan, George, 346. Buckingham, Henry, duke of, supports the duke of Gloucester, 220. Favours Richmond, 222. Executed, 223. , duke of, constable, executed, 247. , George Villiers, duke of, 353 sq. Persuades Charles to visit Mad i id, 359. Accused by Bristol, 365. Expedition to Ro- chelle, 366. Impeached by the commons, 368. Assas- sinated, 369. , duke of, 465, 472. Bulgaria, Turkish atrocities in, 732. Principality, 736 Bunker's Hill, battle, 619. Burdett, sir Francis, 679,698 Burgesses, first summoned to parliament, 148, 157. Burgh, Hubert de, justiciary, 142. Burgoyne, general, 607, 619, 622, 638. Burgundy, duke of, allied with the English, 199, 200. INDEX. Burgundy, duchess of, assists Simnel, 232; and War- beck, 234. Burke, Edmuud, 615. Pay- master of forces, 629. Im- peaches Warren Hastings, 636, 640. His "Reflec- tions " on the French Re- volution, 642. Burleigh, lord (see Cecil). Burrard, sir Harry, 675. Bury St. Edmund's, 43, 136. Busaco, battle, 679. Bute, earl of, 597, 605. Prime minister, 607, 610. Bye, the, plot, 347. Byng, admiral (lord Tor- rington), defeats the Pre- tender, 557. Defeats the Spaniards, 574. , admiral, fails to re- lieve Minorca, 599. Shot, ib. c. Cabal ministry, 465, 471. Cabinet council, origin, 541. Cabot, Sebastian, 239. Cabul, 718. Cade, Jack, rebellion, 208. Cadiz taken, 332. Caidmon, 35. Caer Caradoc, 9 Caerleol, 30. Caerleon, bishopric, 15. Caermanhen (see Danby). Caernarvon, 154. Caesar, invades Britain, 7, 16. Calais, taken by Edward HI., 175. Staple of English goods, ib. Taken by Guise, 289. Calamy, the presbyterian, 454, 458. Calcutta, 608. Calder, admiral sir Robert, 667. Caledonia, 10. Caledonians, 11. Calendar, reformed, 59a Caligula, 8. Calvi, siege of, 647. Cambray, peace of, 253. Cambria (Wales), 30. Cambridge, earl of, exe- cuted, 198. , duke of, 664. Cambuskenneth, battle, 160. Camden (see Pratt). Camden, battle, 628. Cameron of Lochiel, 590. Campbell, sir Colin, 720. Campeggio, cardinal, 251. Camperdown, action off, 651. Campion, Jesuit, 315. Camps, Roman, in Britain, 8. Camulodunum, 8. Canada, when colonized, 602. Conquered, 603. At- tempted by Americans, Catesby. 684. Insurrection in, 708. Dominion of, ib. Canals, 739. Canning, George, foreign secretary, 671. Duel with Castlereagh, 679. Foreign secretary, 697. Premier, 698. Death, ib. , earl, first viceroy of India, 721. Canrobert, general, 715. Canterbury, archbishopric, 32. Primacy of, ac now- ledged, 88. , pilgrims at, 11 5. Cantii, 6. Canute (Knut), son of Sweyn, 56. Reign, 57-60. , king of Denmark, threatens England, 91. Capel, character, 381. Caracalla, emperor, 11. Caractacus, 8. Carausius, usurper, 11. Cardigan, earl of, 714. Cardonnel, Marlborough's secretary, 562. Carew, sir Peter, 285. Carisbrooke castle, Charles I. at, 419. Carleton, secretary, 385. Carmarthen, lord, secretary, 635. Carnarvon, earl of, 730, 734. Carnatic, secured, 610. Caroline of Anspach, consort of George II., 581. , queen, trial, 696. Death, 697. Carr, Robert, favourite. of James I., 352 (see Somerset). Carrington, lord, committed, 480. Carter, Jack, 184. Carteret, lord (earl Gran- ville), lord lieutenant of Ireland, 577. Secretary of state, 585. Resigns, 588. Carthagena, attack on, 584. Cartismandua, 9. Cartwright, major, 693. Cassii, 7. Cassiterides, or Tin islands, 2. Cassivelaunus, 7. Castlemaine, earl of, em- bassy to Rome, 505. Castlereagh, lord (marquess of Londonderry), secre- tary at war. 671. Duel with Canning, 679. Foreign secretary, 682. Suicide, 697. Castles, Anglo-Norman, 93. Destroyed by Henry II., 108. Catesby, 220. , Robert, forms the gun- powder plot, 348. Killed, 350. Catharine. Catharine of Braganza, queen of Charles II.,'457, 481. de Medici, regent of France, 295, 297. of Russia, 627. (see Katharine). Cathcart, lord, 584. , lord, takes Copen- hagen, 672. Catholic emancipation, advo- cated by Pitt, 657. . Lord Howick's bill lost,* 671. Advocated by Canning, 69s. Carried, 701. Cato-street conspiracy, 696. Cavaliers, 389. Cavendish, lord John, chan- cellor of the exchequer. 629, 631. Caxton, 219 note. Ceawlin of Wessex, 27. Bretivahla, 31. Defeated at Wodesbeorg, ib. Cecil, sir William, secretary of state (lord Burleigh), 292, 294, 304, 305, 308, 310, 333. , sir Robert (earl of Salisbury), son of pre- ceding, secretary of state, 340, 345, 347, 352. , sir Edward, viscount Wimbledon, 364. Celestius, heretic, 15 Celtic words, 38. Celts, 3. Cenimagni, 7. Censorship of the press abo- lished, 534. Census, first, 740. Ceorls (churls), 71, 72. Cerdic, king of Wessex, 26. Cerdices-ora, 26. Cerealis, Petilius, 10. Chalgrove field, battle, 401. Chaluz, castle of, 123. Chandernagore taken, 609. Charlemagne, 36. Charles I., prince of Wales, journey to Madrid, 359. Reign of, 362-425. ■ II., prince of Wales, escapes to Paris, 412. Commands the fleet, 420. Sends a carte blanche to the regicides, 424. Pro- claimed in Scotland, 430. Crowned at Scone, 432. Defeated at Worcester, 433. Retires to Cologne, 442. Escapes to Breda, 451. Proclaimed in London, 452. Reign of, 452-497. Charles, kings of France : III., the Simple, cedes Neustria to Rollo, 80. IV., the Fair, 165. ■ ■ VI., 180, 197. ■ VII., 203, 207. VIII., 233, 234. INDEX. Charles IX., 30S. Massacres the Huguenots, 310. Death, 311. ..., deposed, 701. Charles I. (of Spain) V. (em- peror), 238, 244, 245. Visits England, 246. Bribes Wol- sey, 246. Second visit to England, 247. Breaks with Henry VIII., 249. Alli- ance with, 268. Proposes an alliance with Mary, 285. VI., emperor, 562. VII., emperor, dies, 588. Charles II. of Spain, death, 540. III., titular king of Spain, 551, 553. Elected emperor Charles VI., 562. III. of Spain, forms the Family Compact with France, 606. Declares war with England, 607. IV. of Spain, 674. Charles of Navarre, claim to French crown, 170. Charles Edward, son of the Pretender (James), 587. Expedition of, 589. Es- cape, 594. Later life, 596. Charleston, siege of, 628. Charlotte of Mecklenbnrg- Strelitz, marries George III., 605. Death, 695. , princess, dies, 694. Charnock, captain, 535, 536. Charter of Henry I., 99. Discovered by Langton, 136. Of Stephen, 103. Of John, 137. Charters of corporations sur- rendered, 492. Annulled by James II., 506. Chartists, 708, 711. Chatham, ships at, burnt by the Dutch, 464. Chatham, earl of (William Pitt), 583, 588, 597. First administration, 599-605. Opposes the peace, 610. Denounces Stamp Act, 613. Created earl Chat- ham, 614. Second admin- istration, 614-616. De- nounces American policy, 616,622. Last speech, 623. Illness and death, 624. , earl of (2nd), expedi- tion to Walcheren, 678. Chati lion - sur - Seine, con- gress at, 688. Chaucer, Geoffrey, 191, 226. Cherbourg, expedition against, 601. < Chester, earl of, 117. Chesterfield, earl of, lord- lieutenant of Ireland, 588. Secretary of state, 595. Character, ib. Reforms the calendar, ib. 785 Clergy. "Chevy Chase," 187. Cheyte Sing, 640. Child, sir Josiah, 518. Chillianwallah, battle, 719. Chinon, castle, death of Henry II. at, 119. Peace of, 136. Choiseul, duke of, 605, 606. Christ Church, Oxford, founded by Wolsey, 272. Christian, admiral, 648. Christianity in Britain, 15. Among the Saxons, 32 sq. Chronicle, Anglo-Saxon, 77. Church, Anglo - Norman, 128. , English, separated from Rome, 257. King supreme head of, 258. of Ireland, disestab- lished, 727. Churchill, lord, deserts James II., 511 (see Marl- borough). , the satirist, 607. Cintra, convention of, 675. Circuits, judges', 127. Circuses in Britain, 14. Cissa, 26. Cissa-ceaster (Chichester),26. Ciudad Rodrigo, taken, 683. Clanricarde, earl of, 429,430. Clare, Richard de (Strong- bow), earl of Chepstow, 116. Marries Eva, daugh- ter of king Dermot, 116. Defeats the Irish, 117. Clarence, Thomas, duke of, son of Henry IV., defeated at Beauge", 200. , George, duke, of, mar- ries Warwick's daughter. 215. Deserts to Edward IV., 216. Killed, 219. (see William IV.). Clarendon, Constitutions of, 111. Assize of, ib. Clarendon, earl of (Hyde), prime minister, 454. Re- stores episcopacy,455. Ad- vises the sale of Dunkirk, 459. Disgraced, 464. Ban- ished, 465. His History, ib. , earl (2nd), chamber- lain, 500. Lord-lieutenant of Ireland, 504. Treats with James II., 512. Clarke, Mrs., 676. Clarkson, Mr., 071. Claudius reduces Britain, 8. Claypole, Mrs., death, 446. Clement VI., pope, 248, 251, 252. Grants a commis- sion to try Henry VIII. 'a divorce, 251. — — , Jaques, assassinates Henry III., 330. Clement's, St., Danish ceme- tery at, 61. Clergy, their privileges, 72, 786 Cleves. Ill sq. Brought under a praemunire, 356. Cleves, Anne of (see Anne). Clifford, lord, murders the earl of Rutland, 211. , sir Robert, betrays Perkin Warbeck, 235. , sir Thomas, 465. Clifton Moor, battle, 593. Clinton, admiral lord, 305. , general, 619. Retreats to New York, 624. Takes Charleston, 628. Clipping the coin, 155. dive, takes Chandernagore, 600, 609. Exploits, 609. Victory at I'lassy, ib. Go- vernor of Bengal, ib. An Irish peer, 610. Returns to India, 636. Reforms, 637. Quells a mutiny, ib. Vote of censure on, 633. Suicide, ib. Clontarf meeting, 709. Closetings, 506. Cloth of Gold, Field of, 246. Cobden, Richard, 708, 722. Cobham, lord, 197 (see Old- castle). , lord, plots against James I., 347. Coburg, prince of, commands imperial army, 644. Cceur de J Aon, 124. Coffee-houses, 519. Coin, debasement of, 277. Coke, sir Edward, 357. Im- prisoned, 358. Colchester taken, 42] . Coleman, secretary to duchess of York, 479, 482. Colepepper, sir John, 398. Coligny,297,308. Murdered, 310. College, trial of, 491. Collier, Jeremy, 536. Collingwood, lord, 050, 667, 668, 674. Colonial secretary, office established, 615. Separated from war, 721 vote. Colonization, English,origin, 354. Progress, 518. Columbus, 239. Combats, judicial, 75. Combermere, lord, 718. Comes, title of, 18. Comes littoris Saxonici, 17. Commanders, Roman, in Britain, 18. Commerce, freedom of, se % cured by the Charter, 138. Under Edward III., 183. Progress of, 518. Committee of Safety, 450. Common Pleas, court of, i27. Common Trayer, the Book of, revised, 279. Commons, 126. House of, 148,158. Increased power, INDEX. 196. Account of, 227. Re- fuse to reason with Wol- sey, 248. How treated by Elizabeth, 339. Resist James, 351. Revive im- peachments, 356. Pledge to defend the palatinate, 357. Claim freedom of debate, ib. James tears out their protestation, 358. Leaders of, 363. Refuse supplies to Charles I., ib. Impeach Buckingham, 365. Frame the Petition of Right, 367. Press a redress of grievances, 378. Impeach Strafford and Laud, 3S0. Speeches first published, 381. Retain the army of the Covenant, 382. Proceedings against the clergy, ib. Committee during recess, 3S6. Re- monstrance, 388. Charles demands the five mem- bers, 390. Seize Hull, etc., 392. Militia bill, ib. Name the lieutenants of counties, 393. Propose terms, ib. Purged by colonel Pride, 422. Ordi- nance to try the king, 423. Name an executive coun- cil. 428. Composition under first Reform Act 704; under second, 748. {See Parliament.) Commonwealth, 427-452. Communion service, 276. Compton, sir Spencer, 581. Made lord Wilmington, 585. Death, 587. Compurgation, 128. Compurgators, 75. Comyn, assassinated, 161. Conan, duke of Brittany, 108. Succeeded by Henry II., 109. Comle, 297. Death, 308. Confirmations of the Great Charter, 149. Conformity, occasional, bill to prevent, thrown out, 551. Passed, 562. Congregation, Scotch, 294. Assisted by Elizabeth, ib. Connaught, kingdom of, 116. "Conservatives," origin, 705. Party broken up, 710. Re- action, 730. Constable, office extin- guished, 247 note. Constance, mother of Arthur of BrittarJy, 132. Constantine the Great, 12. Constantius Chlorus, 12. Constitution, Anglo-Nor- man, 124. English, under the Tudors, 338. Contract, original, 515 Cranmer. Conventicle Act, 459. Second, ib. Convention parliament, 451. Convention, 515. Made a parliament, 523. Dis- solved, 527. , French, 646. Convocation, account of, 578. Conway, general, 605. Sec- retary, 613. Carries ad- dress against American war, 629. Commander-in- chief, ib. Conyers, sir John, 392. Cook, solicitor for people of England, 423. Executed, 455. Coote, sir Eyre, defeats Hyder Ali, 639. Cope, sir John, 590. De- feated at Preston Pans, 591. Copenhagen, victory at, by Nelson, 658. Bombardtd by Gambier, 673. Corn bury, lord, 511. Cornish, alderman, attainder reversed, 527. Corn-laws, 693. League against the, 708. Abo- lished, 710, 746. Cornwall, insurrection in, 236. Cornwallis, lord, 621. Capi- tulates at York Town, 628. Viceroy of Ireland, 656. Governor-general of India, reduces Tippoo, 718. , admiral, 646. Corporation Act, 456, 473. Repealed, 699. Corsica, taken, 647. Corunna, battle of, 676. Cospatric, earl of Northum- berland, rebels, 85. Cotton famine, 723. Count, title of, 227. County courts, 75, 127. Court, verge of, 76. baron, 126. Courts, Anglo-Saxon, 75. of justice, 127. Covenant, 377. Burnt by the hangman, 456. Covenanters, Scotch, 377. Invade England, 379. Re- tained by Long Parlia- ment, 382. Coverdale, imprisoned, 284. Cowper, lord, chancellor, dismissed, 560. Craggs, secretary at war, 573. Bribed, 576. Cranmer, Thomas, 253 Made primate, annuls Henry's marriage with Katharine, 257. Annuls Anne Boleyn's marriage, 262. At Henry's death- bed, 271. Executor, 273. Conduct of the Reforma- INDEX Crecgranford. duke ttm, 274. Condemned fer Cu^l^una, ^ tre^on, 284. Burnt, 2bb. ot, * Crecganford, battle, 25. gobelin (Cymbeline), 8 Crecy, battle 173 ^ 93 CrePV, peace ot, /oa. p, ir ii Re"is 126, 127. Cressingham, flayed by the Cum Ke^ ^^ ^ Scots, 160. Mi tnrv 320. Crimea descent on the 714. tary 3£ Criminal law, amendment Cwen ^ k > g q of, 743. Croke, judge 375. Crompton. 739. Cromwell, Thomas, defends Wolsey, 252. Favours the Reformation, 258 Vicar- general, 261. Made earl of Essex, 266. Fall and execution, ib. . Oliver, first appear- and of, 402. Defeats Se^gofWessex, 33. Cymen, 26. Cymenes-ora, 26. Oyning (king), 70. Cynric, 27. Cyprus, conquered by Richard I., 121. Ceded to England, 737. D. ance of, 402. ^feats defeats tlie Rupert at Marston Moor, Dacre i , 405 Republican views, L**^ lord, governor- 407 Reduces the midland Dainous , , ? ^ C0Wtie % 4 of 2 -tbe°a my uffiS* * ***• master command of the army f J stair 530. 416. Views as to to|M» > m 675 . king, « 8 -, Q u %l feat e s Damnonia, kingdom of, 28. Levellers, 419. De eats | ^ f treasurer, Langdale and Hampton, Danby,^^ the , h 421. Reduces Ireland, | *;*; ^ Q inineacbed, 421. neuu^oo * • 429, 430. Captain-general, 431 Invades Scotland, ib. Gains battle of Dunbar, 432. Defeats Charles 11. at Worcester, 433. Dis- solves the Long Parlw 472. Denounces i«rr~ plot, 479. Dnpeached 481 483, 496. President of council, 522. Marquess ofCaermavtben, 527. Duke of Leeds, 534. Danegeld, 54, 61, 91, 123. mSS.^ t ^gSt?^EngUnd,4I. ^s%^^^ ,.., Refuses the crown, Ove» tuc t'«- 441 Refuses the crown, 445. Supports the Vau- dois, 447. Death and character, 448. nia mother, ib. Estate con- fiscated, 454. Disinterred and .anged, 455. Richard, 445. Sue- Murder King ^«"i"""> ~ ' Defeated by Alfred, 45. Baptized by him, 45. live towns of, ib. Boundary of ib. Invade Kent, 46. Incursions renewed, 54. | Massacred, 55. Dangerfield, concocts the meal-tub plot, 486. _, Richard, 445. Sue- mea^ ™ P ^ off 613 ceeds to the Protectorate, Danish ne 447. Signs his demission, garcy,^, ^^ rf 449. t-o roness Kilmanseck), 572. __-, Henry, governs Ire " L.^y, lord, marries Mary laAd.448 ^ tnp406 qucn of' Scots, 298. Croprcdy Bridge, battle, 406 q ^ 301 . Crosses at Charing and uthj lord> secretary, Cheapside destroyed, Jw. Crown, settlement of the,5l5 wQod B i rFran ds,chan- Crusade,- first, 96. Ot u * ^ q | exchequer> 60 7 Richard I., 121. , „ ., t Mn „ of Scotland, Culemberg adm.ral 554. David 1 , n g ^ Culloden, battle, 593. J_ - f Wale8) e xe- Cumberland, made an Eng- , ^ ^ Edwavd Lt 154. lish county, 96. j of Huntingdon, Cumberland, duke of, atDet- ' dants f, 156. tingen.586. Fontenoy,588. aesce t de . Defeats the Pretender at, Davison ^ for Culloden, 593. One of the g»^, execution, council ot regency, 597. ^f en Fincdi J 3 24. Defeated by the French, 322. * • B of , 2 2, 600. Abandons Hanover; Days, exu disgrace and death, ib. I ** 787 Douglas. Deane, Silas, 621. Death, the Black, 176. Debt, imprisonment tor, abolished, 727. Deelarationof Independence, American, 620. Defender of the Faith, title of, 247. ^ . - Deira (Deifyror Deora-nce), 28 Delaware, loTd, governor oi Virginia, 354. Delhi, taken by lord Lake, 718. By general Wilson, 720. Delinquents, 381. Denman, lord, 697. Derby, riots at, 703. Derby, countess of, defend Isle of Man, 434. _ earl of (Mr. and lord Stanley), 702. Secretary at war, 709. Heads the "Protectionists,' 710. Premier, 712. Resigns, 713 Premier again, 720. , son, foreign secretary, 730. Resigns, 735. Dermot Macmorrogh, king of Leinster, 116. Dervorghal, 116. Derwentwater, earl of, sup- ports Pretender, 569, o71. Desaix, general, 654. Desborough, opposes the. crowning of Cromwell, 445. Threatens Richard, 449 Despenser, Hugh le (Spen- ser), 164. Dettingen, battle, 586. Devizes, battle, 401. Devonshire, rising m, 277. Ligby, sir Everard, joins gunpowder plot, 349 350. Di|ges, sir Dudley, a leader of the commons, 363. Master of the Rolls, 372. Diocletian, emperor, 15 Directory for worship, 409 Dispensing power, 458, 504 note. „, Disraeli, Mr.. 711. Chan- cellor of the exchequer, 712. Premier, 726. 730. Earl of Beaconsfield, 732. Dissenters, promoted by James II., 506. Divine right, theory of 516. Dogger Bank, action off the, 629. Domesday Book, 91 sq. Dominica, taken, 606. Donauwerth, taken 552. Dorset, marquess of, expe- dition to Spain, 242. Douav, seminary at, 315. Douglas, lord, attacks the English camp, 168. , earl, fights with Hot. 788 Douglas. spur against Henry IV., 193. Douglas, George, 300. Mur- ders Rizzio, ib. , George, assir.ts Mary queen of Scots to escape, 303. Dover, battle off, 436. Treaty of, 466. Dowdeswell, William, chan- cellor of exchequer, 613. Downing, ambassador to Holland, 463. Drake, Francis, sails round the world, 312. Enter- tains queen Elizabeth, 313. Attacks the West Indies, 316. Destroys the Spanish shipping, 325. Expedition to Portugal, 329. Drapier's Letters, 577. Druidism, 3 sq. Drummond, titular duke of Perth, 590. Dubois, cardinal, 572. Duckworth, admiral sir John, 672. Dudley, minister of Henry VII., 237. Executed, 241. , lord Guilford, mar- ries lady Jane Grey, 280, 283. Beheaded, 286. , lord Robert, favourite of Elizabeth, 297 (see Leicester). , lord, 700. Duke, title of, 227. Dumouriez, 643. Dunbar, battle, 158, 432. Duncan, king of Scotland, murdered by Macbeth, 64. , admiral, defeats the Dutch oft Camperdown, 651. Viscount, 652. Dundas, 665 (see Melville). , admiral, 715. Dundee, viscount, opposes William III., 525. Victory and death, ib. Dunes, battle off, 446. Dunkirk, surrendered to Cromwell, 446. Sold to France, 459. Besieged by duke of York, 644. Dunstan, St., 50-54. Arch- bishop of Canterbury, 52. Dutch, wars with the, 432, 460. League with, 440. War with, in 1672, 468. colonies taken, 648. guards, 513. Dismissed, 539. Dux Britanniarum, 18. Dykvelt, 509. E. Eadbald, king of Kent, 33. Eadburga, 36. Ealdormen (aldermen),71. Ealhswith, wife of Alfred, 48. INDEX. Earl, title, 227. East India Company, founded, 354, 534. Pro- gress of, 608. Bills of Fox and Pitt respecting, 635. Regulating Act, 637 . Abo- lished, 720. (French), 608. Their settlements, 609. East Saxons (Essex), king- dom of, 27. Ebissa, 28. Eborius, bishop of York, 15. Ecclesiastical Commission, court of, 505. Annulled, 510. , 706. Titles Bill, 712. Ecgferth's-Minster, 35. Edgar, reign of, 52, 53. iEtheling, 65. Sub- mits to William, 82. Re- bellion and flight, 86. Retires to Kouen, 88. Re- turns to England, 96. Cap- tured at Tinchebray, 100. Edgehill, battle, 399. Edinburgh, tumult at, about Laud's liturgy, 376. Edgiva, sister of iEthelstan, 49. Editha, daughter of Godwin, marries Edward the Con- fessor, 61, 63. Edmund, king, saint, and martyr, 43. the Elder, 49. Ironside, 56. , son of Edmund Iron- side, 57. Edred, king, 50. Edric, duke of Mercia, 56, 58. Edward I. the Elder, suc- ceeds Alfred, 48. II. the Martyr, 53. the Outlaw, son of Ed- mund Ironside, 58, 65. III. theConfessor, son of iEthelred, 58. Reign of, 61-66. Laws of, 66. Edward I., " after the con- quest ; " prince, at Lewes, 147. At Evesham, 148. Ends the Bar. ns' War, ib. Goes on a crusade, 149. Proclaimed in his absence, 152. Return, ib. Reign, 151-162. II., prince of Wales, 154. Reign of, 162-166. III., prince of Wales, sent to Paris, 165. Affianced to Philippa, 166. Reign of, 167-183. IV., reign of, 213-219. - V., reign of, 219-221. VI., prince, birth, 263. Reign of, 273-281. , prince, son of Henry VI., murdered, 217. Episcopacy. Edwai'des, lieutenant, 719. Edwin, king of Northumbria, 28. Bretwalda,33. Reign, ib. Slain, 34. - — , grandson of Leofric, governor of Mercia, 66, 82- 84. Rebels, 85, 88. Edwy, king, reign of, 51, 52. , brother of Edmund Ironside, 58. Egbert, king of Wessex, 36 sq. Unites the Anglo- Saxon kingdoms, 37. Con- quests, 40. Death, 42. Egerton, lord keeper, 334. Egmont, count, executed, 309. Egremont, lord, secretary, 607, 610. Egypt, French in, 652, 654, 659. Expedition to, 672. Elba, Napoleon banished to, 688. Eldon, lord, chancellor, 657, 671. Resigns, 698. Eleano.' of Guienne, queen of Henry II., 106,117. of Provence, queen of Henry III., 143. Electors, county, 228. Elfrida, kills her stepson Edward, 53. Elgiva, wife of Edwy, 51, 52. Eliot, sir John, 370, 371. Eliott, general, defends Gib- raltar, 631. Made lord Heathfield, 632. Elizabeth of York, wife of Henry VII., 231, 231 Elizabeth, princess, 276. Supports queen Mary, 283. Imprisoned, 286. Re- leased, 287. Queen, 292. Reign of, 292-342. , daughter of James I., marries elector palatine, 352. Ella, king of Sussex, 26. Bretwalda, 31. — — , king of Deira, 28. Ellenborough, lord, 709. Governor-general of India, 718. Elphinstone, admiral, 648. Emigration, 698. Emma of Normandy, queen of iEthelred II.,«4, 55, 57. . Marries Canute, 58. Con- fined by her son Edward the Confessor, 62. Empson, minister of Henry VII., 237. Executed, 241, Enghien, duke d', murdered. 665. Boris (earls), 71. Earnest (judicial combat), 75. Epi scopacy , abolished in Scot - land, 377. Abjured in Eng- land, 409. Restored, 455. Eric. iS I lordcb f c e nor,669 Dismissed, 671. Escheats (feudal), 128. 329 332. Lord-lieutenant of Ireland, 334. . Con- demned and tapnaM w Conspires against the fueen ib Executed, 337. ^eart of, his son, sides with the commons ; 339 Commands the parlia mentary army, 393, 4uu, 1^,484,486,488 Joins Russell's conspiracy, 493. Suicide, 495. Estaples, treaty of, 234 Ethandun, battle, 45. Fihel— , names beginning wi h bee iEthel-). Eugene, prince, co-operates with Marlborough 552^ defeats the French^ Fran n ce,557 5 "Defeated at ESe^^tem, origin, EusUce, count of Boulogne, Eva,' daughter of king Der- mot, 116- Evesham, battle, 1«- Ewtaw Springs, battLe oi, Ex officio oath, 315. Vx-ch'eauer, court of, 127. fr J the king's, shut up. Exct, origin, 40 4. Here- ditary, panted, 455 Exclusion Bill, 484, Thrown out, 4»s. Exeter, duke of, governoi of ^marjess of, executed, Exhibition of Industry, 712 SSS^S hombards 789 INDEX. Fr ancis. • „ hi. 593 1 motion to crown Crom- Falkirk Mmr, battle, 5JJ. . VP u 445. f ISd.lord.SSVfPP^LS*, the, treaty of Strafford's attainder 3« 4 ^mj^ with, 238 Opposes the E» Fletcher of Saltoun, 556. strance, 389. Killed, 402. i^c ^ ^^ mu tinies, Famars, battle, 644. I '^ Family Compact, 606. pieurus, battle, 646. Farmer, 506. „: Rroun t Flodden, battle, 243. ^SSwelSngh- {gSS&H**-*- Fa^et W 343, 350. p «s at, 688.^ ^ IS SK Affixes the 241 588 . bull of ^communication *°£ » udi Henry H. against Elizabeth, 307. buried at , 119. _,stabs Buckingham, 369. on ^^ st Executed,*- r ^ Ineligible to offices Fenians, the, 726. t parliament, 541. Sick, sir John, to-- orto p^ charter , spiracy and revelations, 138 Tlote) 15 9. ti36 Attainder, to. -New. 39. FerdlnandofArragon league ; i^feUures (feudal) 123 withHenryVII.,233. Y e F t Mr., supports the ceives Henry YHL, 241 Render, 569. Surren- _ of Brunswick, recovers ^^ .^ Hanover, 601. Fossway, the, 14. . _ [V. of Nap es, 670 ^x, bishop of Exeter, muns- VII. of Spam, 674 689. *o ^ vlL> 2 3l. Feudal tenures, abolisnea, | Fairfax, lord, parliamentary gVnfral.400,402 405 _L, sir Thomas (aft. loid), 402, 405. Commander ot Parliamentary forces, 408, ill 421, 431. .. lady, interrupts the High Court of Justice, 423. Falaise, 133. 1 ■alkirk, battle, 160 I Feudalism, Norman, 91. An elo-Norman, 124 sq. Feversham, earl of, com- mands against Monmouth, 501, 502, 508, 513. Fiefs, 124. . Fiennes, Nathaniel, 407 Fiji islands, annexed, 731 Finch, sir Heneage, 471 (see Nottingham, earl of). _, sir John, speaker, 370 Lord-keeper, 381. Fines (feudal), 128, 138. Finisterre, battle off, 595 raider's action, oo<. Fisher bfshop of Rochester, 258. Made a cardinal, 259. Executed, ib. FTSgua?QBa^frenchniale- factors landed at, 649. Fitz Gerald, Maurice, assists kins Dermot, 116. FiSald, lord Edward con spiracy and death 655. 1 Mr. Vesey, 700. Fitzherbert, Mrs , 636. Fitz-O.bern, William, 84. Fitz-Stephen, 101. __, Robert, takes Water, ford, 116. . ■c,t; ITrse Reginald, ua- Filter, Robert heads the barons against king FiX'glers (Danes) 45. 1 Removed by Edmund, 49. Five-mile Act, 461. Fleetwood, opposes the _, George, 518. — , sir Stephen, 597. — Henry, 597. Secre- tary, 598. Paymaster ot the forces, 600. Leads the commons; 610. Made lord Holland, ib. __, Charles James, secre- tary, 629. Resigns, 631. Secretary, 635. Dismissed, ib Foreign secretary, 669. Death, 670 France, provinces of, pos sessedby Henry IE, 108 Edward lIL's claim to, 110. Title of king as- umedbybim,l70 v Con- nuered by Henry V., 200. En-hsh expelled from, 207. CUini renounced by Henry VIII 250. Religious wars of, 297 sq., 308. Acknow ledges American inde- pendence, 623 Threes 'an invasion, 624. TPn* revolution, 641. Title of "king of France "dropped byGlorgeIH.,656. Ex- tent of the empire, 680. Second revolution, 701. Third, 711. Second em- pire, 712. Alliance with, against Russia, 713 War with Germany, 727. Re- F^nds !. 7 of France, courts F \\^sey, 245. Meets Henry VIII. at Calais, 246 Cap tared at Pavia 249. Re covers his liberty, 250. 790 Francis. Francis II., husband of Mary queen of Scots, 294, 295. I., emperor, 588. II., resigns the imperial dignity, and becomes Francis I. of Austria, 666 n. Francis, Father, 506. , sir Philip, 638. Frankalmoign, tenure, 125. Franklin (a freeholder), 125. Franklin, Dr., 612. Dismissed from post-office, 618. Ne- gotiations, 620, 621. At Paris, 631, 632. Frankpledge, 48, 74. Frederick, elector palatine, marries princess Eliza- beth, 352. Elected king of Bohemia, 355. ■ , prince of Wales, 582. Marries Augusta of Saxe Gotha, ib. Death, 596. II. of Prussia, invades Silesia, 585. Invades Bo- hemia and Moravia, 588. His campaigns in the Seven Years' War, 600 sq. Freeman, Mrs., name of the duchess of Marlborough, 550. Freemen, equality of, 225. French language, abolished in pleadings, 183. Frere, Mr., 675. Freya, goddess, 23. Friborg (frank-pledge), 74. Friend, sir John, conspiracy against William III., 535. Executed, 536. Frisians, 21, 38. Frith-borh, 74. Frith-gilds, 76. Frobisher, 327. Frontinus, Julius, 10. Fuentes de Oiioro, battle, 682. Fulford, battle, 67. Gr. Gage, general, 619. Gainsborough, battle, 402. Galgacus, 10. Galway, earl of (Ruvigny), expedition to Spain, 554, 556. Gambier, admiral, bombards Copenhagen, 673. Gardiner, bishop of Win- chester, 258, 267. Op- poses Reformation, 275. Deprived, 279. Restored, 284. Prime minister. 285. Favours persecution, 287. Garibaldi, Giuseppe, 722. Garter, order, instituted, 176. Gascoigne, chief-justice, 196. Gastein, convention of, 724. Gates, general, 628. Gaul, overrun by the bar- barians. 12, 13. Gauls in Britain, 3. INDEX. Gaunt, Mrs., burnt, 503 o Gaveston, Piers, 163, 164. General warrants, 611. Genoa, united to France, 666. Annexed to Sardinia, 688. Geoffrey (Plantagenet) of Anjou, marries Matilda, daughter of Henry I., 102, 106. , son of Henry II., 118, 119. , natural son of Henry II., 119. George I., reign of, 566-578. II., reign of, 580-603. III., reign of, 605-695. IV., prince of Wales, dissipation and extrava- gance, 636. Regent, 681. Reign of, 696-701. George, prince of Denmark, marries queen Anne, 512, 550, 565. George, chevalier St. (Pre- tender), 568. Georgia, disputes with Spain respecting, 582. Gerard, Balthazar, assassi- nates the prince of Orange, 316. Germain, St., of Auxerre, 15. Germaine, lord George (Sack- ville), at battle of Minden, 604. Colonial secretary, 620. German Town, battle of, 622. troops, hiring of, 621. Geta, emperor, 11. Ghent, treaty of, 689. Gibbon, Memoire Justifica- tif, 624. Gibraltar, taken, 554. Re- linquished by Spain, 582. Memorable siege of, 631. Gifford reveals Babington's conspiracy, 318. Ginkell, 524. Takes Ath- lone, 529. Besieges Lime- Gisla, wife of Rollo, 80. Gladstone, Mr., chancellor of the exchequer, 713. Financial policy, 725. Premier, 727. Disestab- lishes the Irish Church, ib. Resigns, 730. Retires from leadership of Liberals, 731. Glamorgan, earl of, treaty with Irish rebels, 413. Glastonbury abbey, 50. Glencoe, massacre of, 530 sq. Glendower. Owen, 193, 194. Gloucester, duchess of, does penance for witchcraft.206. , earl of, leader of the barons, 146, 147. , duke of, uncle of Richard II., regent, 186, 187, 188. Greece. Gloucester, duke of, guardian of England, 201, 205. Murdered, 206. . Richard, duke of, assists in the murder of prince Edward, 217. Re- gent, 219. Seizes Edward V., ib. Named protector, ib. Accepts the crown, 221 (see Richard III.). , duke of (son of queen Anne), death, 541. Goderich, viscount, premier, 699. Colonial secretary, 702. Godfrey, sir Edmondbury, 478. Murdered, 479. Godolphin, lord, treasurer, 549, 559. Attacked by Sa- cheverell, 559. Death, 563. Godoy, don Emanuel, Prince of the Peace, 648, 673. Godwin, earl, 58, 63, 64. Gondomar, 355. Good Hope, Cape, taken, 648. Goojerat, battle, 719. Gordon, duke of, opposes William III., 525. , lord George, riots, 625 sq. Goring, 385. Governor of Portsmouth, 392, 398. Gormanstone, lord, heads the English of the pale, 387. Gb'rtz, baron, 573. Gough, general sir Hugh, 719. Goulbmn, Mr., chancellor of exchequer, 699, 709. Gourdon, Bertrand de, wounds Richard I., 123. Gower, the poet, 226. , earl, president of coun- cil, 635. , lord Leveson, embassy to St. Petersburg, 672. Gramme's Dyke, 11. Grafton, duke of, deserts James II., 511. , duke of, secretary, 613. Head of treasury, 614, 616. Graham of Claverhouse, 486 (see Dundee). , sir Thomas, 685. Ex- pedition to Holland, 688. , sir James, home secre- tary, 709. Grammont, duke de, 586. Granby, marquess of, 605. Grand Coiitumier, or Great Customary, 127. Grantham, lord, secretary, 631. Granville, earl (see Carteret). Grattan, Henry, 630. Graves, admiral, 628. Gray, master of, 321. Great Britain, name of Eng- land and Scotland united, 556. Greece, independence of, 699- Greek. Greek professorship, first, 272. Greenwich hospital, 532. Gregg, executed, 559. Gregory I. the Great, pope, mission to England, 32. XIII., medal for mas- sacre of St. Bartholomew, 311. Reforms the calen- dar, 595. XV., pope, 359. , speaker, 483. Grenville, sir John, 451. , George, secretary, 607, 610. First lord of treasury and chancellor of ex- chequer, ib. Proposes American Stamp Act, 611, 615. , lord, coalesces with Fox, 665. Premier, 669, 671. , Thomas, at admiralty, 671. Grey, lady Jane, marries lord Guilford Dudley, 280. Pro- claimed queen, 283. Be- headed, 286. , lord, of Ruthyn, 193. , lord, plots against James I., 347. , lord, of Groby, 422. , lord, at Sedgemoor 501. , earl (see Howick), pre- mier, 702. Resigns, 705. , sir Thomas, executed, 198. , general sir Charles, 647. Grim, Cambridge monk, 114. Grimstone, sir Harbottle, speaker. 451. Grindal, archbishop of Can- terbury, 315. Grove, 478. Executed, 482. Guader, Ralph de, earl of Norfolk, 89. Rebels, ib. Guardians of the realm, 152, 201. Guiana, Raleigh's expedi- tions to, 332, 354. Guilds, Anglo-Saxon, 76. Guillotine, ambulatory, 645. Guinegate, or Spurs, battle, 243. Guiscard, stabs Harley, 561. Guise, duke of, takes Calais, 289. Designs against Eliza- beth, 295. Seizes Catherine de Medici, 297. , duke of, forms the League, 311. Assassi- nated, 330. , cardinal, assassinated, 330 Gunhilda, murdered, 55. Gunpowder plot, 348 sq. Gurth, son of Godwin, 63, 68. Guthrie, 456. INDEX. Guthrnm, the Dane, 44. Baptized, 45. Gyllenborg, count, 573. Gwynn, Eleanor, 497 note. Gytha, Harold's mother, 85. Habeas Corpus, 138, 485, 497. Hacker, executed, 455. Hadrian, wall of, 11. Hales, sir Edward, collusive trial of, 504. Attends the flight of James II., 512. Hallidon Hill, battle, 170. Halifax, marquess of, 484. Opposes Exclusion Bill, 488. Privy seal, 492, 522, 527. President of council, 500. Dismissed, 504. Sent to prince of Orange, 512. Speaker of the peers, 515. Tenders the crown to William and Mary, ib. , earl of (Montague), 542. Dismissed, 549. First lord of treasury, 567. , earl of, secretary, 610. Halifax (Nova Scotia), founded, 596. Hamilton, marquess and duke of, employed against the Covenanters, 377. Raises men in support of Charles I., 420. Defeated, 421. Executed, 426. , duke of, opposes Hano- verian succession, 555. Opposes union, 556. — — , colonel, 530. , lady, 668. Hammond, governor of Caris- brooke Castle, 419. Hampden, John, refuses to pay ship-money, 375. Accused of treason, 390. Killed, 401. , John (grandson), joins Monmouth's conspiracy, 493. Apprehended, 494. Fined, 496. clubs, 693. Hampton Court, conference at, 347. Flight of Charles I. from, 419. Hanover, treaty of, 577. Overrun by the French, 600. Seized by Prussia, 658. By France, 664. Made a kingdom, 688. Separated from British crown, 707. Annexed to Prussia, 726. Hanoverian succession, set- tled, 541. Supported by the peers, 551. Rejected by Scotch parliament, 555 sq. Quietly accomplished, 566. 791 Hazlerig-. Harcourt, sir Simon, 559. Chancellor, 560. Hardicanute, king, reign of, 60, 61. Hardinge, sir Henry, gover- nor-general of India, 719. Hardwicke, lord chancellor, 585. Resigns, 605. Hardy, sir Charles, 625. , captain, 668. Harfleur, taken by Henry V., 198. Hargreaves, 739. Harington, earl of, secre- tary, 582, 588. Lord- lieutenant of Ireland, 595. Harley, Robert, speaker, 541, 543. Secretary, 558. Supplanted, ib. Chancel- lor of exchequer, 560. Attack on his life, 561. Corresponds with duke of Berwick, ib. Made earl of Oxford and treasurer, 562 (see Oxford). Harlow, sir Robert, destro3's the crosses at Charing and Cheapside, 382. Harold Harefoot, son of Canute, 60, 61. , son of earl Godwin, 62, 65. Elected to the throne, 67. Defeats Harold Har- drada and Tosti, ib. De- feated and slain at Hast- ings, 69. Hardrada, 67. Harrington, 516. Harris, general, 717. Harrison, colonel, 423. Hasting, the Dane, 46. Hastings, battle, 68. , lord, claims the Scotch crown, 156. , lord, his fidelity, 220, 221. , marquess, governor- general of India, 718. , Warren, first gover- nor-general of India, 637. Administration, 638 sq. Impeachment, 636, 640. Hatfield, James, shoots at George III., 656. Hatton, sir Christopher, 319. Haugwitz, 666. Havannah taken, 607. Havelock, general, 720. Havre, occupied by the Eng- lish, 297. Hawke, admiral sir Edward, 595, 598. Expedition against Rochefort, 600. Victory off Quiberon, 602. Hawkins, sir John, 332. , Richard, son of sir John, 332. Hawley, general, 593. Hazlerig, sir Arthur, 390, 450. 792 Heathfield. Heathfield, lord, 632 (see Eliott). Hedges, sir Charles, secre- tary, 550. Hedgley Moor, battle, 214. Helder, the, taken, 654. Helens, lord St., treaty with Russia, 658. Helie de St. Saen, ICO. Heligoland, 673. Hengest and Horsa, 24, 25. Henley, lord, chancellor, 605. Henrietta Maria of France, 359. Marries Charles I., 362. Sells the crown jewels, 393. Henry I., besieged by his brothers at St. Michael's Mount, 96. Reign of, 98- 102. • II., prince, acquires Normandy, Anjou, and Maine, 106. Marries Eleanor of Guienne, ib. Invades England, ib. Reign of, 107-120. , son of Henry II., crowned, 113. Rebels, 117. Death, 119. III., reign of, 140-149. IV., reign of, 192-196. V., reign of, 196-201. ■ VI., reign of, 201-211. — VII., reign of, 229-239. VIII., reign of, 240- 272. , prince, son of James I., death, 352. - — Benedict, cardinal York, last of the Stuarts, 596. Henry VI., emperor, releases Richard I., 123. Henry III. of France, assas- sinated, 330. IV. of France, assisted by Elizabeth, 330. Re- nounces protestantism, 331. Assassinated, 351. Henry of Blois, bishop of Winchester, 103, 104. Henry, Patrick, 613. Heptarchy, the, 28. Herbert, attorney-general, impeaches lord Ivimbolton and the five members, 390. , sir Edward, chief jus- tice, dictum on the dis- pensing power, 504. , admiral, earl of Tor- rington, 528. Heresy, first penal law against, 193. Heretics, commission to ex- amine, 276. Laws against, revived, 287. Jleretoga, 70. Hereward, resists the Nor- mans, 88. Hermin Street, 14 (see Irmin), INDEX. Hertford, earl of, 270. Pro- tector, 273. Created duke of Somerset, 274 {see Somerset). , marquess of, retires before the parliamentary army, 399. Overruns Devon, 401. Herzegovina, the, 736. Hesse, landgrave of, sub- sidiary treaty with, 598. Hewitt, Dr., beheaded, 446. Hexham, battle, 215. Heydon, sir John, 399. Heyle, sergeant, 340. High Commission Court, 293. New, 315, 341. Abolished, 386. Attempted revival by James II., 505. High Court of Justice, to try Charles I., 422. Hill, Abigail (Mrs. Masham), 559. , sir Rowland, 677, 683, 685. , , postal reform, 740. Hillsborough, earl of, 615, 616. Histriomastix, Prynne's, 373. Hla'fdige, (lady), 71. Blaford (lord), 75. Hobbes, 516. Hoche, general, 648. Hoel, count, of Nantes, 108. Holgate, archbishop of York, 284. Holkar, 717. Holland, revolts from Spain, 311. Treaty .with, 312. Elizabeth protector of, 316. War with, 628. Overrun by French, 647. Annexed to France, 692. , earl of, executed, 426. , lord {see Fox). Holies, holds the speaker, 370. Character, 381. Ac- cused of treason, 390. . Opposes Cromwell, 421. Holmby, Charles I. confined at, 414. Seized at, 416. Holmgang (judicial combat), 75. Holstein, relation to Den- mark, 723. War about, 724. Ceded to Austria, ib. To Prussia, 726. Holy Alliance, 693. Homage, ecclesiastical, 100. Described, 125. Homilies, twelve, 275. Hone, William, prosecuted, 694. Honorius, withdraws his legions from Britain, 13. Hood, sir Samuel, admiral, Hyde. 628. Made an Irish baron, 631. Takes Toulon, 644. Corsica, 647. Hooper, bishop of Gloucester, 284. Burnt, 287. Hopton, sir Ralph, reduces Cornwall, 400. Horn, count, executed, 309. Home Tooke, 622, 647. Horsa, tomb of, 25. Hoste, sir William, 678. Hotham, sir John, parlia- mentary governor of Hull, 392, 393, 403. Hotspur, 187, 194. Hounslow Heath, 417. Howard, Katharine, queen of Henry VIII., 267. Exe- cuted, ib. , admiral sir Edward, killed, 243. , lord, of Effingham, admiral, 327. Defeats the Spanish Armada, 328. Expedition to Cadiz, 332. Created earl of Notting- ham, ib. , lord, joins Monmouth's conspiracy, 493, 494. Howe, general, 619. Takes New York, 621. Philadel- phia, 622. , lord, expedition against Cherbourg, 601. Relieves Gibraltar, 631. First lord of admiralty, 635. Victory of 1st June, 647. Howick, lord, at admiralty, 669. Foreign secretary, 671. Bill for catholic emancipation, ib. {see Grey, earl). Hubert, archbishop of Can- terbury, 134. Hugh Capet, 81. Huguenots, 297. Assisted by Elizabeth, 297, 308. Their strength, 311. Ex- pedition against, 364. Humber, country beyond, devastated by William I., 87. Humble Petition and Advice, bill so called, 445. Hundreds, 73. Mote, 73. Hunt, Henry, 694, C95. Huntingdon (see David). , earl of, 531. Huskisson, Mr., 700. Bus-thing (busting), 76. Hutchin>on, general, 660. Huysduinen taken, 654. Hwiccas, 45. Hyde, Anne, marries duke of York, 465. , sir Edward, 381. Sup- ports Strafford's attainder, 384. Opposes the Remon- strance, 389. Created earl Hyde. of Clarendon, 454 (see Clarendon'). Hyde, Lawrence, treasurer, 486. Earl of Rochester, 492 (see Rochester). Hyder Ati, 637, 639, Hyderabad, 719. Hypwines-fleot, 25. Ibrahim Pasha, 699. lceni, 9. Icon Basililce, account of, 426. Ictis, isle of, 2. Ida, king of Bernicia, 28. Iden, kills Cade, 209. lerne, Ireland, 2. Ilcenild Street, 13. Ildefonso, San, treaty of, 648. Impeachment, first instance, 228. Revived, 356. Differs from attainder, 384 note. Not barred by a royal pardon, 484, 542. Imprisonment, arbitrary, forbidden by the Charter, 138. Ina, king of Wessex, 35. His laws, 35. Income-tax, 709. Rates and produce of, 731. Independents, rise of, 406. India, British, history, 608 sq., 636 sq., 717 sq. Em- press of, 737. Indulgence, declaration of, 458, 468, 470. Cancelled by Charles II., 470. James II.'s declaration of, 505, 506. Inglis, sir Robert, 713. Inkermann, battle, 715. Innocent III., pope, 134. Excommunicates king John, 135. Abrogates Magna Carta, 139. Inquisition, the, 309. Instrument of government, 439. Investitures, what, 100. Re- signed by Henry I., 100. Ionian islands, taken, 678. Ireland, early history, 115. Conquered by Henry II., 117. Under Elizabeth, 333. Rebellion, 386. Eng- lish massacred, 387. Re- duced by Cromwell, 430. Grants of forfeited estates in, reversed, 540. Union with England, 655, 656. Disturbances in, 704. Co- ercion bill, 705. Famine, 711. Church disestab- lished, 727. Ireland, Father, executed, 482. Ireton, 411, 418, 421. Com- INDEX. mands in Ireland, 431 Takes Limerick, 434. Irrnin Street, 14. Isaac, ruler of Cyprus, 121. Isabella, second wife of king John, 133. , daughter of Philip the Fair, marries prince Ed- ward (Edward II.), 160. Intrigues with Mortimer, 165. Invades England, 166. Imprisoned, 169. , daughter of Charles VI., affianced to Richard II., 187. Restored to France, 195. Isca Silurum, 14. Islands, claim of pope to, 116. J. Jacobite plot, 576. Jamaica, acquired, 443. In- surrection in, 705. James I. of Scotland, detained at English court, 195. Re- stored, 202. IV. of Scotland, supports PerkinWarbeck, 236. Mar- ries Margaret, daughter of Henry VII., 237. Slain at Flodden, 243. V. of Scotland, 267. VI. of Scotland, 303, 321, 323: James I. of England, reign of, 345-361. II., reign of, 499-519. , pretender, birth, 508 (see Pretender). Japan, commercial relations, 717. Jaqueline of Luxemburg, marries the duke of Bed- ford, 205. Marries sir Richaid Woodville, 215. Jefferson, Thomas, 618, 620 Jeffreys, chief justice, 495. Bloody circuit, 502. Chan- cellor, 503. Maltreated by populace, 513. Dies, ib. Jena, battle of, 670 " Jenkins's ears," 582. Jephson, colonel, 444. Jerusalem, takeu by Saladin, 119. Jervis, admiral sir John, 647. Defeats the Spanish fleet, 650. Made earl St. Vincent, ib. Jesuits, conspiracies of, 314. Law against, ib. Jews, massacred, 120. Ban- ished, 155. How excludtd from parliament, 700. Ad- mitted, 721. Joan of Arc, history, 202 sq. Captured and burnt, 205. of Flanders, 172. of Navarre, second wife of Henry IV, 196. 793 Katharine. Joan of Kent (see Bocher). John, prince, sent to Ireland, 119. Rebels, ib. In- trigues against his brother, king Richard, 122. King, reign of, 132-140. II., king- of France, cap- tured by the Black Prince at Poitiers, 178, 180. John, St., lord, treasurer, 278. ' , Oliver, solicitor-general, 407. Commissioner to Scotland, 435. Embassy to Holland, ib. , Henry(see Bolingbroke) Jones, colonel, takes posses- sion of Dublin, etc., 429. , Inigo, 519. , J. Gale, 679. , Paul, 625. Joppa, 122. Joseph I., emperor, 554, Jourdan, general, 646. Joyce, cornet, seizes Charles I., 416. Judges, brought to trial, 154. Displaced by James II., 504. Made independent of the crown, 542. Judicature, Supreme Court of, 730. Judith of France, 42. , sister of the Conqueror, 86, 89, 90. Julius, martyrdom of, 15. II., pope, forms the Holy League, 241. , III., pope, 285. Junot, marshal, 673, 674. Junta of Seville, 674. Junto, the, 559. Jury, 48, 75. Account of trial by, 150. Exempted from fines, 475. Justice, arbitrary adminis- tration of, under Tudors, 340. Justices, itinerant, 118, 127, 146. Justiciar}', 121. Chief, 127. For life, 142. Justinian, the English, title of Edward I., 162. Jutes, 22. Juxon, bishop of London, advice to Charles I., 385. Attends his execution, 424. Archbishop : death, 458. K. Kalisch, alliance of, 686. Kars, defence of, 716. Katharine of France, es- poused by Henry V., 200. Marries sir Owen Tudor, 201. of Arragon, marries prince Arthur, 237. Con- tracted to prince Henry, 794 Katharine. ib. Marries him, 241. Henry seeks a divorce, 250. She demurs to the court, 251. Divorced by Cran- mer, 257. Death, 260. Katharine (see Parr). Keane, sir John, 718. Keith, sir William, 321. Ken, bishop, 506. Kendal, duchess of (baron- ess Schulenburg), 572,576. Kenilworth, Dictum de, 148. • , Edward 11. confined at, 166. Kenmure, lord, proclaims Pretender, 569. Executed, 570. Kennett, lord mayor, pun- ished, 626. Kent, kingdom of, 26. Kent, earl of, joins Isabella and Mortimer, 166. Exe- cuted by Mortimer, 168. , earl of, superintends the execution of queen Mary, 322. , duke of, dies, 695. Keppel, earl of Albemarle, 53 , admiral, 624. First lord of admiralty, 629. Ket, Norfolk rebel, 277. Kildare, Fitzgerald earl of, supports Simnel, 232. Killiecrankie, battle, 525. Kilmarnock, earl, executed, 594. Kimbolton, lord, sides with the commons, 389. King, Anglo-Saxon, elective, 70. De facto, allegiance to, protected by law, 239. Statute pleaded by Vane, 457. King, colonel, moves Charles's restoration, 451. King's Bench Court, 127. College, 743. Kirke, colonel, inhumanity, 502. At Londonderry, 526. Kirupatrick, sir Thomas, assassinates Comyn, 161. Kleber, general, 655. Kloster Seven, convention of, 600. Knight-service, 125. Abo- lished, 455. Knox, John, 294. Insults queen Mary, 296. L. La Chaise, Pere, 478, 479. La Fayette, marquis de, 721. La Hogue, battle, 532. Lackland, name of John, 132. Lahmen, what, 75. Lake, bishop, 507. , general (aft. lord), de- feats Irish rebels, 656. Takes Delhi, etc., 717. INDEX. Lambert, general, opposes the crowning of Cromwell, 444. Intrigues against Richard Cromwell, 449. Expels Long Parliament, 450. Excepted from in- demnity, 454. Trial, 457. Reprieved, 458. Lancaster, Thomas, earl of, conspires against Gaves- ton, 163. Makes war -on Edward II., 164. Exe- cuted, 165. , earl of, guardian of Edward III., 167. k John of Gaunt, duke of, espouses the daughter of Peter of Castile, 180. Sells his pretensions to that crown, 187. Influ- ence over Richard II., ib. Death, 188. Encouraged Wicktiffe, 190. , Henry duke of, son, invades England, 188. De- poses Richard II., 189. Seizes the crown, ib. Genealogy, ib. (See Henry IV.) Land Act, Irish, 727. Lanfranc, archbishop of Can- terbury, 87, 92, 95. Langdale, sir Marmaduke, 420, 421. Langhorne, executed, 485. Langside, battle, 303. Langton, cardinal, elected primate, 135, 136. Dis- covers Henry I.'s charter, ib. Lansdown, battle, 401. Lansdowne, marquess of, president of council, 702. Latimer, bishop, imprisoned, 265. Burnt, 287. Latin words in English, 14. Laud, bishop, 372. Arch- bishop of Canterbury, 373. Attacked at Lambeth, 379. Impeached, 409. Exe- cuted, ib. Lauderdale, earl of, 465, 485. Law, common, 225. Law's scheme, 575. Lawrence, general, 720. Laws, how made, 227. Lawson, admiral, declares for Long Parliament, 450. League, Catholic, 311. Go- verned by duke of May- enne, 330. Dissolution of, 331. and Covenant, Solemn, 403. American, 618. , Holy, 241. Leake, sir John, admiral, 554. Lee.ds, battle, 34. , duke of (see Danby). Lindsey. Legge, Henry, chancellor of exchequer, 597, 605. Legion of Honour, 661. Legislation, Anglo-Norman, 127. Leicester, earl of, 118. , Simon de Montfort, earl of, calls a meeting of the barons, 145. Defeats Henry III. at Lewes, 147. Summons a parliament, ib. Slain at Evesham, 148. , Dudley, earl of, 298. Commissioner to try Mary, 304. Favours the puritans, 306. Forms an association to defend the queen, 314. Commands in Holland, 316. Leinster, kingdom of, 116. Leipsic, battle, 687. Leith, evacuated by the French, 295. Lenox, earl of, 269. Ac- cuses the queen of Scots, 305. Regent, 307. ,countess of, imprisoned, 299. Lenthal, speaker, 380. Re- pairs to the army, 417. Speaker again, 441, 450. Leo X., pope after Julius II., 242. Dies, 247. heodgild, what, 74. Leofric, earl of Mercia, 60, 63. Leofwin, son of Godwin, 63, 68. Leopold, duke of Austria, arrests Richard I., 122. , prince of Saxe-Coburg (afterwards king of the Belgians), consort of prin- cess Charlotte, 694. Leslie, Scotch general, 431. Defeated at Dunbar, 432. Levellers, 418. Put down by Cromwell, 419. Leven, earl of, commands the Scotch Covenanters, 404. Joins lord Fairfax, 405. Lever Maur, or the Great Light (Lucius), 15. Lewes, battle, 147. Mise of, ib. Lexington, skirmish at, 619. Llewelyn, prince of Wales, 153. Conquered by Ed- ward I., ib. Ligny, battle, 690. Ligonier, lord, 588. Lilla, saves Edwin, 33. Limerick, siege of, 529 Paci- fication of, ib. Limoges, massacre of, 181. Lincoln, battle, 141. Lincoln, John, earl of, sup- ports Simnel, 232. Lindisfarne, 35. Lindsey, earl of, commands Liofa the expedition to Rochelle, 369. Commands Charles's army, 399, 400. Liofa, 50. Liprandi, general, 714. Lisbon, entered, 675. Lisle, sir George, executed, 421. , Mrs., beheaded, 503. Attainder reversed, 527. Litany in English, 269. Literature, Anglo-Saxon, 76. Under Edward III., 226. Elizabeth, 342. The Stuarts, 5 1 8 . Since Revo- lution, 744. Littleton, solicitor-general, 372. Liturgy, Edward Vl.'s, 276. Revised, 279. Elizabeth's, 293. English, imposed on Scotch church, 376. Liverpool, lord, secretary at war, 679. Premier, 682, 698. Lloyd, bishop of St. Asaph, 506. Loan, General, 366. , the amicable, 249. Locke, John, 516. Lollards, 190, 197. Lollius Urbicus, rampart of, 11. London, under the Romans, 10. Burnt, ib. Rebuilt by Alfred, 46. Besieged by the Northmen, 54. Early commerce of, 76. Fortified by the Conqueror, 84. Bridge, 98. Charter, ib. Franchise secured by Magna Carta, 137. An- nual mayor, 140. First stone bridge, ib. Pesti- lence, 176. Plague, 297. Sides with parliament, 398. Trained bands, 400. Val- our of, 402. Overawed by Cromwell's army, 417. Plague, 461. Fire of, 463. Improved, ib. Charter surrendered, 492. In the Gordon riots, 627. Effect of French Revolution at, 643. Londonderry, siege of, 526. Relieved, ib. Longsword.William, natural son of Henry II., 120. Lopez, Roger, conspires to poison queen Elizabeth, 331. Lords, House of, 226. justices, 566,574. lieutenant of counties, instituted, 277. Loughborough, lord (see Wedderburn). Louis VI., the Fat, 101. j VII., alliance with INDEX. Henry II., 108. Supports Bucket, 112. Louis, prince (Louis VIII.), son of Philip 11., assists the English barons, 139. Evacuates England, 141. VIII., takes Rochelle, 142. IX., St., repulses Henry III., 143. Generous treaty with him, 147. Arbitrates between him and the barons, ib. Death, 149. XL, assists queen Mar- garet, 214. Forwards War- wick's invasion, 216 Treaty with Edward IV, 218. XII. , marries Mary, queen of Scots, 244. Death, ib. XIII., 364. XIV., character, 465. Invades the Netherlands, ib. Invades Holland, 468 Revokes Edict of Nantes, 503. Reception of James II., 513. Lends him a fleet, 525. Abets his in- vasion, 531. Acknow- ledges the Pretender, 543. Sues for peace, 558. Death, 568. XV., accession, 569 Invades Flanders, 588. XVI., aids the Ameri- cans, 623. Beheaded, 643. XVIIL, restored, 687. Flies, 690. Restored, 692. Philippe, king of the French, 701. Expelled, 711. Louis, prince of Baden, 552. Louis Napoleon, prince, 728 and note. Louisbourg, taken, 589, 601. Lovat, lord, temporizing conduct, 590, 592. Inter- view with Charles Edward, 593. Captured, 594. Exe- cuted, 595. Lovel, lord, insurreclion of, 231. Fate, 232. Lowe, Mr., reduces the in- come-tax, 730. Loyalists, American, indem- nified, 633. Lucas, sir Charles, executed, 421. Lucius, king, 15. Ludlow, colonel, 421, 434. Lundy, 525. Lupus, bishop, 15. Luther, Martin, 247. Lyndhurst, lord, chancellor, 698, 709. Lynedoch, lord (Graham), victory at Barrosa, 681. Lynn, disaster of king John at, 140. 795 Mansfield. Lyons, admiral lord, 715. Expedition to Kertch, etc., ib. Lytton, lord, viceroy of India, 731. M. MacAdam, 739. Macbeth, 64. Macclesfield, lord chancellor, fined for peculation, 577. , earl of, 595. MacDoiiald, Flora, 594. Maclan of Glencoe, 530. MTntosh, brigadier, 569. Macintosh, sir James, Vin- dicice Gallicm, 642. Mack, general, defeated at Ulm, 666. MacMahon, marshal, 727. President, 728. Madras, 609. Masatse, 11, 12. Magdala, stormed, 726. Magna Carta, 137. Annulled by Linocent HI., 139. Con- firmations of, 144, 149, 159. Maida, battle, 670. Main, the, plot, 347. Maintenon, madame de, 557. Maitland, captain, carries Napoleon to England, 692. Major-generals, Cromwell's, 441. Malcolm I., king of Scotland, vassal for Cumberland, 49. II., reduced by Canute, 60. III. (Canmore), 64 sq. Assists Edwin and Morcar against William I., 85. Marries Margaret, sister of Edgar Atheling, 87. Sub- dued by duke Robert, 96. , sir John, 718. Malmesbury, lord, embassy to Paris, 649. Malplaquet, battle, 558. Malta, taken by the French, 652. Surrendered, 657. Malt-tax, occasions riots in Scotland, 577. Manchester, earl of, takes Lincoln, 405. Defeats Charles at Newbury, 406, 407. , earl cf, lord chamber- lain, 454. Manchester, riots at, 695. Mancus (coin), 42. Mandeville, 226. Mandubratius, 7. Manfred, king of Sicily, 144. Manners, 518, 743. Manny, sir Walter, 172. Mansfield, lord (Murray), chief justice, 599, 615. Library burnt, 626. 796 Mantes. Mantes, burnt, 92. Manufactures, Flemish, in- troduced into England, 309. British, prohibited in France, 645, 740. Manwaring, impeached, 368. Mar's insurrection, 569. March, earl of: (1st), Roger Mortimer, created 1328 (see Mortimer). (3rd), Edmund, great- grandson, married Phi- lippa, heiress of Lionel duke of Clarence, third son of Edward III., 189 note, 207, and Gen. Table H. (4th), Roger, son, lord- lieutenant of Ireland, killed there, 189 note. (5th), Edmund, son, rightful heir after Richard II., 189 note. Conspiracy in his favour, 198. (6th), Edward, son of Richard duke of York, who was son of Anne, sister and heiress of Ed- mund (fifth earl), 211 (see Edward IV.). Margaret, sister of Edgar iEtheling, marries Mal- colm Canmore, 86. , the maid of Norway, 155. Queen of Scotland, ib. of France, marries Henry II., 108. , sister of Philip the Fair, marries Edward I., 160. of Anjou, marries Henry VI., 206. Gains the battle of Wakefield, 211. Of St. Alban's, ib. Army defeated at Towton, 214. Twice defeated, ib. Escapes to Flanders, ib. Reconciled with Warwick, 215. Lands at Weymouth, 217. Captured at Tewkes- bury, ib. Death, 218. , daughter of Henry VII., marries James IV of Scotland, 238. Regent of Scotland, 243. Maria Theresa of Austria, succession opposed, 585. Flies to Hungary, ib. Supported by English par- liament, 586. Louisa, archduchess, marries Napoleon I., 679. Marian exiles, 308. Markham, sir Griffin, plots against James I., 347. Marlborough, duke of, ex- pedition to Ireland, 528. Plots the restoration of James, 531. Committed to the Tower, ib. In- INDEX. forms James of Berkeley's expedition, 533. Captain- general, 550. Campaign, ib. Dukedom, 551. Un- popularity and intrigues with the Pretender, ib. Campaign, ib Victorious at Blenheim, 552. Con- cludes a treaty with Prussia, 553. Campaign, 554. Prince of the em- pire, ib. Victorious at Ramillies, ib. Further rewards, ib. Accused of extortion, 557. Victorious at Oudenarde, ib. At Malplaquet, 558. In- fluence declines, 559. Of- fended, 560. Absents himself from court, 561. Last campaign, 562. Charged with peculation, ib. Censured by the commons, 563. Retires to Antwerp, ib. Returns, 567. Reinstated as cap- tain-general, etc., ib. Sends a loan to the Pre- tender, 568. Death, 576. Character, ib. Marlborough, Charles, 2nd duke, expedition to Cher- bourg, 601, , duchess of, governs Anne, 550. Decline of her influence, 559. Marmont, marshal, 682. Marquess, title of, 227. Marriage (feudal), 128. Act, Royal 617. Marseilles, siege of, 248. Jdarston Moor, battle, 405. Mary de Bohun, wife of Henry IV., 196. , daughter of Henry VII., 238. Marries Louis XII., 244. Marries Bran- don, duke of Suffolk, ib. Mary I., daughter of Henry VIII., contracted to the dauphin, 245. To Charles V., 247. Rejects the Liturgy, 279. Retires into Norfolk, 282. Queen, reign of, 282-290. , queen of Scots, 268. Sent to France, 275 - As- sumes the arms of Eng- land, 294. Returns to Scotland, 296. Corre- sponds with Elizabeth, 298. Marries Darnley, *• Bears James, 300. Marries Bothwell, 302. Surrenders at Carberry Hill, ib. Confined at Lochleven castle, ib. Re- signs the crown, 303. Escapes to England, 304. Consents to a trial, ib. Melbourne. Carried to Bolton, ib. Refuses to plead, 305. Removed to Tutbury, 306. Entertains Norfolk's pro- posals, ib. Party in her favour, ib. Removed to Coventry, ib. Renews her correspondence with Nor- folk, 309. Implicated in Babington's conspiracy, 318. Conveyed to Fother- ingay castle, 319. Trial, ib. Condemned, 320. Exe- cution and character, 323 sq. Mart II., daughter of James II., marries prince of Orange, 473. Crown settled on, 515. Reign, 515-533. Death, 533. Masham, Mrs., ingratiates herself with queen Anne, 559. Massachusetts Bay, colony planted, 376. Massena, 666, 679, 680, 681. Masses, private, abolished, 276. Massey, dean, 506. Matilda, wife of the Con- queror, crowned, 85. , daughter of Malcolm III., marries Henry I., 99. , daughter of Eustace, count of Boulogne, marries Stephen, 103. , daughter of Henry I., married to the emperor Henry V., 102. Marries Geoffrey of Anjou, ib. Appointed Henry's suc- cessor, ib. Invades Eng- land, 104. Acknowledged as queen, 105. Flight, ib. Retires into Normandy, ib. Maud (see Matilda). Maurice, bishop of London, 98. , prince, 399, 401. Maximian, emperor, 11. Maximilian, emperor, serves under Henry VIIL, 243. Death, 245. Maximus, usurper, 12. Maynard, sergeant, 522. Maynooth college, endowed, 709. Mazarin, cardinal, 442. Mazzini, 722. Meal-tub plot, 486. Meath, kingdom of, 116. Mechanics' Institutes, 743. Medina, sir Solomon, accuses Marlborough, 562. Medina Sidonia, duke of, com- mands the Armada, 327. Meeanee, battle, 719. Meer Jaffier, 637. Melbourne, lord, home secre- Mellitus. tary. 702. Premier, 705. Supported by O'Connell, "06, 708 Resigns, 209. Mellitus bishop, 32. Melvil sir Robert, 321. . sir Andrew, 322. Melvill, sir James, evidence respecting Bothwell, 302. Melville, lord, charged with peculation, 665, 666. Mendoza, Spanish ambassa- dor, 318. Menou. general, 655, 659. Menscbikoff, prince, 714. Mercia, 22. The march, 28. History of, 38. Meres, sir Thomas, speaker, 483. Mesne lords, 125. Methodists, 743. Middle Saxons, or Middlesex, 27. Middlesex, earl of, treasurer, impeached, 360. Milan Decree, 673. Millennarians, 427. Conspire against Cromwell, 446. Milton, 516, 518. Minden, battle, 602. Minorca, taken by Stan- hope, 558. By the French, 598. Restored to Great Britain, 608. Lost, 629. Retaken, 653. Given up by peace of Amiens, 660. Minute men, 618. Mirabeau, besieged, 133. Mise of Lewes, 147. Misprision of treason, 258 and note. Mudena, Mary of, marries James, duke of York, 471. Moidart, seven men of, 589. Mompesson, sir Giles, im- peached, 356. Mona (Anglesey), 9. Monarchy abolished, 425. Monasteries suppressed, 261, 263, 292. Monckton, general, 607. Monk, general, 432. Suc- cesses in Scotland, 435. Commands under Blake, 436. Defeats Tromp, 440. Proclaims Richard Crom- well in Scotland, 449. Pro- tests against the expulsion of the parliament, 450. Enters London ,ib. Sends a message to Charles II., 451. Meets the king at Dover, 452. Created duke of Albemarle, 454 (see Albe- marle). Monmouth, birthplace of Henry V., 196. , duke of, 483. Routs the Scotch Covenanters, 486 Triumphal proces- sion, 493. Conspires INDEX. against the duke of York, ib. His projects, ib. Ab- sconds, 494. Recalled, 496. Banished, ib. In- vasion, 500. Assumes the title of king, 501. Defeat and flight, ib. Exe- cution, 502. Monopolies, 339. Montacute, lord, twice de- feats queen Margaret, 214. Deserts Edward IV., 216. , lord, executed, 264. Montague, answers sergeant Heyle, 340. , admiral, 443, 451. Created lord Sandwich, 454. Killed, 468. , ambassador at Paris, informs against Danby, 481. , sir James. 559. Montcalm, marquis de, go- vernor of Canada, 603. Monteith, sir J., betrays Wallace, 161. Montenegro, 736. Montfort, Simon de, earl of Leicester, 145 (see Leices- ter, earl of). , count de, claims Brit- tany, 172. Montmorency,constable, 297, 308. Montrose, earl of, victories, 410. Routed, 412. De- feated and hanged, 431. Moore, commodore, 665. , general sir John, 675. Invades Spain, ib. Killed, 676. Morcar, earl of Northum- berland, 66. Proclaims Edgar iEtheling, 82. Sub- mits, 83, 84. Rebels, 85. Joins Hereward, 88. Mordannt, earl of Peter- borough, 522. , general sir John, 600. More, sir Thomas, chan- cellor, 252. Resigns, 256. Refuses the oath to the suc- cession, 258. Executed, 260. , Pogcr, rebels, 387. Moreau, general, 646, 657. Jlvir/ev-ijij'u, morning gifts (queen's dowry), 71. Morley, Mrs., assumed name of queen Anne, 550. Moriier, marshal, 664,670. Mortimer's Cross, battle, 211. Mortimer, Roger, intrigues with queen Isabella, 165. Puts Edward II. to death, 166. Surprised and exe- cuted by Edward III., 169. (See March, earl of.) Mortmain, statute of, 153. Morton, bishop of Ely, 222. 797 Napoleon. Archbishop of Canterbury, 231. Morton, chancellor of Scot- land, 300, 303. Morville, Hugh de, 113. Moscow, entertd by Napo- leon, 684. burnt, ib. Mountcashel, lord, defeated and captured, 526. Mounteagle, lord, warned of the gunpowder plot, 349. Mowbray, earl of Notting- ham, rebels against Henry IV., 194. Executed, ib. Municipal Reform Act, 706. Munro, sir Hector, 639. Munster, kingdom of, 116. Murat, king of Naples, 674. Murray, earl of, 299. Regent, 303. Submits to Elizabeth, 305. Assassinated, 307. , lord George, joins Charles Edward, 590, 592, 593. Escapes, 594. Muscovy, trade with, 290. Musgrave, sir Philip, 420. Mutiny at Spithead and the Nore, 650. Act, origin, 524. N. Namur taken, 535. Nantes, edict, revoked, 503. Nantwich, battle, 405. Napier, admiral sir Charles, 714. , general sir Charles, conquers Scinde, 718. , sir Robert (lord N.), storms Magdala, 726. Naples, taken by the French, 653. Napoleon Bonaparte, besieges Toulon, 644. Threatens invasion of England, 651. Expedition to Egypt, 652. In Palestine, 654. Returns to France, 655. First con- sul, ib. Addresses a letter to George III., 657. Power and magnificence, 661. In- sults our ambassador, 664. Emperor Napoleon I., 665. King of Italy, 666. Occu- pies Vienna, ib. Seizes Portugal, 673. And Spain, 674. Enters Vienna, 678. Marries Maria Louisa, ib. Excommunicated, ib. Ex- pedition to Russia, 683. Defeat in Germany, 686. Abdicates, 688. Lands at Cannes, 689 Campaign in Belgium, 690. Defeat at Waterloo, 692. Flight on board the Bellerophon, ib. Conveyed to St. Helena, 693. Death, in 1821, ib. II. (nominal'), 692. III., emperor, 713. At- 798 Napoleon. tempt to assassinate, 720. Declares war with Prussia, 727. Taken prisoner, ib. Death, 728. Napoleon, prince imperial (see Louis Napoleon). Naseby, battle, 411. National debt, 517, 634, 693, 722, 741. Nau, queen Mary's secretary, 320. Navarino, battle, 699. Navarre, king of, 297. Navarrete, battle, 180. Navigation laws, 435. Re- pealed, 711, 747. Navy, increase of, under Elizabeth, 341. Under the Stuarts, 517. Nelson, at siege of Calvi, 647. At St. Vincent, 650. Victory at Aboukir, 653. Made a peer, ib. Captures Leghorn, ib. Victory at Copenhagen, 658. At- tempts Boulogne, 659. Chases the French fleet, 667. At Trafalgar, 668. Death, ib. Funeral, 669. Neutrality, armed, 627, 657. Neville's Cross, battle, 175. Neville, earl of Westmore- land, 194. Newark, Scotch army at, 413. Newburn, battle, 379. Newbury, battles, 402, 406. Newcastle, seized by Cove- nanters, 380, 406. Newcastle, marquess of, forms a league for Charles I., 400. Attempts Hull, 402 Retreats, 405. Re- tires to the continent, 406. duke of, secretary, 582, 5S6. Prime minister, 597. Vacillating policy, 598. Resigns, 599. Returns, ib. Resigns, 607. Newfoundland, colonized, 354. Newport, riots at, 708. Newspapers, 519, 534. Newton Butler, battle of, 526 New York, acquired from the Dutch, 464. Ney, marshal, 690. Niagara, taken, 602. Nicholas, sir Edward, secre- tary, 454. , zar, quarrels with the Porte, 713. Death, 715. Nightingale, Florence, 715. Nile, battle of the, "53. Nimeguen, peace of, 473. Nithisdale, lord, escape from the Tower, 571. Nivetle. battle at the, 686 Noailles, marshal, 586. INDEX. Nobles, English, condition of, 125. Degrees of, 227. Non-addresses, vote of, 420. Repealed, ib. Renewed, 422. Nonconformists, penal laws against, suspended by pro- clamation, 468. Nonjurors, 524. Deprived, 529. Non-resistance, oath of, 456. Norfolk, insurrection in, 277. Norfolk, duke of, quells an insurrection, 250. An- other, 263. Arrests Crom- well, 266. Prime minister, 267. Commands against the Scots, 268. Attaint and narrow escape, 271. Restored, 284. — , duke of, commis- sioner to try the queen of Scots, 304. Proposes mar- riage to her, 306. Com- mitted, but released, ib, Conspires with Alva, 310. Executed, ib. Normanby, marquess of, privy seal, 549. Normandy (Neustria), seized by the Northmen, 41. His- tory of, 79. Name, when first used, 80. Reduced by Henry I., 100. Legislation in, 127. Reunited to France, 134. Lower, sub- dued by Henry V., 199. Normans, influence of, in England, 62. Character of the, 81. Language, ib. Amalgamate with the Saxons, 132 and note. Norris, sir John, 329. Com- mands in Ireland, 333. , sir John, admiral, 573. North, lord, chancellor of exchequer, 615. Prime minister, 616. Measure respecting tea, ib. At- tempts to conciliate the Americans, 623. Resigns, 629. Secretary, 635. Dis- missed, ib. Regulating Act, 637. North American colonies, de- scribed, 612. Discontents in, ib., 616. War breaks out in, 619. Worth Briton paper, 607. No. Forty-five, 610, 611. North Foreland, battle off, 462. Northampton, council of, 112. , battle, 210. Northcote, sir Stafford, 731. Northing-ton, lord chancellor, 614. Northmen (Danes, etc.) 41. Manners, ib. Seize Nor- Officers. mandy, ib. Ravage Eng- land, 42. Northumberland, Percy, earl of, rises against Henry IV., 193, 194. , Dudley, earl of War- wick, becomes duke of (see Warwick), 280. Ruins Somerset, ib. Attempts to alter the succession, ib. His fall, 283. , Percy, earl of, conspires for the queen of Scots, 306. Executed, 310. , Percy, earl of, sides with the commons, 3S9. Northumbria, kingdom of, 28, 34. Norway, Maid of, 155. Norwegians in Scotland, 41. Nott, general, 718. Nottingham, royal standard, erected at, 394. castle, Isabella and Mor- timer seized at, 168. Burnt, 703. , earl of, chancellor, 471. Secretary, 522, 550. Bill to prevent occa- sional conformity, 562. President of council, 567. Novel disseisin, assize of, 150. Noy, attorney-general, 372. Nuncio, papal, received by James II., 506. o. Oak, royal, 433. Oates, Titus, history, 477. Pensioned, 480. Evidence against Stafford, 489. Fined and imprisoned, 496. Fined, whipped, and pil- loried, 500. Pensioned, 527. Oaths, judicial, among the Anglo-Saxons, 75. , parliamentary, 721. O'Brien, Smith, rebellion, 711. Transported, ib. O'Connell, Daniel, 698. Or- ganizes Catholic Associa- tion, ib. Returned for Clare, 700. Advocates re- peal of the Union, 703. Supports lord Melbourne, 706. His "Tail," 709. Con- victed of sedition, ib. Death, 710. Octa, son of Hengest, 25. Odin (see AVoden) Odo, archbishop of Canter- bury, his brutality to Elgiva, 52. , bishop of Bayeux, 84. Conspires against Rufus, 95. Offii, king of Mercia, 36. . Officers, council of, 449. Re« O'Hara. stores the Long Parlia- ment, ib. Expels it, 450. O'Hara, general, 644. Olaf of Norway, invades England, 54. Oldcastle, sir John (lord Cobham), heads the Lol- lards, 197. Executed, ib. " Olive Branch," the Ameri- can petition, 620. Oltenitza, battle of, 713. Omar Pasha, 713. O'Neale, sir Phelim, rebels, 387. Onslow, speaker, his address to queen Elizabeth, 340. Opdam, Dutch admiral, 460. Orange, William I., prince of, founds the Dutch re- public, 311. Assassinated, 316. , William II., 469 note. , William III., prince of, 469. Marries princess Mary, 473. Invitation to England, 509. Declara- tion, 511. Lands in Tor- bay, ib. Marches to London, 513. Summons a convention, 514. British crown settled on, 515 (see William III.). , prince of, 646. , prince of, at Quatre- Bras, 690. Wounded, 692. Orangemen, 656. Ordeals, 75. Abolished, 128. Ordovices, 9. Orford, earl of (Russell), 536 (see Russell). (see Walpole). Orkney, countess of, 539. Orleans, besieged by English, 202. Relieved by Joan of Arc, 203. , Maid of, 203 (see Joan of Arc). , duchess of, negociates treaty of Dover, 466. , duke of, regent, 572. Ormesby, justiciary of Scot- land, 160. Ormond, marquess of, lord- lieutenant of Ireland, 404. Delivers Dublin, etc., to parliament, 414, 429. Proceeds to France, 429. Successes and reverses in Ireland, £6. Leaves it, 430. Conspires against Cromwell, 446. Created a duke, 454. Recalled from Ireland, 504. , duke of, attacks Vigo, 550. Lord-lieu tenant of Ireland, 560. Commands in Flanders, 563. Im- peached and attainted, 568. Invades England, 570. Orthez, battle of, 687. INDEX. O'Ruarc, prince of Breffny, 116. Osborne, sir Thomas, 471 (see Danby). Osman Pasha, 733. Ostorius, 9 (see Scapula). Oswald, king of North umbria and Bretwalda, 34. Slain, ib. Oswy, king of Northumbria and Bretwalda, 34. Otho, king of Greece, 699. Otterbourne, battle, 187. Onde, annexation of, 719. Oudenarde, battle, 557. Overbury, sir Thomas, ad- vises Carr, 352. Poisoned, ib. Oxford, Provisions of, 145. Annulled, 147. Parlia- ment assembled at, 363. Occupied by Charles I., 400. Parliament at, 404. Invested by Fairfax, 410. Parliament at, 461, 490. Its violence, 490. University, 47. Decree of, condemned by the peers, 560. Oxford, De Vere, earl of, treats with James II., 512. , Harley, earl of (see Harley), treasurer, 562. Dismissed, 565. Im- peached and committed, 568. Interview with Or- mond, ib. P. Pack, alderman, 444. Paine, Thomas, 620, 642. Pale, English of the, join the Irish rebellion, 387. Palliser, sir Hugh, court- martial on, 624. Palmerston, lord, 679. Sec- retary at war, 699. Foreign secretary, 702. Premier, 715. Resigns, 721. Second ministry, 722, 724. Death, 724. Pampluna, taken, 685. Pandulf, papal envoy, 135. Papists, tire of London as- cribed to, 463. Paris, evacuated by the Eng- lish, 205. Peace of (1763), 608. Entered by allies, 688,692. Peace of (1782\ 633, (1814), 693, (1856), 717. Invested by the Ger- mans, 728. Parker, archbishop of Canter- bury, 293, 315. , bi>hop df Oxford, presi- dent of Magdalen ColUge, 506. , sir Hyde, admiral, 629, 658. ■ , Richard, mutineer, 651. 799 Peers. Parliament, Anglo-Norman, 126. When assembled, ib. Mad, 145. Leicester's, 148. Advance under Edward III., 182. Progress of, 226. Division into two houses, 227. Long, 380. Act for triennial, 383. Subjected by army, 417. Proposals to the king, 419. Bump, 422. Dismissed by Crom- well, 438. Barebone's, 439. Restored by the officers, 450 Expelled, ib. Re- stored, 451. Renounces military authority, 455. Act for triennial, 533. Act for septennial, 571. , Scotcli, meets Edward I. at Norham, 156. , Irish, independence ac- knowledged, 630. Parma, duchess of, governs the Netherlands, 309. , duke of, commands the Spanish army of invasion, 327, 328. Parr, Katharine, marries Henry VIII., 268, 270. Marries lord Seymour, 276. Parry, design to assassinate queen Elizabeih, 316. Parsons, Jesuit, 315. Parties, at outbreak of civil war, 397. Partition treaty (Spanish), first, 537. Second, 540. Disapproved by parliament, 542. Pascal II., pope, 101. Passaro, action off, 574. Patrick, St., 115. Paul, czar, 657. Assassi- nated, 658. Paul's, St., 32. Paulinus, Suetonius, 9. , archbishop of York, 34. Pauw, pensionary, 436. Pavia, battle, 249. Pecquigny, treaty of, 218. Violated by Louis XL, 219. Peel, sir Robert, 695. Home secretary, 697. Resigns, 698. Returns, 700. Intro- duces Catholic Relief Bill, ib. Resigns, 702. Short premiership, 706. Premier again, 709. Graduated corn-duties, ib. Income- tax,*. Repeals corn-laws, 710. Resigns, 711. Death, ib. Peerage, original right of, by tenure, 226. By writ, ib. By letters patent, ib. Peers, house of, abolished, 425. Restored bv Crom- well, 445. Resume their authority, 452. Creation of twelve new, 563. 800 P<_!agTus. 1'elagius, heresy of, 15. Pelham, first lord of treasury, 587. Negotiates with Pitt, 588. Death, 597. 1 Jlissier, general, 716. Peltier, convicted of libelling Bonaparte, 663. Pembroke, William, earl of, a founder of English liberty, 136. Protector, 1 40. Renews Magna Carta, 141. , Aymer de Valence, earl of, defeats Bruce, 162. Con- spires aga'nst Gaveston, 163. - — , Jasper Tudor, earl of, 201, 211. . ■, Herbert, earl of, sent to Netherlands, 289. Penda, king of Mercia, 34. Penderells, the, conceal Charles II., 433. P&ndragon, title, 30. Peninsular war, 674, 685. Penn, admiral, 436, 440. Con- quers Jamaica, 443. , William, 518. Pennsylvania, 518. Pepys, secretary, 518. Perceval, Spencer, chancellor of exchequer, 671. Pre- mier, 679. Assassinated, 682. Percy, earl, defeats David Bruce, 175. , feuds with Douglas, 187. Supports Wickliffe, 190. Rebels, 193. Percy, Thomas, in the gun- powder plot, 348, 350. Perkins, sir William, exe- cuted, 536. Perrers, Alice, 181. Persecution under Mary,«287. Peter, bishop of Winchester, justiciary, 142. ■ the Cruel, of Castile, restored by Black Prince, 180. the Hermit, 96. II. of Portugal, joins the Grand Alliance, 551. Peterborough, earl of, ex- pedition to Spain, 554 (see Mordaunt). " Peterloo," 695. Peter's-pence, 37. Peters, Hugh, executed, 455. Petersburg, St., treaty of, 658. Petition, right of, 228. of Right, 367, 394. Pftre, lord, impeached, 480. Philadelphia, congress at, 619. Taken, 622. Philibert, duke of Savoy, 289. Philip II. of Prance, supports prince Richard, 119. Ac- companies him in crusade, 121. Quits Palestine, 122. , INDEX. Invades Normandy, ib. Supports Arthur of Brit- tany, 132, 133. Condemns king John, ib. Regains Normandy, Anjou, etc., 134. Prepares to invade England, 135. Cajoled by the pope, ib. Victory at Bouvines, 136. Assists the English barons, 139. Philip III., the Hardy, 154. IV., the Fair, 154. Cites Edward I. as his vassal, 157. VI., 170. Peace with Edward III., 171. Philip, archduke, detained by Henry VII., 238. Philip Il.of Spain.proposed to Mary, 285. Marriage, 2S6. Protects princess Elizabeth, 287. Political views, 289. Proposes to marry Eliza- beth, 292. Foments a rebellion in Ireland, 312. Prepares to invade Eng- land, 325. Again, 332. Death, 333. V. of Spain, duke of An- jou, appointed to Spanish throne, 540, 553. Driven from Madrid, 554. Offer to relinquish Spain, 558. De- feated, ib. Hostile designs of, 573. Accedes to Quad- ruple Alliance, ib. Philiphaugh, battle, 412. Philippa, queen (166), inter- cedes for burghers of Calais, 175. Philippine islands, taken, 607. Phoenicians, trade for tin with Britain, 2. Pichegru, general, 646. Pickering, in popish plot, 478. Executed, 482. Picton, general, 690. Killed, 692. Picts, 12, 17. Picts' wall. 11. Piedmont, united to France, 661. Pierre, Eustace de, 175. Pilgrim Fathers, the, 376. Pilgrimage of Grace, 262. Pilnitz, conference at, 643. Pinkie, battle, 275. Pitt, William, 583 (see Chatham, earl of). — , William, the younger, enters public life, 630. Ad- vocates parliamentary re- form, ib. Chancellor of ex- chequer, 031. Prime minis ter, 635. India bill, ib Financial reform, ib Commercial treaty with France, ib. Reform bill rejected, 636. Speech on impeachment of Hastings, Potteries. 640. Assists the French loyalists, 648. Abandons parliamentary reform, 656. Advocates catholic eman- cipation, 657. Letter to George HI., ib. Resigns, ib. Premier again, 664. Popularity, ib. Death and public, funeral, 669. Pitt, lady Hester, created baroness Chatham, 607. Pius V., pope, excommuni- cates Elizabeth, 307. VII., pope, carried to Savona, 678. Restored, 688. Placemen, their election to parliament regulated, 542. Plague, yellow, 35. Great, of London, 461. Plantagenet, etymology, 107. House of, ib. Period, cha- racteristics of, 225. Plassy, battle, 609. Plevna, siege of, 733. Plymouth, battle off, 436. Poitiers, battle, 177. Pole, de la, earl of Suffolk and chancellor, 186. , cardinal Reginald, at- tacks Henry VIII., 264. Abets a rebellion, 267. Legate, 286. Primate, 288. Death, 290. Police, new, 703. Poll-tax, under Richard II., 184. Pollalore, battle, 639. Pollock, general, 718. Pompadour, madame de, 605. Pondicherry, taken, 606. Re- stored, 008. Ponsonby, general sir Wil- liam, killed, 692. Pont-a-chin, battle, 646. Pontefract castle, earl of Lan- caster executed at, 165. Poor-laws, 705, 745. Pope, exactions of the, 144. Popham, sir Home, expedi- tion to Ostend, 652. Popish plot, 477 sq. Population at the Revolution, 740. At the last census, ib. Portland, battle off, 437. , earl of, 522. Negotiates peace of Rv^wick, 536. - — , duke u, G31. Premier, 635, 671. Death, 679. Porto Bello, taken, 584. Novo, battle, 639. Portsmouth, duchess of, mis- tress of Charles II., 488. Portugal, alliance with, 457. Seized by French, 673. Post, established, 517. Re- formed, 740. Potato rot, 710. Potteries, 739, Poulet. Poulet, sir Amyas, 318. Powys, lord, impeached, 480. Poynings, governor of Ire- land, 235. His "Law," ib. note. I'rn munire, statute of, 191, 252. Whole body of clergy guilty of, 256. Pragmatic Sanction, 585. Prague, battle, 356. Treaty of, 726. Pratt, chief justice, declares general warrants illegal, 611. Made Lord Camden, 613. Chancellor, 614. Preaching, regulated, 275. Silenced, 284, 292. Prendergast, betrays Bar- clay's conspiracy, 535. Presbyterians, 406. Preston Pans, battle, 591. Pretender (James), at- tempted invasion, 557. Issues a manifesto, 568. Invades Scotland, 570. Character, ib. Flight, 571. Expelled France, 572. Marries princess Sobieski, ib. Strange manifesto, 576. Appoints his son regent, 587. Death, 596. — (Charles Edward), de- scent in Scotland, 589. Erects his standard, 590. Proclaims James VIII., ib. Defeats sir J. Cope, 591. Enters England, 592. Ad- vances to Manchester and Derby, ib. Retreats, ib. Defeated at Culloden, 593. Escapes to Morluix, 594. Expelled from France, 596. Subsequent life, ib. Pride, colonel, 422. Petition against office of king, 445. Priestley, Dr., 642. Primer Seisin, 128. Primiceriw, title of, 70. Prince Edward's Island, taken, 601. Printing, introduction of, 219, 226. Privy council, remodelled, 484. Proclamation, king's, nade law, 265. Penal laws sus- pended by, 468. Prophesyings, 315. " Protectionists," 710. Protector, title of, 201. Protectorate, Cromwell's, es- tablished, 439. I'rovisions, papal, 191. Provisors, statute of, 183, 256. Prussia, subsidized, 645. Ac- cdes to armed neutrality, 658. Seizes Hanover, ib. Conquered by the French, 670. Joins coalition INDEX, against France, 686. An- nexes Schleswig, 724. Alliance with J taly against Austria, 726. Annexations in Germany, ib. War with France, 727, 728. Prynne, pilloried and fined, 373. Pulteney, secretary at war, 567. Earl of Bath, 585. Supports inquiry about Walpole, ib. Punishments, Anglo-Saxon, 74. Purchase in the army, abo- lished, 729. Puritans, rise of the, 307. Favoured by Cecil, Leices- ter, and others, 308. Dif- ferent kinds of, 375. Emi- grate to America, 376. Pym, carries up Strafford's impeachment, 380. Cha- racter, 381. Accused of treason, 390. Death, 404. Pyrenees, battle* of the, 686. Q. Quakers, origin, 518. Quatre Bras, battle, 690. Quebec, taken, 603. Quentin, St., battle, 289. Querouaille, 497 (see Ports- mouth, duchess of). Quiberon, battle off, 602. Expedition to, 648. Quo vjarranto, writ of, 492. B. " Radicals," 695. Raglan, lord, commands ex- pedition against Russia, 714. Death, 716. Railways, 701, 739. Raleigh, sir Walter, founds Virginia, 317. Imprisoned, 332. Expedition to Gui- ana, ib. Plot against James I., 347. Reprieved, ib. Second expedition to Guiana, 354. Execution, 355. Ramillies, battle, 554. Ransom, feudal, 128, 137. Rapes, Saxon, 26. Rapparees, 529. Rastadt, congress of, 653. Ratcliffe, sir Richard, 220. Ravaillac. assassinates Henry IV., 351. Read, alderman, enrolled as a soldier, 339. Reading, taken by Essex, 400. Recognitors, 118, 150. Recusants, act against, 331. Compositions with, 372. Redwald, king of East Angles, and firetwalda, 33. Reform, parliamentary, ad- 801 Richmond. vocated by lord Chatham and William Pitt, 630. Partial, effected, ib. Pitt's bill for, lost, 635. Be- comes a national question, 693. Lord John Russell's bill, 702. Riots respecting, 703. Carried, ib. Provi- sions of, ib. Second act, 726. Reformation, progress, 247, 269, 274. Opposed by Gar- diner, 275. Scotch, ib. Images, etc., abolished,276. Discontent at, ib. Op- posed by Mary, 284. For- warded by Elizabeth, 292. In Scotland, 294. In France, 297. Finally es- tablished in England, 298. Review of, 341. Regalia, Scotch, carried to London, 435. Reged, kingdom, 30. Regency, the, 681. Regicides, fate oft 454, 455. Reginald, elected to see of Canterbury, 134. Reliefs, 128, 137. Remonstrance, grand, 388. Representation, parliamen- tary, 227. Restitutus, bishop, 15. Revenue, Anglo-Norman, 128. Under James II., 517. " Rex Anglorum," title as- sumed by Edward the Elder, 49, 70. Rhine, confederation of the, 666. Pubaumont, vanquished by Edward HI., 176. Rich, lord, Cromwell's son- in-law, 445. Richard I., " Sans Peur," of Normandy, 80. II. of Normandy, 81. RiCHAED I., rebels against his father, 117, 119. Reign of, 120-124. II., reign of, 183-191. HI., reign of, 222-224. , son of the Conqueror, death, 92. , earl of Cornwall, king of the Romans, 144, 147. Richborough, 15. Richelieu, cardinal, besieges Rochelle, 366. Assists the Covenanters, 377. Richmond, Edmund Tudor, earl of, 201. , Henry, earl of, descent, 222. Engages to marry Elizabeth of York, ib. Lands at Milford Haven, 224. Defeats Richard lit. at Bosworth, ib. Saluted king, 230 (see He^te* VIL). 802 Richmond. Richmond, duke of, son of Charles II., 497 vote. , duke of, moves address for peace with America, 623. Ridley, bishop of London, 284. Burnt, 287. Rights, Declaration of, 515. Bill of, 527, 544. Rikenild Street, 13 {see Ikenild). Rinuceini, papal nuncio in Ireland, 429. Riot, on burning of the North Briton, 610. (see Gordon). Ripon, treaty of, 380. , earl of (see Goderich). Rivers, earl, tutor of Edward V., 219. Imprisoned by Gloucester, ib. Killed, 220. Rizzio, David, 299. Mur- dered, 300. Roads, 517, 739. Robert the Devil, 81. , son of William the Con- queror, rebels, 90. Obtains Normandy and Maine, 92. Agreement with Rufus, 95. Subdues Malcolm, 96. Mortgages his dominions, ib. Invades England, 99. Treaty with Henry I., ib. Captured by him, 100. Dies at Cardiff castle, ib. , earl of Gloucester, re- volts from Stephen, 104. Invades England, ib. Cap- tures Stephen, 105. Cap- tured, ib. Exchanged, ib. Robert III. of Scotland, his misfortunes, 195. Robespierre, executed, 646. Robinson, sir Thomas, sec- retary, 597. , Mr. (see Goderich). Rochelle, Buckingham's ex- pedition to, 366. Sur- rendered, 369. Roches, Peter des, bishop of Winchester, 142. Rochester, bishopric founded, 33. castle, besieged by king John, 139. Rochester, earl of (Hyde), 492. Treasurer, 500. Dis- missed, 504. L'ord-lieu- tenant of Ireland, 540. Pre- sident of council, 560. Rochfort, viscount, brother of Anne Boleyn, 261. , viscountess, accuses Anne Boleyn, 261. Exe- cuted, 267. Rockingham, marquess of, prime minister, 613. Again, 629. Death, 631. Roderick O'Connor, king of Connaught, 116, 117. INDEX. Rodney, admiral, bombards Havre, 601. Takes Mar- tinico, 607. Victory at Cape St. Vincent, 627. Takes St. Eustatius, 629. Defeats De Grasse, 631. Made a baron, ib. Roger, archbishop of York, crowns prince Henry, 113. , earl of Hereford, 88, 89. Rogers, prebendary, burnt, 287. Rokeby, sir T., defeats Northumberland, 194. Rolica, battle, 675. Rollo, or Rolf the Ganger, obtains Neustria, 80. Romans, abandon Britain, 13. Civilization under the, ib. Rome, sacked by Bourbon's troops, 250. Evacuated by the French, 723. Rom-feoh, or Rome-scot, 37 (see Peter's-pence). Romilly, sir Samuel, 743. Rooke, admiral sir G., 533. Attacks Vigo, 550. Takes Gibraltar, 554. Rosen, marshal de, besieges Londonderry, 526. Roses, symbols of York and Lancaster, 210. Wars of, 212. Rosetta Stone, 660 note. Ross, general, 689. Killed, ib. Rouen, peace of, 81. Prince Arthur murdered at, 133. Surrendered to Philip, 134. Taken by Henry V., 199. Joan of Arc burnt at, 205. Roumania, 736. Roumelia, Eastern, 736. Roundheads, 389. Rouse, speaker, 439. Rowena, 24. Roxburgh, ceded to England, 118. Sold by Richard I., 121. Royal George, sinks. 631. Royal Society, founded, 519. Ruim (Thanet), 38. Rumbold, engaged in Rye- house plot, 494. Rumsey, colonel, betrays Monmouth's conspiracy, 494. Runnymede, Magna Carta signed at, 137. Rupert, prince, cavalry battle nearWorcester,399. Takes Bristol, 401. Defeated at Marston Moor, 405. Sur- renders Bristol, 412. Dis- missed, ib. Chased by Blake, 434. Commands an English fleet, 462. High admiral, 470. Russell, lord, quells insur- rection in Devonshire, 277. Salisbury. Russell, William, lord, con- spires against duke of York, 493. Projects an insurrection, ib. Trial and execution, 494. Attainder reversed, 527. , lady, pleads for her husband, 494. , admiral, a Jacobite, 531. Queen Mary's letter to, 532. Defeats the French fleet at La Hogue, ib. Earl of Orford, 542 (see Orford). , lord John, carries repeal of Test and Corpora- tion Acts, 699. Introduces Parliamentary Reform Bill, 702. Its provisions, 703. Declares against the corn-laws, 710. Premier, 711. Foreign secretary, 722. Earl Russell (1861). Premier again, death, 725. Russia, subsidiary treaties with, 598, 645. League with, 666, 685. Attacks the Turkish dominions, 713. War with, ib., 132 sq. Designs against Turkey, 732. War, 733. Relations with England, 735. Ruth, St , 529. Killed, ib. Ruthven, lord, murders Rizzio, 300. , earl of Brentford, 406. Rutland, earl of, betrays a plot against Henry IV., 193. , earl of, killed, 211. , duke of, privy seal, 635. Rutupia?, 14. Ruyter, de, admiral, 436. Defeated by Albemarle, 462. Sails up the Thames, 464. Ryder, sir Dudley, 599. , hon. R., home secre- tary, 679. Rye-house plot, 494. Ryswick, treaty of, 536. s. Sacheverell, Dr., sermon, 559. Impeached, 560. Sus- pended, ib. Journey to Wales, 561. Sackville, lord George, misbehaviour at Minden, 602. Dismissed, ib. Sadler, sir Ralph, 304. Sadowa, battle, 726. Saintes, Gamier des, de- nounces Pitt, 645. Saladin, takes Jerusalem, 119. Richard's truce with, 122. Salamanca, French barbarity at, 683. Battle of, ib. Sale, general, 718. Salisbury, earl of, attacks Salisbury. the French harbours, 135. Defeats Louis VIII., 142. Salisbury, Nevil, earl of, be- headed, 211. , countess of, attainted, 264. Executed, 267. , earl of (see Cecil). , marquis of, 730. Foreign secretary, 735. San Roque, lines of, 582. Sancroft, archbishop of Can- terbury, 507. A nonjuror, 524. Deprived, 529. Sandwich, lord, ridiculed by Wilkes, 611. Sandys, chancellor of the ex- chequer, 585. Saragossa, battle, 558. Saratoga, convention of, 622. Sardinia, sends an army to the Crimea, 716. Sarsfield, 529. Sautre, William, burnt, 193. Savage, John, sent over to assassinate queen Eliza- beth, 317. Saville, sir George, 625. Savoy, conference in the, 456. Savoy, duke of, joins Grand Alliance, 551. Invades France, 557. Saxe, marshal, 588. Saxon pirates, 11. Saxons, called in by the Britons, 13. Tribes, 21. Religion, 22. Ships, 23. Arms, ib. First settle- ment, 24. Conquest, 25. Historical value of, ib. note. Second settlement, 26. Third settlement, ib. Fourth and fifth settle- ments, 27. Sixth settle- ment, 28. Kingdoms united by Egbert, 38. Saxons amalgamate with Nor- mans, 132 and note. Say, lord, privy seal, 454. Saye and Sele, lord, refuses to pay the ship-money, 375. Scandinavians, 41 [see North- men, Danes). Scapula, Ostorius, 9. Scarsdale, earl of, 531. Schism Act, 562, 574. Schlesvvig, ceded to Prussia, 724, 726. Schomberg, marshal, 523. Lands in Ireland, 526. Killed, 528. Schonbrunn, peace of, 678. Schwartz, Martin, 232. Scindiah, 717. k'cir-gemot (shire-mote), 73. gerefa (sheriff), 73. Scone, Charles II. crowned at, 432. Scotia (Ireland), 12. Scotland, claims to crown of, 155. First alliance with INDEX. France, 157. Overrun by Edward I., 158. Again, 160. Delivered by Bruce, 164. Truce with, 165. Part of, ceded to Edward III., 170. Reduced under the Commonwealth, 435. Royal authority restored in, 455. William III. ac- knowledged in, 525. Par- liament rejects bill for Hanoverian succession, 555 sq. Effect in England, 556. Union with, 555, 556. Scots, 12, 17. Defeated by Edward I. at Falkirk, 160. Invade England, 167. Treaty with the, 168. De- feated at Halidon Hill, 170. Assist the dauphin (Charles VII.), 200. Routed at Solway, 268. Impose conditions on Charles I., 414. Deliver him up, ib. Displeased with English parliament, 420. Protest against the king's trial, 424. Proclaim Charles II., 428. Scott, sir John, 657 (see Eldon). Scroggs, chief justice, 485, 489. Scrope, archbishop of York, rebellion and execution, 194. , lord, executed, 198. Scutage (escuage), 128, 137. Sebastian, San, taken, 687. Sebastiani. marshal, 672, 677. Sebert, king of Essex, 32. Secret-service money, 585. Limited, 630. Security, Act of (Scotch), 555. Sedan, battle, 727. Sedgemoor, battle, 501. Segontiaci, 7. Selby, battle, 405. Selden, 363. Select men, at Boston, 620. Self-denying ordinance, 408. Senlac (field of Hastings), 82. Septennial Act, 571. Serfs, 72. Sergeantry, grand 126. Seringapatam, taken, 717. Servian war, 732, 736. Settlement, Act of, 541. Sevastopol, invested, 713. Taken, 716. Seven Years' War, 600, 608. Severus, overruns Caledonia, 11. Dies at York, ib. Seville, treaty of, 582. Sevmour, Jane, third wife of Henry VII I., 261, 262. Death, 265. , Edward (see Somerset). , admiral lord, 275. Mar- 803 Siegirid. ries the queen dowager, 276. Executed, ib. Seymour, Mr., impeaches lord Clarendon, 464. , sir Edward, supports the prince of Orange, 511. Shaftesbury, earl of, dis- missed, 471. Abets the duke of Monmouth, 483. President of the council, 484. Advises the Exclu- sion Bill, ib. Dismissed, 486. Indicts the duke of York, 487. Indicted for treason, 491. Conspires against the duke, 493. Retirement and death, ib. Shah Alum, 637. Shannon, frigate, takes the Chesapeake, 689. Sharpe, archbishop of St. Andrews, 457. Murdered, 486. , Granville, 671. , Dr., sermon, 504, 505. Shaw, Dr., sermon at Paul's Cross, 221. Sheerness, destroyed by the Dutch, 464. Shelburne, earl of, secretary, 614, 629. Prime minister, 631. Resigns, 635. Sheldon, bishop, 458. Shepherd, betrays ' Mon- mouth's plot, 494. Shere Ali, 737. Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 630, 631, 641. Sheriffmuir, battle, 569. Ship-money, 366, 374. Op- posed by Hampden, 375. Ships, Saxon 23. Shires, or counties, 73. Shore, Jane, penance, 221. , sir John, governor- general of India, 717. Shovel, sir Cloudesley, 554. Blockades Toulon, 557. Lost at sea, ib. Shrewsbury, battle, 194. Shrewsbury, earl of, super- intends the execution of queen Mary, 322. , earl of, secretary, 522. , duke of, lord chamber- lain, 560. Defeats Boling- broke's schemes, 565. Treasurer,*. Resigns, 567. Sidmouth, lord (see Adding- ton). President of council, 665. Retires, 697. Sidney, sir Philip, 317, 516. , Algernon, joins Mon- mouth's conspiracy, 493. Apprehended, 494. His- tory, 495. Execution, ib. Attainder reversed, 527. Sidonius, bishop, 23. Sicgfrid, tin- pirate, 46. 804 Silures. Silures, 9. Simnel, Lambert, personates the young earl of War- wick, 232, 233. Simon, Richard, incites the pretender Simnel, 231, 232. Simpson, general, 716. Sinope, 713. Si ward, earl of Northumber- land, 63, 64. Six Articles, law of, 265. Re- pealed, 275. Slave-trade, abolished, 671. Slavery, abolished, 705. Sledda, 27. Slingsby, sir H., beheaded, 446. Sluys, battle, 171. Smeton, 261. Smith, sir Sydney, at Toulon, 645. Defence of Acre, 654. Smyrna fleet, attacked, 532. Sobraon, battle, 719. Societies, religious, 743. Society, Royal, 519. For the Diffusion of Useful Know- ledge, 743. Socmanni (socmen), 72, 129. Solebay, battle, 460. Somers, lord, 542, 549, 559. Somerset, duke of, minister of Henry VI., 209. , duke of, protector (see Hertford). Overturns Henry VIII.'s will, 274. Invades Scotland, 275. Ambition and unpopu- larity, 278. Executed, 280. , earl and countess of, sentenced for poisoning Overbury, 352. Pardoned, 353 (see Carr). Somerset House, built, 278. Sophia, electress of Hanover, 541. Succession to the British crown established, 556. Death, 565. Dorothea of Zell, consort of George I., 578. Soult, marshal, 675 sq., 679- 683, 685, 686. South Sea Company, 574. Collapse of, 575. South Saxons (Sussex), 26. Southampton, earl of (Wriothesley), removed by Somerset, 274. Helps to overthrow him, 278. , earl of, engaged in Essex's conspiracy, 336, 337. , earl of, ambassador to the parliament, 398. , earl of, high treasurer, 454. Southwold Bay, battle in, 468. Spa-fields riots, C94. Spain, seized by Bonaparte, 674. INDEX. Spanish succession, 537. War of, 543, 553, 556. Speaker, how elected, 483. Spensers, favourites of Edward II., 164. Exe- cuted, 166. Spinola, invades the palati- nate, 356. Spinster, etymology of, 76. Stafford, lord, impeached, 480. Execution, 489 sq. Stair, earl of, 586. Stamford Bridge, battle, 67. Stamp Act (North Ameri- can), 611. How received in America, 612. Repealed, 614. Standard, battle of the, or Northallerton, 104. Stanhope, general, expedition to Spain, 558. Secretary, 567, 572. First lord of treasury, 573. Made vis- count and earl, ib. Con- cludes Quadruple Alliance, ib. Death, 576. , earl, chairman of Revo- lution Society, 642. Stanley, lord, declares for Richmond, 224. , sir William, services at Bosworth, 224, 230. Exe- cuted for treason, 235. , lord (see Derby). Star Chamber, 239, 341. Ac- count of, 342, 373. Abo- lished, 386. Starenberg, count, 558. Steam engines, 739. vessels, increase of, 740. Stefano, San, preliminary treaty, 734. Steinkirk, battle, 532. Stephen, king, reign of, 103- 106. Stewart, colonel, 628. Stigand, Saxon archbishop of Canterbury, 82, 84. De- graded, 87. Stilicho, 12. Stirling, taken by Monk, 435. Besieged by Pretender, 593. Stoke, battle, 232. Stolberg, Louisa of, marries the Pretender, 596. Stonehenge, 4, 24. Storm, great, 552. Strachan, admiral sir Richard, 669, 678. Strafford, earl of (Went- worth), chief minister of Charlesl.,372. Impeached, 380. Trial, 383. Attainted, 384. Executed, ib. Strahan, defeats Montrose 435. Strathclyde, kingdom, 30. Straw, Jack, 184. Strode, accused of treason, 390 Swift. Strongbow, 116 (see Clare). Stuart, Arabella, plot in her favour, 347. dynasty, review of, 516. , sir John, invades Italy, 670. Sub-infeudation, 124. Succession, lineal, when esta- blished, 106. Regal, ques- tion respecting, 156, 338. Suetonius, 9 (see Paulinus). Suez Canal, 732. Suffolk, de la Pole, earl of, besieges Orleans, 202. Ne- gotiates Henry VI.'s mar- riage, 206. Made a duke, 207. Accused of treason, 208. Murdered, ib. , Edmund de la Pole, earl of, surrendered to Henry VII., 238. Death, ib. note. , Charles Brandon, duke of, marries Mary Tudor, dowager queen of France, 244. , house of, appointed to succeed by Henry VIII.'s will, 346. , Henry Grey, marquess of Dorset, made duke of, 280. Declares for queen Mary, 283. Rebels, 285. Executed, 286. Sunderland, Robert Spencer, earl of, secretary, 484. Ad- vocates the Exclusion Bill, 488. Re-enters the min- istry, 492, 500. Turns Roman catholic, 504. Cor- responds with prince of Orange, 509. Corresponds with James, 533. , Charles Spencer, earl of, son-in-law of Marlborough, 560. Lord-lieutenant of Ireland, 567. Secretary, 573. Death, 576. Supremacy, Act of, 293. Surajah Dowlah, 609, 638. Surinam, conquered, 654. Surrey, earl of, minister of Henry VIII., 241. Defeals the Scots at Flodden, 243. Lands at Calais, 247. De- feats Albany, ib. (see Nor- folk, duke of). , earl of (son of Norfolk), executed, 271. Suspending power, 458 note. Sussex, earl of, 304. Suwarov, 654. Sweyn of Denmark;, 54, 55. , son of Canute, 60. , son of Godwin, 62, 63. , king of Denmark, takes partagainst the Conqueror, 86.. Swift, attacks Wood's half- pence, 577. Sydenham. Sydenham, proposes Crom- well's protectorate, 439. Sydney, lord, secretary, 635. Tacitus, account of Britons, 3. Taillefer, count of Angou- lenie, 133 sq. Talavera, battle, 677. Talbot, slain, 207. "Talents," party so called, 665. In office, 669. Tallages, 128. Tallard, marshal, 553. Talleyrand, 664. Talmasb, general, slain, 533. Tangier, dowry of Catharine of Braganza, 457. Tasciovanus, 8. Taxes collected by archbishop of Canterbury, 171. Taylor, parson, burnt, 287. Tea, introduction of, 519. Duties, American, 617. Ships, how treated in America, 618. Teignmouth, burnt by the French, 528. Temple, sir William, forms the Triple Alliance, 466. Recalled, 468. Plans a new privy council, 484. Tenants in capite, 125. Number of, ib. Tencin, cardinal, 587. Tenison, archbishop of Can- terbury, 533. Tenures, Anglo-Saxon, 72. Per baroniam, 126. Test Act, 470, 473. , parliamentary, 474, 480. and Coi-poration Acts repealed, 699. Tewkesbury, battle, 217. Thanes, 71. Thanet, Isle of, 24, 38. Thelwall, prosecution of, 647. Theobald, archbishop of Can- terbury, 109. Theodosius, general, 12. I., emperor, 12. Theotwin, legate, 115. Tlieowas (serfs), 72. Thiers, M., 728. Thistlewood, plot, 696. Thomas, archbishop of Can- terbury, impeached by the commons, 187. , St., of Canterbury (Becket), shrine pillaged, 263. Thor, 23. Throgmorton, sir Nicholas, ambassador to Scotland, 302. Thurlow, lord chancellor, 624, 629, 635. Tiberius, 7. Ticonderoga, taken, 602. 36 INDEX. Tien-manna tale, 74. Tilbury, Elizabeth at, 327. Tillotson, archbishop of Can- terbury, 529. Death, 533. Tilsit, peace of, 672. Tinchebray, battle, 100. Tin-trade, British, 2. Tippoo, 639. Slain, 717. Titchfield, Charles I. at, 419. Tithe Commutation Act, 706. Tithes in England, 42. Toleration Act, 524. Tollendal, Lally, 610. Tomkinson, colonel, 454. Tone, Theobald AVolfe, 655. Tonge, Dr., 478, 488. Tonnage and poundage, what, 348 and note. How granted, 370. Levied without consent of parlia- ment, 372. Tonstal, bishop, 284. Tories, name, 487. Support ■William III., 530. Pre- dominance under Anne, 561 sq. Adopt name of Conservatives, 705. Torres Vedras, lines of, 680. Torrington, earl of (Herbert), conduct at Beachy Head, 528. Tosti, son of Godwin, 63, 64, 66, 67. Toulon, siege of, 557. Oc- cupied by English and Spanish, 644. Toulouse, battle of, 687. Tourville, 528, 532, 533. Towns, Roman, in Britain, 18. Townshend, lord, secretary, 567. Dismissed, 572. Lord- lieutenant of Ireland, ib. Dismissed, 573. President of the council, 574. Sec- retary, 576. Resigns, 582. , Charles, chancellor of exchequer, 615. American taxes, ib. Death, ib. , Thomas, secretary, 631. Towton, battle, 214. Tracy, AVilliam de, 113. Trade, 722. Free, 740. Trafalgar, battle, 668. Transtamare, Henry of, 180. Treason, high, law of, 186, 284. Amended, 534. Treasurer, lord high, office extinguished, 567. Tredings (ridings), 73. Trelawney, bishop of Bristol, 507. Tresham, Francis, joins gun- powder plot, 349, 350. Trevor, sir John, speaker, expelled the house, 534. Triennial Act, first, 383. Repealed, 459. Second, 533. Repealed, 571. Trimmers, party of, 492. 805 Urban. Trinity College, Cambridge, founded, 272. Trinobantes, 6. Trinoda necessitas, what, 73. Tromp, admiral, combats with Blake, 436, 437. His bravado, 436. Killed, 440. Trotter, Mr., 665. Troubadours, 124. Trowbridge, captain, 650. Troyes, treaty of, 200. Tudor, sir Owen, 201. Be- headed, 211. , house of, 225. Period, review of, 338. Tuisco, 22. Tunis, dey of, chastised by Blake, 443. Turcoing, battle, 646. Turkey, war with Russia, 672. Expedition against, ib. War of Greek inde- pendence, 699. War with Russia, ib. Again, 713. Treaties for securing its independence, 717. Mis- government in, 732. War with Russia, ib. sq. Turks, take Constantinople, 230. Turner, bishop of Ely, 507. Turnpikes, 517. Tyler, Wat, 184. Slain by Walworth, 185. Tyndale's New Testament, 259. Tyrconnel, earl of (Talbot), violence in Ireland, 504, 525. Supports James II., 525. Tyrone, earl of, rebellion, 333. Surrenders, 337. Tyrrel, shoots Rufus, 97. , sir James, murders Edward V. and duke of York, 221. Tythiugs, 74. U. Uffa, king of East Anglia, 28. Uffingas, 28. Ulster, kingdom of, 116. Planted, 351. Uniformity, Acts of, 276, 293, 456, 474. Union, Scotch, 554. Articles of, 555. Carried in Scot- land, 556. Act of, ib. , Irish, 655, 656. United Irishmen, 655. States of America, independence recognized, 633. Pass non-intercourse act, 684. Declare war, ib. Universities, European, con- sulted on Henry VIII. 's divorce, 253. University bill, Irish, 730. of London, 743. Urban VI., pope, 97. 806 Urban. Urban VIII., pope, obstructs the Spanisli match, 359. Ushant, action off, 624. Utrecht, conference at, opened, 562. Peace of, 563. Uvedale, sir William, 398. Uxbridge, conference at, 408. V. Valenciennes, taken, 644. Valentia, 12. Valentine.'holds the speaker in the chair, 370. Valentinian I., 12. Van Paris, burnt, 276. Vane, sir H., character, 381. Negotiates the Solemn League, 403. An indepen- dent, 407. Commissioner for Scotland, 435. Ex- cepted from indemnity, 454. Trial, 457. Execu- tion, ib. Vansittart, Mr., administra- tion of India, 636. , Mr., chancellor of the exchequer, 682. Varangians, 87. Vassalage, Scotch, 96, 118. Sold by Richard I., 121. Vassals, condition of, 125. Vaudois, the, supported by Cromwell, 447. Venables, admiral, 443. Vendome, marshal, 558. Verdun, English detained at, 664. Vere, earl of Oxford, governs Richard II., 186. , sir Horace, defends the palatinate, 356. Vernon, admiral, takes Porto Bello, 584. Versailles, treaty, 600. Peace of, 633. Unpopular, 635. Peace of, with Prussia, 728. Vcrulamium, taken by Ca;sar, 7. Vespasian, subdues the Isle ot Wight, 8. V icar-geiieraI,Thomas Crom- well appointed, 261. Vic-tor, marshal, 677, 681. Emmanuel II., 722. Victoria, reign of, 707 sq. Assumes the title of em- press of India, 732. Vidomar of Limoges, 123. Vienna, treaty of, 577. Entered by Napoleon, 666. Congress of, 689, 693. Vienne, John de, 175. Vigo, taken, 329. Vikings, 41. Flag, ib. Mile, de Paris, the, taken, 631. Villeins, protected by Magna Carta, 138. INDEX. Villenage, Anglo-Norman, 129. Extinguished, 225. Villeneuve, admiral, 667. Villeroi, marshal, 535, 553. Defeated at Ramillies, 554. Villiers, Barbara, 497 note. , George, 353 (see Buck- ingham). Vimiera, battle, 675. Vincent, Cape St., battles off. 627, 650. , earlSt.,650(seeJervis). Vinegar Hill, battle, 656. Virginia, colony, 316, 354. Virius Lupus, 11. Viscount, title of, 227. Visitors, ecclesiastical, 275. Vittoria, battle of, 685. Vortigern, 13, 24. Vortimer, 24. w. Wade, marshal, 592. Wagram, battle, 678. Wakefield, battles, 211, 402. Wakeman, sir George, 478. Trial, 485. Walcheren expedition, 678. Wales, conquered, 153. United with England, 261. Wales, prince of, title, 154. , dowager princess, ap. pointed regent, 597. Walker, a clergyman, de- fends Londonderry, 526. Killed at the Boyne, 528. Wall, Roman, 16. Wallace, William, 160, 161. Waller, Edmund, the poet, conspiracy, 401. , sir William, parlia- mentary general, 400, 401, 406, 408. Conspires against Cromwell, 446. Walpole, sir Robert, 559. Expelled the commons, 563. Restored, 568. Pay- master-general, 567. Re- signs, 573. Paymaster again, 574. Chancellor of exchequer, and first lord of thetreasury, 576. System of corruption, 577. Re- ceives the Garter, ib. Reappointed by George II., 581. Administration, 582, 583. Resigns, 585. Made earl of Orford, ib. , Horace, Historic Doubts, 221 note, 585 note. Walsch (Welsh), 30. Walsingham, secretary, 318, 324. Walters, Lucy, 483. Waltham Abbey, 69. Waltheof, earl, 84, 86, 89. Walworth, lord mayor, slays Wat Tyler, 185. Wandewash, battle, 610. "Wellesley. Wantsumu, the, 38. Wapentake, 73. Warbeck, Perkin, personates Richard, duke of York, 234-237. Warburton, bishop, 611. Wardle, colonel, 676. Wardship (feudal), 128. AVarehousing system, 740. Wargaum, battle, 639. Warham, archbishop of Can- terbury and chancellor, 244. Warrenne, earl, 152. Gover- nor of Scotland, 158. De- feated by Wallace, 160. Wars, private, 126. Warwick, Guy de Beau- champ, earl of, 163. , earl of, grandson, banished by Richard II., 188. , Richard Nevil, earl of, tutor of Henry VI., 201. The Kingmaker, 207. Flies to Calais, 210. Defeated at St. Albans, 211. Victorious at Tow ton, 214. Alienated by Edward lV.'s marriage, 215. Agree- ment with queen Margaret, ib. Invades England, 216. Proclaims Henry VI., ib. Regent, ib. Slain at Bar- net, 217. , Edward Plantagenet, earl of, imprisoned, 231. Led through London, 232. Beheaded, 237. , earl of (Dudley), op- poses Somerset, 278. Earl marshal, ib. Becomes duke of Northumberland, 280 (see Northumberland). , Robert Rich, earl of, parliamentary general, re- signs, 408. His grandson marries Cromwell's daugh- ter, 445. Washington, George, ap- pointed commander-in- chief by the Americans, 619, 621, 629. Washington, American cap- ital, taken, 689. Waterloo, battle, 690. Watling Street, 13, 45. Watt, James, 739. Wealas (" Welsh kind "), 35. Wedderburn, solicitor-gene- ral, 617. Made chief justice and lord Lough- borough, 627. Retires, 657. Wcdgewood, 739. Weights and measures, 137. Wellesley, marquess (lord Mornington), foreign secre- tary, 679, 682. Governor- general of India, 717. Wellington. Wellington, duke of (sir Ar- thur Wellesley), at Copen- hagen, 672. In Peninsula, 671. Superseded, 675. Resumes command, 677. Invades Spain, ib. At Talavera, ib. Made vis- count Wellington, ib. Oc- cupies Torres Vedras, 680. Defeats Massena, 682. Duke of Ciudad Rodrigo, 683. Advance into Spain, ib. Defeats Marmont, ib. Enters Madrid, ib. Re- tires, 684. Grant to, 685. Re-enters Spain, ib. En- ters France, 686. Pursues Soult, ib. Made duke, 689. Grant to, ib. Opinion on Bonaparte's escape, 690. Defeats him at Waterloo, 691. Master- general of ordnance, 694. Resigns, 698. Premier, 699. Duel with earl of Win- chelsea, 701. Death and character, 712. Achieve- ments in India, 717. " Welsh kind " (Weal as), 35 Wends, or Slavonians, 59. Wentworth, Peter, sent to the Tower, 330. , sir Thomas, leader of the commons, 363. Made earl of Strafford and minis- ter, 372 (see Strafford). , general, 584. Wergild, what, 74. Wesley, John, 743. West, admiral, 598. Saxons (Wessex), kingdom of, 27. Westminster Abbey, 32, 66. Hall, 98. Westmoreland, earl of, con- spires to liberate the queen of Scots, 307 (see Neville). Wharton, earl of, 560, 563. , duke of, 576. Whig, origin of name, 487. Whitbread, Mr., 665. Im- peaches lord Melville, 666. White, colonel, ejects the Harebone's parliament, 439. , bishop of Peterborough, 507. Whitebread, Jesuit, 485. Whitelock, account of Straf- ford's behaviour, 384. Whitfield, Rev. G., 743. Whitgift, archbishop of Canterbury, character, 315. Whitworth, lord, insulted by Bonaparte, 664. Wibbandun, battle, 31. Wic-gerefa (town - reeve), 76. Wickliffe, John, 190 sq. Wiglaf, king of Mercia, 37. Wihtgar, 27. INDEX. Wilberforce, AVilliam, 671. Wilkes, writes against lord Bute, 607. Arrested, 610. Duel, 611. Outlawed, ib. Returned for Middlesex, 615. Sentence and riot, ib. Popularity, ib. Ex- pelled, ib. Active against the Gordon rioters, 626. William I., duke of Nor- mandy (the Conqueror), 63, 81. Obtains an oath from Harold, 65. De mands the crown from him, 67. Defeats Harold at Hastings, 69. Enters London, 82. Reign of, 81-93. II., reign of, 95-98. III., reign of, 521-544. IV., reign of, 701-706. William Longsword, duke of Normandy, 80. , son of Robert of Nor- mandy, 101. , son of Henry I., 101. William,dukeofGuienne, 97. William of Poitiers, account of English nobility, 85. William the Lion, of Scot- land, invades England, 118. William, archbishop of Can- terbury, 103. William I. of Prussia, elected German emperor, 728. Williams, general, defends Kars, 716. Willis, Dr., 641. Wilmington, lord (see Compton). Wilson, sir Robert, 677. , general, 720. Winchelsea, lord, resigns, 588. , earl of, duel with Wel- lington, 701. Winchester palace, 93. Windebank, sir F., secretary absconds, 381. Windsor castle, how built, 182. Winter, Thomas, engages in gunpowder plot, 348, 350. Winton Ceaster (Venta Bel- garum), Winchester, 27. "Wiseman, cardinal, 712. Wishart, burnt, 275. Witena-gemot, 72. Witnesses, judicial, when first summoned, 150. Witt, de, admiral, 436. , pensionary, 461. Ne- gotiates with Temple, 466. Murdered, 469. Wlencing, 26. Woden, 23. Wodesbeorg, battle, 31. Wolfe, general, 601. Expe- dition against Quebec, 603. Dies victorious, ib. 807 York. Wolseley, sir Garnet, 730. Wolsey, cardinal, 242. Obtains the revenues of Tournay, 243. Arch- bishop of York, etc., 244. Magnificence of, ib. Treaty with Francis, 245. Legate, etc., ib. Gained by Charles V., 247. Expostulates with the commons, 248. Inclines to Francis I., 249. Tries the king's divorce case, 251. Disgraced, 252. Condemned, but pardoned, 253. Charged with high treason, 254. Death, ib. Founded Christ Church, Oxon, 272. Wolves, extirpated, 53. Wood's halfpence, 576. Woodstock, manor of, con- ferred on Marlborough, 553. Woodville, Elizabeth (lady Grey), marries Edward IV., 215. Takes sanctuary, 220. Wool, grant of, 172. Woollen manufacture, 226. Worcester, earl of, revolts against Henry IV., 194 Beheaded, ib. -, battles, 399, 433. Wotton, Dr., 295. Wren, sir Christopher, 519. Wriothesley, chancellor, 270. Executor, 273. Cre- ated earl of Southampton, 274 (see Southampton). Writs, established by Magna Carta, 137. Wulstan, bishop of Worces- ter, 87. Wiirtemburg, a kingdom, 666. Wyatt's insurrection, 285 Executed, 286. Y. Yarmouth, countess of (So- phia de Walmoden), 582. , lord, 670. Yonge, sir William, 588. York, archbishopric founded, 34. Cathedral, ib. Coun- cil at, 380. Taken by the Roundheads, 406. , archbishop of, rebels against Henry VII., 263 (see Scrope). , duke of, guardian, joins Henry of Lancaster, 188. ., Richard, duke of, re- gent of France, 205. His claim to the English crown, 207. Marches on London, 209. Gains the battle of St. Albans, ib. Killed at Wakefield, 211. , Edward, duke of (Ed- ward IV.), gains the battle 808 York. of Mortimer's Cross, 211. Proclaimed king, ib. York, Richard, duke of, son of Edward IV., murdered, 221. Inquiry into his death, 235. 1 , duke of (James II.), marries Anne Hyde, 465. A Roman catholic, 458. Im- proves naval tactics, 460. Defeats the Dutch atSoulh- wold Bay, 468. Resigns command, 470. Marries Mary of Modena, 471. Ex- empted from parliament- INDEX. ary test, 481. Retires to Brussels, 483. High com- missioner in Scotland, 486. Cruelty, ib. Conspiracy against, 493. Restored as admiral, 496 (see James II.). York, Frederick, duke of, lands at Ostend, 644. Nar- row escape, 646. Resigns command, ib. Expedition to Holland, and capitula- tion, 654. Colonel Wardle's charges against, 676. Re- signs commandership, ib. Zutphen. Reinstated, 681. His oath' 698. Death, ib. York, cardinal, the young Pretender's brother, 596. York Place, Wolsey's palace (Whitehall). 252. Town, capitulates, 629. Young, gives evidence against Marlborough, 531. Z. Zuleistein, 509, 523. Zurich, treaty of, 722. Zutphen, battle, 317. VALUABLE AND INTERESTING WORKS FOE PUBLIC & PRIVATE LIBRARIES, Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, New York. £3?" 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